Lonerized Suits and other texture work

[velvet trench]

This is mostly to document my failure to progress with my mod.

Premise:

The title explains it well enough already, I suppose. There's some serious dissonance in gameplay immersion with Skif being (as of now)

1. always a Loner during the whole story and
2. being the only Loner to ever don suits of other factions and
3. NPCs recognize Skif as a Loner from 80 meters afar despite him wearing other faction's suits.

This irritates me so much that I purposefully refrain from wearing any type of other faction's suits. Obviously, this is limiting my pleasure while playing the game, so I want to do something about it.

Idea:

A simple retexture of the suit's first person model (torso and arms are 2 different models, I guess) and inventory icon. The textures will be "lonerized", meaning the defining elements of the original suit texture relating to its faction will be replaced with muted olive, brown, grey-ish colors. Every suit will receive a different texture, which will in perceived effect almost double the amount of different wearable suits.

Problem:

My hardware isn't good enough to run the Stalker 2 SDK. Luckily for a simple retexture work it's not needed. Should this mod prove popular enough with my modding skills getting better, it might get updated to different depths.

Organisation:

1. Reproduce the incredibly detailed and almost foolproof asset making tutorials of @rbwadle with a test suit.

2. If successful, do handful of suits, experiment with the colour schemes, publish an Alpha to receive some feedback.

3. Make the rest of the suits based on the feedback and hopefully with a bit of willing help from more experienced texture modders.

4. Publish all retextured faction suits on one Nexus page. Maybe keep the files separated by factions.

5. Look into the possibilities of having an ingame way of actively choosing between original and retexture (maybe via mechanics blueprints). Create different textures for every suit. (To be continued...)

... e.g. a lonerized texture, an X-7 suit style texture, a Corps-style texture...
Have them be available at every mechanic as an attachment that is able to get taken off but not able to 'equip' multiple at the same time.
(This could get weird with inventory icons, idk. Maybe impossible, very probably Stalker 2 SDK needed, so impossible for me at the moment)

[magic aurora]

so why are u failing atm?

[fathom mantle]

What should I do with copies of the same suit with different faction colors? For example, the regular exoskeleton, the Cuirass Exoskeleton, the Liberty Exoskeleton, the Brummbar Exoskeleton, and the Diamond Exoskeleton. By your logic, they should all be combined into a single exoskeleton, since they're essentially identical. Why in 1, because the visual on the player will be the same and to avoid breaking the logic, it should be exactly 1 suit that drops. There are also three "identical" SEVA suits (regular, -D, -V), three PSZ-9 suits (-D, -I, -N), three PSZ-5 suits (-D, -I, -V, and, by the way, the X7 suit), three SSP-100 suits (regular, -I, -SIRCAA from DLC), and two identical Duty and Freedom starting suits (Recruit Suit and Wind of Freedom Suit). If you don't combine them into a single suit but use neutral icons, they will be virtually identical, making it more difficult for the player to identify them in their inventory. Your idea may be good in some way, but is it necessary?

[velvet trench]

Trying to understand Fmodel lol

[velvet trench]

Good points, but I feel you're missing my intention a bit.
What irks me is looking down at my player model and seeing faction colors which aren't recognized by anyone.

Every suit you listed I would not want to combine into a single suit, but give each faction suit a new unique color combination that's more recognized to be loner-ish.

E.g. the duty suits will keep the black, but the red accents will be replaced by brown/olive tones. Similar to how the Mercenary Light Suit looks like a player-unique version of the mercenary suit.
Monolith suits could keep the green and brown from their vests while the birch camo is getting replaced with the 'monolith' camo from the preorder guns, making them look more like Clear Sky suits.
Freedom suits could get the Bundeswehr Flecktarn for the player.

The origin will be noticeable, but the result shall differ enough to make it seem that you're not using the faction camos 1:1.

[fathom mantle]

Many players prefer freeplay with faction selection. So the question remains: how necessary is this?

[velvet trench]

And should this mod evolve into a bigger project with a few helpful hands, one could start working on the models themselves. Because as you correctly described, even though the ingame description makes them be different from each other, the suits often just differentiate through their color schemes.

[velvet trench]

Because I want it.

[fathom mantle]

And I'm not talking about distinctive costumes like the mercenary suit, which is unique, or the bandit jacket. I'm talking about dozens of identical costumes; it would be difficult to come up with unique textures for them; they'd all look the same anyway.

[fathom mantle]

That explains a lot. But you should have gotten some feedback first at https://discord.com/channels/504587323577729024/1387353275405307934

[velvet trench]

Yes, also good point. I guess I would keep the inventory icons vanilla then. Saves time and isn't as confusing.

[wind turret]

I figure you could do different faction-inspired camos maybe?

Like, the freedom suit, turn it into a more muted, Loner-type color scheme camouflage with main accents, like the bulletproof vest, being just straight up regular brown/olive Loner color

With duty, it could maybe be a darker, different type of camouflage to make it stick out from regular Loner suits, like A-TACS ghost but leaning more towards loner camos

I figure that going off what faction's suit it is, finding a camo that slightly echoes that and lonerizing it could make every suit completely unique, cool-looking, and make it feel like it belongs on a Loner

[fathom mantle]

This is exactly what you should have done before publishing. Even if you can't do it yourself, at least do some research, create a design document, and then maybe modmakers'll be more willing to help. But it turns out: I want something but don't know what to do, so help me do it.

[velvet trench]

That's the intention.

[velvet trench]

No need for any of your hostility, honestly. I am doing everything myself and I am doing my research. But since I am an amateur, I am also slow and prone to mistakes and getting stuck.

Like this. Others also came across this problem. It seems like suits behave a bit differently in fmodel

[velvet trench]

Udim textures. Probably no workaround for file viewing, but it might not even be necessary

need to get the textures themselves

sadly, armor files have an intelligible naming convention

[velvet trench]

The preorder "tourist suit" will be test suit

[fathom mantle]

It will be difficult without SDK.

[velvet trench]

It should work with this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtTwHa25CJs&t=1033s

[fathom mantle]

theoretically yes

[velvet trench]

I probably shouldn't be doing the tourist suit. Seems kinda odd

[velvet trench]

Maybe due to it being preorder exclusive, it's not that accessible. Don't know. Will repeat the process with a normal suit

[velvet trench]

progress (kind of)

[velvet trench]

Textures seem weird. Like they were meant to wrap around the whole model.
But they definitely reference the material I used here in the original

[velvet trench]

There are 2 different fov material channels which I believe are the ones that I need to change. But there's only 1 fov texture

Maybe I need to link both material channels to the same texture and then it kinda knows what to do?

[clear kettle]

theoderich7444 has been warned

Reason: Bad word usage

[velvet trench]

Understood

[velvet trench]

I guess I do have to crop the udim first?

the answe is: yes

now where is the middle part of the suit

and I would love to know what those abbreviations mean

T_ful_dol_01_a is duty? I guess? There's nothing in the meta data

T-ful_dol_01_b is duty again?

c is freedom

d is freedom

e and f is spark

but why twice of the same?

and g is... duty again???

worst thing that can happen is it retextures every duty psz9d

T

If the player and npcs share the same suit texture, this whole project can only be done by assigning the player model a whole new texture

as far as i have seen it so far, this might be possible with UE

[velvet trench]

Do I need to connect every material to a texture or only those that I changed?

[bitter haven]

Looks like a fun project. In regards to the naming, I have not checked those specific textures, so not sure about _a, _b, etc. But from my findings before, you will find the armours divided by factions at STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/characters. Dol = duty. Each of the folders there should be a different faction. And inside those, there's, like in the screenshot you showed, dol_01, which is one of the armours for duty. The a, b, c and so on, tend to be different parts on that specific outfit.

About this question, depends on how you do it. If you are replacing the textures you don't need to connect anything, since its just the texture changing. But if they are new models with materials and so on, you'll need to create a new material and connect the textures there.

Also you'll definetly find some issues with UDIM replacement. Zone Kit should help solve this

[velvet trench]

Thanks!
Dol=duty is what I thought too, but it isn't. It's quite more overarching. As I wrote, under dol_01 (PSZ-9) there are duty, freedom and spark textures to the same model.

a, b, c and so on are different factions as I wrote above

[velvet trench]

"About this question, depends on how you do it. If you are replacing the textures you don't need to connect anything, since its just the texture changing. But if they are new models with materials and so on, you'll need to create a new material and connect the textures there."

Thank you! That'll make things easier.

[velvet trench]

"Also you'll definetly find some issues with UDIM replacement. Zone Kit should help solve this"

Can't do zone kit since my hardware isn't good enough, I sadly can't afford it. UE editor should still suffice for this, albeit a more tiresome procedure

[velvet trench]

PROGRESS

[velvet trench]

retexture done

mod publishing is next

[velvet trench]

Those blank speckles are textures I didn't change. Should work as intended, just test it

Shame that I needed to overpaint so many great small details in the orange/brown section of the suit. But it honestly looked like a suit made of a Flesh's hide

Maybe I will go back to it at a later time when I got better working with textures

[velvet trench]

It works!

[velvet trench]

And here is the mod:

https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/1685

Enjoy! PArt 2 will be duty suits (they are the easiest by far)

And maybe I will find out how to recolor camo without selecting every single part of the suit with tha hand selection tool

[strong atlas]

Hmm, can you replace the gloves "duty suits" with fingerless gloves?

to look like the Strelok suit

[velvet trench]

Interesting. Probably not, because I cannot really change anything on the model itself. I will look into it.

[velvet trench]

How do i publish mods on steam and mod.io?

[wind turret]

This looks sick as hell

[velvet trench]

Thanks

[velvet trench]

Mod.io I got, but I guess steam release only goes through zone kit? Bummer

And if I want to make a new mod, do I have to delete everything I have done so far in UE editor?

Is there a way to make a new "sub-project"?

Guess I kinda try if the new primary asset label kinda picks up on it being in a different textures folder

[velvet trench]

Once you get it, it gets easy

[velvet trench]

Just changed the red to dark olive

this will be the theme for all duty suits

A clandestine loner suit

[velvet trench]

Maybe more brown parts?

Nah, this might work

[velvet trench]

There might be a problem I kind of anticipated

So... there are multiple copies of the same suit, yes? With a different texture for different factions

But they all draw from the same model

So how does the model know which one to display when wearing them? By looking up the correct texture, right?

Which means... I kind of can't rename the textures to be unique so when NPC armors look them up they won't show the lonerized textures. ya dig?

Which as of now is... a gamble

[velvet trench]

Yeah shit. Now duty NPCs wear my recolors too

[velvet trench]

So I need to change the path in the suit config, I guess?

[velvet trench]

found some references in playermeshgeneratorprototypes.cfg

and in attachmeshprototypes.cfg

playermeshgeneratorprototypes isn't that helpful

trying to find one that directly references textures

[velvet trench]

I guess it draws the texture directly from the material path

So I need to change the material path from the player

and put the texture into the unique material path?

and then try to get it packaged with ue editor and a refurlized attachmeshprototypes.cfg

this is getting complicated

But as I see it I can change the properties directly in the material file

So... attachmeshprototypes.cfg -> change path to a unique material file in the player skeleton references -> rename material file to fit path -> change the original material file to refer to new texture -> rename new texture to fit path -> refurl the attachmeshprototypes.cfg changes -> put all of them in the UE editor, cook and package

[velvet trench]

and do that for every duty suit. So... 6 times?

the attachmeshprototypes.cfg is pretty neat. Combine it with the playermeshgeneratorprototypes.cfg and you can create entirely new armors even without the sdk

also, you can kinda lego-build the models with extra stuff. This will be extremely useful for phase 2 of this mod - to make the models really stand out

I really like this design approach. Most models in games are baked as one. You'd need something like blender or maya to even attach something small like a bag

here you can just add it with a few lines

So... Strider's cool jacket could potentially be added onto the Wanderer Suit for example

[fathom mantle]

That's exactly how I made the bandit exoskeleton. But you'll also need to modify LR_MeshGeneratorPrototypes and MeshGeneratorPrototypes.

[velvet trench]

Hell yeah, that looks awesome! Good to know I'm on the right track!

[velvet trench]

One question, do you know if refurl loading these cfg.s actually works?

[fathom mantle]

Yes, it works.

[velvet trench]

Thank you

[velvet trench]

UE editor lighting is kinda weird. But I managed to make the SEVA straps olive like in the inventory icon.

This one will look really good in the game

Next up is the real exosuit

Kinda wondering why the one I retextured above is just a PSZ9D with exo. This is not in the game or is it?

[jolly mesa]

Shield of Duty Exo

[velvet trench]

Thanks. The Game8 armor section does seem incomplete

[jolly mesa]

Shield of duty doesn’t spawn in game last I checked, which is why they probably don’t have it

[velvet trench]

That could be it. They are missing the Recruit suit too. Still gonna give it a recolor

[velvet trench]

Done:
PSZ5
PSZ9
Shield of Duty Exo
SEVA-D

To do:
Recruit Suit
Cuirass Exo

[wind turret]

I love exos, they really blew my mind in CoP Gunslinger

But man do the Earth shaking hulk footsteps really pull me out of the game

[jolly mesa]

You’re wearing a 30 ish lb suit with servos, it’s not gonna be quiet

[jolly mesa]

Fun fact: the Rookie duty suit got added to the stash in the detention center in Garbage

[velvet trench]

Interesting. Thanks for the heads up, now it will serve a good early game purpose for those who need it

[velvet trench]

everything done

Now i gotta do the weird attachmeshprototype.cfg bpatch thingy

[velvet trench]

And if anyone knows a functional freecam/ third person mod in the game that shows the player character, I could make some better screenshots

[velvet trench]

Player_dol_05 : struct.begin {bpatch}
Materials : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/player/svo/svo_01/Materials/MI_arm_svo_01_b_fov_lds.MI_arm_svo_01_b_fov_lds'
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
[1] : struct.begin {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/characters/svo/svo_01/materials/ful/MI_ful_svo_01_a_03_lds.MI_ful_svo_01_a_03_lds'
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end

Example of the Recruit suit bpatch

changed material path to a renamed one, which will pick up my custom .json, which has a renamed texture path leading to my retexture.

this way no NPCs should wear my retextures

I believe

[velvet trench]

I will populate the cfg with the rest of the duty suits

I just hope UE editor understands my logic

Well damn

Some don't have material paths in that cfg

Just have to hit the right material slot I guess

[velvet trench]

Player_dol_01 : struct.begin {bpatch}
Materials : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialSlot = 0 {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/characters/dol/dol_01/materials/ful/MI_ful_dol_01_a_lds.MI_ful_dol_01_a_lds
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
[1] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialSlot = 4 {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/player/dol/dol_01/Materials/arm/MI_arm_dol_01_a_fov_lds.MI_arm_dol_01_a_fov_lds
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end

I guess adding works the same as overwriting?

[fathom mantle]

In your case, it is better to create a new structure with the same SID.

[velvet trench]

Yes, that's the new structure above in player_dol_01

[velvet trench]

It pretty much looks like the structure in player_dol_05 is what I meant

I guess I don't have to put bpatch after the struct.begin when adding new structs

but it doesn't hurt, eh?

[fathom mantle]

If this is a new structure, then why {bpatch}?

[velvet trench]

well, is it still functional?

[fathom mantle]

This should work too, but if someone else decides to override it, there might be a conflict.

[velvet trench]

if yes, it's easier to just do it for me as a beginner

and if someone wants to overwrite it, my mod will stop functioning anyhow

[fathom mantle]

If you put zzzz at the beginning of the file, it will load after all other changes made in other mods. This allows you to set the priority.

[velvet trench]

Yes, I know. Thanks though.

[velvet trench]

Player_dol_05 : struct.begin {bpatch}
Materials : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/player/svo/svo_01/Materials/MI_arm_svo_01_b_fov_lds.MI_arm_svo_01_b_fov_lds'
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
[1] : struct.begin {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/characters/svo/svo_01/materials/ful/MI_ful_svo_01_a_03_lds.MI_ful_svo_01_a_03_lds'
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end

weird discord doesn't let me post

Player_dol_01 : struct.begin {bpatch}
Materials : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialSlot = 0 {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/characters/dol/dol_01/materials/ful/MI_ful_dol_01_a_lds.MI_ful_dol_01_a_lds
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
[1] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialSlot = 4 {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/player/dol/dol_01/Materials/arm/MI_arm_dol_01_a_fov_lds.MI_arm_dol_01_a_fov_lds
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
Player_dol_06 : struct.begin {bpatch]}
Materials : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/characters/sta/sta_04/materials/ful/MI_ful_sta_04_e_fov_lds.MI_ful_sta_04_e_fov_lds'
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
[1] : struct.begin {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/characters/sta/sta_04/materials/ful/MI_ful_sta_04_e_lds.MI_ful_sta_04_e_lds'
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end

Player_dol_03 : struct.begin {bpatch}
Materials : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialSlot = 2 {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/player/dol/dol_03/Materials/MI_ful_dol_03_a_fov_lds.MI_ful_dol_03_a_fov_lds
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
Player_dol_04 : struct.begin {bpatch}
Materials : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialSlot = 2 {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/player/dol/dol_03/Materials/MI_ful_dol_03_a_fov_lds.MI_ful_dol_03_a_fov_lds
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
Player_dol_07 : struct.begin {bpatch}
Materials : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialSlot = 0 {bpatch}
Variations : struct.begin {bpatch}
[0] : struct.begin {bpatch}
MaterialPath = MaterialInstanceConstant'/Game/_STALKER2/SkeletalMeshes/characters/sta/sta_05/Materials/ful/MI_ful_sta_05_d_fov_lds.MI_ful_sta_05_d_fov_lds'
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end
struct.end

that's the whole config.

theoretically I am done. Only cook and package left

hope it works

[velvet trench]

it crashes the game

when I put on the suits

crash log isn't helpful

I am suspecting I just can't put a primary asset label in the UE root folder and tell it to cook and package everything

or is it because I need to import the cfg files?

or both?

I don't understand blueprint mods

and what do i do with .json files?

[velvet trench]

may I ask how did you do the packaging?

Or it could be that I didn't import the material .jsons? I absolutely don't know what to do with them.

[velvet trench]

I guess all of this would be so so so so much easier with the zone kit.

[fathom mantle]

If you're talking about the folder structure, then it's like this

Here's an example of a player's AttachMeshPrototypes for the Bandit Trophy Exoskeleton.

And here is PlayerMeshGeneratorPrototypes using that AttachMeshPrototypes.

[velvet trench]

Interesting! Thank you very much. I am honestly thinking about creating my beloved CS-3b this way.

[fathom mantle]

In this situation, I did not want to use bpatch.

By the way, another option: create completely new structures and patch the armor directly; that should be easier, I think.

[velvet trench]

I saw that and I try to figure out why exactly.

[velvet trench]

Yes, that would probably work too. I almost think the biggest issue for something like a new Clear Sky armor would be the custom textures.

[velvet trench]

You made it both NPC and Player gear? Or how did you take that picture?

[fathom mantle]

Yes, there is a visual for both the player and the NPC.

[velvet trench]

I thought about doing that too. Maybe I should.

[velvet trench]

LR Mesh Generator is only for NPC visuals, isn't it? Didn't find any Player references in it.

[velvet trench]

Thank you for sharing all of this with me. That's very kind and helpful.

[fathom mantle]

Yes, this is only for NPCs.

Before patch 1.5, creating just MeshGeneratorPrototypes was enough. I struggled for a long time until I realized that now I also need to add LR_MeshGeneratorPrototypes.

[velvet trench]

Good to know, thanks!

Hit a wall with Lonerized suit project. Will keep working on it but in a different way. It's going to be a long time of me working on everything simultaneosly and when I have the ressources to publish, I will do it fast after another.

[velvet trench]

Tourist suit will get an update

Gonna redo everything. Let the texture keep more details

also with a UI and mechanic texture

will take me 1 or 2 weeks probably, I am not very fast

[velvet trench]

Playingaround with Gimp. There's no alternative to free-select, is there? fuzzy tool and colour tool just doesn't work with suit textures

[velvet trench]

But I guess it's worth it

Looks much more natural now. Selecting all these stitches by hand is pain though

Oh I forgot some lol

[velvet trench]

The original suit's color is really hard on the eyes. But it tells a story and I don't want to erase it completely. This should work

Gimp is pretty stupid way too often by the way

[velvet trench]

should I learn more about the quirks of gimp or redo hours of work? hmmm

[velvet trench]

I have learned enough to redo my entire work of last evening

[velvet trench]

Correction: it seems I might be able to save something

Gonna go hard on the quality with this

[fathom mantle]

So far, I see that all the suits are too dark. Are you sure that's the goal of the mod? I thought the goal was to create neutral colors while still maintaining the identity of the suits. In this case, it would have been possible to simply desaturate the textures or even use textures from neutral stalker suits.

It's also unclear why the Tourist Suit needs to be changed if he already belongs to a neutral faction which contradicts the original idea of ​​the mod.

[velvet trench]

1. Good points, but these are just some experiment-friendly and test-friendly versions. Darker textures hide my mistakes better. Also, duty is just dark. My idea was having duty for those who like black and dark colors. The other factions get different sets of new camo. They certainly won't all be dark, in fact I want to have 1 faction being a Clear Sky reskin (just aren't sure yet if Monolith or Spark)

[velvet trench]

2. The tourist suit in itself was my starter mod, to see what's possible and get aquainted with the tools I need to use. Tourist suit is easy, because the textures aren't shared with NPCs. And I personally like the black-green combination I used above. My newer version though is a little bit more lighter with a lot more original details and accents. I am trying to set myself up with highly detailed area selection in Gimp, so I can swap colours on the fly if there are special wishes.

3. The next suit after that will be a - again - a darker version of the Mercenary Light suit. And after that I want to try myself on more earthly tones.

4. UE editor doesn't really reflect the ingame lighting. I need to experiment and test with the fringe cases to really get a feel for how it will look like when being in different light settings in the game.

[velvet trench]

5. Ingame lighting - especially suits - is weird too. Too light textures seem to kind of "self-glow". I want to see if and how I might avoid that

[velvet trench]

Thank you for your feedback so far, really. This is quite important

[fathom mantle]

I recommend first deciding on the colors of the suits for the different factions and making one costume for each faction so that it is clear what you are aiming for.

[velvet trench]

Exactly. After Duty all the other factions have some kind of camo. I try to get a bit of inspiration from real life and games like MGS3, but it all depends on how they're looking in the game.

[velvet trench]

a bit better. brown is more sublte noticeable as the base color

[velvet trench]

quite fond of the colour combo now

and manually selecting the stitches was worth it. I know it takes much much much more time, but I want it to be good

[velvet trench]

Preview of how it will look

need to refine the details a bit still

[velvet trench]

Maybe make the dark sections a tad bit brighter still

[velvet trench]

About -40 to -42 lightness in hue saturation and -5 lightness and -5 Chroma in hue chroma

[velvet trench]

testing ingame

[velvet trench]

want to test, but now I have a whole evening of shader crashes... again

100 % isn't my mod, but my ancient computer

[velvet trench]

shit it's my mod

how do I get gamelite packaged?

[velvet trench]

hmm well

tourist suit v1.1 is live. but without the UI icon changes, because I am dumb

[velvet trench]

Reading comments is helpful. There were some awesome questions under rbwadles tutorials, which he answered

[velvet trench]

v 1.2 is live. https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/1685

Final version with high quality retexture plus UI icons for inventory and mechanics

it looks much brighter in the game. I actually can darken it a bit more

[velvet trench]

Mercenary Light Suit will be Part 2

[velvet trench]

I want to test my workflow with camos with this one. Gimp can't do multiple differing selections, not even with layers.

Having 2 different camos will not be difficult. Just select 1 color completely, (save), recolor, invert and substract everything non-2nd camo from selection

[velvet trench]

Black and rust-brown for suit camo

Hornet stripe for vest

[velvet trench]

Could be interesting

[velvet trench]

Or I could do a Corps-esque camo combo. Keeping the white and just desaturate and darken up the blue. Hornet stripe still for the vest

Would be less busy, probably looking better

Since I already got those rust brown elements on the tourist suit

[velvet trench]

Maybe better?

I will test both on a complete recolor

[strong atlas]

looks like clear sky suit

or this actually clear sky or mercenary ?

[velvet trench]

That's the Mercenary Light Suit from one of the special editions. It's the suit from the Rostok Bar bouncers: https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/Garik

[strong atlas]

oh, i will know

[velvet trench]

side project

not able to do this on my own, especially without me being able to use the stalker2 sdk

so if anyone wants to help me out with this, I will gladly sponsor the model and textures at least

[velvet trench]

Could probably also setup file structure, stats and description, but binding the model to the Rhino animation set is easiest done in the Stalker2 SDK

[velvet trench]

Small update from me:

I experimented with different methods in recoloring camouflage in gimp (again) but apart from moving the color gradient to another hue, there's no faster and cleaner way than selecting every single camo by hand, which is brutally time consuming. I have no qualms about doing it like that, since it can be a bit therapeutic. But I will be taking longer than I thought for everything.

[velvet trench]

unusual, but I ike it

[velvet trench]

just the ui icons and then I'll wrap it up today

[velvet trench]

let the mod cook

[velvet trench]

All the others look good, but 1 mesh is completely invisible in the game. Why?

I don't want to bloat the mod, but maybe I do need to link the texture to the skeleton? But why only this one

Or is it because it's a virtual texture and the editor doesn't get it?

[velvet trench]

it was the virtual texture thing probably

indeed

[velvet trench]

https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/1758

aaand it's live!

[velvet trench]

Lonerized Suits and other texture work

Part 3 will be the SIRCAA suit. Really glad that will be fast

Just change the yellow signal colour to the green other science suit

After that the Groza extended magazine will get the unique Grom S-15 textures. Interested in how I am tackling this.

After that? Who knows. Without the SDK I need to get creative. And I am no expert in anything with resembling code.

[remote wind]

Don’t have to obvi but it’d be cool to see clear sky suits again like the old stalker games, like re texture sparks suits to that light sky blue etc 🩵

[velvet trench]

There are several ideas of mine in the works tackling this issue!

[remote wind]

https://tenor.com/view/the-burnt-peanut-excellent-work-nice-surprised-wow-gif-12418556657724337676

[velvet trench]

1. Making the wearable version of the suits from either Spark (sic) or Monolith to Clear Sky colors. I am torn. Spark seems to be the canonical Clear Sky successor, but Monolith suits would look a bit more fitting, since they have the green vests and all that too. I will probably choose monolith when I come to that.

[velvet trench]

2. Creating Clear Sky suits from scratch. There are ways to puzzle pieces from other suits together, but it's not easy and will probably involve a lot of time in blender still. But, let's say if GSC didn't release a Clear Sky armor via update or patch until then, I will definitely do it.

[remote wind]

Hell yea man

Would love to see em

[fathom mantle]

H! Can I use your retexture for my mod as a separate piece of armor?

[velvet trench]

Of course, gladly ! Give a holler if you need anything changed. It will be faster with my saved pre-selected files.

[fathom mantle]

Thanks, I'll be in touch if anything happens. I'll include your Discord username in the credits.

[velvet trench]

If you're publishing on Nexus and or steam/ mod.io, better use my nexusmods name. Thank you.

[fathom mantle]

Got it!

[velvet trench]

Again, UDIM textures are confusing

that's the official layout

most armors worked the other way around, from top down

I don't know with this one though

that's the momentarily layout

like in the table above doesn't work

like in the picture below doesn't work

and I know the weird 1013 one needs to be 128x128px

[velvet trench]

1011-1013 needed to switch with the line down below

[velvet trench]

Not quite satisfied. But also out of ideas

[velvet trench]

Colors don't fit. But I also don't want to recolor the armored parts.

If I make the yellow part black/ brown/ grey it will look too much like Spark.

Maybe tan?

[azure oasis]

This is great by the way, I hope one day ill be able to get this on xbox. Great work dude!

[remote wind]

Any updates on suits my man?

[magic aurora]

bro just dissapeared 🙁