Shadow of the tomb raider modding (2023)

[Albertros]

11 minutes ago, beelzebub2063 said:

@Albertros

Oh my...

Is this the vanilla body or are you using something selfmade?

 

It's vanilla head + custom body. I made a new texture to have it all seamless. The body is an updated version of the Lara I made for my TR2013 mod. But the model has been improved on many levels.  I wanted to keep her original face, because I think the shapekeys have better quality than the lods weight painting

 

Edited January 18 by Albertros

[beelzebub2063]

@Albertros

Interesting...
I have to admit that I'm a bit stuck with my mod at the moment because of...well RealLife.
If you want, I can make my models available to you... although when I think about it, they're probably useless to you.

[Albertros]

1 hour ago, beelzebub2063 said:

@Albertros

Interesting...
I have to admit that I'm a bit stuck with my mod at the moment because of...well RealLife.
If you want, I can make my models available to you... although when I think about it, they're probably useless to you.

Have to pass sorry, RL got me hard as well and I already have some other mods I want to finish. But if there is something I can help with, I'd be happy to do so. 

[DeathBringer0xL]

Man we really need this. Like I said everyone has rise crazy, and shadow always gets no love ^^

[beelzebub2063]

20 hours ago, Albertros said:

Have to pass sorry, RL got me hard as well and I already have some other mods I want to finish. But if there is something I can help with, I'd be happy to do so. 

 

A hex editing tutorial for really, really stupid people would be really nice.

[beelzebub2063]

Another test mod, this time the Explorer Outfit without Pants and T-Shirt.
In the archive are only model files, you need textures from other mods, I recommend one from Jostar on Nexus.

 

Explorer Bottomless.zip

Edited January 19 by beelzebub2063
More Info

[FrancisLouis]

19 minutes ago, beelzebub2063 said:

 

A hex editing tutorial for really, really stupid people would be really nice.

Why do you need that?

[beelzebub2063]

18 minutes ago, FrancisLouis said:

Why do you need that?

For editing material files.
I want to assign the mesh of the torso, arms and legs the same material as the head.
Which makes the rerouting of textures necessary, which, as far as I know, can only be done with a hex editor.
And I have no fucking idea about hex editing.

[FrancisLouis]

16 minutes ago, beelzebub2063 said:

For editing material files.
I want to assign the mesh of the torso, arms and legs the same material as the head.
Which makes the rerouting of textures necessary, which, as far as I know, can only be done with a hex editor.
And I have no fucking idea about hex editing.

You can just assign them the same material in Blender and combine the textures into a single texture; no need for hex editing.

[beelzebub2063]

@FrancisLouis

Yes, I've already thought about that, but won't that affect performance?
After all, there will be at least 3 8k textures.
And smaller than 4k per element i.e. arms, legs, body would be reluctant because then the quality of the details will suffer.
Or am I overcomplicating things?

[FrancisLouis]

10 minutes ago, beelzebub2063 said:

@FrancisLouis

Yes, I've already thought about that, but won't that affect performance?
After all, there will be at least 3 8k textures.
And smaller than 4k per element i.e. arms, legs, body would be reluctant because then the quality of the details will suffer.
Or am I overcomplicating things?

You got the entire environment textures, people, builds all in 4k, and you worry about an extra 8k texture? Lol, it'll be fine; just make sure to merge them correctly alongside the normals and the rest of the maps.

 

[Albertros]

1 hour ago, beelzebub2063 said:

For editing material files.
I want to assign the mesh of the torso, arms and legs the same material as the head.
Which makes the rerouting of textures necessary, which, as far as I know, can only be done with a hex editor.
And I have no fucking idea about hex editing.

You don't need Hex for that. You can rename the material in blender and it will use the one you refered. So when you want to have her torso use the same material than her arms, just rename the material of the torso to that of the arms. Done

Edited January 19 by Albertros

[beelzebub2063]

@FrancisLouis

Well, either I learn hex editing or I have to edit a few (lel) textures...
Can I ask you something?
How did you solve the seam problem on stomach?

[beelzebub2063]

1 hour ago, Albertros said:

You don't need Hex for that. You can rename the material in blender and it will use the one you refered. So when you want to have her torso use the same material than her arms, just rename the material of the torso to that of the arms. Done

But then the torso will use the arms textures, right?

[FrancisLouis]

8 hours ago, beelzebub2063 said:

@FrancisLouis

Well, either I learn hex editing or I have to edit a few (lel) textures...
Can I ask you something?
How did you solve the seam problem on stomach?

That line is because of different normals alongside other stuff. Fixing it is not easy since it's left by the devs themselves. Using a custom mesh or hiding it is your best option.

[DeathBringer0xL]

13 hours ago, beelzebub2063 said:

@FrancisLouis

Well, either I learn hex editing or I have to edit a few (lel) textures...
Can I ask you something?
How did you solve the seam problem on stomach?

Already a Working version!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[beelzebub2063]

So I experimented a little more and found the following.
This may not have been a secret to the more experienced modders, but it wasn't so obvious to me.
Namely, you DO NOT have to cut the model you want to import into different parts and then assign the separate meshes to different skeletons.
It is entirely possible to have a single mesh for the entire model that can be assigned to ONE skeleton.
And this model can also have multiple materials on a single mesh.
In this screenshot, the model consists of several parts, but the body is a single mesh.
And yes there is a glitch with the legs but I think it's because I messed up the vertex groups.

 

P.S. All right, the mod is ready.
I was able to fix the glitch in the legs.

I know that there is a similar mod on Nexus, the difference with my mod is that my mod has no seams but does have 3D nipples.
This time the archive also includes textures that come from this mod.
Lara's Explicit Outfits - Tribal
I hope the author forgives me for using his textures without asking.

Blue Heroin Restore Shoulder.zip

Edited January 21 by beelzebub2063
More Info

[Albertros]

3 words. "Dirtmaps", "nofun", "hell" 😅
As far as I can tell game uses 4 different dirmaps stored in one textures channels (R, G, B, A)
This is the "A" texture. Can't help it, I think the dirtmaps are incredibly sexy. Really want to feature those maps, hope this works all out in game. Making the mod so dirty, you gonna feel the need to shower for the next 3 weeks.

Edited January 24 by Albertros

[eleanor rigby]

Wer soll das verstehen  ?

[beelzebub2063]

47 minutes ago, eleanor rigby said:

Wer soll das verstehen  ?

Was gibt es da nicht zu verstehen?

Oder was genau meinst du?

[thedeparted]

Has anyone tried modding animations?  I want to try replacing photo mode poses, but per the mod tools documentation, it sounds like I should be importing a full skeleton into blender, and not just a singular bone

[artoojeehtoo]

@beelzebub2063 @Albertros Do either of you have Patreons or anything?  So glad there's an uptick in mesh modding for SOTTR.  Interested in following y'alls work. Looking forward to seeing what mods come out of this

[FrancisLouis]

8 hours ago, thedeparted said:

Has anyone tried modding animations?  I want to try replacing photo mode poses, but per the mod tools documentation, it sounds like I should be importing a full skeleton into blender, and not just a singular bone

Join the server and ask there i personally didn't mod animations yet. https://discord.gg/euRUvFkpjb

 

7 hours ago, artoojeehtoo said:

@beelzebub2063 @Albertros Do either of you have Patreons or anything?  So glad there's an uptick in mesh modding for SOTTR.  Interested in following y'alls work. Looking forward to seeing what mods come out of this

for Albertros you can find it in his signature.

[Albertros]

Dirtmaps are working as expected. They still need a bit more work, but for a first test they look quite good.
If anyone is interested in how the game has them... As said we have 4 grayscale texture maps stored in the RGBA Channels.

A = Wetmap. B = "heavy dirtmap" R and G are the "light dirtmaps". 

I also noticed some macro seams coming from the object beeing in seperate meshes. Need to investigate this now.
@beelzebub2063, how did you export with one skeleton exactly?
 

 

 

Edited January 28 by Albertros

[beelzebub2063]

@Albertros

I was terribly wrong.
You can't bind the mesh to just one skeleton and export it, the export script cuts the mesh itself.
And it doesn't do a good job at it, because it doesn't divide the mesh according to the UV seams but according to the bones names.
You can try out my test mod that I posted recently.
You can see that there are ugly seams problems in the shin and knee area.
I wholeheartedly claimed that the glitch in the legs had been fixed.
As it turns out, I didn't fix anything and was just talking shit.
The tool maker suggested that we use the skeleton in tr11_lara.drm instead.
I'm currently testing how to correctly paint the weight maps on the mesh so that it works.

And I have a question for you, how did you manage to cut your mesh so that there are no seams?
I can't really solve the problem, especially when Lara moves, there are almost always holes in her hips and armpits.