How would I do the following, I want to try my hand at some graphics.
1-take a frame out of the DB
2- put in paint.net
3- recolor it
4- save and put back in game
Do I need a mask of some type so I get shodows and such on it when the bike is moving?
Also, what are the "custom" frames on the PCM DB? I used one (sorry to the creator) it was black/gray/pink....only used it 1 race. It just wasnt my style lol
How can I view the custom items and alter them in colors only easily? Or do you have to open each file and view it? lol
You just need to edit the _d file. Lighting and 3D-ish effects are contained in the _n and _s files if I'm not mistaken, and shadows are put by the game automatically. So it's basically about opening the _d file, editing it the way you like and saving it back. The easiest way to get it back would be simply to overwrite the files, and then choose that frame in game. But it should be noted that the _s file also contains information for autocolor. So if you're going from an autocolor bike, you'll probably want to use a _s file from a team-specific frame (find the _s file of the f.e. Astana bike, copy the _s file, and rename it to be the _s file of the frame you're editing).
The custom frames are for people to add their own frames easily (another possibility to add your edited frame, instead of overwriting the current one). You simply overwrite the custom frame files, and then choose it in game. This way you need to do no DB-editing to get your own equipment in game.
You can view the equipment either in the Cyclist Viewer (but that will require you to 're-load' the viewer every time you want to "refresh" the file), or in NifSkope, a program to visualize .nif files which I find better because it updates the equipment automatically as you save the texture file (but then again it doesn't have the lightning/3D effect that you can see in game).
lol
