Please note this guide was written a while ago, and the info might be outdated. If it still works for you, then it would be great if you could write it in the comments, so others know it's still valid.

There's nothing more powerful than previewing your skin in-game to have an idea of how your finish will turn out.

I'll show you how you can do that, using the Bizon | Tempest skin I've made. If you have any issues, then let me know in the comments and I'll attempt to help.

If you find this guide useful, then check out my Bizon

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=402665015

It's worth explaining what we will be doing conceptually and the implications that follow.

To test your weapon finish, you will modify your game config files to replace an existing weapon finish with your own one.

Modifying your game files means you won't be able to play on pure servers (you will get kicked when the round starts), but shouldn't in theory cause you any (VAC related) trouble. As a precaution, I don't usually play with my custom finishes - I test them with bots and then play with my normal config, so make sure you back everything up so you can easily swap files.

The other thing to bear in mind is that some of the files we will be modifying will get reset when an update is released, losing any changes you make - make a note of what you change so that you can easily redo the changes later!

I will assume that you're familiar with weapon finish terminology - if you're not then check out some other guides about creating weapon finishes and come back.

To recreate the steps in this guide, you'll need:

• A finish you've made that you want in game, both the VTF format and the text file
  
• An official finish for the weapon you want to preview. Since we are tricking the game into using your files for an existing skin, its absolutely essential you have that. You cannot replace the original texture. E.g. if you want to preview a bizon skin you made, make sure you have a finish for the Bizon. To preview my Bizon finish, I'll be using the Urban Dashed finish. When you preview your skin in game, it will have the same wear as the skin you're replacing!
  
• A text editor (notepad is fine)

All the weapon finishes are contained in a packed up archive (.pak files). To preview our finish, we will need to create a folder structure within our game file that can recognise. It's essential you reproduce it as described below (same structure, names etc.), otherwise it won't work:

1. Go to your CSGO directory: ..\Steam\SteamApps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo
2. Go the 'materials' folder (if it doesn't exist create it)
3. In it, create a folder called 'models' and go into it
4. Create one called 'weapons' and go into it
5. Create one called 'customization' and go into it
6. Create one called 'paints' and go into it
7. Now within the 'paints folder, create the following folders: 'anodized_air'; 'anodized_multi'; 'antiqued'; 'custom'; 'hydrographic' and 'spray'

If done correctly, you should end up with the following:

Each of the folder corresponds to a finish style (you can guess which is which, with 'antiqued' corresponding to Patina style).

This is a one time setup - it will stay after the game is updated.

Now for your skin - find the VTF you want to see in game, and copy it in the appropriate folder. My Bizon | Tempest is a custom paint job, so I'm copying it in the 'custom' folder. This is what you should have:

Make sure you remember what you named it

We now need to import the settings from the text file. This tells us how the texture should be formatted (what the type is, the texture rotation etc.).

This is a bit harder - as explained earlier, we will be replacing an existing finish. For this tutorial, I will be replacing the Urban Dashed skin for the bizon.

1. Open items_game.txt file, located in ..\Steam\SteamApps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\scripts\items and make a copy of the items_game.txt file (so you have a backup).

This text file contains a number of things, two of which are of interest to us: what the finish 'code' of the weapon is; and what the finish parameters are (what we have in our text file). It has it for every finish in the game.

2. Find the code for the Urban Dashed entry. This is the hard bit - the finish names you see in game aren't normally contained in that file - instead valve uses another name/code. Do the following to find what it is:

• Search for the weapon you're testing (here, 'bizon') from the bottom of the file up (otherwise you'll be there all day). The picture shows "[sp_tape_short_urban]weapon_bizon" as a potential match (it has urban in the name):
  
• Check what collection the finish you're using is in. Do that by hovering over the weapon in game. For the urban dashed, we see that it belongs to the Train Collection (look at the icon):
  Checking the text file, we see that "[sp_tape_short_urban]weapon_bizon" is part of the Train Collection too, so it's probably the right match, so the code name for the urban dashed skin is "sp_tape_short_urban".

3. Now that you know the code, search for sp_tape_short_urban. You will come up with a few results, so continue until you reach a set of code that looks like the text file of the finish you want to import. For the bizon, we get this:

4. Within the block we want (number 149 in the pic above), select the text from "Pattern" to just before the curly bracket (ie. '}') and replace that with the equivalent text from your texture file.

In our example, it means replacing the following:

5. Now that you have pasted your text file parameters, your pattern name should contain the whole path. Change it so that you only keep the name you used for the VTF file you copied earlier. Make sure you remove the .vtf. Mine was "../paints/custom/bizon-tempest.vtf" which I changed to "bizon-tempest".

6. Save the file!

Launch the game and go to your inventory. Find the finish you replaced and preview it - although it will still have the same name as the original skin, it will be using your texture:


Make sure you equip it in-game!

To remove the HUD, enable cheats (sv_cheats 1) and enter cl_drawhud 0

I hope you found this guide useful. If you need help, then let me know in the comments!

Check out my Workshop items too.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=402665015

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=398869775