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Fallout 4 - How do you create your own pip-boy skin option?


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I've been trying to figure out how I add my own custom pip-boy skin option to the game, but so far have no clue. Does anyone know how to do this in FO4Edit or the Creation Kit?

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So I've recently done this myself by reverse engineering one of the creation club pip boy skins (I got a few while they were free, don't worry).
The good thing is, that since the CC has been added, Beth put in some specific Keywords etc. to make the Pip-Boy a "moddable" armor piece.
So here is what I did:
1. Take your <customPipBoyfilename>_d.dds/_n.dds/_s.dds (also works with just the _d.dds file) and add them to your Fallout 4 directories "Data"-folder. In there, place it under: textures --> <yourmodnameherefolder> --> AnimObjects --> PipBoy --> <your files here>

2. On the Nexus, check for two programs called the "Bethesda Archive Extractor" and "Material Editor". The BAE allows you to extract specific files from the .ba2 archives that come with the game.

3. Once installed, open it up and head to the Data folder and drag the "Fallout4 - Materials.ba2" into the BAE. Then click select none and navigate to: Fallout4 - Materials.ba2 --> Materials --> AnimObjects --> PipBoy. Depending on how much of the PipBoy you have retextured you can select .bgsm you need. These are the material files that will refere the later added materialswap to the correct textures, your changed ones in this case. You can keep the names or rename them something else.

4. Once installed, open the Material Editor and select the vanilla pipboy.bgsm files you have just extracted. You can also just double click on the extracted .bgsm files and select the Material Editor as the program to open them with.
If you know what you're doing, you can also just make a new file an edit it appropriately, but for now, we'll change the existing PipBoy ones.

5. The default selected tab should be called "General", with the other two options being "Material" and "Effect". Click on Material. There should be 3 entries at the very top that are important for us: Diffuse (_d.dds), Normal (_n.dds) and Smooth Spec (_s.dds).

6. Select the ones you need to change depending on what type of texture files you have added in step 1. and change the appropriate path to: <yourmodnameherefolder>/AnimObjects/PipBoy/<yourfile>.dds

no need to add texture to the path.

7. Now save them under a new slightly modified name, but in a way that you can match them back with their vanilla counterparts. (For example vanilla is called PipBoy01.bgsm and your custom one can be called CustomPipBoy01.bgsm)

8.Repeat steps 4 through 7 until you have all your texture paths listed in the appropriate .bgsm files (You can use the vanilla .bgsm files as a reference).

9. Now take your .bgsm files and also place them in you fallout 4 data folder. This time under: materials--> <yourmodnameherefolder> --> AnimObjects --> PipBoy --> <your files here>

 

Now I used the CK for this, but I am pretty sure you can do this just using FO4Edit and the game directory.

1. Open the CK and load the masters you want to use (in my case, it was just the Fallout4.esm). After it successfully loaded either click the save-icon (floppydisksymbol) or under the file tab click save.

2. Give your mod a name and save it. Now if it is just a craftable reskin of the PipBoy, you can save it as a .esl since the file size and the mod type SHOULD be ok to do so. If you want to be on the safer side though, simply save it as an .esp and change the header type later to .esl in FO4Edit (there should be some tutorials on how to do this around).

3. I believe for .esp files closing and re-opening the CK is good practice but I found that doing the same for .esl files, the CK won't allow you to load them as active again, since they are a sort of master file, so I just continued working with the current instance of the CK after saving the .esl. At least that was how it worked for me.

 

Now you need to make 4 things. Let's start with a MiscItem. This will be your PipBoy Skin's physical representation in the game, if you ever take it off and drop it.

1. In the Object Window look for MiscItem under the Items category. Select it and filter for miscmod_mod_armor_Combat_Leg_Material_1.

2. Right-click and select duplicate. Rename the duplicate and open it.

3. Here you should change the ID, Name, Value and Weight. The CC ones use Weight 0.1000 and Value 10.

4. Click OK.

5. Next is the Materialswap. it can be found under the Miscellaneous category. Once you have selected it in the list, right click and click new.

6. Give it an ID.

7. Then right click into Material Substitutions window and select new.

8. Navigate to the vanilla PipBoy,bgsm file (let's say the PipBoy01.bgsm) under Materials --> AnimObjects --> PipBoy --> PipBoy01.bgsm. Either Double click the file in the window or click ok once PipBoy01.bgsm is selected.

9. Now navigate to your own .bgsm file of a similar name ("CustomPipBoy01.bgsm" just as an example) under <yourmodnameherefolder> --> AnimObjects --> PipBoy --> CustomPipBoy01.bgsm. Either Double click the file in the window or click ok once CustomPipBoy01.bgsm is selected.

10. Repeat setps 7 through 9 until you have replaced all vanilla .bgsm files with your own. Hit Ok to close it.

11. Next up is the actual Object mod. In the Object Window head to Items and select Object Mod.

12. Right click in the list and select new. Give it a ID.

13. Now give it a name and a description. Under Desc. click Target Type and select Armor. For Loose Mod click and search for your MiscItem you have created eralier in the dropdown list.

14. Right click in the window for Target Object Mod Association Keywords, click Add and search for cc_ma_Pipboy, then hit ok.

15. Below the Filter Keywords window is a small dropdown option called Attach Point. Click it and search for cc_ap_Pipboy_Texture.

16. The last thing we need to do here is to add two things in the Property Modifiers window in the middle.

17. Right click and select new. For Target select ivalue, for Op select ADD and in Min and Max type 4.

18. Right click and select new. For Target select pwMaterialSwap, for Op select ADD and for Form search for the materialswap we created earlier.

19. Hit ok in the object mod window.

20. Lastly we need the recipe to be able to craft the mod. In the Object Window head to Items and select Constructible Object.

21. Right click and select new. Enter a new ID. On the right under Created Object search the drop down list for the Object mod we just finished editing.

22. In the Created Object Count window type 1.

23. Now in the Required Item List in the center of the window you can add the required components that the player hast to spend in order to craft the skin. As a reference the CC skins for Pipboys usually use 1 Count of C_Oil.

24. Hit ok. Now you can go back to your Object Mod and at the bottom center of that window there is a small window called recipes. In there should now be the Constructible Object ID you just created.

 

Now in the CK hit save and that should be it. Now you just need to package the .esl/.esp with the loose files in a .zip/.7z archive and you can install it via a mod manager. If you want to package your loose files into .ba2 archives, there are some tutorials that can help you do that with the CK. It's not too hard to do.

Sorry if it was too detailed and you know a bunch of this stuff. Again, if I made a mistake or something, please feel free to correct me, but that is how I got a Pipboy skin to work in my game. I hope it helped.

Edited by secretsniper01
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Hello bloxyman,

 

Pip-Boy has an attach point called cc_ap_Pipboy_Texture, and this is where the new skin option will be attached to on armor workbench. The attachable options are called Object Mod (OMOD) in Creation Kit, and these are found under "Items" section. Weapon/armor upgrades are OMOD, and Pip-Boy paint uses this system for swapping.

 

To make a Pip-Boy skin available in CK, first you have to create "material files" for your new texture sets. Here's the tool for editing material files :

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3635

 

There are 7 BGSM files needed for a Pip-Boy. You can copy the original Pip-Boy BGSM files as bases, and put your textures in the above editor.

 

Once that's done, the next step is to create a "material swap" in Creation Kit. In a material swap, you list replacement BGSM files corresponding to the BGSM files used by the original. In Creation Kit, material swap is found under miscellaneous section of object window. Right click while this section is open, and create a new material swap. In the material swap editor, right click in the blank area under Material Substitutions, and choose new. You are now prompted to choose the original BGSM file, and then the replacement (the BGSM you have created for your Pip-Boy skin). Once that's done, right click on the same section again and create the second substitution. You need to create the substitutions for all the BGSM files for Pip-Boy in this window.

 

The next step is to make this material swap available as an OMOD. Navigate to the Items -> Object Mod -> Attach Point -> ap -> Pipboy -> Textures. Here you will find an OMOD for "Null" or the standard paint. Open this, and change the ID for your own use. Then hit "OK" - this will bring up a dialog window which asks if you want to create a new object, click yes, and you will see your new OMOD listed.

 

Now open your new OMOD. In the property modifier section, right click and choose "new". To edit this new entry, you'll find "Property Modifier Data" on the right hand side. Here you choose "pwMaterialSwaps" as Target, then you choose the Material Swap you have created for your pip boy in Form pulldown. This OMOD now will swap the material on Pip-Boy when you attach it on armor workbench.

 

The next step is to create a recipe for crafting this OMOD. In the object window, navigate to Items -> Constructible Object, and right click and create a new entry. Here, you only need to point this new constructible object to your new OMOD for Pip-Boy. Choose your OMOD in "Created Object". You can also add the recipe for crafting, like 1 oil needed, by filling "Required Item List". This constructible object will now show up on armor workbench menu in game, and will add your new pipboy skin.

 

The last step is kind of optional for a PipBoy Skin, but if you want, you can create the detached mod object which will show up when you uninstall your paint on armor workbench in game. You might want to copy an existing loose mod object for this (it will contain the NIF model and the Keyword needed). Navigate to Items -> MiscItem, type "miscmod" in the filter, and you will see a bunch of loose mods. Just change the ID, name, and value. Now go back to your OMOD window, and choose your new loose mod in the left side of the window.

 

I think that's about it. If you want to see an example of how this works, here's my Pip-Boy mod :

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/38081

 

Good luck with your project! :smile:

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