Can you use multiple textures for the same object so it randomizes?

[Harupuia]

Ok, I've seen a lot of good texture mods out there and I was curious if it's possible to use multiple textures for the same object so that when you encounter that object one of the textures will randomly be loaded.

 

Say I have 2 textures for death claws and I run into a death claw, it will randomly choose 1 of the textures.

 

It would be nice to add a bit more variety to how npcs and monsters look when you randomly encounter them.

 

 

[AuGuRSGFX]

From what I understand, each iteration would actually have to be a separate entry in the data with it's own ID, it's not just a question of a script picking which texture to apply to an object. In other words, for it to work...

Black/Brown Deathclaw = DC01
Red/Green Deathclaw = DC02

... and so on. The same would apply to armors (armours) with different textures. It's one of the reasons you see both replacements and standalones, the standalones having to be conjured up by the console or put in a container somewhere that alters the cell table. This would add to bloat of the data files themselves with all the extra entries.

Would be nice if, at some point, Bethesda would have an engine that could detect a custom keyword-type identifier able to be used by modders and be able to pull those assets into a random generator during initial world spawn as well as it's own random encounter (respawn) generator. For Skyrim, there was a mod that could add custom armors, weapons and items to the loot table. One would think you could do the same with NPCs/Mobs.

[lilkandeekid]

You could copy the NPC/Monster, change the texture, then add it to the LVLN list. Not exactly random but hey...

With armors and weapons there's ways to make them spawn with a random texture.

[tomomi1922]

Ok, I've seen a lot of good texture mods out there and I was curious if it's possible to use multiple textures for the same object so that when you encounter that object one of the textures will randomly be loaded.

 

Say I have 2 textures for death claws and I run into a death claw, it will randomly choose 1 of the textures.

 

It would be nice to add a bit more variety to how npcs and monsters look when you randomly encounter them.

 

 

No, not for skin texture (of an object, or NPC). The only way is to have multiple objects under the same name. About variety, FO4 does randomize and initialize each raider (or Deathclaw, or whatever NPC) with different level, weapons, outfits, properties (hair, face mashup, skin color, body weight) but the way FO4 codes nude skin, they are unlikely to make huge variation on skin for humanoid NPCs (maybe beside the head/face). For Deathclaw, they have multiple NPCs for Deathclaws. And each and everyone of them can be randomized with level and names (and sometimes Legendary).

 

But such randomization is governed by the game engine, and so far Bethesa has not released their Creation Kit for Fallout 4. There won't be any randomization on our part. It is safe to say the only variety offered are Unique Player (let you choose your individual nude mesh and texture) and Unique Followers (same goes for all your humanoid followers, which means no Nick, not even Hancok, but Curie is possible).

[Harupuia]

Wow, thank you everyone for the helpful feedback on this question!

 

Looks like this would be a lot of work to do, but I'd love to learn and build the mod if I can understand how this works.

 

 

You could copy the NPC/Monster, change the texture, then add it to the LVLN list. Not exactly random but hey...

With armors and weapons there's ways to make them spawn with a random texture.

 

Tried searching for info on this via google, but haven't found anything on this LVLN list or creating custom npc or monsters.

 

 

For creating a new NPC, I take it I would need to find the console command to copy an NPC to a new id. Then assign that new id to load a different texture?

 

I would then need to find a way to assign that new id to randomly load in the world, such as a new raider or settler?

 

Again thank you everyone for all the help so far!

[TheTalkieToaster]

 

Ok, I've seen a lot of good texture mods out there and I was curious if it's possible to use multiple textures for the same object so that when you encounter that object one of the textures will randomly be loaded.

 

Say I have 2 textures for death claws and I run into a death claw, it will randomly choose 1 of the textures.

 

It would be nice to add a bit more variety to how npcs and monsters look when you randomly encounter them.

 

 

No, not for skin texture (of an object, or NPC). The only way is to have multiple objects under the same name. About variety, FO4 does randomize and initialize each raider (or Deathclaw, or whatever NPC) with different level, weapons, outfits, properties (hair, face mashup, skin color, body weight) but the way FO4 codes nude skin, they are unlikely to make huge variation on skin for humanoid NPCs (maybe beside the head/face). For Deathclaw, they have multiple NPCs for Deathclaws. And each and everyone of them can be randomized with level and names (and sometimes Legendary).

You should actually be able to do it for NPCs- look at how Protectrons use MaterialSwap OMODs and OMOD collections to select one at random. Equally you can use OMOD collections to randomly select a material swap for armour.

[lilkandeekid]

 

You should actually be able to do it for NPCs- look at how Protectrons use MaterialSwap OMODs and OMOD collections to select one at random. Equally you can use OMOD collections to randomly select a material swap for armour.

 

While I know Protectrons use an OMOD + Material swap to do cover the texture change of the body and legs, and OMODS +.nif to add the head and hands, they dont seem to spawn randomly and have separate NPCs for the different ones (Firefighter, Police, Medic,etc) that where manually placed to fit the surroundings.

[TheTalkieToaster]

Hm, I thought they randomised blue/green/brown?

[lilkandeekid]

Hm, I thought they randomised blue/green/brown?

 

Dig some more (actual lol) digging and you may have nailed it.

While theres different NPC's for the ones that have different heads and hands (cop, construction, etc) that you find in the Pods, there's also 3 that spawn threw a level list randomly and work differently. They seem to use the same OMOD randomization for material swaps that the baseball bat uses to go threw 4 different colors (blue, grey, green, and tan)

Essentially all you would have to do is make OMODs with the material swaps and use another OMOD to link them to the NPC.