Skins @ Hive World Terra

Can I use my Dawn of War/Winter Assault textures in Winter Assault/Dark Crusade?

Yes! Nothing is known to have changed with the texture file format between Dawn of War and Dark Crusade, so all Dawn of War textures should be fully compatible with Dark Crusade.

The one caveat is that the leader textures for each race may not work (or may only work when renamed) because Relic have renamed the textures and re-skinned the models to include war gear. This has nothing to do with the file itself but is purely because of model changes.

I have lots of patterns and I want to use different ones at different times, but I forget which I currently have installed, what can I do?

The Pattern Switcher was designed for just that situation! Download it, put all of your WTP files in folders based on the race and run the pattern switcher to choose which patterns you want to play with (after you've configured it, of course!).

For more details, see the Readme contained in the download.

I've downloaded a file and it says it needs to be put within the 'Dawn of War installation folder'. Where is this?

The 'Dawn of War installation folder' is the location that you installed the Dawn of War game to. The most common location for the original CD and DVD-based installation is C:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn Of War\, although some people may have installed Dawn of War to another location.

If you are playing Dark Crusade then you will need to install to C:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn Of War - Dark Crusade\, or whichever alternate folder you installed the game to.

If you have installed the games through Steam then it will use a different directory. Right-click on the game in the Steam interface, click Properties, click the "Local Files" tab and then click "Browse Local Files…" to find the installation folder.

Note: This is only the base directory. Files will go in a folder below this - see more.

So is there no way to get the enemy to see my cool new quartered/halved/striped-with-polka-dots pattern?

There is, but it requires a bit of organisation. Contact your opponent before the battle, make sure you both have the same WTP files installed for the races you are playing and then go!

Alternatively, work is now being finished (as of around the beginning of November 2005) on new race Mods to make the Halved and then Quartered Space Marine textures into separately playable races.

As with any other mod, if you have it installed and running then you can choose the new race, but your opponent must also have the same mod installed.

What drawbacks does replacing the WTPs have?

Dawn of War currently only supports one pattern per in-game model. There is nothing that can be done about it until Relic complete and re-add the partial implementation of alternate patterns that the beta version used to have. Even then, patterns are so huge that they probably won't be transferred before the game begins.

This means that all armies of one race must use the same patterns.

What is the correct folder to put the WTP files in?

[Dawn of War install path]\W40K\art\ebps\races\[race name]\texture_share with "Ork", "Eldar", "Chaos", "Space_Marine" (with the underscore), "Imperial_Guard" (with the underscore), "Tau" or "Necrons" in place of [race].

Alternatively, check out the Dawn of War Pattern Switcher.

Where do I put textures for Dark Crusade?

The majority for textures for Dark Crusade should work when they're put in the same location as for Dawn of War (e.g. [installation directory]/W40K/data/art/ebps/races/[race name]/texture_share.

There may be some textures, however, that have been updated in Dark Crusade. These may include the Commander textures, as the commanders now have additional equipment. If a texture has been updated (or the change isn't showing when it's under the W40K directory) then try putting the files under [installation directory]/DXP2/data/art/ebps/races/[race name]/texture_share instead.

Will new patterns (.WTPs), banners and badges stop me playing Dawn of War in an online multi-player game?

No. While other game content can cause synchronisation issues with online games (to prevent cheating) new art content does not cause such issues.

New textures and patterns have been used in online games from very shortly after the release of Dawn of War, and no-one has yet encountered any problems.

Will the enemy see my new pattern?

Unfortunately not.

Although badges, banners and team colours are small enough to transfer before the game begins, textures are only used for the 'local' view and will never be transferred before the game.

This means that any WTP files installed on your computer will apply to all players of that race in your view. Your enemy will then see their own view with your colours applied to their own WTP files.