Righty! *rubs hands together* What I need is a new outfit/appearance/disguise, for a plot scene. However, none of the moddable armour types will suffice as a base because they are all baggy/lumpy/armoury. What I need is the skin-tight mesh shape we see when the character is in their undies. So, how do I do this? Can I make a new armour item that uses the armourless mesh? (nothing kinky, I swear!)
I know I can simply reskin the actual underwear by putting a new “P_NameBA01.tga” in Override. Then unequip everything for the scene (tested with success). But that would affect all underwear scenes. So not ideal. It would make the Leviathan interrogation confusing too.
But then I got to thinking... (yeah, ouch) why do the underwears have TextureVariation numbers. Like P_NameBA01 has a 01? Does that mean I could put a “P_NameBA02.tga” in override, then point to that variation somehow? Could I tell the NPC to wear variation 02 of the ‘underwear’ for one scene instead of 01? Maybe I need to create a clone of the NPC who, when unequipped, would display the BA02 underwear instead of the original NPC's BA01? Am I making any sense? Am I missing a really simple solution? :roll:
I’ve scratched my head a long time over this. I generally shove the problem aside and get back to my dialog sound file edits, but I'm gonna need that outfit eventually. Any solutions that avoid .2da changing would be preferable, since I’ve managed to avoid 2das so far (recycling redundant globals etc - I wanted this mod to be super-compatible). I thought maybe there was something I could specify in the .utcs... But I know that's a tall order... bleh, I’ll take what I can get. Cheers!
Paper!
Sorry, you've got to go with appearance.2da. You really need to be open to learning new stuff. Once you figure out one .2da, you've got the base knowledge to edit them all... See a .2da tutorial for more help.
Bah! :) It’s not that I can’t edit 2das. I read the tutorials. I just didn’t want to overwrite a 2da because that would make the mod incompatible with any other mod that does so... but I guess most mod users know how to copy across the new lines to combine 2das.
But that doesn’t solve the problem. The problem was that if I want to use the ‘underwear’ mesh, then I have no base item to work with. You know when you make a mod item, you steal the original item out of kotor tool, then tweak it? Can’t do that for this one. There isn’t an ‘item’ for the skin-tight ‘underwear’ mesh shape. The model I need (I guess it would be called P_NameBA.mdl/.mdx) is hidden somewhere.
...hmm, maybe I should chase Kha. She made all those awesome Carth clothes mods. I bet she knows where to look for the model I need for my outfit.
But then I got to thinking... (yeah, ouch) why do the underwears have TextureVariation numbers. Like P_NameBA01 has a 01? Does that mean I could put a “P_NameBA02.tga” in override, then point to that variation somehow? Could I tell the NPC to wear variation 02 of the ‘underwear’ for one scene instead of 01? Maybe I need to create a clone of the NPC who, when unequipped, would display the BA02 underwear instead of the original NPC's BA01? Am I making any sense? Am I missing a really simple solution? :roll:
The number at the end of the texture name is the Texture Variation number. This corresponds to a value in the TextureVariation field in .UTI templates for clothing items. This way you can have one model but with different textures applied. Theoretically this should work on underwear as well, though not all models support texture variations and I haven't tested this particular one so don't take my word for it.
Assuming that it does work with the underwear model there is still some data file modifications required. Since there is no base item type for clothing that uses the underwear model you'll have to add one. You can do this in the baseitems.2da file. The easiest way is to copy line 85 (common clothing) and paste as a new row. Change...
the Row Label to the next number in sequence
the name column to ****
the label column to underwear (or something that helps you identify the line)
the itemclass column to a_under (for example), this is used for inventory icon image names like iitemclass_texturevariation.tga (e.g. ia_under_002.tga).
the bodyvar column to A, this is referring to a model/tex column pair in the appearance.2da file, where modelA and texA are for the underwear model.
Save the modified baseitems.2da file in the override folder and then make an UTI item template for your skin tight armor. Set the Base Item field to the one you just added to baseitems.2da and the Texture Variation field to the number at the end of your custom texture files.
If the NPC in question uses an appearance type that has the underwear model assigned it should show up on them if they have your new armor equipped.
* * *
Overwriting 2DA files is not necessary if you use a mod installer with your mod. Those can insert new lines into 2DA files already existing in the player's override folder without overwriting anything. It's more work for you setting it all up, but less work for the end user who is playing with the mod. :)
Ahah! Thanks Super Stoffe! That worked. My new tex looks like poo (need to work on that), but the shape is spot on! At least I know what I'm doing now, eh?
This little story exp is comming together nicely ^.^ You guys rock!
~Paper~