How to : Modelswap

Hello everyone !

Have you ever wanted to create your own remodels ? or at least modify some tanks ? Well this tutorial will help you to enter in this wonderful world with a very simple method : The model swap ! You will not get fantastics results and you will be quickly limited in your choices, but it's kinda helpful to begin with this method...

To get this tutorial easier to follow, we will use an exemple, let's admit we want a MAUS turret on a L.Tr

Summary :

1-Initiation to WoT files
2-Model swap method

Initiation to WoT files and their locations

Before starting, let's have an initation to the differents type of files of World of Tanks ! You will need it, trust me ! (even if it is one of the longest parts in this tutorial)

The tanks files are located in your *wot_folder*/res/packages and they are stored by tiers in .pkg files like this :

NB : The vehicles_levels_XX_hd-partX.pkg will be available only if you have installed the HD client, you find here all the best resolution textures for tanks
NB2 : For no-reason, WG divided all their .pkg in 2 parts, so if a file isn't in a part, it will be certainly in the other ^^
NB3 : For some vehicles, you will find their files in the shared_content.pkg and shared_content_sandbox.pkg

To open these .pkg files, use 7zip or winrar and open the "vehicles" folder to get the nations :

choose a nation and FINALLY, you can choose a vehicle.

So, let's take our exemple and let's go to the Maus files : open "vehicles_level_10-part1.pkg" and go to vehicles\german\G42_Maus, and we will get this :

What's all this mess ?

So don't worry, we'll explain this !

The collision_client folder is the collision model of the tank, we don't have to modify it

The crash folder is the visual model when the tank is destroyed

The normal folder is the visual model

The track folder is the visual model for the tracks segements

Then the .dds files are the textures for the tanks and they are everytime stored with the same following logic : A tank part divided in 5 or 4 textures, these parts are :

turret_01 : Stock turret or just the turret on tanks that haven't stock turret (premiums...)

turret_02 : Elite Turret

guns : All tanks' guns

hull_01 : Hull

hull_02 : It can appairs if the tanks have many equipments on it (bags, crates etc...)

chassis_01 : Whells without tracks

Now, let's introduce the 5 textures for every part :

*tankname*_*part*_AM : "Visible" texture

*tankname*_*part*_ANM : "Normal Map" or relief map

*tankname*_*part*_AO : Camouflage map, where the camo is applied

*tankname*_*part*_GMM : "Specular map" where the light is applied (Dull or Shiny)

*tankname*_*part*_ID : Introduced with 9.21 camo system, it seems to be where the paints are applied, unavailable on tanks that can't be painted in Black for exemple :3

So, let's admit that i want to take the GMM map of the Maus turret, i go there : vehicles_level_10-part1.pkg\vehicles\german\G42_Maus\

"But there's no Maus_Turret_01_GMM.dds here !"

Don't worry, the files is just stored in the other part, so let's have a look in vehicles_level_10-part2.pkg\vehicles\german\G42_Maus\

And we found it !

So now that we have seen the textures, we will have to look at the models !

Just select the "normal" folder and go in lod0 to get the most detailed models for the tank

NB : there are 5 "lodX" folder, lod means "Level Of Detail" and the smallest the number is, the most detailled model it will be ! (lod0 --> lod4 = Many details --> Just a polygon)

What are theses files ?

Here is the models files ! And like the textures, they are following this logic : A tank part divided in 4 models part.

For the parts, i already have explained it higher, for the models parts, here is a little explaination :

*part*.visual_processed : 3D model of the tank

*part*.primitives_processed : File that says to the 3D model which textures have to be used

*part*.model : to be honnest, i don't really know but it's kinda useless in remodeling

*part*.vt : Shells impacts i guess ?

Now that you know everything on WoT files, We'll teach you HOW TO MODEL SWAP, we are sorry for this ENORMOUS paragraph, but it was needed to understand the next parts ^^

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2-Model swap method

So now that we got this, we can follow our exemple and create our first model swap. I remind it to you : a MAUS turret (with it's gun of course) on a loltracktorr 

For the first step, you will need to create your mod folder to get your model swap working.
Go to *wot*/res_mods/*currentVersion* and create a vehicles folder
and now, create the following "tree" : *tankNation*/*TankName*/normal/lod0

In our exemple, we'll create the germany/G42_Maus/normal/lod0 tree, to find the others tanks names, go to vehicles_level_XX-partX.pkg/vehicles, choose the nation and use your tank's name to rename your folders

And now, you just have to put in your normal/lod0 folder the tanks part you want to use !
So let's take Maus' turret and gun : go to vehicles_level_10-part1.pkg\vehicles\german\G42_Maus\normal\lod0\ and take the Turret part, in it's 4 files (.vt, .primitives etc) and drop them in your res_mods\1.0.2.4\vehicles\german\G12_Ltracktor\normal\lod0 folder. Do the same for the gun

If they are files that aren't in -part1.pkg, they are certainly in -part2.pkg, don't forget that !

Our L.Tr in our res_mods and the Maus in 7zip

//!\\ Warning, don't use the chassis files in general cases, they can cause a game crash if they are too different ! //!\\

To avoid that, we'll have to script the tank, we will come on it later

Now, the model is finished, let's test it out !

The L.Tr with it's stock gun

Well, if the gun dosen't display with the stock gun configured, just rename it with it's original file name, so let's rename all the files "Gun_02" (Keep in mind that you have to copy and paste the original file)

Here is our res_mods folder

So now that we have this, let's re test it out

It works !

Congratulations ! you finished this model swap ! We hope this guide helped you, let us know it in the comments ! If something is missing or there is something that you dosen't understand, let us know it too !