Custom Clothing in TSL

[The Doctor]

Despite following the tutorials by both Stoffe and J7, I'm still having difficulties creating a unique texture for a custom clothing item I'm creating for TSL.

 

Very basically, the item is a unique form of clothing for Bao-Dur in the same vein as Atton's Ribbed Jacket or Mira's Ballistics Jacket; the major difference is that I want the new item to use the same model as Bao-Dur's standard clothing, but to use a re-skinned texture I've created as opposed to the default one.

 

I've created the .uti file for the item, and even got it added properly to his .utc file when you meet him on Telos' surface. That all worked very well, on the first try. I also had no problems when I re-skinned Bao-Dur's clothing to a darkish blue instead of the default turquoise. But when I tried to retain the original skin for regular clothing and apply the new skin only to the new item, it stopped working; now no matter how I edit appearance.2da, it just uses his default clothing texture instead of my re-skinned version.

 

What I've done in appearance .2da is copied Bao-Dur's line, and edited the texb and texbevil columns to match the names of my new texture files (P_Bao_DurWC01 and P_Bao_DurWCD01). The two columns now read "texb: P_Bao_DurWC" and "texbevil: P_Bao_DurWCD" and the .uti file is set to use texture variant 1.

 

Is there more editing to be done in appearance.2da, or have I made a mistake with the editing I've done already? Does the problem lie in the texture variant of the .uti file, or maybe in the texture name itself? What have I done wrong?

[Rtas Vadum]

If you made a new line for Bao-Dur, and made your changes to that one(as it seems), then the problem lies in what line his UTC references, which is likely his original line, unless you edited that as well.

 

The only way to really do as you want, and still retain his original clothing, is to have your edited textures match the vanilla's names, only with 02 at the end, along with having a 2 for the texture variation in the UTI. You'd also have to add this to his UTC's inventory, or having him wear this outright.

[The Doctor]

Yes, I've added another line to the end of appearance.2da, and within that line edited the two columns I mentioned above. I didn't, though, edit his .utc file beyond adding the new item to his inventory - I can't seem to locate anywhere in the file that I would change the line reference.

 

If I do simply edit the .uti to reference a second texture variation, do I still need to do any edits to appearance.2da? I've just tried it without doing so, and the new clothes still appear as the default green.

[Rtas Vadum]

Yes, I've added another line to the end of appearance.2da, and within that line edited the two columns I mentioned above. I didn't, though, edit his .utc file beyond adding the new item to his inventory - I can't seem to locate anywhere in the file that I would change the line reference.

 

If I do simply edit the .uti to reference a second texture variation, do I still need to do any edits to appearance.2da? I've just tried it without doing so, and the new clothes still appear as the default green.

 

A character(or creature/droids) appearance is defined by the drop-down box next to "appearance" on the Basic tab.

 

And no, you won't, but you will need to have the texture named just as the 2da labels them, with the 02. (i.e P_Bao_DurA02)

[The Doctor]

I've just tried again after double checking file names and such, and it's still not working... I still get the default clothing appearance.

 

If it helps, this is what the .utc, .uti, and file names look like:

Show spoiler

(hidden content - requires Javascript to show)

[jonathan7]

I've just tried again after double checking file names and such, and it's still not working... I still get the default clothing appearance.

 

If it helps, this is what the .utc, .uti, and file names look like:

Show spoiler

(hidden content - requires Javascript to show)

 

My suggestion is that the texture name is imbedded in the model, which means it ignores the .2da entry. What this means is you will have to hex edit the model (so Bao Durr doesn't look the same you will need to have two models). This is the Hex editor I use; http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/ - search for the original Bao Dur texture name, and do a replace all with a new name. The new name will need to be the same number of characters as the name you are replacing (and make sure your texture is the same name) and that should solve the problem.

[The Doctor]

I've used the hex editor on p_baodurbb.mdl, replaced 4 occurrences of "P_Bao_DurA" with "P_Bao_DurB" (the same number of character, as per your directions - though only four occurrences seemed low, to me), and renamed the texture file the exact same thing. Now when I load the game and go down to Telos' surface, I meet Bao-Dur in his new clothes, and the new skin is applied to it just fine.

 

But the new skin is still applied to standard clothing, as well. I extracted p_baodurbb.mdx as well, just to be safe, but I didn't find any occurrences of the texture names in question. I've tried reloading both with and without the unmodified .mdx, and it seems to have no effect. Do I have to use the .mdx file at all, or can I scrap it?

 

Also, in your tutorial for creating new items you mentioned that a texture file must have a two digit number at the end of its name in order to work. Does that still apply here, even if the appearance.2da file isn't being used?

[jonathan7]

I've used the hex editor on p_baodurbb.mdl, replaced 4 occurrences of "P_Bao_DurA" with "P_Bao_DurB" (the same number of character, as per your directions - though only four occurrences seemed low, to me), and renamed the texture file the exact same thing. Now when I load the game and go down to Telos' surface, I meet Bao-Dur in his new clothes, and the new skin is applied to it just fine.

 

But the new skin is still applied to standard clothing, as well. I extracted p_baodurbb.mdx as well, just to be safe, but I didn't find any occurrences of the texture names in question. I've tried reloading both with and without the unmodified .mdx, and it seems to have no effect. Do I have to use the .mdx file at all, or can I scrap it?

 

The .mdx is needed, but you won't have to hex edit it, the only thing you need to hex edit is the .mdl. Do you have two different Bao Durr models? To use his original texture, you will need an entirely different model and texture names, i.e. lets say p_baodurb1 and p_baodurb2...

 

Also, in your tutorial for creating new items you mentioned that a texture file must have a two digit number at the end of its name in order to work. Does that still apply here, even if the appearance.2da file isn't being used?

 

No it doesn't unfortunately, if you want 3 texture variations, you would need 3 different model names because the texture name is directly in the model it doesn't use the appearance.2da at all.

[The Doctor]

The .mdx is needed, but you won't have to hex edit it, the only thing you need to hex edit is the .mdl. Do you have two different Bao Durr models? To use his original texture, you will need an entirely different model and texture names, i.e. lets say p_baodurb1 and p_baodurb2...

 

Alright, so I tried renaming the .mdl files to match the texture files they directed to. For example, I named the first .mdl file "P_Bao_DurB.mdl" (to match the new texture file), and the second .mdl file "P_Bao_DurA.mdl" (to match the original one). Didn't work. Neither did trying it the other way around - renaming the textures to match the .mdl file.

 

How do I name each of the .mdl and .mdx files so that the game just doesn't skip right over them in the Override folder and find them in the game files instead?

 

No it doesn't unfortunately, if you want 3 texture variations, you would need 3 different model names because the texture name is directly in the model it doesn't use the appearance.2da at all.

 

Not gonna lie: that's a bit of a bitch. But at least now I know... and after double checking, I see that Bao-Dur is one of few NPCs that are textured that way. That's something, at least. Scratch that. All party members are textured that way. ****.

[jonathan7]

My suggestion is to edit the slot the star forge robes occupy in K2 for the NPC's with the second outfit, that way you could have both the original model and texture as well as your new skins and model.