Picture A

A skin is a texture that wraps around a character model (Picture A). A character model (.mdl file) is file that contains information about a solid object, e.g. mp_MI6_tux.mdl (Picture B). Skins looks a bit odd when you view them for the first time as they are flattened out, each Nightfire skin is laid out into sections and the model file has information to choose which sections of the skin to use for different parts of the character.

When you edit the skins some parts are easier to do than others, the body part of the skin is hard to do, as the front, back, arms, legs and sides are all next to each other, so when you change individual parts you have to be careful not to overlap into the next section. Also each skin is laid out differently, the head for the castle guard for example is in the top right of the skin, where as it's in the bottom left for MI6 Tux.

To get the skins from the NIghtfire game you can use one of these tools. Alura and Zoe are two small programs that unpack and repack the Nightfire Assets file. Alura and Zoe where made by ALhexx. Another program that can be used is Dragon unPACKer. This program allows you to choose which parts of the assets file that you wish to unpack.

Picture B

Picture B is the mp_MI6_tux.mdl file with a skin texture that is completely white, to show the different edges and surfaces a character model file has.

Picture C

The Skins in Nightfire are 24 bit .png files ( for a detailed description of .png files see here ) , so to edit them you will need some graphics software that can handle the .png file format like Jasc (Corel) Paint Shop Pro or Macromedia (adobe) Fireworks, there are also freeware graphic editors that you can use . Next you will need the Skins themselves and know what to do with them. Use one of the tools above (Alura and Zoe or Dragon Unpacker) to extract all texture files to your hard drive and you can download this list that shows complete file structure for the Bond Folder (so you know where to put the edited files) for all the Nightfire textures.

Now that you have the skins, load the alura_mp skin into your graphics editor to have a look at it. Alura_mp is a good one to start with as all the sections are close together, but are easy to distinguish apart. If your editor has something that measures pixels in some way it is worth mapping out where each section of the skin starts and stops (see picture C). Alura's shorts start at 0 pixels from the left and 433 pixels from the top and measure 256 pixels wide by 79 pixels high. Copy and paste your chosen section into a new image and work on it from there. Once you have finished editing the section paste it back into the skin in the same position and have a look in Nightfire to see what it looks like. ( You should have the bond folder structure by now from the link above, all the Multiplayer skins should go into this folder bond\models\textures . If the folder[s] do not exist you will have to make them). If you paste the edited section back into the skin higher than it should be it will cover up parts of Alura's stomach and back and that will show in your new skin when you view it.

Original Shorts

Edited Shorts

Alura With New Shorts

When you view your newly created skins, they will only appear on the PC that they are installed on, as they are replacing the the default skin in the assets file. If you want your friends to view them they will have to install them onto their own PC's. There are different ways you can view the skins on your own PC to see what they look like. Having 2 PC's is an advantage as you can install Nightfire on both and make a LAN game to view them, or edit the skins on one PC and view them on the fly, on your Nightfire PC by using the command r_flushtextures.

Some of the models are made to fit clothing that have long sleeves and trouser legs. If you look at picture B you will see that where bonds wrists and ankles are, they are very chunky so that his suit/tux fits correctly. Alura though has much slimmer ankle's and wrists as there is no bulky clothing over them. So if you wanted to change part of character body from clothes to skin you will have a problem. There are ways around that though with a bit of imagination.

If you want to edit the skin tones in the alura_mp skin file it can be a bit tricky, as both the arms and the legs are next to each other. In other skins where the clothing is all the same colour it's even harder to define, so it is a case of trial and error until you get it right.

Picture D
by Taylor Lehotan

Season 5, Episode 21. Jack retrieves the evidence to seal President Logan's fate.