Vehicle Skinner

Contents

  1. Description

  2. Installation

  3. Usage

  4. Options

  5. Skin Creation

  6. Version History

  7. Credits

1. Description

Vehicle Skinner is a mutator designed to allow players to set skins for their vehicles. Skins can be assigned for any vehicle, where a skin is made of two materials/textures – one for the red team and one for the blue team (or one material could be used for both.)

By default, Vehicle Skinner includes the following skins for Raptor, Manta, Goliath, Hellbender, Scorpion, and Leviathan:

To keep file size to a minimum, no new textures are included (all default skins are simple Combiners/Shaders using the original textures.)

2. Installation

Copy the following files to your UT2004\System directory:

3. Usage

Put Vehicle Skinner into the list of active mutators when starting a game. Vehicle Skinner automatically adds itself to the ServerPackages.

Vehicle Skinner has several options and ways of controlling skins. The options menu can be accessed through the standard mutator configuration interface when starting a game. It can also be accessed in-game by typing the Mutate VehicleSkinConfig command or binding it to a key (this can be done through the UT2004 control configuration screen.)

4. Options

The following options exist in the options menu:

Skin Control Type

Server Control – The server controls all vehicle skins, through the Server Profile.

Client-Side Control – Each client controls vehicle skins locally, through the Client Profile. A client's choice of skins has no effect on the other clients.

Per-Player Control – Each client controls the skins of vehicles they drive. Other players will see your skins.

Note: If you do not have the relevant materials/textures installed for a skin, you will only see the default skin for that vehicle.

Server Profile

The Server Profile defines the default skins for all vehicles in the game (in IA, or if hosting a game). Altering this profile on a client has no effect.

Client Profile

The Client Profile defines the client-side skins, or skins for the local player if Per-Player Skin Control is selected.

Bot Profile

The Bot Profile overrides or supplements vehicle skin settings for bots.

Supplement Bot Settings

If enabled, the Bot Profile supplements vehicle skin settings for bots intead of overriding them.

Random Bot Default

If enabled, each bot will pick a random skin the first time they get in a vehicle. (Only if Skin Control Type is Per-Player Control.)

Reset Bots

If enabled, vehicle skin settings for bots will be reset at the start of each match.

Hide Duplicates

Click the Hide Duplicates button to search for and hide identical vehicles (i.e. custom varieties of ONS vehicles.)

Searching for and hiding duplicates (vehicles with identical meshes):

- Takes time, as ALL vehicle classes must be loaded.

- Cannot be undone through the GUI, only by deleting 'Overrides=' lines in the INI.

- Causes the hidden vehicles to use the skin of whatever vehicle has their mesh.


This process generates vehicle class override lines in the VehicleSkinner.ini, such as the following:

Overrides=(ClassName="MyPackage.CustomPRV",MatchingName="Onslaught.ONSPRV")


This would cause CustomPRVs to be recognised as ONSPRVs, and use ONSPRV skins.

Profiles

Edit Profile

Skin settings for each vehicle are stored in “profiles”. In addition to the Server Profile, Client Profile, and Bot Profile (see above), each bot may have a profile. Use the “Edit Profile” drop-down list to select a profile for editing. Items under the Skin Selection heading can be used to assign skins to vehicles in the profile currently being edited.

To create a new profile, type the name of the profile as the Server Profile, Client Profile or Bot Profile, then close (by clicking OK) and re-open the options menu. The profile name should then appear in the list of editable profiles.

Skin Selection

Each vehicle reported by the game is shown as an item under the Skin Selection heading. Each item allows you to select a skin from the list of available skins for that vehicle.

All Vehicles

Use the “All Vehicles” drop-down list to apply a skin to all vehicles. All available skins will appear in this list, but can only be applied to vehicles which have a skin by the right name.

5. Skin Creation

Skin creation must be done by editing the VehicleSkins.ini file. An example skin is as follows:

[Raptor_ShinyBlack vs_SkinData]

DisplayName=Shiny Black

VehicleClassName=Onslaught.ONSAttackCraft

RedSkinName=VehicleSkinner.Raptor_Black

BlueSkinName=VehicleSkinner.Raptor_Black

bNoRandomSelect=True

The first line defines the actual name of the skin – in this case “Raptor_ShinyBlack”. The “vs_SkinData” part is simply to let the game know this is a skin definition.

DisplayName defines the name which will appear in the list of skins in the configuration menu.

VehicleClassName defines which vehicle class the skin can be assigned to. For skins to be used by multiple vehicles, they must be defined once for each vehicle class.

RedSkinName defines the material (i.e. Shader, Combiner, FinalBlend, etc.) or texture which is used for vehicles on the red team.

BlueSkinName defines the material or texture for blue team vehicles.

The last line is strictly optional. If included, the skin will not be selected by bots when the Random Bot Default option is enabled.

6. Version History

v1.0

7. Credits

Vehicle Skinner is a porkmanii production. The idea stems from Uncommon's Vivid Vehicles plus my obsession with customization. ;-)