Is there an easy way to change textures on stock parts?

[minerbat]

I am not sure where to ask this. I want to change the textures on a stock part  for a video (specifically the making history structural panels). is there an (easy) way to do this? It shouldnt change the part in any other way so that i can load an already existing build with the new texture (in the same way that stock builds can be loaded with restock). I have used custom flags for similar purposes in the past, but that isnt sufficient this time

Edited February 13 by minerbat

[MacLuky]

• you can recolour using part variants, there are a couple of posts on the forum on that talk about that. 
• in the past you could assign a different texture in the model section, I've not been able to get that to work sinds 1.7
• texture replacer might be able to do this for you
• I just edit the textures in place ..... dds2png (xnconvert) then photoshop and then back.

[Aelfhe1m]

Depends how you want to change the texture.

The Conformal Decals mod gives a better "flag" based painting option than the stock flags, but uses added parts which prevent the craft from being loaded if the mod is not present. This is the simplest and most flexible way to add multiple markings and custom text to craft (e.g. ID numbers). Example:

Spoiler

For a simple single solid colour on a part the easiest way is to use TexturesUnlimited and TURD

If you want something more complicated then you can leverage the existing variants system on the parts:

• make a copy of the default texture atlas (located at GameData/SquadExpansion/MakingHistory/Parts/Structural/Assets/Panels.dds),
• open it in a paint package and then save the modified texture into your own folder inside GameData (I use ZZZ_Custom/Textures in the example here).
• Add a ModuleManager configuration file. The below example shows two simple variants - red and blue - each of which only changes the colour map and reuses the stock bump map:
  Spoiler

  @PART[Panel*,EquiTriangle*,Triangle*]:HAS[#author[RoverDude]]:FINAL
  {
  	@MODULE[ModulePartVariants]
  	{
  		VARIANT
  		{
  			name = Blue
  			displayName = Blue
  			themeName = Blue
  			primaryColor = #000099
  			
  			TEXTURE
  			{
  				shader=KSP/Bumped
  				mainTextureURL = ZZZ_Custom/Textures/Panels_Blue_D
  				color = #000099
  				_BumpMap=SquadExpansion/MakingHistory/Parts/Structural/Assets/NormalMap
  				_Opacity= 1.0
  				_RimFalloff= 0.1
  			}
  		}
  		VARIANT
  		{
  			name = Red
  			displayName = Red
  			themeName = Red
  			primaryColor = #990000
  			
  			TEXTURE
  			{
  				shader=KSP/Bumped
  				mainTextureURL = ZZZ_Custom/Textures/Panels_Red_D
  				color = #990000
  				_BumpMap=SquadExpansion/MakingHistory/Parts/Structural/Assets/NormalMap
  				_Opacity= 1.0
  				_RimFalloff= 0.1
  			}
  		}
  	}
  }

   

• Select the new part variant when building the craft in the editor inside KSP

Spoiler

 

 

Any craft built using repainted panels with either method can be loaded into a pure stock version of the game and will just appear with the default white colour variant for the panels. Panels repainted using TexturesUnlimited will also cause a warning about missing modules to be displayed, but this is safely ignorable.

Spoiler