Wasn't this supposed to be a side project?

 

I've largely been occupied with RL bullshit lately, but I've been snatching free time here and there to work on more custom retextures for the UNP Bikini revival thing. It's proved rather entertaining, particularly now that I've got a process that allows me to easily make and implement small changes as I go along. I've been getting a better idea of how things work on the texture and what would look best in-game. And I've got a deep well of existing textures to source from. I think it's actually getting to the point where I've got more new bikini textures than old ones that I'm carrying over, although some of them are likely to get cut from the actual release. I'm having a much harder time than I expected with getting something I like out of the pelt textures, for example. 

 

Both a result and cause of all this is that I've gotten much more confident about building new elements into the textures. My original plan was to just re-use all the strap elements from the existing leather texture, but I found that there were several cases where those didn't really feel appropriate. So I tried replacing those with rope and strap elements from the textures I was sampling from, with pretty decent results, and that spurred me to try some more complicated takes on the idea. Such as this one based on the Tribunal Robes:

 

 

The design on the straps carries over very well to the hip straps in particular, there.

 

I've also been getting more inventive with the tops. With the way the meshes work, the bikini bottoms have an edging element surrounding all of the 'field' texture, provided by the strapping textures. But on the top, the textures for the cups are simply cut from the field texture with no edging provided. That's proved problematic at times, but the existing Skimpy set of textures shows that it's possible to simply build a smaller design inside of that field area. So when I wanted to add an edging to the top I was making from the Chef dress, instead of trying to carefully paint it around the edge of the full cup area, I just built a smaller triangle from the strap sample I'd already made and trimmed the field to fit.

 

 

Bam! Done.

 

But there's also times where that's not an entirely satisfactory solution. Actually building that triangle can be a bit tedious, and there's not always a strap sample to use. I found a nice, big fishnet sample while digging through some of the LostDaywalker sets, for one. Easy to use by slapping it behind the cut-out black leather template I made when I first started doing this, except for the fact that it would leave the bra edges floating in space. I thought about sampling the leather texture's straps to build a smaller edging, but wasn't thrilled with the idea. Then I considered the Skimpy texture set again. 

 

One of the things that gave me the idea to start working on this project last year was the fact that, as far as I can tell, the full set of those skimpy textures were never incorporated into any of the existing stand-alone versions of the UNP Bikini. Armored bikini has the first three, but the last two I didn't even know existed until I stumbled across the original mod. And while most of them use the 'built inside of the field' concept that I copped for the chef top, the last one has an edging element that corresponds exactly to the mesh's cut-line. 

 

And I've gotten a lot of practice at trimming things out of a texture over the last few weeks. 

 

 

(Turns out the secret is using about a 95% edge hardness on the eraser tool. You get a much more forgiving cut that way.)

 

Well, with that and the occasional color adjustment, my edging issues are pretty much solved.

 

 

It also gave me a handy shortcut for the tattered Dwarven banners that've been giving me crap since I started working on these. They're kind of the core point of crossover between this project and my Dwarven Cyborg work, so I'm pretty keen on getting them working, but it's been a pain in the ass to find a way to implement them that didn't leave parts of the top visually free-floating due to how the tattering's laid out. But slap an edge on it, and it's not a problem anymore.

 

 

 My success here led to me giving the Nordic banners a go, as well. I'd been intending to use them from the start, but had largely given up on them without even trying after running into the problems with the Dwarven's tattering. I figured that some edging would hide my sins there, too, but my first attempts were... unpleasant. If anything the tattering effect is even stronger on those, and I ended up with just a dusting of free-floating shreds in the one bra cup. Not quite what I was going for.

 

But while poking at them, I found something odd. You see I'd been figuring that the tattering was linked to the alpha layer somehow. It seems to match up to the areas outlined when you use the 'alpha to selection' command, at any rate. But I hadn't found any way to alter or adjust that alpha coverage or its effects. I'm sure there is some way to do that- I've seen armors that use the Dwarven banners as a source and somehow get an unmarred texture out of it- but how exactly that works I haven't the slightest clue. Getting the textures on the meshes is still almost entirely in the realm of voodoo as far as I'm concerned. And I don't know how that'd work with the method of copying over samples from the texture that I'm using here, anyway. 

 

Regardless. When I loaded that first attempt with the Nordic banners into Outfit Studio, I also felt that the colors were coming out kind of light. I had noticed while working on them that duplicating the layers, which I usually do to give me a backup on elements I need to trim, caused them to display as being darker due to GIMP treating all of the banner textures as being semi-transparent. So I figured what the hell, on the second try I'll double up the layers and see if it comes out darker on the model.

 

And instead it closed up almost all the holes. 

 

 

There's apparently some kind of mutually destructive interference between the tattering effects if you layer multiple copies of the texture over each other. And it increases with the number of layers you use, although some larger holes persist even past ten or twelve. But in those cases all you need is to shift the lowest layer until one of its solid portions is covering the hole. 

 

So yeah, I've just completely stumbled onto a fix for something that's been bugging me for a couple months, now. What the hell.

 

So of course I immediately did the same thing with the Dwarven banners.

 

 

This is what I've wanted to do with these things right from the friggin' start. As of a few days ago I was convinced I'd have to do an initial release without them, and then they drop right into my lap. Missing the cut is no longer a concern. 

 

I probably should've left the edging on them for consistency with the tattered versions, but eh. I kinda like this look better. I also ought to go back and do the tattered versions of the Nordic set, but getting one that's functional would require some fairly different positioning, so I'm not enthusiastic about doing it. Maybe I'll save that for a follow-on update.

 

As for all the other stuff I've been working on... 

 

 

Blind Moth and Blue Mage robes, following the layout from the Necromancer robes. I quite like this design, although it's kind of a pain to have to redo it manually for each colorway. 

 

 

Two Beggar variants. The first one actually samples from the Minidress version of the texture, as it has more convenient tattering. I decided later that I wanted a second, more tattered version and sampled it from the Vanilla texture, then added in that 'underwire' element when it became obvious that it was too tattered for structural integrity. Worked out pretty well.

 

 

A second, less tattered Prisoner.

 

 

A set using the textures from the Wedding Dress variants in the Clockwork mod. The bottom on the Red set isn't actually in the mod, as it's completely redundant with the regular Bridal bottom.

 

 

A quickie using the Greybeard Hood texture. I'd like to do one sampling from the robes as well, but they're not very cooperative.

 

 

Another quickie, from the Nightingale cape. 

 

 

Less quick: A 'matted fur' set. This is actually the second take on this completely; the first go sampled from the standard saddle texture, but came out waaaaay too grainy in-game. This takes from, of all things, the mammoth cheese container's texture. With rope strapping copied over directly from the Blue robes. (Which were also reused on the Nordic Banner set.)

 

 

Archmages. The first one was the first attempt, which I'm not entirely happy with but don't really hate, either. Still needs some cleanup, but it's workable. The second I tried after some prior experiments with building skimpier tops, and uses the hood texture in its entirety with little straps added on to connect it to the rest of the mesh.

 

 

Those prior experiments. Sourced from the Dragon Priest robes. What is this, some kind of kinky sex cult?

 

 

Yes. Yes, it is. A pile sourced from the Draugr armors, four from the female and one simple one from the male. Actually one of the earlier ideas I had, but the whole lot ended up getting reworked two or three times over as I figured out how to do things. Aside from the one from the male textures, that's too basic for effort. The third and fourth ones in particular looked lousy with the re-used leather straps, though, so that whole bunch got upgraded to custom ones sourced from the Draugr texture.

 

 

Darling! Sourced from... A mod whose link I need to dig back up, apparently. 

 

And last but not least...

 

 

The Empress. This one turned out a lot better than I was really expecting it to when I started working on it. This was the first one I did with straps with a design on them, and I was not betting on it working this well. 

 

I've still got a couple of things I'd like to do and a lot more that I could do, but I figure I'm starting to get into 'ridiculously overloaded' territory as it is. A few spots of cleanup and all of these textures will be ready, and then a lot of cleanup in the file and naming structure to get the mod itself ready for release, and this might actually get done sooner rather than later. 

 

Might.