This tutorial will cover what a skin is and how to change it. It will include a few examples of what can be done when a skin is changed.

What is a Skin and How to Add One

A skin is a texture or shader that is used to give a Static Mesh a certain look. By default, all static meshes have a certain texture or shader assigned to it. For certain static meshes, you change the skin to give it a different look. I will give examples of a column, slot machine, and a light.

To change a skin, select the static mesh. Open it’s properties and go to the Display section and expand it. Find the Skins field and try to expand it. More than likely, there will not be any entries. To add a skin, click in the very right of that field and you should see two buttons appear, Empty and Add. The Empty button will erase all skins you have applied to the static mesh. The Add button will allow you to create an additional field in which you will assign a texture or a shader to.

When you click the Add button a box will appear named [0]. To add a skin, open the Texture browser and find the skin you want to use and select it so it’s highlighted green in the browser. Now return to the properties of the static mesh and click on the [0] field so the buttons appear. You will see 6 buttons named Clear, Use, …, Pick, Delete, and Insert. The Clear button will clear the directory of the texture that has been inserted in this field. The Use button will paste the directory of a texture or shader that you have selected in the Texture Browser. The … should open up the texture browser, but doesn’t seem to work in my editor. The Pick button is used for something, but doesn’t seem to work either. The Delete button will delete the entire field. The Insert button will create another field right under the current one.

Columns

When you look at the columns that are in the Import-Export static mesh package (BuildingFront_01a & BuildingFront_02a), you will notice they look like concrete. When you see them in the map, they match the color of the building they are next to. This is done by changing the skin. Insert the BuildingFront_02a static mesh into a map (Create a simple 1 room test map). Select the static mesh and open it’s properties. Go to the Display section, then to the Skins field. Add a field, then go to the Texture Browser and open up the Import_Export_T.utx file. Note: Most texture packages for static meshes have a _TSM after the map name. We are going to apply a wall texture to the columns, which is why we are opening the standard texture package.

Make sure the All button is not selected and choose the Wall group. Scroll down and find the wall_tiles_032 texture. Return to the static meshes properties and select the Use button in the new field. This should paste the following directory Texture’Import_Export_T.Wall.wall_tiles_032′ It is telling the editor that in the Texture folder in the Import_Export_T texture package in the Wall group, use the wall_tiles_032 texture. Close the static meshes properties and look at the retextured columns. Here is a picture of the before and after columns.

Slot Machine

This example will show the difference between using a texture and a shader. In the Parade Line-up map in the casino, you will notice that there are two different looking slot machines. The standard one in the static mesh browser will have the words Jack Pot on the front of it. Let’s put this into our test map that we made for the columns. Open up the Parade_SM.usx file, select the Gadgets_Kit group and find SlutMachine (no, that’s not a typo) and place it in the map. Now place two more of the same static mesh to the right of the original, you should have a total of 3.

Select the second one (to the right of the original) and add a line to the skin field. Open up the Parade_TSM.utx texture file and select the Gadgets_kit group. You will notice that there are 3 textures that look the same and they do. We will use two of them (SlutMachine2 [DTX1] and SlutMachine2_shdr. We will not be using SlotMachine2 [DTX5], I believe this is a texture that is used in the SlutMachine2_shdr file. If any one can confirm this, please let me know. Select SlutMachine2 [DTX1] and apply it to the second slot machine. For the third machine (far right of the original), apply SlutMachine2_shdr to the skins field.

Once you are in a map you will notice the difference between the texture and the shader we applied. The original one will ricochet bullets when you shoot at it. The second one will look different, which is good, but it won’t ricochet bullets at all, which is not good. The third one will look different and ricochet bullets, just like the original machine. This is what we want. This section is to inform you that some static meshes use shaders for certain affects. Be aware that if the texture you choose doesn’t give you what you want, there may be a shader that you need to use instead.

Lights

This last example will give another common use of changing skins. In maps, you will see most of the lights turned on with light making the surrounding area brighter. Some areas have the same looking light fixture turned off. Open your static mesh browser and open the Garage_sm.usx file. Go the the Light group and select the neonceiling static mesh and put this in our test map.

Now place one more next to it and open up your Texture Browser. Open the Garage_TSM.utx file and in the Light group, select Shader_Double_Neon_unlit. Now go to your second fixture and change the skin to this texture. Now build the entire map (including lighting) and view it in Dynamic Light mode. If you look at the static mesh with out the skin, it looks lit, but doesn’t actually light up the map. The one with skin applied can’t be seen. This is just showing you how different textures/shaders can work. See below for how it looks in my map.

Summary

Now you should have a solid understanding of how skins work. I would suggest going into a stock map and check how a particular static mesh is set up. Some times, the naming of the texture being used for a skin doesn’t make sense. Remember, they set it up for them to work with, not you and me. Just don’t save the file when you are exiting the stock map! From what I have read, the stock texture is also being rendered by the engine when you apply a skin to it. For most of the time, this shouldn’t make a difference, but I just wanted you to know that. Now you have a “tool” that will allow you to be more creative with your map.

Click here to download a map with the examples I used.

Written by cwv_Odedge