Hook5 Skin System Guide

[nanobyte17]

On 3/22/2021 at 11:30 AM, ITIB said:

I can change everything except the head.

I am able to choose the skin for body, feet, genitals, and hands, but no matter what I choose for the head, it makes no difference.

I have ensured that nothing is set to read only, but no matter what I try, the head will not change.

Anyone have any clues?

 

 

You have to activate the head texture for a 1x file in the facemaker panel for the head to be replaced.  It's not contained in the body tab.  You have to use the hook5 face activator to get this to work.  I had the same problem with the whole body, at least until I realized that the body has to grab a specific set of memory to hijack the rendering.  If you grab the memory pointers from a specifically cached file stream (as an alt of getting the file itself; this means that file is still open but a different file is actually being read), you can hijack the stream in order to replace it.  Use the hook5 provided head, then use a facegened face.

 

 

 

[nanobyte17]

12 hours ago, nanobyte17 said:

 

 

You have to activate the head texture for a 1x file in the facemaker panel for the head to be replaced.  It's not contained in the body tab.  You have to use the hook5 face activator to get this to work.  I had the same problem with the whole body, at least until I realized that the body has to grab a specific set of memory to hijack the rendering.  If you grab the memory pointers from a specifically cached file stream (as an alt of getting the file itself; this means that file is still open but a different file is actually being read), you can hijack the stream in order to replace it.  Use the hook5 provided head, then use a facegened face.

 

 

 

Just tested this again with some new models.... ...Ok... ..I'll see if I can get you on the righteous path... ...Make sure theres a head with the body you're using.  If not, you may need to borrow one from another body, and blend it's diffuse to match up using photoshop or gimp to get the skin shade to match.  Next, you'll have to create a passfile for it.  If you have another body with a head, and a passfile, copy paste it into this body.  make sure you are also using a 1x texture for a 1x body.  I've had this happen when I tried to use a 4x head without renaming the stuff.

[deggoth]

Hi, I'm having an issue where tanlines are showing up in wierd areas on the body when I use the 1x settings in the 4x mod in customizer so that Hook5 works.  Tanlines work fine if I set to 4x body in customizer but Hook5 doesnt work.  Right now none of the textures have Mod_ in front of them in my skin ActiveMod folders.  I tried adding that infront of the texture names but it didn't help.  Am I missing something?

[BeaTleS]

sorry, but I still can not understand how to use it

[bobnoxius]

Hi all, I hope somebody can help me. I am using vx and hook5 paid. When I select a customizable skin no GUI shows up for the selected skin in f4 menu

 

 

What am I doing wrong?

[Arse22]

On 4/23/2021 at 4:10 PM, bobnoxius said:

Hi all, I hope somebody can help me. I am using vx and hook5 paid. When I select a customizable skin no GUI shows up for the selected skin in f4 menu

 

 

What am I doing wrong?

I think I fixed a similar issue like I fix all issues in VX: change the Female_ prefix to mod_Female_ for the pass and the textures. No idea how the 4x mod interracts with the 4x in the skin system and not dying to find out. I just always use 4x textures and always set it to 4x and always rename everything mod_...

[Frank_Drebin]

Wow! Thanks a lot. This is the first noticeable progress I've had for a while: I managed to get everything you showed here going. Given that I'm noob, your tutorial must be good.

 

But: Is there any way to get rid of the visible borders where the different texture parts are welded together? I'm talking about where the genital and body texture come together, for instance.

 

 

[Frank_Drebin]

On 4/13/2021 at 9:54 PM, BeaTleS said:

sorry, but I still can not understand how to use it

 

This is how it worked for me, but only if you follow ALL the other steps in the tutorial. More precisely, you need Hook 5 set up:

 

1. Download MrOllk's 4x Mod and Hook5 Universal Skin System.
2. Put the first above file in the Addons folder and the second in ...\Mod\ActiveMod\_hook5data.
3. Go to Mod\ActiveMod\_hook5data\SkinFemale and locate the folder _SkinTemplate. Copy this folder into ...\Mod\ActiveMod. This step is not explicitly mentioned in the tutorial. Probably only fools like me don't know this.
4. In this copied folder open _skin_SkinDefinitionFile.txt.
5. Make sure that every - I repeat: EVERY - map there is has a valid path to a texture (png) or a dds file. There are maps for diffuse, normal, specular and subsurface. No idea why and what they mean but they exist in that file. The paths could look as follows: _hook5data\SkinFemale\_SkinTemplate\Female_White_Feet.png and they seem to take the folder ...\Mod\ActiveMod as their point of origin. So if you put your png or dds files in other places than the ones I suggested above, your file path will have to be adjusted accordingly. To begin with, the above-mentioned copied _skin_SkinDefinitionFile.txt has a few misleading file paths to some diffuse png files that Hook 5 won't find. If Hook 5 cannot find a SINGLE ONE of the required files (because the path doesn't exist), the whole skin will NOT be picked up by Hook 5. This means you won't be able to select the skin in the customizer from your list of skins to choose from. This very important detail is also missing in the tutorial. Again: Probably because everybody but me (and you?) knows this. I only found out by fucking around for hours. You can even start out by selecting all the pngs from your copied _SkinTemplate folder. If you do that the head, feet, hands and genitals will just bear a gray placeholder (as in my profile image) to tell you which resolutions any texture going in the respective spot should have. You can pick "real" textures later by referencing their valid paths in your copy of _skin_SkinDefinitionFile.txt.

This is it and how it worked for me. Don't give up!

[Titanoboa Serpentes]

@Arse22@Frank_Drebin Hi, the mod_ prefix must be used with all 4x textures that you want to modify or that you download. This prefix correlates to the customizer skin drop down menu in the body tab. The reason for this is that in order to use the 4x textures they changed the scripts in the VX-Mod\Scripts\Shared folder. The mod_2x.bs and the mod_4x.bs contain the names of the textures that use 2x or 4x resolution. You can simply open these files in any texteditor.

The customizable skin works by replacing the ActiveMod folder texture files with those that you apply in the layers of your custom skin. The basic rule is that you can only change textures that are ActiveMod enabled. This means that the mod author or the stock assets of the game must have a script attached that points to a texture name in the ActiveMod folder. The VX engine that replaces the original texture with that found in the ActiveMod folder. Normally you will put your files into a separate folder in the ActiveMod folder. You have to give the textures exactly the name that is defined in the scripts or else the executable won't find the texture.

In the case of the skin textures you have to use the mod_ prefix for the 4x textures and the mod2_ prefix for the 2x textures. These textures still have to use the name of the original texture like female_white_head.png etc... with the added prefix.

The skin system of hook5 works in such a way that it loads additional textures that are then applied to the 'surface' texture. So the loading sequence looks like this:

1. mod_female_white_head.png gets loaded,

2. Hook5 intercepts and loads the additional textures defined in the mod_female_white_head_pass.txt:

(xxx can be any name)

 

[pass]
name = CustomSkin 

⇾ This is the shader that is called upon to render the skin.

 

tessellation_level = 1

⇾ Function that smoothens the mesh by subdividing the mesh.

 

stage2 = xxx_norm.dds

⇾ This is a map (texture) that contains surface detail like skin pores, scars, muscle definition. Veins etc...

• RGB channels: different surface information.
• Alpha Channel: Displacement (Directly influencing the 3D surface of the mesh.)

stage3 = xxx_spec.dds

⇾ This map contains different shading information depending on the channel used:

• Red :metallicity(metallic sheen),
• Green: specularity (glossiness)
• Blue: glow.
• Alpha: Ambient Occlusion detail (Small shadow areas that can not be covered by normal Ambient Occlusion.)

stage4 = xxx_sub.dds

⇾ This map is used to simulate blood vessels under the skin by using subsurface scattering. (Irregular distribution of light passing though the skin.)

 

This is the normal custom skin setup.

 

The customizable skin lets you use your own textures or mod textures to give the skin as many layers as your computer can handle.

If the mod_female_white_head_pass.txt contains a line like

 

[pass]
name = CustomSkin 

skin_data_layers = SkinHead (This is just an example.)

 

Hook5 looks for a _skin_definiton.txt file and if it exists loads the name = xyz.txt (XYZ stands for any name.) file that is defined under the

 

[skin_data_file]
name = xyz.txt

 

and then proceeds to load the xyz.txt that is in the same folder where the _skin_definition.txt, the mod_female white_head_pass.txt and the mod_female_white_head.png is located. If any of these files is missing you won't see the skin in the hook5 ingame menu.

Then all the files and parameters written in the xyz.txt for the specific skin_data_layers are loaded. In this case the files and parameters found in the SkinHead entry.

Normally the skin_data_file contains something like this:

 

[SkinGeneral]
SkinHSB = 0.000000, -0.270000, 0.030000
GlossinessScale = 1.000000
GlossinessShift = 0.000000
Skinwetness = 0.020000
DisplacementScale = 1.000000
SubsurfaceIntensity = 1.000000
Parts = SkinBody, SkinFeet, SkinGenit, SkinHand, SkinHead

.

.

.

.

[SkinHead]
DiffuseResolution = 2048, 2048
NormalsResolution = 2048, 2048
SpecularResolution = 2048, 2048
SubsurfaceResolution = 2048, 2048
Layers = BaseHeadLayer, NoseShape, HeadMouth, Hairline04, FaceSkinDetailsAdriana, EyeshadowBrowArea, EyeshadowBaseArea, EyeshadowEyeLidArea, LowerEyeliner, Rouge, Femalebrow08Right, Femalebrow08Left, ThroatTech

 

This is an example of one of my skins. [SkinGeneral] is the overall configuration of the skin.

The [SkinHead] contains the resolution of the textures. Here you can load textures that can have a higher resolution than 4x the game resolution. You can even use textures with 4K, 8K or higher (I haven't tested that yet.) as long as your computer and VX can handle them.

The Layers line contains as many layers you want the body part to have. There is always a Base layer like BaseHeadLayer that you have to define textures for, or otherwise you won't see your character's body.

 

I hope my explanation isn't too long and gives you some information about hook5 skin system.

[Frank_Drebin]

On 5/27/2021 at 11:33 PM, Titanoboa Serpentes said:

@Arse22@Frank_Drebin Hi, the mod_ prefix must be used with all 4x textures that you want to modify or that you download. This prefix correlates to the customizer skin drop down menu in the body tab. The reason for this is that in order to use the 4x textures they changed the scripts in the VX-Mod\Scripts\Shared folder. The mod_2x.bs and the mod_4x.bs contain the names of the textures that use 2x or 4x resolution. You can simply open these files in any texteditor.

The customizable skin works by replacing the ActiveMod folder texture files with those that you apply in the layers of your custom skin. The basic rule is that you can only change textures that are ActiveMod enabled. This means that the mod author or the stock assets of the game must have a script attached that points to a texture name in the ActiveMod folder. The VX engine that replaces the original texture with that found in the ActiveMod folder. Normally you will put your files into a separate folder in the ActiveMod folder. You have to give the textures exactly the name that is defined in the scripts or else the executable won't find the texture.

In the case of the skin textures you have to use the mod_ prefix for the 4x textures and the mod2_ prefix for the 2x textures. These textures still have to use the name of the original texture like female_white_head.png etc... with the added prefix.

The skin system of hook5 works in such a way that it loads additional textures that are then applied to the 'surface' texture. So the loading sequence looks like this:

1. mod_female_white_head.png gets loaded,

2. Hook5 intercepts and loads the additional textures defined in the mod_female_white_head_pass.txt:

(xxx can be any name)

 

[pass]
name = CustomSkin 

⇾ This is the shader that is called upon to render the skin.

 

tessellation_level = 1

⇾ Function that smoothens the mesh by subdividing the mesh.

 

stage2 = xxx_norm.dds

⇾ This is a map (texture) that contains surface detail like skin pores, scars, muscle definition. Veins etc...

• RGB channels: different surface information.
• Alpha Channel: Displacement (Directly influencing the 3D surface of the mesh.)

stage3 = xxx_spec.dds

⇾ This map contains different shading information depending on the channel used:

• Red :metallicity(metallic sheen),
• Green: specularity (glossiness)
• Blue: glow.
• Alpha: Ambient Occlusion detail (Small shadow areas that can not be covered by normal Ambient Occlusion.)

stage4 = xxx_sub.dds

⇾ This map is used to simulate blood vessels under the skin by using subsurface scattering. (Irregular distribution of light passing though the skin.)

 

This is the normal custom skin setup.

 

The customizable skin lets you use your own textures or mod textures to give the skin as many layers as your computer can handle.

If the mod_female_white_head_pass.txt contains a line like

 

[pass]
name = CustomSkin 

skin_data_layers = SkinHead (This is just an example.)

 

Hook5 looks for a _skin_definiton.txt file and if it exists loads the name = xyz.txt (XYZ stands for any name.) file that is defined under the

 

[skin_data_file]
name = xyz.txt

 

and then proceeds to load the xyz.txt that is in the same folder where the _skin_definition.txt, the mod_female white_head_pass.txt and the mod_female_white_head.png is located. If any of these files is missing you won't see the skin in the hook5 ingame menu.

Then all the files and parameters written in the xyz.txt for the specific skin_data_layers are loaded. In this case the files and parameters found in the SkinHead entry.

Normally the skin_data_file contains something like this:

 

[SkinGeneral]
SkinHSB = 0.000000, -0.270000, 0.030000
GlossinessScale = 1.000000
GlossinessShift = 0.000000
Skinwetness = 0.020000
DisplacementScale = 1.000000
SubsurfaceIntensity = 1.000000
Parts = SkinBody, SkinFeet, SkinGenit, SkinHand, SkinHead

.

.

.

.

[SkinHead]
DiffuseResolution = 2048, 2048
NormalsResolution = 2048, 2048
SpecularResolution = 2048, 2048
SubsurfaceResolution = 2048, 2048
Layers = BaseHeadLayer, NoseShape, HeadMouth, Hairline04, FaceSkinDetailsAdriana, EyeshadowBrowArea, EyeshadowBaseArea, EyeshadowEyeLidArea, LowerEyeliner, Rouge, Femalebrow08Right, Femalebrow08Left, ThroatTech

 

This is an example of one of my skins. [SkinGeneral] is the overall configuration of the skin.

The [SkinHead] contains the resolution of the textures. Here you can load textures that can have a higher resolution than 4x the game resolution. You can even use textures with 4K, 8K or higher (I haven't tested that yet.) as long as your computer and VX can handle them.

The Layers line contains as many layers you want the body part to have. There is always a Base layer like BaseHeadLayer that you have to define textures for, or otherwise you won't see your character's body.

 

I hope my explanation isn't too long and gives you some information about hook5 skin system.

 

Thanks for the information. Not sure if I understood all that but it's a start and whatever information is out there, is gonna help somebody.

[BeaTleS]

On 5/27/2021 at 7:45 PM, Frank_Drebin said:

 

This is how it worked for me, but only if you follow ALL the other steps in the tutorial. More precisely, you need Hook 5 set up:

 

1. Download MrOllk's 4x Mod and Hook5 Universal Skin System.
2. Put the first above file in the Addons folder and the second in ...\Mod\ActiveMod\_hook5data.
3. Go to Mod\ActiveMod\_hook5data\SkinFemale and locate the folder _SkinTemplate. Copy this folder into ...\Mod\ActiveMod. This step is not explicitly mentioned in the tutorial. Probably only fools like me don't know this.
4. In this copied folder open _skin_SkinDefinitionFile.txt.
5. Make sure that every - I repeat: EVERY - map there is has a valid path to a texture (png) or a dds file. There are maps for diffuse, normal, specular and subsurface. No idea why and what they mean but they exist in that file. The paths could look as follows: _hook5data\SkinFemale\_SkinTemplate\Female_White_Feet.png and they seem to take the folder ...\Mod\ActiveMod as their point of origin. So if you put your png or dds files in other places than the ones I suggested above, your file path will have to be adjusted accordingly. To begin with, the above-mentioned copied _skin_SkinDefinitionFile.txt has a few misleading file paths to some diffuse png files that Hook 5 won't find. If Hook 5 cannot find a SINGLE ONE of the required files (because the path doesn't exist), the whole skin will NOT be picked up by Hook 5. This means you won't be able to select the skin in the customizer from your list of skins to choose from. This very important detail is also missing in the tutorial. Again: Probably because everybody but me (and you?) knows this. I only found out by fucking around for hours. You can even start out by selecting all the pngs from your copied _SkinTemplate folder. If you do that the head, feet, hands and genitals will just bear a gray placeholder (as in my profile image) to tell you which resolutions any texture going in the respective spot should have. You can pick "real" textures later by referencing their valid paths in your copy of _skin_SkinDefinitionFile.txt.

This is it and how it worked for me. Don't give up!

Thank you friend, I still can not understand anything

[Frank_Drebin]

On 6/4/2021 at 7:40 PM, BeaTleS said:

Thank you friend, I still can not understand anything

 

Well, honestly speaking it took me days to understand how to set up VX (and hook 5) at all and then a few more afternoons to get the skin system going. TK is NOT AT ALL intuitive and a total brain screw for beginners like us.

 

VX REALLY needs a solid repack put together by somebody with a lot more knowledge of TK than me!

[pes1972]

4 hours ago, Frank_Drebin said:

 

Well, honestly speaking it took me days to understand how to set up VX (and hook 5) at all and then a few more afternoons to get the skin system going. TK is NOT AT ALL intuitive and a total brain screw for beginners like us.

 

VX REALLY needs a solid repack put together by somebody with a lot more knowledge of TK than me!

VX has a solid repack made by DP16 and it´s great to start with. Also includes some great models and some very nice clothes and special mods

 

 

MEGA

Edited June 19, 2021 by pes1972

[Frank_Drebin]

On 6/19/2021 at 4:26 PM, pes1972 said:

VX has a solid repack made by DP16 and it´s great to start with. Also includes some great models and some very nice clothes and special mods

 

 

MEGA

 

Well, I meant a repack that you can just put on your hard disk such that you're ready to go. The DP16 repack on this very website doesn't have this property as you can tell from the comments under the upload. A few things don't work and need manual fiddling around, unless it's been changed since I downloaded it. Back then, it didn't work for me at all. And manual fiddling around requires knowledge of file structures and other things which most beginners don't have.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Frank_Drebin

[an2]

When I press F4, nothing happens. Alt + R too. I have a free version of Hook 5, what should I do? How to change it manually?

[LustGaner]

I did everything as I seeing here and just cant make it work, could someone help me please?

[LustGaner]

I tried and tried and just cant make it work, i am bit tired of try alone with the fear of breaking all the game, I had to reinstall the game 3 times until I could install all properly but I cant with this. please if someone can contact me if wanna help I will be very very thankful

[consiefe]

My problem is different with hook5. I downloaded the tattoo mod from here and want to use some genital tattoos but I don't have that layer in customiser. My paid hook5 does not pick any skins up, I can use skins only old way by putting them in activemod and changing numbers in customiser. I'd really appreciate a detailed file structure guide from beginning to end.

Edited September 30, 2021 by consiefe

[spider201]

On 9/30/2021 at 5:57 AM, consiefe said:

My problem is different with hook5. I downloaded the tattoo mod from here and want to use some genital tattoos but I don't have that layer in customiser. My paid hook5 does not pick any skins up, I can use skins only old way by putting them in activemod and changing numbers in customiser. I'd really appreciate a detailed file structure guide from beginning to end.

I seem to have the same problem. Don't know what I did wrong ?

I'm not some computer noob, but the installation instructions are not always clear.

[ElzasDream]

Thank you so much for this guide and all the tips provided here!

Sorry in advance if it's a silly question :

 

Does Hook5/Universal Skin System somehow bypasses in-game model customization?

I mean, body color, makeup, eyebrows, or even some outfits such as stockings?

 

Is it possible to address this issue by defining more skin layers in Mod\ActiveMod\your_skin_folder\_skin_SkinDefinitionFile.txt?

For me it's not the solution since it simply redirects the game to the textures stored in Mod\ActiveMod\_hook5data

 

I'm using basic version.

Edited December 12, 2021 by ElzasDream

[nanobyte17]

On 12/12/2021 at 3:27 AM, ElzasDream said:

Thank you so much for this guide and all the tips provided here!

Sorry in advance if it's a silly question :

 

Does Hook5/Universal Skin System somehow bypasses in-game model customization?

I mean, body color, makeup, eyebrows, or even some outfits such as stockings?

 

Is it possible to address this issue by defining more skin layers in Mod\ActiveMod\your_skin_folder\_skin_SkinDefinitionFile.txt?

For me it's not the solution since it simply redirects the game to the textures stored in Mod\ActiveMod\_hook5data

 

I'm using basic version.

With the basic version, I think the layers that control makeup areas are unavailable.  You'll need to pay patreon page for one round, then download the whole thing and only copy new files over first.  Then back up your file sets in your binaries folder, and zip that, then copy again and replace all files for the binaries folder files, and try running it.  If it works in the customizer, you're good to go. You'll have to use skins that define the makeup area, otherwise it won't work.  You can bake the skins and turn them into mods later, so they can use the other overlays like makeup, but that takes some knowledge of the skinning system, and photoshop\gimp knowledge for how to blend them.

 

[tommey]

I am probably doing something stupidly simple wrong

Can you take a look and advise? I see that some layers are applied (specular/bumpmap?) but the model is black.

[hdiddy]

2 hours ago, tommey said:

I am probably doing something stupidly simple wrong

Can you take a look and advise? I see that some layers are applied (specular/bumpmap?) but the model is black.

 

Your probably missing either a Normal Map or a Spec.  Most likely the normal map.

[tommey]

I have to admit I don't get most basic thing - in the game I can choose skins only by numbers - I have a skin dropdown menu, and they're numbered from 01 to 43.

1. How do I corelate this with skins in Mods/ActiveMod dir?!  I am having problems sorting out which skin is which
2. Oh - and inside the skin directory I am supposed to place two files - should one of the files be named "skinDefinationFile" or "skinDefinitionfile"? Because both are shown on screens in 1st post....
3. Inside skinDefin*tionFile - the paths should be relative, ir just start from "_hook5data\SkinFemale" as a root - and "_hook5data\SkinFemale" is picked up because it's under ActiveMod ?

Edited May 5, 2022 by tommey

[hdiddy]

10 hours ago, tommey said:

I have to admit I don't get most basic thing - in the game I can choose skins only by numbers - I have a skin dropdown menu, and they're numbered from 01 to 43.

1. How do I corelate this with skins in Mods/ActiveMod dir?!  I am having problems sorting out which skin is which
2. Oh - and inside the skin directory I am supposed to place two files - should one of the files be named "skinDefinationFile" or "skinDefinitionfile"? Because both are shown on screens in 1st post....
3. Inside skinDefin*tionFile - the paths should be relative, ir just start from "_hook5data\SkinFemale" as a root - and "_hook5data\SkinFemale" is picked up because it's under ActiveMod ?

 

I can try to help you here, but to be honest all of our tutorials and help guys are on the main site.  Your better off going there to get you started.