Targetware: 2D Textures


Introduction to Texture Painting in TW

In a Targetware sim, anyone can paint any airplane, tank, building, or ship they find. There is no special decoder ring required, no hoops to jump through. Here are five simple steps to painting an object in your favorite TW mod:

  1. Identify and locate the texture for the object you want to paint. Look for filenames that end in ".tga". For example, to paint the Zero, look in /tr/data/planes/a6m2/ and find the files named "a6m_fuse.tga" and "a6m_wing.tga"
  2. Open the existing texture in your favorite paint program (PhotoShop, PaintShop Pro, etc.).
  3. Paint whatever you want, using the existing texture as a guide.
  4. When finished, save the texture with the same filename and format as the original used (you will want to keep a backup of the original!)
  5. Make sure your newly painted masterpiece is in the right directory, start up TW, and select your plane/object. You'll see it displayed with your newly painted version of the skin.

Pretty easy, eh? If you like, you can stop reading here, and just keep painting. If you're ready to learn a bit more, let's find out about the file formats you'll be working with...