Making a Clothing Mod - Help!

[ifoz]

I'm extremely new to modding, so I thought that I would try my hand at making a simple clothing mod.
I've got the texture for the coat I've made, and I've downloaded VSmodelmaker, but what do I need to do now?
I don't know how to turn my texture into a clothing item and then export it as a mod.

Advice would be much appreciated!
Thank you!

Edited September 1, 2024 by ifoz

[Thorfinn]

I'm curious too. I've never played around with anything on the paperdoll. Thinking about it, everything I've ever done has been a placeable block.

Not even sure what I'd look for. You probably know the names of some of the clothes, right? Have you done a "find in files" search for them to see how Tyron did it?

(BTW, Notepad++ has a "Find in Files" that works awesomely. It will find all such instances, and you can just click on each to open the file and skip straight to that, then browse/edit the file. If you include some snippet plugin, you can extract that codeblock, save it as a snippet, and with one click insert it into your mod.)

[ifoz]

1 hour ago, Thorfinn said:

I'm curious too. I've never played around with anything on the paperdoll. Thinking about it, everything I've ever done has been a placeable block.

Not even sure what I'd look for. You probably know the names of some of the clothes, right? Have you done a "find in files" search for them to see how Tyron did it?

(BTW, Notepad++ has a "Find in Files" that works awesomely. It will find all such instances, and you can just click on each to open the file and skip straight to that, then browse/edit the file. If you include some snippet plugin, you can extract that codeblock, save it as a snippet, and with one click insert it into your mod.)

Alright, I've messed around with it a little, I've gotten some help on the Discord, and I think I've got the basics figured out.
Initially I used another clothing mod as a base for the files, but then modified all of them.

I'll definitely have to try out Notepad++ though, that sounds really handy. I've used it before but haven't installed it on this computer yet.

Here's what I've got so far.


Tomorrow, I attempt adding new trousers.

[LadyWYT]

I'm not a coder, and the bits of code I've messed with were with Java(VS utilizes C++, to my knowledge), mainly fiddling with Minecraft textures, but I'll post what I know anyway in case there's a nugget in there that helps.

Typically, the model and texture that belongs to a block or item will be defined in the portion of code that creates said block/item. The texture, I'm guessing, you can probably either create in the model program, or export the mesh(pattern, if you will) so you know where to add color/leave transparent in a program like GIMP, Photoshop, or other similar software.

If the block is meant to have a random texture, that's typically done via percentage values, I think, and/or tying it to map coordinates. I do a terrible job trying to explain this one, but it makes a lot more sense when you see a code example for it. It's a similar case for entities with variable textures--there's typically a of set percentages that determine which textures you're most likely to see and which will be more rare.

Probably the biggest factor I can think of to keep in mind with this kind of mod, is this little gem from the July 2024 dev update:

I'm not sure how big the switch from 2D texture to 3D model will be, but it's something to keep in mind.

 

[ifoz]

8 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

I'm not sure how big the switch from 2D texture to 3D model will be, but it's something to keep in mind.

Yeah, I'm uncertain about how easy it will be to make clothing mods when this switch happens.
Since I've just been editing raw texture files and not using the VSmodelmaker.

If it is affected, I guess I'll have to learn to use the model maker. 

[LadyWYT]

35 minutes ago, ifoz said:

Yeah, I'm uncertain about how easy it will be to make clothing mods when this switch happens.

I'm guessing it will probably still be relatively straightforward(once you figure out what you're doing, anyway), but be a bit more time-intensive due to the 3D modeling. Of course, the current 2D texture style might still work, but I'd also wager that it'll fall out of fashion fairly fast if the 3D clothing looks much nicer.

[ifoz]

Thought I'd leave a fun update for you guys here, I've been busy adding lots of new stuff to my mod!

So far I've got most trader clothes and quite a few "restored" clothing items - stuff like the tattered crimson tunic repaired or the torn riding pants repaired.
There's also a couple of unique clothes, like a few shirts made from the clutter bed quilt textures.