Sorry again folks, I'm still messing around with things and trying to iron out a pipeline for myself. I had a couple more questions for you, if you don't mind.
1) regarding alphas
2) ASM files
Thank you again for bearing with my long windedness, and thank you for all again for all of the help!
1) regarding alphas
I have noticed that I can make some parts of a mesh invisible with their alphas, but not others. For instance, on the skirt from NobodyLovesMe! The alphas will get rid of/make holes in the leggings no problem. Try to make any other part of the mesh invisible however, and it just doesn't work.
I wonder if it's possible that only the geometry that is assigned the leggings is connected to an alpha channel. That would kind of suck because it means a lot more digging around for meshes that can do whatever you want. Has anyone else experienced this?
2) ASM files
This is a much more simple question (I think). When you first extract the texture packages from the original .VPP_pc file, you have several .STR2_PC files, and at the very end of the directory a single .ASM_pc file.
I have successfully edited a single texture with a single .asm file, and I dragged my repacked str2_pc file, and my updated .asm file into the root install folder.
If I was using multiple items with changes to them, would I need to repack the entire custom_items.vpp_pc file?
~ OR ~
Can I repack item1 with the vanilla .asm file, repack item2 with the .asm file I updated with item1, and with item3 repack with the updated .asm from item2. Does the ASM file stack this way? If so is it possible to delete entries from it (I don't need to, I'm still feeling my way around).
3) TexturesLastly, I have noticed that some textures do not reflect any changes at all when painted over. Even if I get rid of my previous texture+asm file, and use the original unpacked vanilla asm file (repacked with the new texture) it does not seem to make any changes to the texture in game.
(I didn't do anything fancy, just a big black streak across another skirt to see if it would update the changes)
I read somewhere on this forum, I think scanti said something about you only being able to edit textures with an alpha channel (puzzling?). This one did already have an alpha channel, but it was different from the other textures I have seen in that it started in colour, not black/white. (the candy-something skirt)
Thank you again for bearing with my long windedness, and thank you for all again for all of the help!