Shirts are being made daily, and to actually use them, you'll often have to convert them to a image format that the game understands, TGA. Here's a guide on how to do exactly that.
First of all, you're going to need Paint.NET. It's free and has a lot of excellent options should you one day decide to use it for other stuff than converting files to TGA. You can get it from this link. Install it and proceed with this guide.
Find the shirt that you'd like to use. In Firefox, the web browser that I use, you can right click the image and select "Save image as". I suppose there's a similar function in other browsers. Either way, save it on your desktop or in a folder where you can find it again.
In most cases, shirts come in either PNG or JPEG format. These cannot be read by the game, so to use them, you'll have to convert them to TGA. This is what you downloaded Paint.NET for. Open the image with the program. Now, go to File -> Save As OR hold down CTRL + Shift + S, and a pop-up will appear. Select TGA under "file type". We'll take care of the file name later, so click "Save".
A new pop-up will appear - and this one is quite important. Without the correct settings, the shirt won't work even if the format is TGA. Make sure that Bit Depth is set to 32-bit, and that the Compress (RLE) function is NOT ticked. Below, you'll find an example of a correct configuration (article continues below the image).
How to implent it to the game
You now have a working TGA file of a shirt - one which can be read by the game. Now, there's several ways of implenting it to the game, depending on which kind of shirt it is.
Custom Teams
Since there's a Custom Team function in PCM09, and it seems to be rather popular, let's start with that: There's c. 9-10 standard Custom Team shirts in the game. To make your one selectable, you have to replace one of the existing ones. Name your shirt c00_maillot (with .tga being the extension - make sure it's there) and move it to Computer -> Hard Drive (often C:) -> Program Files -> Cyanide -> Pro Cycling Manager -> CM_Textures -> cycliste -> team -> c00.
Now, open the game and make your Custom Team. When choosing shirt, yours will not be displayed unless you make a mini shirt. I'll write a guide about that later - a guide is now available. Anyway - make sure to select the first mini shirt that's available - the black, red and white Cyanide shirt. In 3D-mode, the team will wear the shirt that you converted earlier - voila.
Normal Shirts
In some cases, teams get new sponsors during a season with Columbia - HTC being a good example of this. Usually, they also get a new shirt, and you'd want to replace the old one with a new one.
In general, the approach is the same as described above. However, if the team is already in the database, you'll have to find out what their so-called 'graphical index' is. Usually, it's the team's abbreviations which you can find on UCI's website (or this link for Pro Tour teams). Otherwise, look in the DB or ask in the forum.
With Columbia - HTC being the example, check the above-mentioned link and find the team. In the Code column, you'll find "THR" which is also Columbia's graphical index code. So, name the shirt thr_maillot and move it to Computer -> Hard Drive (often C:) -> Program Files -> Cyanide -> Pro Cycling Manager -> CM_Textures -> cycliste -> team -> thr. The new, updated shirt will now be used in 3D mode.
National Champion Shirts
So, your rider just won a National Championship, and you don't want him riding around in the standard shirts. National Champion Shirts are being made pretty much on a daily basis, so the chance of finding one for your team (if it's a real one and not a custom one, that is) is quite large. When you've found it, convert it as described above.
Now, the naming depends on the team's code and the country. If Columbia's still the example, the first part of the file name will be thr_maillot_xxx - with xxx being the country code. In most cases, these are quite logical, eg. Great Britain's country code is gbr, Denmark's is den, France's is fra (if you're in doubt, ask in the forum). So, if you're adding a British National Champion Shirt for Team Columbia - HTC, the file name is thr_maillot_gbr and should be placed in the same folder as the 'normal shirt', Computer -> Hard Drive (often C:) -> Program Files -> Cyanide -> Pro Cycling Manager -> CM_Textures -> cycliste -> team -> thr.
For World Champion Shirts, the abbreviations to be used are thr_maillot_world for the Road Race Champion and thr_maillot_world_itt for the Time Trial Champion.
If you've any questions, please ask in the forum or in the comments section of this article.
Good luck! |
