Modding:Coding An Item: Difference between revisions

First we export our mesh, '''HUM_M_CLT_Headwear_Circlet_Silver_A''', from Blender to the MySweetMod/Generated/Public/MySweetMod/'''Assets''' Folder.  

 

In these will be a visualbank (list of meshes),a materialbank (list of material) and a texturebank (list of textures). You can split them into their own pages or combine them all, it doesn't matter. When the multitool converts them they will all get merged together anyway. This seperation is for viewer ease as they can become very long. For our needs we are putting them into 2 lsx, a meshes and a texture/material one.

 

First, the meshes.lsx.

  <attribute id="SupportsVertexColorMask" type="bool" value="False" /> '''You need this set to True if you want, say, pants to vanish when boots are equipped.'''

  <attribute id="Template" type="FixedString" value="Generated/Public/MySweetMod/Assets/HUM_M_CLT_Headwear_Circlet_Silver_A.Dummy_Root.0" /> '''(Remember to set your own filepath for your meshes correctly. Dummy Root may need to be renamed in Blender as a bone part depending on what you are making)'''

  <attribute id="MaterialID" type="FixedString" value="00000000000000000000004" /> '''What material it links up to.'''

  <attribute id="MaterialID" type="FixedString" value="00000000000000000000004" />  

 

I am not reproducing the entire material here, but should be easy enough to find an item material to copy if you search the SourceFile listed.

  <node id="ScalarParameters"> '''x7

  (Cut for length)'''

 

  <node id="Vector3Parameters"> '''You can use these to set an inherent colour to your material.'''

  <attribute id="ParameterName" type="FixedString" value="Metal_Primary" /><attribute id="Value" type="fvec3" value="1 1 1" /> '''The 1 1 1 is the colour code here. You can use [https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/502 BG3 Minitool] to convert a value.'''

 

  '''(Cut for length)'''

  '''(End of MaterialBank)'''

Now the material we have found, SourceFile "Public/Shared/Assets/Materials/Characters/CHAR_BASE.lsf" is a fairly standard shader without transparency or glowing. Materials that can be Transparent have 'Alpha' in the title. For example, "Public/Shared/Assets/Materials/Characters/CHAR_BASE_AlphaTest_2S.lsf" or "CHAR_BASE_AlphaTest_2S_Dither" will enable alpha and make the mesh visible from both sides (turns off backface culling).

Materials with _VT at the end are useless to us, as they only work with virtual texture. A virtualtexture is essentially a box for textures that makes it load faster. We don't have any way of packing virtualtextures ourselves, so do not attempt to use those materials.

In order to make, say, pants disappear when boots are put on, you may need to use a _Vertcut Material, such as 'Public/Shared/Assets/Materials/Characters/CHAR_BASE_VertCut.lsf', and ensure VertexMask is set to True in the mesh lsx. (As well as vertex painting the item itself the desired colour)

     <attribute id="ID" type="FixedString" value="00000000000000NM" /> '''This links up to the node in the materialbank!'''

     <attribute id="SourceFile" type="LSString" value="Generated/Public/MySweetMod/Assets/MSW_CoolCirclet_NM.DDS" /> '''Capitalisation is IMPORTANT. Make sure your texture is not named MSW_CoolCirclet_NM.dds or it won't load.'''

  <attribute id="Icon" type="FixedString" value="Item_Cloth_Headwear_Circlet_Silver_A" /> '''This is a base game icon- custom icons require addition lsx and texture work'''.

  <attribute id="ParentTemplateId" type="FixedString" value="4d2e0931-3a01-4759-834b-8ae36749daab" /> '''This tells the game roughly what kind of item it is, such as in this case a helm. You should use the right kind for your item to avoid inherited problems. For example a shield will not know it is a shield without this ParentTemplate.'''

  <attribute id="PhysicsTemplate" type="FixedString" value="327039da-0827-811f-24e8-fc57e86c7ba2" /> '''I believe similar to the above, this needs to be roughly the same type as the armour you are adding.'''

  <attribute id="VisualTemplate" type="FixedString" value="2136f57a-a35f-c2fe-69fb-29afa9ebc8db" /> '''This is the mesh mapkey to the LOOT model. The LOOT model is the one that appears when you examine it, or throw the item. For a weapon, the LOOT model and the item model are the same.'''

  <node id="ParentRace">  

 

'''The parentrace nodes set the item to use race-specific meshes for githyanki, Dragonborn and Tiefling.  Unless this line is added and  specified, they  will use Human Body or Strong Human Body. (Which may be fine for some races such as Tieflings.)'''

<children>

<node id="Object">

<attribute id="MapKey" type="guid" value="6503c830-9200-409a-bd26-895738587a4a" /> Tiefling Male

<attribute id="MapValue" type="guid" value="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" />  

 

</node>

  '''(The other parentrace overrides all removed for length as they all follow the same format - the race UUID and the 0 mapvalue)'''

 

</children>

 

 

</node>

<node id="ShortHair" />

<node id="Slot">

<attribute id="Object" type="FixedString" value="Headwear" />

</node>

      <node id="Slot">

<attribute id="Object" type="FixedString" value="Hair" />

</node>

<node id="MaterialOverrides"> Sets colours for this one specific item, overriding the ones set in the material.

<attribute id="MaterialResource" type="FixedString" value="" />

<children>

<node id="MaterialPresets" />

 

'''(Removed for length - all the other mapkeys/mapvalues of every race this item is available for)'''

Now, let's see how this links up to the localisation. Remember to name your loca loca.xml so it converts properly.

 

 

You can look at the games own armor.txt for ideas of what to put here. You can delete what you don't wish to add, all you really need is the entry, the type, what slot it uses and the RootTemplate.

If adding a custom passive, your '''Passive.txt''' will look like this. You don't need a passive.txt at all, this is just for the ambitious.