Shape Properties - ousnius/BodySlide-and-Outfit-Studio GitHub Wiki

What are the shape properties?

When you double-click on an entry in the shape list in Outfit Studio, or use the Shape -> Properties menu item, a dialog opens up that lets you modify certain properties of the shape and its related data, such as shaders, skinning or extra data.

The properties only apply to the shape the dialog was opened for. Another term for shape would be mesh or object.

There are currently the following four tabs in the shape properties dialog. Click the images for a full view.

Shader Geometry Extra Data Coordinates

Shader

  • Name/Material: The text field at the top of the shader tab lets you set a shader name. For Fallout 4, the shader name is used as the file path to the BGSM/BGEM material file instead. In other games, the shader name is usually empty, but you can still set it here.
  • Type: Tells the game how to render the shape and which texture slots to use for certain shader features. The most used types are usually Default, Environment Map and Face/Skin Tint, but there are more.
  • Specular Color: Color of the specular highlight.
  • Specular Strength: Strength of the specular highlight.
  • Specular Power: Reflectivity power of the specular highlight.
  • Emissive Color: Color of the light emission, if enabled in the shader flags.
  • Emissive Color: Multiplier for the light emission, if enabled in the shader flags.
  • Add/Remove: These buttons let you completely remove or add a shader to your shape.
  • Textures: Opens up a dialog to assign texture paths to each available slot.
  • Note: There are more variables available, see NifSkope (or material files).

Transparency

  • Threshold: The value used for alpha testing the texture, so when to start making a pixel transparent.
  • Add/Remove: Adds or removes an alpha property from the shape.
  • Note: There are more flags available, see NifSkope (or material files).

Note that in Fallout 4, when a material file is being used for the shader, the values and texture paths are being read from the assigned material .bgsm or .bgem file instead of the shape properties. The shader type is still relevant, though.

The properties in the shader tab are currently not complete - there are way more variables and flags you can tweak in your shaders for different features and looks. You're advised to use NifSkope or other software for this.

Geometry

  • Full Precision: Stores the vertex data of the shape in a full precision (4 byte) format. Only available for Fallout 4 and only useful, if the shape wasn't saved with half precision before already. Use this carefully and only when the extra precision is absolutely needed.
  • Sub Index: Turns BSTriShape blocks into BSSubIndexTriShape blocks and back to toggle the segmentation system for VATS and dismemberment in Fallout 4. Segments need to be painted and assigned to work.
  • Skinned: This option toggles the skinned flag of the shape and either removes or adds any skinning related data. Unchecking this, clicking OK and checking it again will reset and clear any skinning and bones used. This can be used to turn a skinned into a static mesh.

Extra Data

This tab lets you assign extra data information to the shape, such as NiStringExtraData or NiIntegerExtraData objects. All extra data has a name property and a value property.

  • NiStringExtraData: Lets you store text as a value.
  • NiIntegerExtraData: Lets you store numbers as a value.

These can then be used later on by certain game features and third party plugins or software.

Coordinates

Here you can change or clear the global-to-skin transform of a shape. This is the difference between the static and skinned position/rotation/scale of a shape.

To clear the global-to-skin transform, first make sure the mesh is correctly aligned. Then, set the origin to 0,0,0 and make sure the checkbox "Recalculate geometry's coordinates so it doesn't move" is checked.

FO4 meshes don't store this transform in the file, so it is guessed based on existing bone positions. It shouldn't be cleared as "under-the-ground" meshes make for a higher precision in FO4 (unskinned vertex position).