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[Mod] "Simoom's Galactic Dress Code"- NPC Appearance Overhaul

https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=129&t=390011

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[Mod] "Simoom's Galactic Dress Code"- NPC Appearance Overhaul

Posted: Thu, 19. May 16, 20:49
by Simoom
[Disclaimer] This mod is neither based on nor related to Give us more Cloth please! Any similarity is incidental and no plagiarism is intended. I've been customizing NPC appearance by splicing codes into my save game since XR 1.x, so this has been on my to-do list for a long time... just so happens my other modding project gave me the know-how. :)

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[ external image ]
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Humanity's terrible fashion sense has provoked the ire of an ancient deity, who thus decrees...

DOWNLOAD
  • Steam
  • Nexus Mods
    [CAUTION] Back up your save game before trying this mod. It should be save game safe... but it does make extensive changes to NPC macro component values, and these do go into the NPC attributes which are stored in the save game. My understanding is that if you uninstall the mod and the game can't find the components a macro is pointing to, it simply uses the macro's default, so that's likely what will happen if you uninstall this mod.
INSTALLATION
  • Extract the mod folder to the "extensions" folder in the X Rebirth root directory (default C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\X Rebirth\extensions).
=======================
...Thou Shall be Beautiful
=======================

Simoom's Galactic Dress Code is a comprehensive NPC appearance overhaul containing exhaustive changes to the character macro architecture. It is made with the following goals:
  • Removal of Ugly Props - Simoom's Galactic Dress Code removes some of the most hideous props found in the game, so you'll never see them again.
  • Utilization of All Assets - Minus the ugly props it removes, Simoom's Galactic Dress Code uses every asset currently available to the (human) NPC models to create a true sense of life and variety in NPC appearance. This includes unique props and facial models used only on plot characters, and several exclusive assets not found in vanilla.
  • Variety with Distinction - While Simoom's Galactic Dress Code significantly increases the number of possible prop combinations, it aims to do so while retaining the distinctive look and feel of each class of NPC's. The primary uniforms for most NPC classes remain intact, while only props deemed appropriate for respective NPC classes (or looks good with the class uniform) are allowed.
  • Hunting for Beauty - Simoom's Galactic Dress Code is structured such that the more beautiful/exotic NPC facial models, clothing, and props spawn more rarely (and some rare combinations in fact look REALLY good). In effect this creates a new minigame, as finding that perfect look for your valued crew positions may just be tempting enough for players (such as myself) to invest their time in.
============================
Meet the New Faces of Rebirth
============================

Facial Models - Available to all classes. List of Props - Availability based on class. =============
NPC Class List
=============

Captain - Captains are the NPC class players interact with the most. They pretty much are the "face" of ships (how often do you comm the DO or Engineer?), as such I felt it necessary to give them more variety than the rest. Due to the lack of variety for female military uniforms, I added a rare chance for female Captains to use the Manager macro (it's a nice-looking uniform, anyway). Defense Officer - While the male defense officer has discrete body parts that can be randomized, the female defense officer only has one full body set (and it's listed as a "head" for whatever reason). I gave discrete body parts to female DO the way it should; unfortunately this meant the vanilla model had to be removed to avoid potential clipping issues (since the NPC would technically have four arms, four legs, and two torsos). It now uses the pilot uniform as the base (without possibility of a jetpack). Engineer - One thing that always bothered me was that Engineers always had their face covered (vanilla macro does not have a "no prop" option). That has been addressed, and I added some additional props for selection as well. Marine Officer - In vanilla, Marine Officers use the pilot macro for some reason... they should use defense officer macro instead. Also added rare chance for it to use the Manager macro (the red uniform looks aggressive). Pilot - First off, the unspeakably hideous space helmets are gone, so that's a massive improvement already. I also added a lot more props, including the jetpack for male pilots (for some reason vanilla only allowed female pilots to have it, even thought he prop works fine on the male model). Architect - Gone are the silly hat in vanilla and the glasses (which does NOT go with the Architect outfit at all). The only allowed prop option is the visor. Manager - Removed glasses for female managers (which don't go with the outfit), and added visors as well as rare uniforms. Specialists - I felt it would be redundant to have Specialists use the same parts as Engineers. I also figured Specialists would be academics from their relevant fields (rather than being a "ship technician" sort of thing). Therefore I made them use the various civilian assets instead. Canterans - One completely new male uniform (not used in vanilla) has been added, available as DV Male Type B (the two Canteran male uniforms appear identical, so I changed one completely). The number of available props have also been increased significantly for all Canteran macro types (and the ugly female glasses have been removed). Lastly, all Canteran NPC's will now use both Type A and Type B macros interchangeably (with higher chance for one or the other, depending on class). ======================
Known Incompatibilities
======================

Due to the exhaustive changes this mod makes to character_macros.xml and charactergroups.xml, it is likely to be incompatible with any other mod that also modifies these files.
[NOTE] Give us more Cloth please! appears to alter different sections of charactergroups.xml, so it is in fact compatible with this mod if you want to use both. :)

Posted: Thu, 19. May 16, 21:09
by Senner
Nice!

Will try it some time soon.

Will you do the station interior as well? :)

Posted: Thu, 19. May 16, 21:39
by Ezarkal
WOHOOO!!! Many thanks...
I'll try this next time I play (most probably tonight). I'm sure I'll directly adopt it. I'll be sad to lose "Give us more Cloth please!", but this looks like an awesome alternative.

More specifically, thank you for allowing more people to use the only 2 hairstyles in the game (yisha's and mohak). I always thought having every NPC either bald or shaved was one of the game worst problems, when it came to NPC appearance (although not the only one, of course).

Posted: Fri, 20. May 16, 04:21
by Simoom
Thanks for the feedback guys! :) Hope you enjoy it; as always feedback and suggestions are welcome.
Senner wrote:Nice!

Will try it some time soon.

Will you do the station interior as well? :)
You mean improving the texture/modeling of station interiors? I am not a 3D artist... this mod plays around with only Egosoft's existing assets, it's not a texture/model replacer.

But if you mean making the interior layouts more interesting using existing interior props, I can look into that... can't promise anything though, that's a lot more complicated to do than this thing (I'll go over the codes for Capital Ship Bridge for some ideas).
Ezarkal wrote:WOHOOO!!! Many thanks...
I'll try this next time I play (most probably tonight). I'm sure I'll directly adopt it. I'll be sad to lose "Give us more Cloth please!", but this looks like an awesome alternative.

More specifically, thank you for allowing more people to use the only 2 hairstyles in the game (yisha's and mohak). I always thought having every NPC either bald or shaved was one of the game worst problems, when it came to NPC appearance (although not the only one, of course).
Egosoft severely limits the variety of props used for generic NPC's, because a lot of more unique-looking stuffs are either reserved for plot characters, or given to specific factions/types (the mohawk hair is only available in vanilla on male Canterans, commanders, and managers). The rest of the cast look more or less the same, which I always found distressing.

Funny thing is since the mohawk itself is a prop, there's never any clipping issue (since if a macro chooses it, it won't choose any sort of hair). No such safety net exists for Yisha's hair, so I had to improvise so solutions to avoid clipping while allowing her head model to spawn with all possible cloth combinations (for example her head is allowed on the PMC Civilian body, but that body selection is located in a different macro from the main PMC Civilian macro, and doesn't have the overhead hood in its selection pool).

Posted: Fri, 20. May 16, 10:51
by Simoom
Hey folks - I dug around in the character asset files and found a few things not listed on the vanilla macro library at all. I tested them one by one and eliminated the stuffs that don't work, and added the working stuffs in. So here's the first update to this mod!

Update 5/20/16:
  • [New Faces] Added the following faces to macro selection pool:
    • "Old Guy" (assets/characters/argon_bodies/ar_m_head_old_guy) - Exclusive asset not used in vanilla. It's a lot less wrinkled than the standard model used by old male NPC's, and provides a good middle ground between that and the young model.
      [ external image ]
    • "African" (assets/characters/argon/heads/char_ar_f_head_african) - Exclusive asset not used in vanilla, presumably for black female NPC's (the skin tone is slightly darker, but not enough to cause matching issues with character's hands). Hair and eyebrows are dark, too, and should provide a nice alternative to all the identical-looking white faces.
      [ external image ]
  • [New Prop] Added the following prop (class-dependent):
    • "Navy Cap" (assets/characters/argon_bodies/ar_m_prop04) - Exclusive asset not used in vanilla. Appears to be a captain's hat of some sort, so I allowed it only for Argon Commander and DeVries Male type-A (which is an aged Commander uniform) macros.
      [ external image ]
  • [New Uniforms] Added the following uniforms:
    • "Commander Uniform - Variant A" (assets/characters/argon_bodies/ar_m_body04_a) - Exclusive asset not used in vanilla. It's a darker (pure black) version of the Argon Commander uniform with white accents (instead of orange). Goes very well together with the Navy Cap.
      [ external image ]
    • "Commander Uniform - Variant B" (assets/characters/argon_bodies/ar_m_body04_b) - Exclusive asset not used in vanilla. It's a light grey version of the Argon Commander uniform.
      [ external image ]
    • "Canteran Male - Type B" (assets/characters/argon/bodies/ch_ar_m_torso_03e) - Exclusive asset not used in vanilla. The file name implies it to be an Argon uniform... however, the aesthetics of it much more closely matches that of Canteran design (it looks like the counterpart to Canteran Female - Type A). Those who have paid attention to the game files probably already know that the two Canteran male models (Type A & B) have identical uniforms, therefore I took over the macro settings for Type B and made it into this. This asset appears to be unfinished, since it doesn't come with matching pants, so I used a selection of pants from Argon Civilian macros (they match perfectly fine, I already tested them all). There are 6 possible pants for this uniform.
      [ external image ]
  • [Other Changes] The following changes have been made to NPC macro selection:
    • All Canteran NPC classes will now use both Type-A and Type-B, with greater chance for one or the other depending on their class (Male Type-A is more military, Type-B is more civilian. Female is the reverse).
    • Added rare chance for Architects to use the PMC Civilian (Karen Stringer outfit) macro.

Posted: Fri, 20. May 16, 14:24
by eMYNOCK
Also compatible to Give me some Cloth please!

But i have to say, nice Stuff you did... and much more work than i wanted to do. :lol:

1++

But i think i will stay with my little Cloth Mods. ;)

Regards


Edited:
because the mods are Compatible

Posted: Fri, 20. May 16, 15:27
by Simoom
Steam version is up everyone! Sign up there for easy updates. :)

@eMYNOCK - Thanks for the endorsement! :D The approach of our mods are very different, so aside from the fact that they both add more NPC appearance, I don't think their end results overlap (if I understand correctly, your mod doesn't restrict different NPC classes to their old uniforms).

Posted: Fri, 20. May 16, 16:51
by eMYNOCK
Well...

Code: Select all

<diff>

<!--Add Male Architects for your CVs and give them more cloth to choose from -->

<!-- Albion -->

<add sel='//character[@name="albion.architect"]'>
    <select character="albion.commander.male" />
    <select character="albion.commander.female" />
    <select character="albion.manager.male" />
    <select character="albion.manager.female" />
    <select character="albion.trader.male" />
    <select character="albion.trader.female" />
</add>

<!-- DeVries -->
...
...
...
Thats all that i've did.

Posted: Sat, 21. May 16, 02:08
by BlackRain
Looks good! Anything that adds more diversity with NPC's is great. Wish we had even more (especially more male and female heads and hair types)

Posted: Sat, 21. May 16, 02:55
by Simoom
BlackRain wrote:Looks good! Anything that adds more diversity with NPC's is great. Wish we had even more (especially more male and female heads and hair types)
I increased chance for props to occur during character generation significantly (from 1-5 to 4-5), so that should help a bit.

The problem with the "space grandmas" female models isn't so much that they are ugly but the fact that Egosoft didn't put in proper voice matching based on character's age... so it's really creepy when an old granny talks all flirty in a little girl's voice. ~_~

Posted: Sat, 21. May 16, 03:24
by Nikola515
Nice mod :) Would it be possible to actually change color of clothing? For example have white engineers or captains?

Posted: Sat, 21. May 16, 03:48
by UniTrader
Nikola515 wrote:Nice mod :) Would it be possible to actually change color of clothing? For example have white engineers or captains?
if its just a texture swap it should be doable, here roughly the required steps:
=> Copy existent textures and change their hue/Color (or paint a new one if you are skilled; if copying only diffuse map is required, rest can be re-used from the original)
=> copy the materials in the libraries/material_library.xml reffering to the new textures from before (as before: only new diffuse map, just keep the other values ;) )
=> copy NPC meshes and change the used materials for their clothing to the modified ones (note: requires hex editor - but not much magic. material name is in plain text in the mesh files and therefore easily changeable if the name doesnt get longer)*
=> also copy macro and component files and let them refer to the copied NPC meshes (for completeness sake also change materials here, but these are not evaluated by the game)
=> and as last step include the new macros into the character db



* just describing it this way because thats what i would do, i think the model converter can also handle these files.. but for a texture change its imo faster this way than importing, changing a string and exporting

Posted: Sat, 21. May 16, 11:07
by Simoom
Hey everyone:

For those of you who want to add back some of the "Banned" props, you can do so by adding them back into the selection pool under the "character_macros.xml" patch file.

For your convenience, here's the list of asset path for the "banned" props:
  1. assets/characters/argon_bodies/ar_m_prop03 - Appears identical to the Engineer visor.
  2. assets/characters/argon/props/ch_ar_f_body_spacesuit_jp_ht - Female space helmet.
  3. assets/characters/argon/props/ch_ar_m_body_spacesuit_jp_ht - Male space helmet.
  4. assets/characters/argon/props/ch_ar_f_prop_kappe - The ugly red & white "swimming cap" found on female traders.
  5. assets/characters/argon/props/ch_ar_f_prop_hat_b - Architect's hat (WARNING: Has clipping issue with Yisha's hair)
Simply add an entry like this under the <model type="props"> node:

Code: Select all

<select index="1" weight="4" ref="assets/characters/argon/props/ch_ar_m_prop_brille" />
Give the "index" a unique value, and tweak the "weight" value to adjust the chance of the prop being chosen.
Nikola515 wrote:Nice mod :) Would it be possible to actually change color of clothing? For example have white engineers or captains?
UniTrader already provided a pretty detailed answer. :) But yeah... messing with texture files is not something I know how to do, yet. I also would prefer to avoid creating new macros, since this will cause problems if the mod is uninstalled (say you hired a NPC who uses a macro added by the mod, then the mod is removed, the NPC will glitch out).

Posted: Sat, 21. May 16, 18:01
by UniTrader
Simoom wrote:UniTrader already provided a pretty detailed answer. :) But yeah... messing with texture files is not something I know how to do, yet. I also would prefer to avoid creating new macros, since this will cause problems if the mod is uninstalled (say you hired a NPC who uses a macro added by the mod, then the mod is removed, the NPC will glitch out).
from my expierience with removing macros from a save they will simply disappear, the save will probably load just fine ;) but it could be that the dialogue tree instace isnt removed properly because the actors arent really destroyed..

Posted: Sun, 22. May 16, 14:09
by Simoom
Update 5/22/16:
  • [New Props] The following props have been "Unbanned". I am still not a big fan of them, but they look passable and X Rebirth's prop selection is already pitiful as it is... so if this adds a bit more variety, so be it. Refer to the NPC Class List to see what classes have access to them.
    [ external image ][ external image ]
  • [Uniform Changes] The following uniform assignments have been added:
    • Captains now have a rare chance to use the Manager macro. This is to make up for the fact that there are 3 military male commander uniforms, and only 1 female set; besides, the red looks pretty good.
    • Increased chance for the Yisha uniform to occur for Defense Officers. This is to add some variety, since right now 3 classes use the female pilot uniform (Defense Officer, Marine Officer, and Pilot).
    • Marine Officers now have a rare chance to use the Manager macro. Again, to add variety, and the red is appropriate here (pretty aggressive-looking).

Posted: Sun, 11. Sep 16, 00:33
by ADMNtek
very nice mod. i wish the game had a way to set up uniforms for your employes. withou having to edited you save one person at the time.
i wonder if someone could make a tool for that.

Posted: Mon, 12. Mar 18, 03:06
by rafezetter
works but creates a lot of debug "node path" errors with some NPC's - updated for 4.30 or something else?

I'm also using GMSC REGULAR version.
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