Modding Questions

[Bushmaster]

Hello,

I have a few questions relating chracter creation, not sure if this is the right place to post it.

I have followed the excellent tutorials Jak put together, and I have got to grips with most of the fundamentals of female chracter creation, Ive edited the XML files to alter the body shape how I want it, and Ive created a few sets of custom textures using Jaks base as the starter, Im pretty chuffed with the results, Ive managed to add custom lady bits and nipples as well as tatoos.

First question is regarding the 'shine' on the girls skin. The default and DLC girls all have a relativley matt looking skin texture, however when ever I re-texture a girl using a modified version of the base textures they always look like they have been covered in oil, much shinier. I dont' know what Im doing wrong but it is a little anoying because it gives them a really plastic look. Any ideas? I am using Gimp 2.6 and have a little experience in such programmes, but only for photo editing. Ive never modded for a game before.

Second question is about bump maps. I understand the tutorials provided already for using the defaults, or adding to them to get effects, but what I want to do is create my own completely from scratch. This is because I have added my own versions of nipples in different sizes, and several different pussy designs for different girls. The nipples are the real problem as the default bump is based around the default texture, and has totaly different nipples, so they end up looking odd with the default bump under them. As far as I understand the bump map starts out life as a greys scale version of the completed texture, so am I right in saying that in order to create my own bump map from scratch I just need to convert my completed texture to grey scale, and then darken and flatten the tone + lighten it where I want detail? I had a go at this but could not get it quite right, I was hoping Jak might let me know what settings he used to make the default bumps?

Third question is about girls preferences. Is there any way to alter how the girl reponds to certain positions/speeds? It says in the help menu in the game screen that certain girls like different things at different speeds, but I have not really noticed a difference between any character. It would be good to be able to make custom girls more responsive to certain positions for example. Is this possible, or is it coded into the different starting girls and not editable by end users?

Fourth question is about editing the guys. Are there going to be base textures/tutorials released relating to making custom male chracters?

Sorry for so many questions at once but I don't get much time these days to post on forums, so I had to do it in one hit. Any questions Jak can answer would be awesome, Its a great game, and I have nearly all the DLC for it except for 2 clothes packs, I also own the Cherry Dolls game from 2 years ago.

[Jak (ripened peach)]

First question is regarding the 'shine' on the girls skin. The default and DLC girls all have a relativley matt looking skin texture, however when ever I re-texture a girl using a modified version of the base textures they always look like they have been covered in oil, much shinier. I dont' know what Im doing wrong but it is a little anoying because it gives them a really plastic look. Any ideas? I am using Gimp 2.6 and have a little experience in such programmes, but only for photo editing. Ive never modded for a game before.

You're not doing anything wrong.  It's an issue with how the engine currently works. 

On my original characters, the textures contain both a diffuse (color) channel and an alpha channel.  The alpha channel normally is used for transparency, but in the shader I am using for the characters, the alpha channel control specularity.  Specularity can basically be thought of as the shininess level.

Due to technical limitations, it is currently not possible for Sex Sim to load character textures that also contain alpha channels.  That means as a modder you can't control the shininess of the characters if they are using custom textures.  Their specularity is set at a default level and that's why they look shinier than the official characters.

This is something that can be an issue currently, but it is something I am working hard to solve.

Second question is about bump maps... am I right in saying that in order to create my own bump map from scratch I just need to convert my completed texture to grey scale, and then darken and flatten the tone + lighten it where I want detail? I had a go at this but could not get it quite right, I was hoping Jak might let me know what settings he used to make the default bumps?

I've tried to cover as much info on bump maps as possible in the Bump Maps thread but if there's something in particular you are having issues with please let me know.

Third question is about girls preferences. Is there any way to alter how the girl reponds to certain positions/speeds? It says in the help menu in the game screen that certain girls like different things at different speeds, but I have not really noticed a difference between any character. It would be good to be able to make custom girls more responsive to certain positions for example. Is this possible, or is it coded into the different starting girls and not editable by end users?

There are some things in the XML files that are not yet implemented in game, but I put them in early on so they are ready to be used once I finish coding for them.  Sexual preferences in the character files is one of those things.

Fourth question is about editing the guys. Are there going to be base textures/tutorials released relating to making custom male chracters?

Yes.  Right now I'm concentrating on getting the next update out and there's a lot of bug fixes, interface changes, etc. going into that so it's taking up the bulk of my time.  I'll put out some tutorials on male characters as soon as I get a chance.  I am also working on getting male clothing in (not for this next update though) and I'll make some tutorials on that as well once it's ready.

Sorry for so many questions at once but I don't get much time these days to post on forums, so I had to do it in one hit. Any questions Jak can answer would be awesome, Its a great game, and I have nearly all the DLC for it except for 2 clothes packs, I also own the Cherry Dolls game from 2 years ago.

No problem on all the questions.  The more people ask about things and the more discussion we can have in here about it all, the better this sim will be.  Thanks for your thoughts and I'm glad you like it.

[Bushmaster]

Thanks for all the answers Jak.

In regards to the bump maps question, I just really wanted to know I f you could remember roughly what settings you used when creating the originals (converting to grey scale?), and if the process I described was correct. As far as I can see this particular process is not described in the turorial.

I understand how to implement the provided default bumps, and how to edit them to add extra detail if required. What I want to do is create my own base bump from my own edited textures.

Ill try to explain; First I took your base skin texture and added to it some custom nipples and custom lady parts by overlaying them on the originals. Then I changed the skin tone etc to get a unique skin tone and look for a girl Im making. If I were to use your default bump maps as a base then the nipples etc don't line up because mine are a diff. size and shape, so I need to make my own bump from the edited texture.

The way I assume that this is done is to take a copy of my completed skin texture, then convert it to grey scale in Gimp. Then using tonal controls to flatten out the tone (remove contrast) and lighten the areas such as nipples etc. to get the bump effect. After that I would follow the steps in the tutorial using Unity to get the bumps in game. Is this the correct process? or is there something I really missing here?

[Jak (ripened peach)]

One thing I noticed recently about the nipples is that they actually look better without bump mapping applied.  Sometimes the bump mapping in the nipple area ends up looking a little strange, and I found out that if I simply make the nipple area the same grey tone as the surrounding area on the bump map then it looks better.  That also means that any size nipples will work fine since they are no longer being arbitrarily bump mapped.  So if you take my original grey scale texture and paint out the nipple difference, that might work fine for your custom map.

[Bushmaster]

OK, Ill give that a try this weekend. Thanks for the help.

[Jak (ripened peach)]

First question is regarding the 'shine' on the girls skin. The default and DLC girls all have a relativley matt looking skin texture, however when ever I re-texture a girl using a modified version of the base textures they always look like they have been covered in oil, much shinier. I dont' know what Im doing wrong but it is a little anoying because it gives them a really plastic look. Any ideas? I am using Gimp 2.6 and have a little experience in such programmes, but only for photo editing. Ive never modded for a game before.

I just wanted to post and let people know that I've got separate specularity maps working in the current version (for next release), which means no more shiny skin on user-made characters.  You'll be able to create your own specularity maps or let it use the default ones.

[NMM]

Would this affect current user-made characters, and cause them not to be shiny, or would their creator have to add/change the textures to remove the shine? (I quite like having some of the custom characters have a shiny, 'sweaty' appearance!)

[Jak (ripened peach)]

Would this affect current user-made characters, and cause them not to be shiny, or would their creator have to add/change the textures to remove the shine? (I quite like having some of the custom characters have a shiny, 'sweaty' appearance!)

It automatically makes them less shiny like the regular characters.

But...

I can put a new setting in the XML files that will allow people to leave the old style shininess if they want to.

But...

I also have put in the ability to make any character appear "wet" or sweaty (i.e. glossy), so you might just like that option even better than the old glossiness.