Portraits from mods aren't showing (Vanilla Framework Continued 2.42b)

[Xenodragon54]

I'm having an issue where the portraits for Vanilia Framework continued just aren't appearing, despite clearing out the old version and downloading the updated version with the VF included above the framework. I've tried this with just the unofficial patch and the mod and even the mod by itself but nothing changes. Any idea what's up?


Also side question, how can i make my own portrait mods if anyone knows? I just get confused when it comes to stuff involving the notepad

[ModderWhoModsThings]

On 5/29/2024 at 5:25 PM, Xenodragon54 said:

I'm having an issue where the portraits for Vanilia Framework continued just aren't appearing, despite clearing out the old version and downloading the updated version with the VF included above the framework. I've tried this with just the unofficial patch and the mod and even the mod by itself but nothing changes. Any idea what's up?


Also side question, how can i make my own portrait mods if anyone knows? I just get confused when it comes to stuff involving the notepad

For help with a specific mod, you should make a post on that mod's forum so the people involved with the mod will see it. Have you downloaded the VF Portraits submod for Vanilla Framework Continued? Because VF Portraits is a hard requirement for new versions Vanilla Framework. VF has gotten too large to be posted as one file, so I split the mod and now the image files for mammalians, reptilians, and humanoids are stored in VF Portraits.

 

In order to make a portrait mod, you must first find and prepare the actual image files. They must be DDS files (with mipmap) of 500x320 px size. I suggest the GIMP photo editor as it is free and you can export images as DDS files.

 

You create a folder for the mod, and in that mod folder you create another folder called 'gfx', and in the gfx folder you create two folders, one called 'models' and the other 'portraits'. This results in the directories *your mod*/gfx/models and *your mod*/gfx/portraits/portraits. You store image files under gfx/models, and you can create additional folders under gfx/models if you want to organize your image files, which I highly recommend.

 

Next, you make the portrait files. Portrait files are basically used to group your image files into a species, they are where you tell the game which image files are in a species, and which ones are male or female. For this I suggest using my Stellaris Portrait File Generator to automate the process, though it may be a little complicated for a beginner (though it comes with an instruction manual). Keep in mind that mods use the same file structure as the base game, so you can look at your steamapps/common/stellaris/ directory to find examples of how all these files work, and you can also look through existing mods such as Vanilla Framework to see how their files work. Once you have your portrait files created, you store them in gfx/portraits.

 

You are now done with the most complicated parts, now you just need to group your species together. In your mod folder, create a folder called 'common', and in that folder create two folders called 'portrait_sets' and 'portrait_categories'. This gives you the directories *your mod*/common/portrait_sets and *your mod*/common/portrait_categories. Portrait sets group the species you made together, and define which species class they are in. You just need to put the names of your species in 'portraits = {*your species}' and set species_class to the class you want them to be a part of. Your portrait set file goes under common/portrait_sets. Portrait categories are the groups of portraits that you see in the empire creator, and they may contain one or more portrait sets. Make a portrait category file under common/portrait categories. set the name to what you want the category to appear as in game surrounded by quotation marks such as (name = "Sexy Mammals"). Put the name of your portrait sets in "sets = {*your sets*}".

 

That's all there is to it. You need DDS image files in gfx/models, you need portrait files in gfx/portraits, you need portrait sets under common/portrait_sets, and you need portrait categories under common/portrait_categories. I highly suggest examining the game's code or another mod such as Vanilla Framework to see working examples. The most complicated part of the coding by far is the portrait files, but it essentially boils down to putting the names of your male portraits in some spots and the names of your female portraits in other spots. It is good practice to make sure that all your names in code are unique so they don't overwrite other mods, for example in VF every name starts with "VF_". Feel free to reach out with any more questions.

Edited April 19, 2025 by ModderWhoModsThings

[ModderWhoModsThings]

22 minutes ago, ModderWhoModsThings said:

*your mod*/gfx/portraits

I made a mistake here, its actually *your mod*/gfx/portraits/portraits that the portrait files go in. You must make one 'portraits' folder, then with that folder create another 'portraits' folder, and that is where portrait files go. I didn't create the file structure, I just use it.

[XavierMace]

38 minutes ago, ModderWhoModsThings said:

They must be DDS files (with mipmap) of 500x320 px size. I suggest the GIMP photo editor as it is free and you can export images as DDS files.

 

At the risk of possibly being nitpicky, I believe the official expected dimensions are 475x380 (referenced here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/a-visual-guide-to-static-portrait-alignment.1189113/).  Obviously going shorter 60px isn't going to hurt anything but that's a fair amount of real estate to give up all things considered.  At 475 wide, that's 100% filling the portrait window right to the edge in my experience.  Now depending on the style of your portrait (IE full body vs close up) and how much empty space they have, it may be a non-issue.  But if you try running a portrait 500px wide with no air gap, I'm pretty confident it's going to bleed past borders.

[ModderWhoModsThings]

10 hours ago, XavierMace said:

At the risk of possibly being nitpicky, I believe the official expected dimensions are 475x380 (referenced here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/a-visual-guide-to-static-portrait-alignment.1189113/).  Obviously going shorter 60px isn't going to hurt anything but that's a fair amount of real estate to give up all things considered.  At 475 wide, that's 100% filling the portrait window right to the edge in my experience.  Now depending on the style of your portrait (IE full body vs close up) and how much empty space they have, it may be a non-issue.  But if you try running a portrait 500px wide with no air gap, I'm pretty confident it's going to bleed past borders.

VF has always used 500x320 size, so I assumed that was the required file dimensions. I looked at some other mods I've downloaded and they all use different dimensions, so I guess there's not much of a requirement after all. It's far too late to make changes to VF's images, but if there are dimensions that work better that's obviously what people should use.

[XavierMace]

23 minutes ago, ModderWhoModsThings said:

VF has always used 500x320 size, so I assumed that was the required file dimensions. I looked at some other mods I've downloaded and they all use different dimensions, so I guess there's not much of a requirement after all. It's far too late to make changes to VF's images, but if there are dimensions that work better that's obviously what people should use.

 

Yeah, I believe VF's portraits are all full body shots (as are most other peoples from what I've seen) and with Stellaris' aspect ratio on portraits that means the bulk of your portrait is empty space which SHOULD be transparent at that point so it's not really an issue.  But portrait sets that are close ups more similar to Paradox's portraits have a lot less empty space at which point this would likely be a factor.  I'm 90% sure when I first started working on my mod (which was all close ups/upper body shots at the time)  I tried going larger and some of my portraits basically bled past the borders in places.