ZZetho

I think this has the same effect as putting a PROPERTY { name = _Metal float = 0.8 } in the material node (because the image will have the same values everywhere?). It also has an all rights reserved license for its textures, this just means you cant redistribute them.

No, this is because none of the parts i have recoloured have proper metallic gloss maps, this is because to make them you take the original texture and put it through some filters, i cant do this for the Near Future stuff as it has an all rights reserved license which does not allow redistribution of its textures (which is what i would be doing). To get a similar-ish result try turning detail down and specular / metallic up. (fun fact: you can actually go all the way up to 999 if, instead of using the slider, you type it into the box to the right of the slider).

Textures Unlimited Recolouring Tutorial pt2 (meshes). Part one: You should first have a basic understanding of module manager syntax (what all the symbols do), you can find that on the module manager wiki. First of all, Every part in KSP is defined by a config (.cfg) file, this determines all of the properties of the part, including its model. Every part has at least one (and usually only one) model (.mu) that determines what shape the part is, defined by either "mesh = SomeModel.mu" or MODEL { model = Mod/PartsOrSomething/EnginesAndWhatnot/SomeModel } Every model contains at least one mesh, each mesh uses exactly one material to determine what the mesh looks like (multiple meshes can use the same material). Materials contain a set number of textures that determine what meshes that use this material will look like. ie: meshes are shapes that have materials painted on to them which are then combined to form a model that, when combined with some properties in the config file, makes a part. "To draw something in Unity, you must provide information that describes its shape, and information that describes the appearance of its surface. You use meshes to describe shapes, and materials to describe the appearance of surfaces." - the Unity manual "Materials introduction". For example: You can find the meshes of a part by finding the part's ModelData.txt file mentioned in the last part of this tutorial. It contains the name of every mesh as well as the full details for the material that is used for that mesh, including which shader the material uses which will be important later. ModelData.txt for the Nerv nuclear engine: In this case we have three meshes (engine, obj_gimbal and fairingL) and two materials (NTR and ntrfairing), with two of the meshes using the same material. What we want to do is to make our own materials and have the meshes of a part be able to switch between the default textures and recolour ones. To do this we need to add a KSPTextureSwitch module, something that is added by Textures Unlimited which allows the texture set of a part to be changed. A texture set is effectively just a material plus some other properties (such as if they are recolourable or not), two of them were made near the start of part 1 of this tutorial, these are used as a template that can be copied and edited. Parts don't come with a texture set so we have to make our own, this includes fully recreating the material that the part originally used (the default texture set) and making at least one recolourable texture set. If two meshes use the same material then they can use the same texture switcher, if not they must use different texture switchers. To do this the template texture sets that are defined in the TextureSets config file are copied and edited to have the properties / textures we want (see part 1). By default a texture set's material is applied to every mesh in a part, to prevent this the meshes that the material should / shouldn't be applied to can be specified in the MATERIAL node in a texture set by using "mesh = MeshThatShouldBeUsingThisMaterial" to apply a material to only those meshes (whitelist) and "excludeMesh = MeshThatShouldlntBeUsingThisMaterial" to apply a material to every mesh except those meshes (blacklist). Usually you should only be using one or the other of these for each texture set. You can often tell what meshes are by their name, if that fails you can open the model in blender, the objects will have the same names. A tutorial on how to do that (this also gives colliders but these can be ignored). If that too fails your next best hope is the Debug Stuff mod, turn on Labels to see the names of meshes (and also a bunch of other stuff). Another thing to look out for is materials that use different shaders, in ModelData the shader that each material uses is specified, for the default texture set to look the same as the original texture the shader has to also be the same. The shader that the template default texture set uses is "KSP/Emissive/Bumped Specular" (so if that's what the material you're trying to recreate uses you don't have to do this) and can be changed with "@shader = SomeShader" in the MATERIAL node, don't change the shader in the recolour texture set. For example: At this point, when you launch the game the part that is being recoloured should have multiple texture switches which each control the recolouring of a portion of the part. Things of note: - It is possible to leave a mesh completely untouched, if every material excludes it then it will keep its original textures, this is used for meshes that should never be recoloured, for example the meshes that flags go on or meshes used for particle effects (Shader Name : KSP/Particles). - You don't have to use one texture switcher for a group of meshes that all use the same material, you can split them up into different switchers so they are independently recolourable if you'd like. - Many meshes may use the same texture set if they all use the same materials. This means that the meshes of multiple parts can be recoloured at once by using @PART[part1,part2,part3], keep in mind that this will add KSPTextureSwitch modules to each of the parts so if you add another KSPTextureSwitch module to one of the parts to recolour a mesh that uses a unique material then when you add the recolour texture set in the recolour config file it will not be the first KSPTextureSwitch any more so the number after @MODULE[KSPTextureSwitch] will not be a zero any more. - If multiple models (.mu) are being recoloured, either because multiple parts are being recoloured or a part is made of multiple models, the whitelist / blacklist from mesh = and excludeMesh = is only applied per-model, meaning that there are situations where it makes sense to have both mesh = and excludeMesh = in a single material (use this material for only these meshes in one model and all meshes except these in another model), assuming the models have no meshes with the same name (have a look at the generics section in the default and recolour files of my near future launch vehicles recolour for examples). - You can add as many recolour texture sets as you want to a texture switcher by putting more than one "textureSet = SomeTextureSet" in a @MODULE[KSPTextureSwitch] node (have a look at the fuel tanks section in the recolour file of my near future launch vehicles recolour for examples). Common issues: - The number after @MODULE[KSPTextureSwitch], is wrong, this makes switchers have too many / two few options as texture sets are added to the wrong one. The number corresponds to which number KSPTextureSwitch module is being edited. Modules are numbered in the order they were created, starting from zero, so the third one would be number 2. - Texture sets have the same name, make sure every texture set has a unique name.

No, i think i just forgot to add it.

The near future launch vehicles recolour is done!* https://github.com/ZZetho/TU_NearFutureLaunchVehicles/tree/v1.0 Most of the parts have multiple different recolour variants (as in the bits that are red / green / blue change). I'm not entirely happy with the cargo bay recolours so if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. *except for the fairings because i don't know how to recolour them and the structural tubes because (after a week of trying stuff) i think they might just be impossible.

As far as i know yes, this is why i prefer to use a few texture switcher modules each for a few different meshes on a part, an engine for example might have a texture switcher for the engine itself one for the engine mount and one for the shroud, these might each be made of multiple meshes but as long as the meshes referenced in a textures set all use the same textures it will work fine. The texture switchers change the textures of the meshes of the part while the part variants (if the part has them) might add or remove meshes from the part. This is assuming the variants don't also change the textures in which case yes you will need a recolour variant for each default variant. The variants method also only seems to work with the stock part variants module and not things like b9 part switch variants (i haven't been able to get them to work at least). It also does this thing where if you change a part from one recoloured variant to another it doesn't keep its colours and goes back to being red / green / blue.

Kind of, instead of using a KSPTextureSwitch module you have to use the part variant module. There's some examples of this in the making history recolour, which edits the variant module to add some recoloured variants that use multiple texture sets (the mastodon engine recolour for example).

A Near Future Spacecraft update broke some of the recolours (specifically the pheobe and proteus command pods), i've just released an update that fixes this.

The near future launch vehicles recolour is nearing completion.

This is correct, its definitely kind of confusing so i've updated the OP to hopefully be more clear.

I don't unfortunately, i have never tried recolouring something with transparency, textures unlimited does have some shaders with transparency >>from the TU wiki<< so adding the line @shader = TU/Transparent/Metallic (or specular if your using that one) inside the material node of the recolour texture set might help (it also might need to only be applied to the meshes that are transparent or maybe not idk). You'll probably also need to add a @shader = whatever/the/original/shader/was to the texture set of the default (the original shader that was used can be found in the modelData.txt file, this might also need to be applied to only the transparent bits???, modelData will tell you what shaders are applied to what meshes). I'm going to make a tutorial on variants / multi-mesh parts in the coming weeks, i was originally also going to include stuff about using different shaders and what-not in that one but they turned out to be much more difficult than i thought. I remember the recolour for the making history parts has some examples of recolouring with variants so you might be able to reference that.

i have had this issue as well when making my recolours, it is caused by an issue with the main texture that has been specified in whatever texture set that default uses, its probably just because a file path is not quite right but it can also be because the main texture is in an incompatible format.

these recolours do not rely on TURD

These recolours are now available on CKAN

All the recolours have been changed to use .png textures. Anyone who was having issues with the recolours not working should reinstall to (hopefully) have things fixed.

While i was taking the time to investigate this i found out that .png files are also supported by Textures Unlimited (though for some reason they are flipped vertically?), hopefully they will work more consistently, So far i've only changed the Near Future Aeronautics recolour to use them. I think this was also the cause of @TheThunder's issues. So hopefully it will work once you redownload it.

- You don't need to look at the logs, post them in here and i can do that. - You're right its not restock. - Downloading from CKAN is the correct thing to do. also: you mention you downloaded most from ckan, which ones did you install manually?

I tested your mod list and i didn't have the same issue, I've reuploaded it to github if that was broken for some reason, if that doesn't change anything I'd like to see your log file. A guide for that is here:

@TheThunder what other mods do you have installed?

it comes with TU

No but i would like to make something to do this

Made a basic tutorial for making your own recolour.

Textures Unlimited Recolouring Tutorial pt1 (minimum viable product). More info can be found on the Textures Unlimited Wiki. I use paint.net and notepad++ but any text editor and image editor should work fine. You need to have both Module Manager and Textures Unlimited installed to do this. You also should install the mod Part info in PAW to get part names more easily This wont work for parts that have texture variants (though it can be done), if variants don't change the texture it should be fine. First of all go into GameData/000_TexturesUnlimited/GeneralConfiguration and set exportUVs to true, once you have launched the game at least once this will create a folder "expotedUVMaps" in your ksp install folder (one level up from gamedata) which contains the info for every texture that every part uses as well as any other properties that the part has (eg: shininess). Next create a folder in gamedata, this will be where all of the recolour stuff will go, inside your recolour folder make three .cfg files (make a .txt file then rename it to .cfg) one is for texture sets one is for the default (un-recoloured) textures of parts and one is for recolouring the parts so name them accordingly. Also create some folders in here, these will hold the recolour textures and default textures for if parts don't have them. Just copy the folder named "Default" from any of my recolours to get the default textures. File tree should look something like this: Copy the following into the texture sets file: Change "NearFutureLaunchVehicles " to the name of whatever mod you are recolouring (the name of its folder inside gamedata). For each of the texture sets change name to something unique. Copy the following into your default file: First of all change "NearFutureLaunchVehicles" to the name of the mod you are recolouring. Change 000_TU_NFLV_000 to 000_TU_somethingThatIdentifiesWhatModIsBeingRecooloured_000. Change currentTextureSet, textureSet and @name from NFLV_Defalt to something else. Change the NFLV_Default in +KSP_TEXTURE_SET[NFLV_Default] to whatever you called the first texture set in the texture sets file (NFLV_Default in the previous pic). Change the partName in @PART[partName] to the internal name of whatever part you are recolouring, assuming you have Part info in PAW you can click on "Copy Part Name" in the right click window of a part. To fill in the rest of the missing bits you'll need to open that exportedUVMaps folder from earlier and navigate to whatever part you want to recolour and open its ModelData.txt file. In here you will find the mesh(s) that the part is made of and the path to the textures they use, copy these texture paths into the default texture sets file, each part needs a _MainTex and a _BumpMap, _Emissive is optional, remove it if the part doesnt have one. If the part has no bump map use the one found in that Default folder you copied earlier. ModelData also shows what properties are applied to meshes, if there are any, copy the properties name and value into the property node. if there are multiple properties copy the node (from "PROPERTY {" to "}" ) and put them one after another (though i've never encountered part with anything other than shininess). Some parts have multiple meshes, this is fine unless they use different textures, if they do come back later for when i make a part two of this tutorial or try a different part. you can ignore any meshes called flagTransform though. Once you've done this once for a part from a mod you can copy it and only change the parts that are different between parts, the partName, the currentTextureSet textureSet and @name should be unique per part and the textures will of course be different. If multiple parts use the same textures you can do multiple parts at the same time, put their internal names one after another in the partName box with commas separating them. Great job! if you did everything right when you launch the game the part should look absolutely indistinguishable from what it did previously (it should also have a selection box with no other options than "Appearance" in its right click menu). If it didn't work check the common issues section at the bottom of this post. Now we need to recolour it. Copy the following into your recolour file: Change partName, the NFLV bit of 999_TU_NFLV_Recolour_000, NearFutureLaunchVehicles (name of the mod being recoloured) and the textures _MainTex, _BumpMap and _Emissive to the same as whatever they were in the previous default file. Change textureSet and @name in the same way as last time but use a different unique name. Change NFLV_Paint to whatever you called the paint texture set in your texture sets file. Some parts use the transparency of _MainTex as a gloss map, if the main texture is partially transparent this is likely the case and it can be used as _MetallicGlossMap, if it isn't then you will have to make your own. Now is the point where we actually get to do some recolouring. I will be using paint.net for this part. Open the original texture and recolour it, it should be split into four areas, a purely red, purely green, and purely blue section that do not overlap, anti aliasing should be off so there are no semi-red semi-green ect pixels. Any part of the image that isn't being recoloured should be pitch black, these parts will retain their original textures on the final part. If you need to make a _MetallicGlossMap use greyscale, the smoothness is based on how transparent parts of the texture are (more transparent = less glossy) and the metalness (metalicity?) is based on the brightness. !! important!! save the recolour as a .png, when you do this is needs to be flipped vertically compared to the original texture. Once these textures are done save them somewhere in your recolour folder and set _MaskTex to the path to the recolour texture from GameData. eg: "texture = _MaskTex,TU_NearFutureSpacecraft/Textures/EnginePods/engine-pod-01_paint" don't include the file extension (.png). If you copy the path from the top bar of file explorer you'll have to change the \'s to /'s. Back in the recolour file we now change the vectors, these are essentially the average value of a property in the red green and blue areas of the recolour texture. the only one to worry about for now is the _DiffuseNorm vector, this is the average brightness of each of the areas, you can get this by using the pipette tool in each of the areas, and if you look at the HSV values you can copy the V value, the values range from 0 to 1 with 1 being very bright and 0 being very dark. 0.75 is a pretty good value for stock white areas but you'll want to change it if the red, green or blue areas are particularly dark or bright. The exact value doesn't really matter, if its really far off the recoloured areas will appear to dark or bright compared to other parts. There is a proper way to calculate these that can be found on the Textures Unlimited Wiki if you want. Assuming you did everything right (and i wrote this tutorial correctly) when you launch the game the parts you want recoloured should now have that option. Common issues (that i had): - Parts appear solid grey / Recolours are solid red / Parts have weird shadows / Parts are mirror-shiny. This is because the _MainTex / _MaskTex / _BumpMap / _MetallicGlossMap did not work, check the file path specified in the default / recolour files are correct, that the textures are being applied to the correct part. - Some bits of parts have the wrong texture applied to them. This is either because that part is made of multiple meshes with different textures, i will explain how to solve this sometime in the future™ or because the recolour texture has not been flipped.

The recolour for Near future propulsion is done https://github.com/ZZetho/TU_NeafFuturePropulsion/

This should be fixed now.