I dont understand skinning

[RI5ER]

I looked up the pistol and i saw this:


What i do not understand is why it is all spread out. Does halo know where to put the different skins on the pistol?

For example, i would like to make the handel of the pistol wood-like (just an example). Would i have to open the texture, edit just the handle and import it back in?

[McFarlane]

Only edit the handle then.
And they did uvw maps so then skin goes on how it looks in the game.

[xnodunitx]

What you see is the layout of the pistol (why they always make those like that I don't know) using your memory of what weapons look like in the game,you can then edit the pistol and what have ye,I currently halted on this but now that I got photoshop back its back to the editing board for me,just keep experimenting until you come up with something you like.

By the way,don't bother trying to edit the grass..it will always be green (dunno why)