Every project has a client files folder that is read before the client's own files. A texture saved there at the same path as the client's replaces it, everywhere in Studio, and Install copies it into the game. The client itself is never changed before that.
Starting a skin
- Open the model.
- On the Files tab, choose Extract textures and meshes, or Extract everything, or Extract this file next to one file. The files are copied into the project's client files at the paths Studio reads them from.
- Switch on Also write PNG copies of textures if your editor does not open the game's texture format. The PNG is a copy to paint from; Studio reads the original format back.
- Edit the extracted file and save it.
Extraction never overwrites a file already in the project, so it can't destroy work you have started.
Open folder under Project files, or the folder button in the toolbar, shows the folder in Explorer.
RF Online textures are extracted as ordinary DDS files that any DDS editor opens. The RF engine reads them that way too.
Files inside an archive (RF's packed resource files, GTH's packed data) are extracted to the archive's folder plus their path inside the archive, which is where Studio looks for them. On Gate to Heavens the game reads its packs before loose files, so repack the archive to get a change into the game; see Packs: client archives.
Hot reload
With Hot reload switched on in the Files tab, Studio watches every file the open model was built from, in the project and the client. Save a change and the model rebuilds within a second or so, keeping the camera, the animation and the frame you were on.
It watches textures, meshes and animations. The status bar says when it has seen a change. Press F5, or the reload button in the toolbar, to rebuild by hand at any time.
The model's files
The Files tab also lists every file the model uses, split into textures, meshes, skeleton, animations and other files. Each one shows whether it is coming from the client, an archive, or the project, with Show in Explorer for a project file and Extract this file for the rest.
Changing colours without a paint program
To shift a texture's colours, open it in Studio's own recolour tool instead: Tools > Recolor the model's textures…. See Recolouring textures.