[1.12.x] Recolour Collection

[TheThunder]

10 hours ago, ZZetho said:

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:

Do you know what I should look at in the logs? and I tried reinstall it and it still doesn't work and I just realised that it's the entire NFA depot that doesn't workd so I'm confused, I thought it was just a blacklist thing but nah it isn"t

So it's probably not restock fault

Also I downloaded almost all my mods from CKAN doesn't know if it changes something?

[ZZetho]

10 hours ago, TheThunder said:

Do you know what I should look at in the logs? and I tried reinstall it and it still doesn't work and I just realised that it's the entire NFA depot that doesn't workd so I'm confused, I thought it was just a blacklist thing but nah it isn"t

So it's probably not restock fault

Also I downloaded almost all my mods from CKAN doesn't know if it changes something?

- 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?

Edited August 2 by ZZetho
also:

[Tecorian]

So, as a sample, it works perfectly for me

 

[UncleMateo]

On 7/25/2024 at 9:36 PM, ZZetho said:

Textures Unlimited Recolouring Tutorial pt1 (minimum viable product).

I threw this together in like an hour so there's definitely stuff i forgot about, please tell me if you have problems.

More info can be found on the Textures Unlimited Wiki.

I use paint.net and notepad++, any text editor should work fine but the only image editors i know of that support .dds files are paint.net, Gimp and photoshop.

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:

  Reveal hidden contents

// texture sets that are copied to create the default and recolour texture sets //

KSP_TEXTURE_SET:NEEDS[TexturesUnlimited&NearFutureLaunchVehicles]
{
    name = NFLV_Default
    title = Squad
    recolorable = false

    MATERIAL
    {
        mode = create
        
        shader = KSP/Emissive/Bumped Specular
    }
}

// create red green and blue if they dont exist already //

KSP_COLOR_PRESET:NEEDS[TexturesUnlimited]
{
    name = absolute_red
    title = Absolute Red
    color = 255,0,0
    specular = 0
    metallic = 0
}
KSP_COLOR_PRESET:NEEDS[TexturesUnlimited]
{
    name = absolute_green
    title = Absolute Green
    color = 0,255,0
    specular = 0
    metallic = 0
}
KSP_COLOR_PRESET:NEEDS[TexturesUnlimited]
{
    name = absolute_blue
    title = Absolute Blue
    color = 0,0,255
    specular = 0
    metallic = 0
}

KSP_TEXTURE_SET:NEEDS[TexturesUnlimited&NearFutureLaunchVehicles]
{
    name = NFLV_Paint
    title = Bob Ross Paints
    recolorable = true
    
    MATERIAL
    {
        mode = create
        
        shader = TU/Metallic
        
        keyword = TU_RECOLOR
    }
    COLORS
    {
        mainColor = absolute_red
        secondColor = absolute_green
        detailColor = absolute_blue
    }
}

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:

  Reveal hidden contents

// default texture template //
@PART[partName]:FOR[000_TU_NFLV_000]:NEEDS[TexturesUnlimited&NearFutureLaunchVehicles]
{
    MODULE
    {
        name = KSPTextureSwitch
        sectionName = Appearance
        currentTextureSet = NFLV_Default
        textureSet = NFLV_Default
    }
}
+KSP_TEXTURE_SET[NFLV_Default]:NEEDS[TexturesUnlimited&NearFutureLaunchVehicles]
{
    @name = NFLV_Default
    @MATERIAL
    {        
        texture = _MainTex,
        texture = _BumpMap,
        texture = _Emissive,
        
        PROPERTY
        {
            name = _Shininess
            float = 0.4
        }
    }
}

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:

  Reveal hidden contents

// recolour template //
@PART[partName]:FOR[999_TU_NFLV_Recolour_000]:NEEDS[TexturesUnlimited&NearFutureLaunchVehicles]
{
    @MODULE[KSPTextureSwitch],0
    {
        textureSet = NFLV_Paint
    }
    %MODULE[SSTURecolorGUI]
    {
        %name = SSTURecolorGUI
    }
}
+KSP_TEXTURE_SET[NFLV_Paint]:NEEDS[TexturesUnlimited&NearFutureLaunchVehicles]
{
    @name = NFLV_Paint
    @MATERIAL
    {
        vector = _DiffuseNorm,0.75,0.75,0.75
        vector = _MetalNorm,0.55,0.55,0.55
        vector = _SmoothnessNorm,0.55,0.55,0.55
        
        texture = _MainTex,
        texture = _BumpMap,
        texture = _Emissive,
        texture = _MetallicGlossMap,
        texture = _MaskTex,
    }
}

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 it doesn't matter what colours you use, the glossiness is based on how transparent the texture is (more transparent = less glossy).

!! Critical !!  When you save the image (as a .dds) you need to select the format as being "BC3 (sRGB, DX 10+)" or "BC7 (Linear, DX 11+)" otherwise it will not work. There are almost certainly other formats that also work (i haven't and am not going to try them all because these two are enough). BC3 does not work with blender if you want to open parts to check your recolours before launching the game, BC7 does work in blender but does not support transparency (so no gloss maps).

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_paintTU_NearFutureSpacecraft/Textures/EnginePods/engine-pod-01_paint" don't include the file extension (.dds). 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.

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, it 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.

This is because the _MainTex / _MaskTex / _BumpMap did not work, check the file path specified in the default / recolour file is correct, that the textures are being applied to the correct part and the textures are saved in the right format.

 - Parts are mirror-shiny.

_MetallicGlossMap is completely opaque, check it is the right format (BC3 sRGB DX 10+) / file path is correct (same as above).

 - Some bits of parts have the wrong texture applied to them.

This is because that part is made of multiple meshes with different textures, i will explain how to solve this sometime in the future™ .

I cannot overstate how much I appreciate you typing this up.  I was already trying to figure out how to do this on my own, reverse engineering existing configs.  I was having only marginal success, and your guide filled in the gaps I needed.   You are a lifesaver!  

As a proof-of-concept for my TURD-crafting I started with a single-part mod with no animations or alternate colors: the Radial Experiment Storage Container.  This mod is pretty old.  It predates the stock science container and has textures that look slightly unpleasant in the modern incarnation of KSP graphics, being made before Squad did a visual overhaul of the parts, IIRC.  Anyways, it took me quite some troubleshooting, but I managed to finally make the thing work:

 https://imgbox.com/GxthCr3f 

 I have big, big plans in terms of TURD configs, there are a number of obscure, ancient, forgotten mods that would greatly benefit from having BobRoss paints.  Next is KerbalHacks: DropTanks, one that I've wanted to have Bob Ross capabilities for ages, and that has relatively few parts and relatively simple textures: the perfect low hanging fruit.    I plan on making a similar thread as to yours for my part of this project, and probably linking back to the main TURD thread when I throw out a new mod-recolor.  Unless people really want it now, I'll release the RadialExperiment TURD configs alongside the DropTank ones when  I finish them. 

I really hope this kind of thing catches on with other would-be modders.  Together, a small handful of us can bring BobRoss colors to every modded part in the game, one-by-one.

 

 

On another note..

I also wanted to point out that there seems to be something weird for me as well for your newest sets of TURD configs.. I seem to remember there being one or two that were originally in the TURD folder rather than in GameData proper, and those ones worked fine for me in another instance of KSP.  But, in celebration of my achievement, I decided to bloat up the load time on my "BareBones KSP TestBed Save" I'm using to test TURD configs by adding every single TURD-supported mod.  This KSP instance basically just has some visual mods and any part-mod I'm presently working on recolors for, and now like I said it has all the TURD-supported partmods as well.  It's a pretty clean save, one I made about a week ago.  But your TURD configs don't seem to work when installed in the GameData folder.  I mean, they sort of work.. they do that thing where they simply recolor the entire model red and trample over any emissive or non-TURD recolored areas.  In my (albeit limited) experience of trying to apply BobRoss magic to the RadialExperimentContainer, that usually meant buggy filepaths, or something wrong with the TextureSets file.. but I didn't see any issue in the configs themselves.  Looking through the log.. it spams over and over and over that "DDS: DX10 format is not supported".  I think it's related to this.  There's little else that appears relevant in the log.  I'm not able to open those files because I'm only using Gimp presently, so I can't test this until I get a DX10 supporting program that can convert it to DX3, but I think if you change these DDS files to DX3 it will fix the problem entirely.  Then again, I could be wrong.

[TheThunder]

20 hours ago, ZZetho said:

- 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 only downloaded the Volumetrics Clouds and the color depots of TURD manually everything else should be from CKAN (maybe some few mods aren't like one for a droneship but it can't be this)

[ZZetho]

3 hours ago, UncleMateo said:

I also wanted to point out that there seems to be something weird for me as well for your newest sets of TURD configs.. I seem to remember there being one or two that were originally in the TURD folder rather than in GameData proper, and those ones worked fine for me in another instance of KSP.  But, in celebration of my achievement, I decided to bloat up the load time on my "BareBones KSP TestBed Save" I'm using to test TURD configs by adding every single TURD-supported mod.  This KSP instance basically just has some visual mods and any part-mod I'm presently working on recolors for, and now like I said it has all the TURD-supported partmods as well.  It's a pretty clean save, one I made about a week ago.  But your TURD configs don't seem to work when installed in the GameData folder.  I mean, they sort of work.. they do that thing where they simply recolor the entire model red and trample over any emissive or non-TURD recolored areas.  In my (albeit limited) experience of trying to apply BobRoss magic to the RadialExperimentContainer, that usually meant buggy filepaths, or something wrong with the TextureSets file.. but I didn't see any issue in the configs themselves.  Looking through the log.. it spams over and over and over that "DDS: DX10 format is not supported".  I think it's related to this.  There's little else that appears relevant in the log.  I'm not able to open those files because I'm only using Gimp presently, so I can't test this until I get a DX10 supporting program that can convert it to DX3, but I think if you change these DDS files to DX3 it will fix the problem entirely.  Then again, I could be wrong.

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.

[ZZetho]

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.

[lBoBl]

EDIT: OK, no, I found the issue, forget everything I said it was just me being extremely stupid (super obvious config file error)

Spoiler

I'm having trouble trying to recolor parts from Station Parts Expansion Redux by Nertea

Several parts of the same diameter but of different lengths use the same texture file, and I think  the fuel tanks of different lengths from Near Future Propulsion (also by Nertea) do kind of the same thing so I've tried to reverse engineer your configs for that mod but with little success. 

Everything works fine until I switch to Bob Ross Paints in the VAB. If I save the mask as a .dds TU apparently doesn't even find it and I get only red. If I save it as a png it does find it and maps it to the model correctly (provided I flipped it vertically before saving). BUT,  in both cases, the underlying texture is not being mapped correctly to the model, the features of the texture are not in the correct place, and the final result looks weird.

Here are a couple screenshots of the various results I got. The main issue of the underlying texture not being mapped correctly is always present. 

https://imgur.com/a/CY5orX2

Any idea what could be causing this issue?

The hatch has its own mesh and texture and works fine. The top and bottom sections also use a different mesh and texture that is common to all 3.75m parts but I didn't take care of it yet. 

Edited August 6 by lBoBl

[lBoBl]

Recolors for Space Station Parts Expansion Redux are coming along nicely, I've done about 20% of parts (there's quite a lot of them) so far

Edited August 7 by lBoBl

[Tecorian]

Space Station Parts Expansion Redux are coming?

You made my day. THX in advance!

 

[UncleMateo]

https://imgbox.com/HwwWeWfX

I ran into a lot of unexpected complications with the DropTanks mod, and there's some issue I have to fix before I can release it, but the BobRoss recolors are FINALLY working for that mod.

Basically, there's two meshes, one for the tank and one for the little knobs on the back which act as decouplers.  Trying to replicate how other TURD configs handle that didn't initially work, until I finally realized there was a bad pathfile to one of my recolor files, and I'm not sure how long that was a problem for so now I need to go back and retry several different things, and see if I can fix my 1 error and 1 warnings I'm generating.

..anyways when I ran into insurmountable frustrations, I switched gears and started working on another mod, first amongst those, and the one I've (sort of) completed, was the DaMichel AeroRadial mod, which adds a radial RTG and a radial FuelCell, both of which are made to be aerodynamic (as the name would suggest).  Unfortunately the recolor for these parts came out a little less-than-ideal, with the colors being a little dark, especially for the red portion.  I was able to mitigate that to a pretty good degree but it's still a bit darker than I'd like, you'll see them to the right of the image, around the 'Radial Science Container'

..Last but not least,  I've started working on TURD configs for Joolian Discovery, an older mod that I've always loved, and one that I've wanted to have Bob Ross Paints because I find myself using the parts less and less in modern KSP and  I think having recolorability would go a long ways towards reinvigorating their place in my career and science games.  These parts are based off of 2001: A Space Odyssey's main character, the interplanetary ship 'Discovery', (you can call him HAL).

Only marginal success so far, but I'll have something to show for it soon.  A lot of the parts either have multiple meshes or other complications that I've not quite gotten the hang of dealing with (yet), but mark my words, their time is coming!  My recent breakthroughs with the DropTank mod might have given me the tools I need to do that.  

I might just release these 4 TURD configs simultaneously since the only one that's truly 100% finished without weirdness or glitchiness is the 'Radial Science Container'.  Hopefully will have something within a few days.  Just wanted to update any interested parties.

 

On 8/3/2024 at 1:27 AM, ZZetho said:

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.

Wanted to mention that this seemed to fix every issue I was having with the recent configs you've released.  I haven't teste every single part but I've looked at a sampling across several that were giving me trouble and they're all fine now.

On 8/7/2024 at 6:02 AM, lBoBl said:

Recolors for Space Station Parts Expansion Redux are coming along nicely, I've done about 20% of parts (there's quite a lot of them) so far

Truly awesome!  This is a mod that really deserves Bob Ross!  Godspeed and good luck.

Edited August 9 by UncleMateo
it didn't look like the embedded image link was going to work so I replaced it with the bare link, I guess this board doesn't like imgbox? Or maybe its because I'm still a new member? Anyways, imgur hasn't been working for me ,so I didn't want to use them

[UncleMateo]

I've released the 5 TURD configs I've been working on:

Just wanted to say thanks again, ZZetho, I'm not sure I could have done it without your help

[ZZetho]

These recolours are now available on CKAN

[Grenartia]

2 hours ago, ZZetho said:

These recolours are now available on CKAN

How does that work when TURD itself isn't on CKAN? 

[ZZetho]

31 minutes ago, Grenartia said:

How does that work when TURD itself isn't on CKAN? 

these recolours do not rely on TURD

[Grenartia]

12 hours ago, ZZetho said:

these recolours do not rely on TURD

Noice! Good work!

[lBoBl]

It took a long time but SSPX recolors should be released next week 

[Tecorian]

On 8/24/2024 at 4:15 PM, lBoBl said:

It took a long time but SSPX recolors should be released next week 

Cant´await this modding work.

THX a lot in advance!

[UncleMateo]

On 8/24/2024 at 7:15 AM, lBoBl said:

It took a long time but SSPX recolors should be released next week 

I know that TURD configs can be pernicious.. my last batch were supposed to be easy ones.. I expected them to take a week, maybe.  Well it was actually just a few days short of a month.  These recolors can be tricky.

My point is, don't give up, my friend.  Keep fighting the good fight.  I believe in you.

[mindseyemodels]

for some reason all the near future recolors are just red. any way to fix this? i was hoping to get the recolor patterns from the images on github. i just don't understand what i did wrong. 

 

Edited September 20 by mindseyemodels

[Bayden]

1 hour ago, mindseyemodels said:

for some reason all the near future recolors are just red. any way to fix this? i was hoping to get the recolor patterns from the images on github. i just don't understand what i did wrong. 

 

Oh yeah this happened to me too, you probably did something wrong with the folders when you installed it. Make sure you didn't put a folder that contains the actual  mod folder inside GameData.

[mindseyemodels]

58 minutes ago, Bayden said:

Oh yeah this happened to me too, you probably did something wrong with the folders when you installed it. Make sure you didn't put a folder that contains the actual  mod folder inside GameData.

so do i just drag and drop the initial folder in the zip into the game data? 

 

edit: did that and nothing changed

 

edit 2, finally got it to work

Edited September 21 by mindseyemodels

[Bayden]

4 minutes ago, mindseyemodels said:

so do i just drag and drop the initial folder in the zip into the game data?

 

No. For example, with Near Future Spacecraft, when you first extract the zip you probably get a folder called "TU_NearFutureSpacecraft-1.4". Inside that folder is another one called "TU_NearFutureSpacecraft-1.4". Inside that  folder is one called "TU_NearFutureSpacecraft". This is the actual mod folder that needs to be place in GameData. If you put either one of the first two folders inside GameData, you get that red effect.

[ZZetho]

6 hours ago, Bayden said:

No. For example, with Near Future Spacecraft, when you first extract the zip you probably get a folder called "TU_NearFutureSpacecraft-1.4". Inside that folder is another one called "TU_NearFutureSpacecraft-1.4". Inside that  folder is one called "TU_NearFutureSpacecraft". This is the actual mod folder that needs to be place in GameData. If you put either one of the first two folders inside GameData, you get that red effect.

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

[ZZetho]

The near future launch vehicles recolour is nearing completion.