Hello, I've been extracting models from halo reach and wanted to change the colour as I use adjutant and the diffuse texture is transparent and white and no matter what I do it comes out looking very different from the ingame version. So short of going into photoshop and recolouring it (which is and impossibility for me) I don't know what to do.

If you're using max, the transparency is being written out by the alpha, which is actually the specular map. I made a tutorial a bit back about how to do CC (though there's a portion missing visually, but there wasn't much important that you couldn't see)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS048QmM2vo

look at around 9:15 for color change

Maniac also has a good tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-QWv4RyPEs

okay I try that method and it seems I don't know how to get to that screen with the composite layer also I've used maya mainly so I don't know much about max I also always have a broken skeleton rig thing that dosen't work at all could you maybe point me in some sort of direction for that as you seem quite knowledgeable on these things. Thx for your time for dealing with a novice like me

Open Material Editor with the M Key. Then scroll down to the maps section and then click the "none" box next to the slot you wish to fulfill. For color change it's the diffuse slot. Another window will pop up, and from there you would pick "Composite" as your material type.

Edit: If you're using a multi-material, you would need to select the material first, and then follow the procedure likewise.
Edited by R93_Sniper on Oct 4, 2014 at 09:20 PM

Max is predominantly supported with most things halo, I suggest you switch try and become more competent with max, since unfortunately there isn't much support for maya.

Okay so I followed you instructions but there is no "none" as there is a texture already there, I click on it and I don't get a new window with a composite option I get another section called "Bitmaptexture"