To get the UV mesh, you need 3 programs.
- Diesel Bundle Modder[modworkshop.net]
You obivously need the weapon models, so you need to extract the gamefiles using the Diesel Bundle Modder. (The hashlist should be working, though updating it with this[bitbucket.org] from time to time shouldn't hurt.)
- Diesel Model Tool[modworkshop.net]
This is used to converte the extracted .model to a usable .obj.
- Blender
Blender is used to view and extract the model's UV mesh. You can download it on the Official Website[www.blender.org] or on Steam.

Once you got the Bundle Modder, launch it. After an update, there might be a notification about a new game version and something about a backup, click on "OK" and continue.


Now it should look like this:


First you gotta tell the bundle modder what files to extract, move to the "Options/About" tab and select the "assets" folder in your games main directory, default it should be C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\PAYDAY 2\assets.


Now move to the "Game File Extraction" tab, enter your location you want the files to be extracted to and click on "Start" on the down right.
Be aware, this will take up a lot of space, because you basically make a copy of the whole game, but uncompressed! (About 55GB)


This can take up to a few hours, drink a tea, watch a show or a movie and continue when the bundle modder is done.

Now that you have your files extracted, you gotta decide what gun you want to work on. In this guide I will use the Crosskill Pistol (M1911) as an example. You need to move to the folder the gun's files are located, in this case it's ...extract/units/payday2/weapons/wpn_fps_pis_1911_pts


If you're not sure what your gun's ID is or where the files are located, this page[modworkshop.net] might help you.

To keep track of everything, copy all the .model files you need and move them into a different work environment. I like to keep everything in the Diesel Model tool folder for easy access.


Next, launch "PD2ModelParser.exe". It should look like this:


Click the "Browse..." button next to "Input File" and open the .model you want.

It's now automatically converting the .model file into a .obj. After the text in the command prompt stopped, you can click on "Browse..." again and select the next file until you have everthing you need.


Again, to make it easier to find, I suggest moving the .obj files into a different folder.

Ok, you got all the models you need converted into .obj? Good. Now we're finally getting to the main part.
Open Blender, you should see a screen that looks like this:


Click on the "UV Editing" tab to show the model's UV Map.


Now your screen should look kinda like this:


If you want you can delete "Camera", "Cube" and "Lamp" in the Scene manager in the top right of your screen, since you don't need them.

That's it for the preparation stuff. It may feel like much now, but once you get the hang of it, it's done in a couple of seconds.

Next you need to import the weapon part's model into Blender. Click on "File" to open the dropdown menu, move to "Import" and click on "Wavefont (.obj)"


Now it's important that you choose the right model file. When converting the .model, it made 2 different files. The normal one, which is used for the default texture file, and one with "pattern_uv" at the end. This is the one you need most of the time. In some rare cases, mostly newer weapons, the pattern_uv hasn't been set up properly. It won't show the UV mesh in the UV/Image Editor when selecting the model. In that case you need to use the .obj without the "pattern_uv".


You should now be able to see the model. Selecting the model in the Scene manager will show you the UV mesh in the UV Map.


Please note that some weapon parts have multiple subparts with sometimes multiple different models and sometimes models split into multiple parts, while actually being the same subpart, when imported to Blender. This can be confusing and there isn't really a definite rule on that, just gotta try around.

When you can see the UV Mesh, like shown on the image, you can move on to exporting the mesh.
In the UV/Image Editor, click on "UV" and then "Export UV Layout".


From here it's mostly preference, some thing i'd suggest:
- Choose a name that is easy to recognize and tell apart from other weapon parts.
- Again, save it in a different folder then the model files.
- Put the size to 1024x1024 pixel, because that pretty much is the standard for pattern/sticker. (2048x2048 doesn't hurt either, just be aware of the quality loss once your skin gets accepted and Overkill scales it down.)
- Put the "Fill Opacity" to 1.00 for better visibility.
- Format is completely up to you, I usually go with PNG or SVG.


When you're done with all the files you need, you can apply them to your skin.

This guide isn't about how the editor works, so you should know how to apply a pattern or a sticker.
However, This section is still somewhat relevant.

When you use this as a pattern, you can just apply it and ignore stuff like pattern position or pattern scale. it will perfectly align with the part it's applied to. You can now go back into your prefered image editing program and use the UV as a guide to draw your design.

When you use it as a sticker, you need to apply it and put Sticker Y to 1.00 to perfectly align it with the part. (That is if you choose a resolution of 1024x1024 pixel for your sticker. I'm not sure if it's that easy when using different resolutions, need to test that.)

[Left, UV mesh applied as pattern - Right, UV mesh applied as sticker]

Yes, that's it. You made it.
You may be wondering why someone would go through all this complicated stuff. The answer is, because it makes skin making itself so much easier.

I'm using this method in almost every skin since Rex introduced me to this and it's making everything so easy.

Now go and create some awesome skins yourself.
See ya!
- Sush