[ETS2 & ATS] Paint Job Packer - Lightweight mod making tool [Windows/macOS/Linux]

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speedy143
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Re: [ETS 2 & ATS] Paint Job Packer - Lightweight mod making tool [Windows/macOS/Linux]

#171 Post by speedy143 » 27 Jan 2022 17:25

Hi Carsmaniac, absolutely love this programme and as a Mac user its been fantastic being able to use natively through Python, I know you have said it supports Mac OS Big Sur but just thought I would let you know it does not run on the latest Mac OS Monterey, just thought the information be useful for you going forward. Keep up the good work...
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Carsmaniac
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Re: [ETS 2 & ATS] Paint Job Packer - Lightweight mod making tool [Windows/macOS/Linux]

#172 Post by Carsmaniac » 01 Feb 2022 00:44

I've had a few crashes come in starting with "PermissionError: [Errno 13]". I'm aware of the issue, but haven't been able to work out what's causing it yet. I've opened an issue on GitHub to keep track of it, so if you're one of the people experiencing this crash keep an eye on that page, and look out for an update which will hopefully fix it :)

@speedy143 Thank you for letting me know! I haven't used my MacBook for much since early 2020 due to the lockdowns removing my need to work away from home, so I haven't kept my OS up to date. I'm downloading Monterey as we speak so I can try and work out what went wrong, and maybe provide a separate .app if need be. I'm also grabbing Catalina as it's still supported.

Hopefully I can fix this mystery crash and support Monterey in version 1.9.2!
xander_scania
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Re: [ETS 2 & ATS] Paint Job Packer - Lightweight mod making tool [Windows/macOS/Linux]

#173 Post by xander_scania » 03 Feb 2022 15:51

i have a question for everyone who knows this.
im have been working on paintjob packer before the last update and everything went fine but now when i try to open a mod in paint.net al i see is a white square.
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Carsmaniac
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Re: [ETS 2 & ATS] Paint Job Packer - Lightweight mod making tool [Windows/macOS/Linux]

#174 Post by Carsmaniac » 05 Feb 2022 00:39

@xander_scania That's normal, any image that generates without a corresponding template will just be a 16x16 white square. Either you were previously using the version of Paint Job Packer with included templates and this time you're not, or if the file you're talking about is an accessory file it's too insignificant to require a template.

To make the square bigger so you can make a paint job using it, go to File > Resize:

[ external image ]

Then in the resize window enter your new resolution. The vanilla paint jobs are 2048 x 2048, and I like to make paint jobs at 4096 x 4096, which is also the resolution of my templates. Just make sure both the height and width are powers of two (e.g. 1024, 2048, 4096 etc).

[ external image ]

Then you can just drop in one of the PNGs from my template as a new layer. You can get ETS 2 templates here and ATS templates here.

[ external image ]

Let me know if you need any other help :)
badboyzgamer32
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Re: [ETS 2 & ATS] Paint Job Packer - Lightweight mod making tool [Windows/macOS/Linux]

#175 Post by badboyzgamer32 » 06 Feb 2022 22:30

I downloaded the new version and when i try and make some paint jobs I just get a small screen in file then when i do the resize still no template
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Carsmaniac
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Re: [ETS 2 & ATS] Paint Job Packer - Lightweight mod making tool [Windows/macOS/Linux]

#176 Post by Carsmaniac » 08 Feb 2022 05:38

@badboyzgamer32 See my previous post, you'll need to resize the image and then drop the template on top yourself. You can download ETS 2 templates here and ATS templates here.

Alternatively, if you're on Windows you can just use the second download link on the download page, called "Windows with included templates", in which case the templates will be included in the program itself.

Note that even with the included templates, not every single accessory for every truck will have a template, as they don't all need templates. In those cases, you can just re-colour the 16 x 16 square, no need to increase its size or use a template at all.
Mooncake_
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Re: [ETS 2 & ATS] Paint Job Packer - Lightweight mod making tool [Windows/macOS/Linux]

#177 Post by Mooncake_ » 15 Feb 2022 22:44

Hello @Carsmaniac

Since some identical parts are grouped together, how do I make a different skin for each part? E.g. different .dds for mirrors and different .dds for side mirrors. I also want to add more parts in. E.g. a sideskirt that is not included in your template pack. Is this possible? My knowledge on all this is very limited, any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
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Carsmaniac
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Re: [ETS 2 & ATS] Paint Job Packer - Lightweight mod making tool [Windows/macOS/Linux]

#178 Post by Carsmaniac » 16 Feb 2022 07:40

@Mooncake_ Yes it's totally possible, just a little bit fiddly! You need to rearrange some of the lines in the .sii files, which are text files, and duplicate/edit some .tobj files, which you'll need a hex editor for. Since it's a bit tricky the first time you do it, I'll walk you through splitting the main and side mirrors on the Scania R. Once you get the hang of it it's pretty straightforward, and you should be able to split up any grouped parts you like on any truck. You'll need a text editor (Notepad is okay, but I prefer to use Notepad++) and a hex editor (HxD is perfect for this).

Don't mind the long post, the whole process takes under a minute once you know how it works, I've just explained it in detail so that you can easily follow along :)

First you'll need to split up the accessories in the .sii file(s), which are in def/vehicle/truck/<truck name>/paint_job/accessory. Inside that folder there will either be a file for each cabin (if your mod uses split paint jobs) or a single file (if you're not using split paint jobs, or if your mod only supports the largest cabin).

If there are multiple files you'll need to change them all, but they're all identical, so you can just copy-paste them once you're finished and change the file name :)

[ external image ]

Inside each .sii, the parts are arranged in different groups. The Mirrors group looks like this in my example:

[ external image ]

To move the side mirrors to their own group, you'll need to make a new group, then move the corresponding acc_list line(s) to it.

At the bottom of the file make a new accessory group (you can copy-paste one of the existing ones to get the formatting right), increment the .ovr number so it's one higher than the previous group, and change the .tobj path. In this case, since the previous group is .ovr11 I numbered it .ovr12, and I set the path to a new .tobj called "Side Mirror.tobj" (which doesn't exist yet, we'll get to it). I also pasted the s_mirror line from the Mirrors group down to this one, and removed it from its original group. Note the position of the double } and make sure that it's below your new group.

[ external image ]

Once that's done you're finished with the .sii file and can save & close. If you have multiple, you can copy-paste the one you just changed and replace all the others with it.

Now we can do the .tobj part, which is a little more tricky. Go to vehicle/truck/upgrade/paintjob/<paint job name>/<truck name> and you'll see all the .tobj and .dds files there.

[ external image ]

Duplicate one of the existing .tobj files and rename it to the name you chose in the .sii file, "Side Mirror.tobj" in my case. Do the same for one of the .dds files, giving it the same name.

[ external image ]

Open the new .tobj file in a hex editor, and you'll see a bunch of numbers and letters on the left, and some text on the right. Each pair of characters on the left corresponds to a character on the right, for example "2F" on the left is "/" on the right, "76" is "v", etc. The first three lines have some info about how the texture is loaded by the game, and we mostly don't need to worry about them. The fourth line and below contains a path to a .dds, which is your texture.

[ external image ]

What you need to do is edit the path so it points to your new .dds, so "Side Mirror.dds" instead of "Mirrors.dds" in my case. With HxD, you can just put your cursor on the right and type it out.

There's also a single byte (pair of characters) on the left that stores the length of your .dds path, in hex, which I've put a green box around. After you've changed your .dds path, you'll need to update this byte with the length of your new path. The good thing about using HxD is it tells you the length in hex when you highlight some text. You can see in the example below that when I highlight my .dds path on the right, it says in the bottom bar that the length is "4C", and I've updated the length byte to reflect that.

[ external image ]

Don't worry about text turning red, in HxD that just means you've edited it.

Just make sure that you're replacing the length byte instead of typing before it, you can see in my example that I replaced "48" with "4C". If your .dds path on the right starts with "." instead of "/" that means you've just added text instead of replacing it, which will cause errors in-game. If that happens, just ctrl-z and try again. The best way to make sure you're replacing the byte is to highlight it on the left then type in your new value.

And then you're done :)

Sorry this post was so long-winded, it's a pretty simple process once you're used to it, but a bit hard to explain in a forum post. Hopefully it all made sense, and let me know if you need any more help!
Mooncake_
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Re: [ETS 2 & ATS] Paint Job Packer - Lightweight mod making tool [Windows/macOS/Linux]

#179 Post by Mooncake_ » 16 Feb 2022 17:11

@Carsmaniac Thank you for taking the time to reply and thank you for going in depth, really appreciate it. For some reason first time I tried it just didn't work. So i started from scratch and it worked, still have no idea what happened the first time around. Anyway, works like a charm and you're right it didn't take a lot of time when I did it for the second time.

Also, I'm guessing if I wanted to add something new, outside from the template pack I'd still have to follow the same process. Excluding some of the steps of course.

Thank again!
kevuk29
Posts: 20
Joined: 18 Jan 2016 13:06

Re: [ETS 2 & ATS] Paint Job Packer - Lightweight mod making tool [Windows/macOS/Linux]

#180 Post by kevuk29 » 22 Feb 2022 01:38

Makes skin making easy thanks alot............Will you be adding the MAN F2000 to the programme i want to make a skin i tried to do it without this tool and it never showed ingame for me so,.......
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