¶ Overview
The GROUND BRANCH skin system allows automatic display and selection of different 'skins' for items (including gear, clothing and weapons, and potentially … anything?). You will be familiar with skins from the character customisation screen and potentially also the kit restrictions admin menu:
Figure 1. Skin selection menu for Platform item in character customisation menu
Figure 2. Kit Restrictions admin menu, showing a wide array of skins which can be specifically allowed or prohibited on a server
A 'skin' is a material (in UE4 parlance) which is applied to a 3D model. Many items have only one skin (in which case, a skin selection menu is not usually shown), but many items have a selection of skins which can be used, typically corresponding to a particular plain colour or camouflage pattern. Typically unique materials must be used for different items because of how textures are mapped onto models. So two items which are both 'OCP' skin will typically use two separate OCP materials, using separate sets of textures.
All equippable items (weapons, clothing, gear, and so on) are derived from the GBItem class, which defines a skin prefix. A set of skin types/names are defined globally in skin data asset files. Adding one of those defined skin types for a particular item is relatively straightforward: if a material is added with the name <SkinPrefix>_<SkinName>, it will automatically be offered as a selectable skin for the item in the character customisation menu, and it will automatically be applied to the item if/when specified in the loadout.
It is possible to add a new skin type/name via a new skin data asset, but this should be avoided if at all possible due to ensuing complexities.
Sets of skins are often implemented using a set of material instances of a master material, with different parameters for each skin in each material instance (such as a varying base colour parameter). This is more efficient and easier to maintain than having separate materials for each skin. Thus, you will normally have a skin prefix beginning MI_ (the UE4 naming convention for material instances) for your skins.
|
¶ GBItem Inventory properties
A few key properties of the GBItem class (shown under the 'Inventory' heading) will be described below:
Figure 3. Inventory properties (partial) for a G19 Patrol sidearm
-
Skin Material PrefixBy defaultNone(meaning not to use the skin system, and to use the default material associated with the relevant skeletal mesh), this should be set to the first part of the filename of your skins, such that your skin materials will be named<SkinMaterialPrefix>_<SkinName>.
Typically, a skin prefix will thus be of the form MI_<UniqueItemReference>. For base game items, this might be something like MI_PaddedJacket for a padded jacket, but you will probably want to create more unique names such as MI_ModdernamePaddedJacket to avoid naming conflicts with mods containing similar items.
|
-
Camo Tex Offset Switch Param,Camo Tex Offset XParam,Camo Tex Offset YParamThese are rather specialist parameters which define the name of material parameters that are used to apply different offsets for skins for different objects attached to a parent object. More specifically, these are used on pouch materials to avoid a clone stamp appearance, where camo patterns would otherwise appear at the same position on all the pouches. You don’t need to know how the offsets are computed, other than that they are essentially random and vary in a deterministic way from one pouch to the next.
| If you need to incorporate random offsets into your skins/materials, the simplest thing is to plug in the Camo Tex Offset XParam and YParam (scalar) parameters into your material and add them to the X and Y TextureCoordinate channels respectively, optionally activated by a static switch parameter matching Camo Tex Offset Switch Parameter. |
-
Inherit SkinIf this checkbox is set, the item will try to apply the skin of any parent object. This is used for pouches on platforms/vests, for example, so that skins do not have to be set for individual child items, and consistent skin types are used. -
Pass on SkinIf this checkbox is set, the item will try to apply its skin type to any child objects which haveInherit Skinset. Typically this is used for items like platforms/vests (see above).
¶ List of skin types in GROUND BRANCH
You would normally want to use one of the following skin types (otherwise you will need to make a new skin data asset):
| Display name | Material suffix | Possible substitutes (Material suffixes, in decreasing order of desirability) |
|---|---|---|
AOR-1 |
AOR1 |
MARPAT_Desert, 3color, TigerStripe_Desert, Tan, Khaki, CoyoteBrown |
AOR-2 |
AOR2 |
TigerStripe, M81, Green, OD, FoliageGreen, Tan, OCP, MARPAT_Woodland |
Black |
Black |
Grey, OD, Tan |
Blue |
Blue |
Navy, LightBlue, Black |
Brown |
Brown |
CoyoteBrown, Tan, Khaki, RangerGreen |
Coyote Brown |
CoyoteBrown |
Tan, Khaki, TigerStripe_Desert, AOR1, MARPAT_Desert, 3color |
DCP |
3color |
TigerStripe_Desert, AOR1, MARPAT_Desert, Tan, Khaki, CoyoteBrown |
Desert Tiger |
TigerStripe_Desert |
3color, AOR1, MARPAT_Desert, Tan, Khaki, CoyoteBrown |
Flecktarn |
Flecktarn |
TigerStripe, MARPAT_Woodland, Green, AOR2, OD, Tan, FoliageGreen |
Foliage Green |
FoliageGreen |
RangerGreen, OD, Khaki |
Grey |
Grey |
Black, OD, Tan |
Khaki |
Khaki |
Tan, CoyoteBrown, TigerStripe_Desert, AOR1, MARPAT_Desert, 3color |
Light Blue |
LightBlue |
Blue, Navy, Black |
MARPAT Desert |
MARPAT_Desert |
AOR1, 3color, TigerStripe_Desert, Tan, Khaki, CoyoteBrown |
MARPAT Woodland |
MARPAT_Woodland |
M81, TigerStripe, Green, Tan, FoliageGreen |
M81 |
M81 |
TigerStripe, MARPAT_Woodland, Green, Flecktarn, AOR2, OD, OCP, Tan, FoliageGreen |
Navy |
Navy |
Black |
Normal |
Normal |
- |
OD Green |
Green |
OD, FoliageGreen, M81, AOR2, TigerStripe, MARPAT_Woodland |
Olive Drab |
OD |
Green, FoliageGreen, Tan |
OCP |
OCP |
OD, Tan, Khaki, Green, CoyoteBrown, RangerGreen, FoliageGreen |
Ranger Green |
RangerGreen |
OD, Khaki, Green, Tan |
Red |
Red |
Black |
Tan |
Tan |
Khaki, CoyoteBrown, TigerStripe_Desert, AOR1, MARPAT_Desert, 3color |
Tiger Stripe |
TigerStripe |
M81, MARPAT_Woodland, Green, Flecktarn, AOR2, OD, OCP, Tan, FoliageGreen |
UCP |
UCP |
UCP_D, OCP |
UCP-D |
UCP_D |
UCP, OCP |
White |
White |
Grey, Tan, Khaki, Black |
¶ Skins in loadouts
Skins that you select for items are saved alongside the item data in your loadout, using the Skin field, filled with the selected Material Suffix property, as illustrated by this example loadout fragment from a typical NoTeam.kit:
...
{
"Type": "Holster",
"Item": "Holster:BP_Holster_Handgun",
"Skin": "OCP"
},
{
"Type": "EyeWear",
"Item": "EyeWear:BP_Eyeshield_Clear",
"Skin": "Tan"
},
{
"Type": "FaceWear",
"Item": "FaceWear:BP_Mask_Shemagh_Neck",
"Skin": "Tan"
},
{
"Type": "Shirt",
"Item": "Shirt:BP_Shirt_Tactical",
"Skin": "OCP"
},
{
"Type": "Pants",
"Item": "Pants:BP_Pants_Combat",
"Skin": "OCP"
},
{
"Type": "Gloves",
"Item": "Gloves:BP_Gloves_Assault",
"Skin": "Khaki"
},
{
"Type": "Footwear",
"Item": "Footwear:BP_Footwear_HikingShoes",
"Skin": "Tan"
}
...
You will see your new skin appear here once you save your amended loadout.
¶ Skin data asset
If you need to create a new skin type, you will need to create a new GBSkinDataAsset instance in a plugin subdirectory. When you open it, it will look something like this:
Figure 4. Skin Asset Data for the AOR-1 skin type
-
Display Name -
Iconexample texture 256x256 -
Material SuffixThis is the portion appended to the skin prefix of your item when looking for available/suitable skins, whereby your skin material should be named<SkinPrefix>_<MaterialSuffix>.
For example, a prefix may be MI_MyItem and the material suffix for a new magenta skin type may be Magenta, in which case your new magenta skin should be called MI_MyItem_Magenta (note that an underscore is added between the two).
|
-
Possible SubstitutesThese are the Material Suffix names for skins which are a close match, listed in decreasing order of suitability. These substitutes may be used when fixing broken kits or dealing with kit restrictions on servers. They are not compulsory, but it is probably sensible to include at least one non-modded skin type in this list.
¶ Skin System Example (Jeans)
A basic default kit is provided in the Mod Kit, including a pair of hard-wearing jeans. These jeans can also be equipped in the game itself, with a selection of three different skins to choose from (black, blue and light blue):
Figure 5. Jeans shown in the Pants item list, with current selected skin shown at top right.
Figure 6. Your heroic operator kitted out in standard Blue jeans
Let us take a look at the Inventory properties of the Jeans item:
Figure 7. Inventory properties of the Jeans clothing item in GROUND BRANCH
Here we see that a Skin Material Prefix of MI_Jeans is used. Also Inherit Skin and Pass on Skin are unchecked, because this is a relatively simple item without any parent or child attachments.
You will now find the MI_Jeans_Blue material in GBCore in the mod kit. There are two more skins in the base game (not part of the mod kit), as shown here:
Figure 8. Editor folder including two skins for the Jeans item (MI_Jeans_Black and MI_Jeans_LightBlue)
You can see the blue and black skin material previews here:
Figure 9. Blue Jeans skin
Figure 10. Black Jeans skin
Currently the skins system is used for gear and clothing, but there should be nothing stopping you using it for other kinds of items if you want to get adventurous.