Texture Import And Export

For brain-free instructions, see the Basic Procedure tutorial Import The Texture. This page covers in more detail.

Import from graphic file

First, make sure the image you are trying to import is:

A power-of-two number of pixels across (e.g. 1x1, 16x4, 64x128, 256x256, ...) up to 1024x1024.
Using 8-bit color (256 color indexed) BMP or PCX for UT; 8-bit indexed BMP or PCX, 24 bit or 32 bit TGA or DDS for UT2003.
Saved in .pcx or .bmp for UT; saved in .pcx, .bmp, targa, DXT or UPaint for UT2003.

Then, in the Texture Browser, do Texture Browser Menu → File → Import. Find the directory containg your .pcx or .bmp file, then select it and click Open. A window will appear asking for specifics on how to import the file:

Package

If you want to save the image in an external package, just enter in the package name. If it does not exist, UnrealEd will make a new package for it. It is a really really bad idea to import into a package file you downloaded or that came with the game. If you want to use a few textures from a downloaded pack just export them and re-import them into your own package, and remember to credit the author.

Group

This is pretty simple, it's just what group the texture will be displayed under in the Texture Browser. This is for package organization only, and if you only have a few textures in your package just type in "None" or leave this field blank to not assign a group to your new texture.

Name

This is just the name your texture will have inside UnrealEd. If you are making a Screenshot or other specified type of texture make sure to use the appropriate name, otherwise just give the texture a unique name that you will remember.

Masked

If your texture has Texture Effects (grate effect) then check this box otherwise you'd need to set each surface using the texture to Masked (under surf. properties) in order to achieve the same effect.

Tarquin: Dumb question of the day: don't imported Masked textures need both that flag on import AND the surface flag when applied to a brush?

Bean: nope, just on import. GenIn's masked stuff is a good example of that.

Generate MipMaps

MipMaps are downsized forms of your texture that will be displayed at a distance. Check this if the texture will be displayed on a surface in-game and it is not important to maintain clarity at a distance. Textures used on the HUD (UT) and as Screenshot textures (the one displayed in the map browser) must not use MipMaps.

When you're all done, just click import and start using the new texture(s) in your level.

Once you've imported your textures into your new package don't forget to click on the Save button to save the new package in the texture folder or else your level will play with the generic bubble texture instead of your new texture. You can edit old texture packs but remember to never modify the original Epic texture packages bundled with Unreal Tournament!

Further Techniques

To embed textures into a map, use "MyLevel" as the package name and don't save it. See MyLevel for more about the pseudopackage technique.
Level screenshots displayed in UT's map browser are imported into MyLevel as 256x256 texture with no mipmaps under the name "Screenshot". See Screenshot for full instructions.
See exec directive for importing textures into a class on compilation
To import textures from an existing (non-loaded) package into MyLevel, see Embedding Code

Troubleshooting

If UnrealEd refuses to import a texture, the most likely problem is that the texture file isn't conform with the rules of the engine. Check off the list of points below. If you know of any other problems, please add them.

Texture size: The width and height must each be powers of two. So the only acceptable numbers are: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024. Images larger than 1024x1024 aren't supported (see [Unreal Textures]) and anything larger than 256x256 will crash UT if you don't allow mipmaps.
Image format: The file must be in 256 color mode when importing from BMP or PCX. If using Photoshop, that's Mode → Indexed Color. The Exact palette option is fine.
Image Editors: Make sure that your resize your texture before you reduce the color depth when editing. Some image editors such as [Irfanview] kick the depth back up to 24-bit when resized. From the point of view of image quality it also makes sense to give your image app the largest colourspace to work with when resizing.
File Location: If it still doesn't import then you need to check how deep the texture file is located in your directory structure. Basically when you import a texture in UnrealEd, the pathname and filename will be stored in a string of some kind with a fixed length. So if your directory is too long, the whole thing won't be able to fit in the string and UnrealEd can't find the texture. The solution is simple: Move the texture(s) you want to import to C:\ for example. Also note, that UnrealEd doesn't like spaces in the pathname.

Exporting

To export a texture from UnrealEd, go to the texture browser and select the texture you want to export. Do Texture Browser Menu → File → Export. Then simply select the directory to save the .PCX file to and export the file. You can then view or edit the file in any image editing program.

Foxpaw: UnrealEd 3 only seems to want to export to DDS, even on basic textures. Is there any way other than doing a screen capture to export a texture in UnrealEd 3?

Wormbo: All DXT compressed textures are exported to DDS. RGB8 and RGBA8 textures can be exported to 32-bit TGA, 32-bit UPT, 24-bit BMP or 24-bit PCX and P8 textures can be exported to 8-bit palettized BMP or PCX.

Texture Import And Export

Import from graphic file

Further Techniques

Troubleshooting

Exporting

Related Topics