Pulse Effect

Guide to modify your pulse effect

Preparation

In this guide you will have to edit vmt and vtf files. I would recommend to use the software VTFEdit to edit them.To edit vmt files you can use any text editor such as Atom, NotePad++, VIM and many more, however you need VTFEdit and an image editing software for the vtf files. Alternatively you can use VTF plugins for photo editing software such as Gimp, Photoshop and many more.

Locate your game folder and find this folder if you are on Origin:

Origin Games\Titanfall2\vpk\

Or this folder if you are on Steam:

Steam\steamapps\common\Titanfall2\vpk\

Copy these files and paste them in a backup folder somewhere else:

  • englishclient_mp_common.bsp.pak000_dir.vpk

  • client_mp_common.bsp.pak000_000.vpk

You will need the Titanfall VPK Tool, the program which will allow you to open and repack Titanfall VPK files. You can find that here.

Unpacking

Now that your files have been backed up and everything is installed, navigate to your game folder and open this file:

Origin Games\Titanfall2\vpk\englishclient_mp_common.bsp.pak000_dir.vpk

How to extract VPK's properly ?

Editing

To edit the pulse effect you'll need to find the .vmt and .vtf files. You will find the different file locations details about what to modify in the different files.

You can edit the texture of the pulse effect, here is more information about vtf and how to edit it the way you like.

You will also need a graphic editor, here are some tools that you can use for graphics changes.

Editing the texture

To edit the texture of the pulse effect go to this location.

\materials\effects\

The texture used for pulse effect is black.vtf, you can either change this texture or create a new one. Editing this texture will have impact on other effect in the game.

It is recommended to create a new texture so it is possible to make custom effect for specific part of the game.

Choose a texture, you can check here. With your chosen texture, compile it with VTFEdit. For consistency the .vtf file will be renamed aspulse.vtf.

Applying the texture

To change the texture of the pulse effect to the one just created, go to this location.

materials\models\fx\

Open the ar_impact_pilot.vmt file and locate these lines, they are what you want to change.

"$basetexture" "effects\black"
"$Texture2" "effects\black"

Change black to whatever you named your .vtf file, in this case pulse.

"$basetexture" "effects\pulse"
"$Texture2" "effects\pulse"

Color can be changed. If the texture is black then the color applied in your material file will be accurate. If the texture is not black, then the color won't be accurate as the starting point is no longer the set color. Find more information on this page about colors in material files.

Example

Repacking

How to repack VPK files properly ?

After following the previous link closely:

Rename pak000_000.vpk to client_mp_common.bsp.pak000_000.vpk

Rename pak000_dir.vpk to englishclient_mp_common.bsp.pak000_dir.vpk

Place both of the renamed files back into your game directory and then launch Titanfall 2. You should be able to see your new pulse effect!

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