CMSF - Character Model Selection Framework

CMSF

Character Model Selection Framework

Version 0. 3. 0

GITHUB

>> Authoring tools download + alternate mirrors located at this link. <<

Announcements

September 10th, 4:25pm: Updated to 0. 3. 0, AuthorTools added.

July 30th, 4:40pm: Updated to 0. 2. 4 to fix some maskman skin issues, and moved the authoring tools off-site to github to avoid continuously getting flagged by nexusmods.

July 27th, 11:02am: Stutter should be fixed. New authoring tools released with some nexus-recommended fixes to avoid getting the tools flagged. Pray that they don't!

July 25th, 9:03am: Latest fix improved stuttering issue, but hasn't fully fixed it yet - working on it currently.

July 24th 6:56pm: Latest version of CMSF was released, this should fix the stuttering issues. Authoring tools have been updated, as well.

July 24th 6:41am: There's a planned updated version for CMSFUnlock, the UE4SS portion of the framework, in order to fix up an issue with the way the mod scans the character skin menu widget, which can cause 1000ms-repeating frame stutters. Next version released will fix this.

Introduction

Genuinely, this is probably one of my most complicated projects to date, so I deeply hope that this becomes of good use to everyone here, and all the people who are interested in making skin mods. Thank you to all the people out there that take the time to learn and figure out how blender works so that players can enjoy character model mods <3 This framework helps ensure that we can run all of them <3 

Developed after experiencing the way that one used to have to manage however many character skin replacements you had, CMSF comes in numerous parts designed to compel people to continue creating and releasing character model mods: the pak, the mod, and the generator. Modders and players will now be able to select any skin (For DLC ones, it depends on you owning it, of course.)

So, every skin mod that exists currently, for TFW, works by overwriting a skin that the game already has. So that means that you need to own the DLC whose slot you're borrowing, you're capped at however many slots that the character has, and then two mods that want the same slot basically silently fight over who ges it, and the character-select portrait still shows the original skin, because the thumbnail exists somewhere else outside of the mod.

CMSF includes tooling for mod authors, and is largely designed to make this as simple as possible. cmsf-author.exe, at skin mod build time, pulls down a small text table from the github that publicly lists every build skin mod and what ID it's occupying, so that there aren't ever any ID collisions. This in turn automatically ensures that no two skins are ever attempting to overwrite the same slot, though it is fully possible to build offline, as well.

So, CMSF is designed to allow you to add skins alongside the ones that are already there - it's a new entry, so it has its own name, own description, own portrait. You're not replacing anything, nothing gets taken, and two CMSF-compatible skins can never break each other.

This is also worth installing even if you don't use any skin mods yet - the base game comes with a series of default skins that it doesn't allow you to select, and picking a DLC skin strands you on a DLC skin until you die in a raid and get randomly reassigned - CMSF unlocks the selector, so you can just choose.

Ultimately, the intent of creating this is to compel people to both start, and continue, to make skin mods for characters for the forever winter. It's plainly apparent (at least to me) that places that have abundant access to frameworks, also have abundant creative contribution.

Thank you kindly, and I hope you enjoy! If you have any comments, criticism, tips - please feel more than free to go into detail in the comments.

What you install