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Thread: Underwing Color (Wing Membrane Color Mod)

  1. #1
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    Default Underwing Color (Wing Membrane Color Mod)



    This mod gives your character's wing membrane a colorful underside or under- and topside! It's activated by clicking the blue stance, but this can be changed to be any other stance by renaming "aug_stance_blue.def" to "aug_stance_<color>.def". Each character texture has its own selection of files to match your character the best possible, so make sure to choose the right one or you might get some oddities here and there.


    The downloads are placed in an organised Google Drive folder. Make sure to go through the "Read Me" to make sure you're getting the right texture and for information on multi-color compatibility!





    Download & Installation Instructions

    1. Navigate to which texture the character you are going to mod has. (Examples are shown in screenshots in the main folder if you don’t know. Text descriptions are in the "read me" file.)
    2. Choose whether you want the top and bottom of your wings colored, or only the bottom of your wings. Go to the respective folder.
    3. Double-click on the color you would like to download.
    4. Move your cursor to the black bar at the top and click the download button. (The download button is an arrow pointing to a line below it)
    5. Move the <COLOR>.zip folder to your \...\Istaria\resources_override\ folder.
    6. Right-click the .zip folder and click “unzip”.
    7. Restart or run Istaria.
    8. (Optional) Delete the .zip from resources_override.



    Conflicts and Compatibility:

    This mod will conflict with any other mod that uses the stance definition files and Layers.def. An example of that is my war paint mod. It's possible to circumvent incompatibility with other mods by combining the definition and layer files so you use both images at once.

    My war paint mod includes a compatibility version to work this this mod, so make sure you read the instructions on how to install both if you are unsure.

    Otherwise, this mod should be compatible with everything else.


    Example Images:









    ..and some more in the replies to this thread


    *Note: This initial post was edited nearly a year later. Replies before September 19th, 2015 might not make sense to this post, but will make more sense to the original one:



    Original Post:

    After a while of not having my AGHviewer working on my desktop, I was on my laptop and remembered suddenly that it works here. So I got my hands dirty in the world of modding and whipped this up over the course of about an hour.


    Click for Image


    The color is triggered by using red stance and will only show up on characters with red stance, as seen here -


    Click for Image


    If I have the time or interest too I might put together a pack of these with all different colors to choose from, considering there's really only 3 or 4 main textures for the wings and recoloring them a few times can't kill me. Of course, that's only if people actually want it. Otherwise I just decided to share my bored adventures.


    It goes over your wing's markings and only shows up on the underside of the wing, as implied by title, but I can make it happen over both sides and probably go underneath the markings if I had the interest too. Since my characters only ever have the underwing color varying I didn't bother.


    Edit:

    Download Link for this Version: https://www.mediafire.com/?c5hvh3ob61oh756 It only has the shown texture and color, please note! Check latest posts to see if I've actually gone through and given other versions.
    Last edited by Cegaiel; September 19th, 2015 at 09:10 PM. Reason: Editted per request of Racktor

  2. #2

    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Oh that is really neat Rack! Would you put up a download link for it when you are finished with it? I'd love to have something like that for a couple of my dragons.


    You see an Ice Wall Corner, I see a Tardis.
    "

    "Pen Pineapple Apple Pen"


  3. #3
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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Sure - I've edited my first post now to add a link to download this version, as well as made it so that all stances trigger it (go into the folder and delete the .def files for the other stances if you only one want to trigger it). ^^ It's only the version I showed in the screenshots though, as I wrote in the first post, so it may not look fabulous on all characters.

    I also went back and made a version for another texture pretty dang fast so if I get the will to continue working on it after hitting lvl 20 with a character I've been mucking with for the last age (lvl 17 atm) I'll probably work on other versions and compile it all in a big Google Docs folder.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Wow Rack! That looks absolutely amazing, it makes the wings look a lot more natural. I love it!

    Downloaddownloaddownloaddownloaddownload!

  5. #5

    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Racktor, nice job. Do the dorsal and ear fins also. It'll look amazing. I wanted to do that for a creation option for dragons but the tech did not exist for it. And preserving existing dragon appearance would have been difficult but not insurmountable. Attached is a concept image that I had working back then.

    Some model work would have been required to get it looking better cause there was some goofiness occurring on the wings but for the most part I was excited about it. It is one of my regrets that I never got that into the game.

    And a tip. Use a shaded alpha from black to white. If you are laying a membrane texture on top of the base skin, you should be able to get a blend from the base color to the replacement color. I was also working on tinting the horns and a fade was one of the things I was playing with.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by Solitaire; November 30th, 2014 at 12:14 AM.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Thanks, Galdethriel and Soli! ^^

    I was actually planning on doing that after going through the first time but it really depended on how much time and effort I wanted to put into this project, honestly. Going back and individually selecting the fins would have drove me completely crazy at some point I'm sure. :P I will think about it though.

    Your initial attempts at adding this into the system actually is what inspired my 'mod doodle' here. ^^ I wanted to give people at least a taste of what could have been even if it won't ever get implemented. Wish I knew enough about Istaria's workings and codings to work with it myself in my freetime but alas I don't. Nor am I a dev anyway. xD

    Unfortunately AGHviewer doesn't work on this computer still but I have gone through and saved every. single. dragon. texture. file. on my laptop and I'm currently in the process of moving it to my desktop. /aghconvert should work here, would be weird if it didn't, so I'll keep trucking on with this in my spare time. ^^
    (By 'AGHviewer doesn't work' I mean that I double-click it and it just instantaneously crashes without even opening a main window. Pops up "AGH Viewer has stopped working" and that's all.)

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Full Mod Downloads: http://goo.gl/hlwpz9

    So I went ahead and did a bunch of colors with the variation between the bottom of the wings only or the top and bottom of the wings as a choice. Right now I only have the texture that I dubbed "Pebbleskin 1", which I put a screenshot in there of. Your texture doesn't have to be as dark as the one shown, only the same general look. Each texture has a light, dark, and medium variation but the same base file. Just find the one that looks similar and download that for future reference. If you use this file on other characters with different overall textures, the texture may stop short or go too far or look just generally odd. Mix them up at your own risk/leisure.

    As of now (11/30/14), there's only one texture. But I plan to expand it and maybe eventually do the earfins too. I included the base files I used and my .psd file. The intricate naming system has to do with how I colored things using photoshop, don't worry. Also, if you can't match up my cryptic names, I put a copy of the texture into the folder with the underwing.agh file in the path [...]\Underwing\textures_agh\characters\characters\drag on_u\clothing so you can see what color you're getting.

    I'll take color suggestions but try to be kind of vague, please, and not ask for #FFFFF or something specifically. :P

    The mod still goes over your markings. Sorry if that's inconvenient.

    And please, if you do use this I'd like to see how this looks on other characters! So far I've only seen it on my characters, specifically a red one.
    Last edited by Racktor; December 1st, 2014 at 03:03 AM.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Vivi.jpg

    Hope this works... Vivistinks with his yellow wings!

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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Galde.jpg

    And Galde-goo with hers in white.

    Loving the mod Rack! <3

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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Glad to hear! ^^ Seems at least the under portion works across textures too, considering that's not the original one that it was made for. Looks really nice on your two characters there, I was worrying the textures would be too bright!

  11. #11

    Default Re: Underwing Color

    sorry for the Derpyness, but I can`t get the mod to work. where do I put it? I tried resources_override, I tried putting it right into the string you posted. textures_agh\characters\characters\drag on_u\clothing
    but nothing. Even tried using the combat stances to see if they`re linking. but nope. am I just a dummy? or or it interferring with any other specific mod?

  12. #12
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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    It should work just by taking any of the folders with color names from that link (black, blue, dark green, etc) and putting it into your resources override. Blue stances should trigger it - if you have any mod that uses blue stance to trigger an effect, it's incompatible. I think there's the Teraflare mod that uses it but I can't think of any other mod that uses blue stance.

    You also won't be able to see it immediately upon log in, you have to hit blue stance first, but I feel you knew that since you mentioned using stances.

    Also, I'm having an annoying issue now. No matter what I do, this happens when I try to put the mod (even with the corresponding texture) on my character.

    The bottom weird snippet is the texture file itself to show that nothing's there. Considering that follows the edge of the model I feel like some other texture file is throwing this in there but it doesn't appear until I use my stance and trigger the effect. It's also only on the top of the wing. Any idea where the heck this could be coming from? I checked the texture file over 8 times at least and I can't find anything.

  13. #13

    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Got it to work thanks to Galdethriel! the glowing metal one looks wicked on Nega




  14. #14
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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    That looks sweet on Nega Love how lava-ey he looks!

    I've updated the drive with Pebbleskin 2 now, the very similar but not perfectly the same texture as Pebbleskin 1. This one has the fins on the neck and back rather than a full-on frill and larger scales overall. It's only the top and bottom version and to fix that bug seen earlier I had to add extra texture files to fix it. They're optional but only if you want the compatibility with other mods or deal with that bug I posted earlier. It's only needed if you use the top and bottom texture.

  15. #15

    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Racktor, The ghosting of texture on the trailing edges of the wings appears to be a few stray pixels. I've seen that happen before. Even though you don't see anything there, take an eraser tool and run it around the edges of the wing texture edges. And be sure to make a new alpha after. Sometimes you have the faintest of pixels that can't really be seen but will show up like that in the game. Sometimes inverting the image will help make them appear.

    Also, if you want your stripes to appear on the wing membrane, you need to change the order of the layers. In your /Istaria/resources folder is a file called "layers.def". Open that up and look for the "Dragon_skin" section at the bottom. I didn't get your mods so I don't know what layer you used for the membranes, but find the layer you are using and move it between "baseskin" and "muscle_tone". The layers of a character's texture work just like an animation cell. First in the list is the bottom most texture then the others lay on top of that.

    Oh, and one more suggestion. There is a lot more model after the visible trailing wing that is invisible. If you extend the trailing edge of the wing you should be able to increase the visible wing area in game. I always hated how thin the wings are near the body. It is not anything I experimented much with, though.

    And another tip: Do not anti-alias the trailing edges of the wings. That is where those black edges are coming from. It gives you a nice blend into the base texture around the arms and fingers but for some reason turns black on the trailing edge. Maybe it has something to do with two semi-transparent layers on top of each other.

    What program are you using to do the editing of the textures?

    Nice work!
    Last edited by Solitaire; December 2nd, 2014 at 12:50 AM.

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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Quote Originally Posted by Solitaire View Post
    Racktor, The ghosting of texture on the trailing edges of the wings appears to be a few stray pixels. I've seen that happen before. Even though you don't see anything there, take an eraser tool and run it around the edges of the wing texture edges. And be sure to make a new alpha after. Sometimes you have the faintest of pixels that can't really be seen but will show up like that in the game. Sometimes inverting the image will help make them appear.
    I did do that actually, I ran the eraser there a bunch of times and relogged a lot. I filled in the background on different layers with different colors and found nothing. I ended up having to just erase the texture line from the muscle and base files so it'd go away. The black area there is because of my markings, though, which go further off my wing than they should. It appears even on normal Istaria so it's not something I caused, luckily. Also the stray random pixels appeared as that weird dark color even on textures that would normally color it white or blue.

    Quote Originally Posted by Solitaire View Post
    Also, if you want your stripes to appear on the wing membrane, you need to change the order of the layers. In your /Istaria/resources folder is a file called "layers.def". Open that up and look for the "Dragon_skin" section at the bottom. I didn't get your mods so I don't know what layer you used for the membranes, but find the layer you are using and move it between "baseskin" and "muscle_tone". The layers of a character's texture work just like an animation cell. First in the list is the bottom most texture then the others lay on top of that.
    Yep, I realise that. ^^ I just have the texture going over the wings for now because in my opinion it looks better overall, but I will change the layers.def file so it will be under the markings as an option. Thanks for the location, though, that'll definitely save a lot of time of messing with the files. I'd never guess "muscle_tone" being the layer with the markings.

    Quote Originally Posted by Solitaire View Post
    Oh, and one more suggestion. There is a lot more model after the visible trailing wing that is invisible. If you extend the trailing edge of the wing you should be able to increase the visible wing area in game. I always hated how thin the wings are near the body. It is not anything I experimented much with, though.
    I've looked into that occasionally and i remember you mentioning it back when I did the Ripped Wings mod, too! After this I may go back and play with the wing textures to make them longer but I'd have to basically redo this mod to make it match the new length, unfortunately. I'd also probably be copy/pasting and splicing the texture files to make it longer more than anything considering copying the texture perfectly isn't really in my area of expertise. It's something I have kept it mind though through this time, I haven't forgotten it. ^^

    Quote Originally Posted by Solitaire View Post
    And another tip: Do not anti-alias the trailing edges of the wings. That is where those black edges are coming from. It gives you a nice blend into the base texture around the arms and fingers but for some reason turns black on the trailing edge. Maybe it has something to do with two semi-transparent layers on top of each other.
    Strange, but noted. I never anti-aliased the edges more than they are in the base texture, though. I've only done so along the 'fingers' and 'arm' so that it blends better and isn't so jarring.
    Btw, looking at the texture file this is where those little specks come from, even in the unmodded (wing texture wise) main game:

    Edit: Click on the picture to view original size so it's easier to see.
    Turned the texture red and the background black so it can be seen easier. I can guess exactly where this came from too - those little extra pixels line up perfectly with the edge of the other 'Pebbleskin' texture. The wings were copy-pasted into this texture, selected using the magic wand, the selection trimmed down to the wings, inverted, and the artist then ran an eraser along the edge. Selecting like that leaves a small line of pixels usually in some programs. It's also there in the muscle file. The "texture fix" I put in removes those little stray pixels.

    Quote Originally Posted by Solitaire View Post
    What program are you using to do the editing of the textures?

    Nice work!
    Photoshop, though I'd prefer to use SAI it doesn't preserve transparency. ^^ Thank you!

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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Quick update, since I can't edit my previous message anymore - Moved the "wings" layer around on the Layers.def as you specified, Soli, and it still overrode the patterns. o.o I'll keep messing with it though.

  18. #18
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    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Quick update- I haven't given up on this project by any means and I will return to it once I'm less busy! Still trying to figure out exactly why the patterns aren't being overwritten.

  19. #19

    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Fiery looks great on Cilok, the darker colors go nicely with his deep red. Now I need to look again and find a good icy-like one for Turacegos.

    Chaos: Xingolos PlagueWind (31 Hatchling: 23)---Cilok Magmaborn (retired Lunus Ancient: 100/100/60)---Turacegos Blizzardwing (20 Hatchling: 19)---Bilkur Tinkerton (Gnome adjusting to life on Spirit Isle)

  20. #20

    Default Re: Underwing Color

    Wow, thanks Raktor, this is an awesome MOD.

    I just came back to Istaria after an 8 year hiatus, and I'm really having a blast. I started a new account fresh and your "Glowing Metal" color scheme has helped my Hatchie live up to his surname of LAVAWING!!!



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