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About this mod
DiY: using material swaps to retexture vault suits and replace suits from each vault with a different set of textures
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This is a tutorial for modders, it's about using material swaps to retexture vault suits, not things like how to download and install mods and tools or how to edit textures, cause I assume you already know that. It's a DiY thing, so you can use examples from my tutorial or do this your way. I'm just sharing some things I learned, and you can do whatever you want with this.
There are so many retextures for vault suits, but most of them are only replacers and only one or two (clean and dirty version) can be used at the same time. When I entered Vault 81 for the first time, my first thought was "Why are all these people wearing dirty clothes?" But replacing this suit makes changes to V111 suit, as well as V114.
In the game files (I mean the base game only) even more vault suits can be found: five from Commonwealth vaults and one from Vault 101. They all can be obtained using mods (like Crafting Workbenches) and console commands. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought it would be great if they looked different. Then I found a mod named Clean Alternate Vault Suits. It doesn't really make visible changes to the game, but it was the very first step in my tutorial. I figured out why all vault jumpsuits use the same set of textures and how to change it.
If you extract the Data\Materials\Clothes\VaultSuit folder from the game archive, you'll find 24 BGSM files, including 2 ("clean" and "dirty" version) for EACH vault number and 8 for vaultsuits. A vaultsuit is using separate meshes for male (Vault111Suit.nif) and female variant (FemaleVault111Suit.nif), each one using two versions of textures: "clean" and "dirty". This gives 4 combinations: "Male-Clean", "Female-Clean", "Male-Dirty" and "Female-Dirty". Additionaly, you can use a different texture just to replace these brown accents. So, 4 combinations for the base material and another 4 for trim replacements. That's why there are eight .bgsm files. It's eight for ALL vaultsuits. If you want to use additional textures for different vaults, you need to create 8 material files for EACH vault. Four other files are materials for clothes you can find on skeletons. Two of them are probably not used in the game, but two tattered versions can be found on dead dwellers in Vault 95 and 111. Keep in mind there are not many mods including a "dead men's" version, but there are at least two as far as I know.
Tools used in this tutorial
1. Creation Kit - used for creating and editing material swaps, armor addons and clothing items
2. Material Editor - editing BGSM files
3. Bethesda Archive Extractor - to extract textures and materials from the game archives
4. GIMP - editing textures
5. DDS Converter - converting unsupported formats of textures
Texture mods used
1. Brand New Vault Jumpsuits Mk II - it has a nice, hexagonal pattern and I wanted vaultsuits to be blue
2. Vault-Tec Suits - this mod is using classic Fallout colors and it contains an unobtainable version of V111 suit, that can be used for skeletons
3. More Defined Vanilla Suit - just an improved version of vanilla vaultsuits
4. More Shiny Vault Suit - a specular map which makes vaultsuits shiny, a perfect match for More Defined Suits
5. Neo-Vaultsuit - very interesting mod with many color versions and shiny specular maps, it's really great.
6. Proto Vault Suit - the most popular retexture, just perfect for Vault 101 suit, cause it looks more like an utility jumpsuit
7. HexCamo VaultSuit - I used it for no particular reason, I just like it.
Overview
First thing you need to do, is to extract vanilla textures and materials from the game archives. Then, download and extract some re-textures. If you want to put textures for several mods in the same folder, they obviously have to be renamed before moving to Data\Textures\Clothes\VaultSuit folder.
Then, you have to create from 8 to 10 BGSM files for each vault. Now replace paths to vanilla textures with paths to the textures you've just copied. Just edit these files like you see on the pictures you'll find in the tutorial, and the pictures look like this:
Next, use the Creation Kit to edit material swaps, most of them have to be created. The tutorial will show you how to create and edit objects. You will also find red and green paths you can just copy and paste.
Then you have to create and edit so called "armor addons". See the tutorial for details. The material swaps you have just created should now be available on the dropdown list - as you see, not only the number is different, but the jumpsuit texture as well.
Armor addons have to be linked to vault suits. You can do it by dragging and dropping.
And the last thing is swapping materials for the so called "world models". It's a model used by items after you drop them from your inventory.
That's how it works. I hope you find this useful. If it doesn't work like intended, let me know in the comments.
My other mods:
Custom Pompadour Wig Colors
Prydwen Food Vendor
BoS Field Scribe's Hat - urban camo
Vault 81 residents use custom PipBoys
Woodland Camo Boonie Hat
Light Blue Clean Suit Retexture
There are so many retextures for vault suits, but most of them are only replacers and only one or two (clean and dirty version) can be used at the same time. When I entered Vault 81 for the first time, my first thought was "Why are all these people wearing dirty clothes?" But replacing this suit makes changes to V111 suit, as well as V114.
In the game files (I mean the base game only) even more vault suits can be found: five from Commonwealth vaults and one from Vault 101. They all can be obtained using mods (like Crafting Workbenches) and console commands. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought it would be great if they looked different. Then I found a mod named Clean Alternate Vault Suits. It doesn't really make visible changes to the game, but it was the very first step in my tutorial. I figured out why all vault jumpsuits use the same set of textures and how to change it.
If you extract the Data\Materials\Clothes\VaultSuit folder from the game archive, you'll find 24 BGSM files, including 2 ("clean" and "dirty" version) for EACH vault number and 8 for vaultsuits. A vaultsuit is using separate meshes for male (Vault111Suit.nif) and female variant (FemaleVault111Suit.nif), each one using two versions of textures: "clean" and "dirty". This gives 4 combinations: "Male-Clean", "Female-Clean", "Male-Dirty" and "Female-Dirty". Additionaly, you can use a different texture just to replace these brown accents. So, 4 combinations for the base material and another 4 for trim replacements. That's why there are eight .bgsm files. It's eight for ALL vaultsuits. If you want to use additional textures for different vaults, you need to create 8 material files for EACH vault. Four other files are materials for clothes you can find on skeletons. Two of them are probably not used in the game, but two tattered versions can be found on dead dwellers in Vault 95 and 111. Keep in mind there are not many mods including a "dead men's" version, but there are at least two as far as I know.
Tools used in this tutorial
1. Creation Kit - used for creating and editing material swaps, armor addons and clothing items
2. Material Editor - editing BGSM files
3. Bethesda Archive Extractor - to extract textures and materials from the game archives
4. GIMP - editing textures
5. DDS Converter - converting unsupported formats of textures
Texture mods used
1. Brand New Vault Jumpsuits Mk II - it has a nice, hexagonal pattern and I wanted vaultsuits to be blue
2. Vault-Tec Suits - this mod is using classic Fallout colors and it contains an unobtainable version of V111 suit, that can be used for skeletons
3. More Defined Vanilla Suit - just an improved version of vanilla vaultsuits
4. More Shiny Vault Suit - a specular map which makes vaultsuits shiny, a perfect match for More Defined Suits
5. Neo-Vaultsuit - very interesting mod with many color versions and shiny specular maps, it's really great.
6. Proto Vault Suit - the most popular retexture, just perfect for Vault 101 suit, cause it looks more like an utility jumpsuit
7. HexCamo VaultSuit - I used it for no particular reason, I just like it.
Overview
First thing you need to do, is to extract vanilla textures and materials from the game archives. Then, download and extract some re-textures. If you want to put textures for several mods in the same folder, they obviously have to be renamed before moving to Data\Textures\Clothes\VaultSuit folder.
Then, you have to create from 8 to 10 BGSM files for each vault. Now replace paths to vanilla textures with paths to the textures you've just copied. Just edit these files like you see on the pictures you'll find in the tutorial, and the pictures look like this:
Next, use the Creation Kit to edit material swaps, most of them have to be created. The tutorial will show you how to create and edit objects. You will also find red and green paths you can just copy and paste.
Then you have to create and edit so called "armor addons". See the tutorial for details. The material swaps you have just created should now be available on the dropdown list - as you see, not only the number is different, but the jumpsuit texture as well.
Armor addons have to be linked to vault suits. You can do it by dragging and dropping.
And the last thing is swapping materials for the so called "world models". It's a model used by items after you drop them from your inventory.
That's how it works. I hope you find this useful. If it doesn't work like intended, let me know in the comments.
My other mods:
Custom Pompadour Wig Colors
Prydwen Food Vendor
BoS Field Scribe's Hat - urban camo
Vault 81 residents use custom PipBoys
Woodland Camo Boonie Hat
Light Blue Clean Suit Retexture