"Derivative work" using Squad's textures?

[Delay]

Hi, I'm going to make this concise. I want to ask because I don't want to run into problems later.

I'm making some patches to parts to make them use TexturesUnlimited. Makes things look better, a lot better. The main focus is on Ven's revamp.
Part of that is making some maps to tell the engine what parts of a mesh to make how metallic, and here's my problem: I copy the original diffuse texture, modify it to fit what I have in mind and then use that as the metallic map. While Ven's is released under Creative Commons, which allows this kind of derivative work, I am not at all sure about Squad's original textures and I want to make absolutely sure I'm not crossing some legal bounds.

If I do happen to cross said bound I guess I'd have no choice but to either leave the parts without metallic maps or make them from scratch, either by guessing where things are or by using the UV layout.

To summarize: As part of a MM patch I'm making I'm copying Squad textures to make derivative work to use as a metallic map. I want to know if this is still okay or not.

Very sorry that I'm asking in the first place, I just want to make sure I do everything right. If any guideline of the forums is in serious conflict with a discussion like this, held for the intended purpose I absolutely understand if this needs to be closed.

[DoctorDavinci]

2 hours ago, Delay said:

I want to know if this is still okay or not.

No, it is copywrited material ... as in you need explicit permission from Squad to do anything with their game assets, textures included

[HebaruSan]

I guess you would need to create the same sort of file from scratch. I wonder if it is OK to do something like import SQUAD's texture as a base layer in your paint program, then "trace" the relevant shapes into your own texture and remove the SQUAD layer afterwards? Is that still a "derivative" work?

[Delay]

2 hours ago, DoctorDavinci said:

No, it is copywrited material

Yeah, thought so, actually. Thank you.

Though, what about opening the model in Blender and getting the UV layout, everything else is done from there without any further help, aside from looking at the model every now and then to check what part of the UV actually corresponds to what part of the mesh?

[Delay]

But I am still able to patch the Squad parts, right? Mostly I'd like a metallic map to fix inconsistencies with the alpha of the textures (TU uses the alpha channel to figure out how reflective a surface is).
In fact, the Mk1-3 pod basically doesn't even have an alpha. For TU, that means the pod is a perfect mirror!