Classic Tomb Raider Games - MODDING, Costumes, Textures

CHANGING TEXTURES (method 1)

Extracting textures

Tools needed: Texdump

1. Make a folder called "textures" (leave " " away) in the main folder.
2. Make a folder called "texdump" (leave " " away) in the main folder.
3. Now extract the files from the downloaded archive
(dump.dll, loader.exe, loader.ini)
4. In the folder "textures" creat a file calle config.cfg
(you can make a new wordpad document and change the extenstion to cfg)
Note if you can't view the extension go to: Extra\Folderoptions\View. Then untick the box next to "Hide extension for known filetypes" or something similair.
5. Now you should have this:

6. Open the loader.ini file in the "texdump" folder. Only change the exe, cmd line and dll line! This is how it looks like when you download it:

[paths]
exe=C:\Games\Tr2\tomb2.exe
cmdline=tomb2.exe
dll=C:\texdump_03\dump.dll

Now we need to change the path of our game (the installation folder). In my case it's "C:\Program Files\Core Design\Tomb Raider II\" (see above). This means I have to edit it like this:

[paths]
exe=C:\Program Files\Core Design\Tomb Raider II\TOMB2.exe
cmdline=TOMB2.exe
dll=C:\Program Files\Core Design\Tomb Raider II\texdump\dump.dll

Note: don't forgot on the last line to add texdump\. Don't forget to add "\" ( without " " ) before TOMB2.exe and dump.dll

And we're done with that part, make sure you didn't forget anything.

7. Run "loader.exe"
8. When you've reached the main menu press F1
9. Now load the level where you want to extract the textures from.
10. The textures will be saved in Tomb Raider 2's main folder.

Editing textures

Do not change the filenames!

Tools needed: Gimp

First open Gimp and open an extracted texture. Then go to File\Save as\Save. If it ask to replace, do so. Then click on the radio button next to A8 R8 G8 B8. This will enable you to edit it in the image editing software you prefer.

When you've finished editing, save it and open the texture again with GIMP. Follow the same steps BUT instead of A8 R8 G8 B8 click on the radio button next to A1 R5 G5 B5. If it's greyed out, go back to the image and add an alpha channel (Layers\transparency\add alpha channel). Save. Now Tomb Raider II will be able to read it.

Importing textures

Tools needed: TR2Hook and Gimp

If you've done editing textures until the end, skip the following paragraph.

Import your edited texture(s) in Gimp now: File\Save as\Save (overwrite, if asked). Now click on the radio button next to A1 R5 G5 B5. If it's greyed out, go back to the image and add an alpha channel (Layers\transparency\add alpha channel). Save. Now Tomb Raider II will be able to read it.

Okay, remember the config.cfg file you made in the first step? We're going to edit this now (it was in the "textures" folder).
First of all, make sure you haven't changed the filenames, otherwise you'll have to extract them again and rename your edited texture.

1. Move all of your edited textures into the "textures" folder.
2. Open config.cfg.
3. Now, as an example my file is called 7d78c40.bmp.
4. So now we add this line to config.cfg.

7d78c40 = 7d78c40.bmp

Note: it's like this: filename-without-.bmp = filename-with-.bmp

Note: you can also use subfolders. Let's say you have Tomb Raider II\textures\my_textures
Then the filename-with-.bmp becomes my_textures\7d78c40.bmp

Final result: 7d78c40 = my_textures\7d78c40.bmp

Note you can change the filename now but the change the code! Let's say we change it to HomeLevelTest.bmp, and the code is 7d78c40. Then we get:
7d78c40 = HomeLevelTest.bmp or 7d78c40 = my_textures\HomeLevelTest.bmp

I advice you to make a copy of all the textures WITH original filenames; you never know if you make a mistake somewhere.

Do this for every changed texture you want to replace in-game. Save config.cfg.

5. Make a new folder called "tr2hook" ( without " " ) in the main folder.
6. Extract loader.exe and tr2hook.dll from the archive you downloaded (tr2hook).
7. Copy the loader.ini file in the "texdump" folder to the "tr2hook" folder. Do not move it from the TexDump folder, since you need it in both folders!
8. Open the loader.ini file in the tr2hook folder.
Remember we edited it in 6.1.2? This is how it looked like for me:

[paths]
exe=C:\Program Files\Core Design\Tomb Raider II\TOMB2.exe
cmdline=TOMB2.exe
dll=C:\Program Files\Core Design\Tomb Raider II\texdump\dump.dll

Now change texdump into tr2hook and dump.dll into tr2hook.dll. It should look like this now:

[paths]
exe=C:\Program Files\Core Design\Tomb Raider II\Tomb2.exe
cmdline=Tomb2.exe
dll=C:\Program Files\Core Design\Tomb Raider II\tr2hook\tr2hook.dll

9. Now run loader.exe from the tr2hook folder and load the level you edited. If all goes well your textures should be there.

Remember: each time you add a new edited texture you must redo editing textures and add the line of the texture to config.cfg (importing textures)!

CHANGING TEXTURES (method 2)

Preparing your files

Tools needed: PixStr and FexMerger

First, make a copy of the file you want to edit; I'm going to use Tomb Raider III. Let's make three folders: PixStr, FexMerger, and Edited Files.
Note: Fexmerger is for the Classic Tomb Raiders (not TRLE): Meshes tutorial

Note: make back-ups of the levelfile(s) and textures, since you can't reverse the process. I'm going to edit JUNGLE.TR2 as an example.

Extracting and importing

Open PixStr, then go to File\Open\Go to the Edited Files folder and select your file\Open.