FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

I've made custom skin and it won't load in-game. I replaced the character.png with my own and named it character.png. For some reason (not specified in the debug.txt file), the game can't load it. It seems to have the same properties; but I'm not certain that the format is exactly the same.

Does anyone know of a reason that the export of the image could create the problem? There are several tick boxes when exporting. Could one of the options there be causing it?

I'm just trying to make my skin work in single player without a mod. I have yet to get any of them to work with Unified inventory.

I use GIMP for all my images, they work fine when exported to PNG.
What does it look like in third-person (Press F7)?

Did you export the image as a png? You can't just change an extension to convert it, that won't work.

@kaadmy and rubenwardy:

Have you explicitly replaced your default singleplayer skin in the models folder?

Hey GFX!
I just did a quick test in minetest game and here is the result:

I opened the character.png in the modeled folder in default in gimp

*did some basic tweaking's to the file.

*exported it to overwrite the existing file

*started the game and it was all set.

Did you save as or export the image file?

Export and overwrite, this will work for you.
I hope this helps.

@Maikerumine:

I have to add it in as root, and I can't do that with Gimp.

you can "opne folders as admin" to get the writing rights of root within a set window, then move the file to the folder where you want to move it.
i have to do that when i update the default minetest_game.

a more simple option is to make a texture pack in your local .minetest folder and place the image there.
or use a skin mod (pilzadams player_testures is the most basic one) and set it there.

my skin is also made with Gimp, i downloaded a minecraft skin soemwhere and then edited it with Gimp.
i remember that the saving function used to be different in the past, but today saving will just save a project file.
to save it as a png image you have to use the export function.
and altering the filename to .png will not change the format, just the name.

Ok, what I'm actually asking for is the specifics on the character.png.

Editing the default game in-place is bad, especially if it's installed system-wide from a package manager.

WRT your question, `character.png` must be a valid PNG file supported by Irrlicht (which I believe uses `libpng`, so it should support any PNG file), its size must be 64x32 (IIRC), and must be located somewhere in Minetest texture search path (i.e. in the `textures` directory of some mod, or in a texture pack).

Your options, as firefox said, is to use a dummy texture pack with just your skin (note that this is only useful for single player, since other users will see their default skin in multiplayer), or use a mod to modify your personal skin (works in MP too).

Another option is to copy `minetest_game` to your personal `~/.minetest/games` directory and edit it.

If that's not the information you need, you'll need to clarify the question.

So how does replacing with a perfectly good .png file prevent the file from loading in game? That appears to be what has happened. I even reversed it with a copy of the original that I saved as a backup and it still doesn't load.

What do you mean with "it doesn't load"? Do you mean this error?

It can be safely ignored. Can you post a screenshot in third person view with and without custom skin?

No it says "could not load image character.png while building texture" and "creating dummy image for character.png"

It gives a monochromatic skin (dummy image) in its place.

[EDIT]:
It seems like it might be Nautilus causing the problem. I'm going to follow up on that assumption.

Create a textures folder inside of your .minetest folder (not the system one but the user settings folder) and create a temp directory called mytextures, inside that place your character.png file and run minetest, from textures tab select the mytextures to enable your personalized character skin.

TenPlus1 wrote:Create a textures folder inside of your .minetest folder (not the system one but the user settings folder) and create a temp directory called mytextures, inside that place your character.png file and run minetest, from textures tab select the mytextures to enable your personalized character skin.

(For those of you who use Linux, That would be the home/.minetest folder. Ctrl + h makes it visible)

How do I incorporate it with a texture pack? Do I just drop it in with it?

Yes, drop your character.png file inside the texture pack folder and it should change your character skin in game.

TenPlus1 wrote:Yes, drop your character.png file inside the texture pack folder and it should change your character skin in game.

Ok, thanks. :-)

(For those who are wondering, it was gksu that caused the problem. It happened as a result of not partitioning my /usr folder. I thought gksu was supposed to prevent things like that from happening but whatever. I'm using Ubuntu Gnome BTW.)