DIRECTORY
Introduction
Software
Classes
INTRODUCTION
Sculpts, as we know them, are model edits to change the appearance of your character. After 7.0 faces have become one of the most complicated mods to make due to the new bones and parts, mainly because of constant normals breaking and weightpainting. In most cases, trying to conver a 6.0 sculpt into 7.0 requires a great amount of skill and patience that not everyone has. It is largely recommended to just get a new 7.0 sculpt than trying to salvage an older one if you can help it since the new textures, bones, teeth, and tongue are of much better quality.
Eyes have changed completely as well. Catchlights mods will not work anymore since the catchlights come directly from the game’s lighting now and not the textures. Mods that used to edit the multi for effects can be converted with the new Textools tools or the Loose Texture Compiler, the second one being a little more accurate since it edits the normal and mask as well.
SOFTWARE
Programs with a * are the most used by the community
For extracting textures & models:
Textoools*
Penumbra
Face Sculpting can be a very difficult thing to learn and do correctly. Luckily, with the new bones and the new update of the Customize+ plugin you can make a lot of changes without even having to take the face out of the game
For editing or sculpting a face:
Blender **
3DS Max
Maya
SketchUp
Faces have numbers assigned based on their clans mainly for the textures. For example, F Aura have all their models installed in the Raen faces (001, 002, 003, 004) but the difference in textures for Xaela will be in numbers 101, 102, 103, 104.
For salvaging old eye textures (that aren’t catchlights):
Textools
Making cool irises now is as easy as making a texture yourself, replacing the diffuse/base texture with yours and then removing the blue channel. Wow!
Adobe Substance 3D * ✓
Photoshop + DDS Nvidia Plugin * ✓
GIMP ✓
Photopea ✓
Clip Studio Paint
Paint Tool SAI
Procreate
Blender
For making textures:
If you are making or editing a Normal or Multi map, you will need a program that edits and saves channel information (Format: DDS, preferred compression: BC7).
Currently this is only possible with a few programs (Marked here with a checkmark) ✓
GIMP is often recommended as an alternative to Photoshop but its UI is a nightmare and most guides are made with Photoshop in mind, which causes many compatibility issues. Photopea is a better alternative, but in order to keep the quality of your DDS you will need to export it as a PNG and then convert it into a DDS
In my experience while alternatives to Adobe programs are valid, they can be a bit of a pain to use when it comes to following guides. If you insist on using other type of software please take a look at this detailed graph first to inform your decision better.
If you are a complete beginner with almost no knowledge of 3D Sofware and textures you probably don’t want to start with face sculpts as we know them. Fiddling with customize+ is way easier now
If you have zero knowledge about Textools, Penumbra and Blender make sure to check out the Sprout Kit before any of these classes
