AR34X

If you've got some computational power to spare then I would recommend ReShade (on top of Hook5) to add a finishing touch. Thing like LUT-textures (Hook5) are also worth looking  up.

15 minutes ago, Smoke said:

 

Are you guys talking about if you back out/quit out of a session and you go to the selection page that it selects the default room instead of the AM room?

Indeed, I just expanded upon that by saying this behavior does not always seem to hold true since some previously selected AM-rooms (tex/lvl.def) is somehow remembered and is selected if you quit and relaunch the game - not reverting to the base addon but instead showing what you actually used last time...

this only happens with some (or maybe even only one addon room I've got), I'll have to check what room addon(s) do this, cause I can't remember. 

On 6/22/2022 at 3:40 PM, x17 said:

In case if you mean selection always switching to default base room, I dont think so, I think this is either hardcoded or workaround hasnt been figured out yet.

But the reason why you see no texture in base rooms is that they were removed or simply havent been included.

I've noticed that the game seem to remember the last used AM lvl.-definition/Room Textures with certain Addon Rooms when you re-launch the game while reverting back to the base Addon (w. or without textures) with others... I've never given it much more thought than "this is a bit interesting ... oh well, carry on..." 

So maybe there's some lines of script somewhere within some addon-rooms that trigger this behavior while other addons, lacking these hypothetical lines, just revert back to the base-addon for your selected room?

I'm just guessing... gotta be the addon, right?... or a very weird bug in game that seems to be quite consistent and particular... 

5 hours ago, john374 said:

those tattoos included in universal skin system that are from modsgarden, i cannot remember who made them (the celtic maybe?), but it seems to me they definitely used a 3rd party program (possibly blender) to paint the uv before importing the texture to tk17, and that obviously seems the best way since you can paint over the seams in the skin. but it's beyond my skill level.

Yeah, I've yet to find the time needed, not to mention the will & determination to start learning Blender... nearly all my hobbies I've got require hours of reading, learning etc. For the time being I'm knee-deep in electronics modding & some other audio related stuff so spare time is hard to come by.  

2 hours ago, Rico01 said:

Hello!

 

Tried loading the Rural Trailer H5 room but it crashed the game. Other rooms work fine so something is wrong and I sudspect either a memory issue or some conflict somewhere in the game files. When reading the mainfx.errors file I see the following error message: "ddsloader failed used ordinal function". 

 

Unfortunately I don't understand what this means or what can be done to solve this. Can anyone give me any insights? A google search didn't give me any hints.

 

Thanks in advance! 

It's a Hook 5 room right? If so, can you load the "base addon room" and not the ActiveMod-version without it crashing? I'm asking 'cause I think I've got the same error message, my memory is a little fuzzy, when I had some room texture normal/specular maps that were either broken or were using an unsupported compression format. The game might have been doing the CTD-Boogie when I was testing if H5 could handle BC7-compression... which it can not as I found out.

Anyway, I would bet you have one or more ".dds"-textures in some unsupported compression format. You should find the actual culprits in "mainfx.errors" with a search path to the textures in question. 

As an example; here's a bugged texture I've got: "...\mod\activemod\!![bodytextures]_h5_maps\02_facehair\hair_spec.dds: ddsloader failed used ordinal function"

Mine doesn't crash the game, can't say why, but maybe the CTD-gods are more picky/sensitive when it comes to broken room texture vs. a body texture... but now I'm just guessing without anything to back it up with. 

If you've got some broken maps in the H5-level definition you go to that folder, locate the _pass-files and disable/blank out (remove search path) to the texture(s) in question. Then launch the game and try loading the room.

Like this (if "wall_plaster_n.dds" is throwing an error: "stage2 = common\wall_plaster_n.dds"    -->    "stage2 = "

Hope it helps.

On 4/28/2022 at 6:21 AM, Xalas said:

I appreciate everyone helping me with my previous post but now I have another problem that needs to be resolve. I have to rooms that I used in 7.5 and since I moved over to VX these two rooms turned metallic. The walls are shiny and metallic including the objects and I dunno why or how this happened. Anyone ever had this issue before?

Well, I can only guess but most likely it has to do with the specular maps and the red channel (controls/make things look metallic in Hook 5). Were you using H5 with 7.5 or have you recently migrated from an earlier Hook-version as well? I think I remember reading something about the way specular maps, and perhaps normal maps as well, work was changed in H5 compared to H4... I really can't remember.

What you can try is to swap out the specular map in the _pass-file of some easily identifiable texture that is currently metallic.

How to:

Hope it helps.

DummyNorm&GreenSpec.zip

10 hours ago, Morius said:

I have trouble with tatoo textures too, specially if they are supposed to encircle or spiral on arms and legs. Any tips or visual guides on how to make spiraled or encircled tattoos on arms and legs?

If you're using Hook 5 and are familiar with custom skins you can apply the UV-map as a separate layer, like you would with a tattoo layer, which will aid in alignment. To further make it easier you can color or number the grid pattern with different colors/numbers so it's easier to identify where exactly your tattoo is/is not in alignment.

Some screenshots in spoiler to illustrate:

null

I've recently started to play around with making tattoos myself so this is how I would do it. Maybe there's even a better way...

ps. the tattoo in the screenshots are not my creation; I just took a random arm tattoo that I think is included with the "Universal Skin System for Hook5".

On 4/26/2022 at 1:54 PM, LeoLee said:

Hi,
can someone explain which workflow is the best to create realistic tattoo textures from images for H5. Which software is the best?
Thank you

What @john374  said when it comes to software it's all about what works for you. I use Paintshop Pro 2020, since I've used it for so long (going back to the Jasc Software era) in combination with GIMP, depends what I need to do. I find that certain features in GIMP like "Color to Alpha", "Color to Gray" and the ability to open .dds-files is handy. Things like painting is much easier in PSP for me, not to mention that the selection tools are better/or at least easier to use in PSP.

Basically, PSP is where I do painting/editing & GIMP is more of a converter (can open most formats correctly...)

My workflow when it comes to tattoo's that I've been experimenting with lately (for H5 skin layer use) :

1. Diffuse

Take what is to become the diffuse texture: cut out/make background transparent, do whatever to make it look good (sharpening, color correction etc.). If edges are too sharp, instead of softening the edges too much with some tool and thereby loosing definition, duplicate layer & add gaussian blur to the lower one (radius/amount depends on texture resolution, just so it "spills out" around the edges of the upper layer).  Use selection tool with feather option (2-6 pixels, depending...) & select transparent area of the top layer, then using the eraser tool (density full, opacity low), soften the outer most edge of the top layer ever so slightly.

2. Layermask

This is a fast one! Take the merged diffuse (transparent background), increase brightness/contrast to max making everything 100% white. Then merge the white on top of a 100% black background. Note that the edge of the texture (again a couple of pixels/depending on texture scale) will be varying levels of gray, which will make normals/speculars "melt" more smoothly onto the base skin it's applied to.

3. Normal

Well here it really depends on the style of the tattoo... if it's text or something that's not heavily detailed -> use "flat dummy normal" and take the rest of the day off.

If it's something that require a unique normal map to enhance details; I take the diffuse texture merged onto a single color background (without the gaussian-blurred sub), use GIMP "Color to Gray" using settings that result in a high quality, low noise grayscale. Do some clean up work on the greyscale if needed, then I convert the grayscale to normal map using GIMP. Export as .dds either with GIMP or Nvidia Texture Tools (from .png exported from GIMP). I've been trying out different combo's/procedures and have yet to settle on one... I've also been experimenting using ShaderMap Pro (too see what it has to offer) so now I've got to many options , Anyway, mipmaps = enabled, you don't need over the top resolution when you're looking at something from a million miles away, be it metric or freedom - doesn't matter .  BC3n setting in Texture Tools if I remember correctly, you can also use the .png normal map directly (good when comparing compressed .dds).

4. Specular

I use what I call "Universal" spec maps, i.e. single color (RGB value determine effect; basically Blue=Glow, Green=Wet/Shiny, Red=Metal. See H5-manual). I think, there is some specular+dummy normal map set intended for makeup around that should work well. If not I can upload the one I've made later... Gotta go now... I have to head to work.

I hope this was something you were looking for... 

On 9/25/2021 at 9:20 AM, sevenseason said:

bump im also interested as well if its possible.. 

As far as I know it's not possible since the textures are mirrored/duplicated from one eye to the other. I'm gonna try to see if I can get around it, I've got an idea I wanna try out...

Edit: Nope, didn't work... the L & R eyeball are "linked" so changes to one applies to the other. Tried to get around it with some custom-skin stuff but no luck.

14 hours ago, shvbbvrvnks said:

How do i remove it? I tried deleting Room_Photostudio_material_concrete05.png from the texture folder but the background's still loading. This is the amazon cave texture

Simply open it up with an image editor and make it 100% transparent, then export with transparency and replace. Note that some textures might be used for several things/objects, so you might have to cut out specific parts. What I do in cases like that, when I want to see where a texture is applied, is to color it or parts of it in some obnoxious color so that it's easy to see where it's applied. If you're using Hook you might need to blank out the "_pass-file", i.e. deleting the path for stage2/3, otherwise normal/specular will be rendered on the transparent texture.

Sometimes you might have to modify the ".txf-file" for a specific texture and change it from something like "RGB_888" "Opaque" to "RGBA_8888" "AlphaBlend" which enables transparency for the texture. This might be why it's rendered even though you deleted the texture, assuming it's the correct one.

On 4/14/2021 at 5:10 PM, Krosis said:

Hello,

 

I use Smoke's 2020 Photoshop package. Can some one link me or upload the plugin they use for creating normal and spec maps? The Nvidia Tools I have installed are freezing and crashing PS 2020 (they worked in CC 2018).

If it crashes Photoshop you can download and run Nvidia Texture Tools Exporter as a standalone application. 

10 hours ago, Jimmy_G said:

Working right now on a VX version of my Alexandra D model, so stay tuned

 

Nice to hear working on adapting your model(s) to VX. Remember them as high quality stuff! Looking forward to it!

2 hours ago, McKeu said:

Yeah, hence me saying one should def. start with basic, to make sure that everything is in the right place, before slapping all the PhysX and shit on top.

EDIT: It simply saves you the time of having to fire up a room in order to see if Hook5 works. Main menu already tells you that.

I am not sure the "Basic" still showed up for me after using KE XXI, but I am also not sure if I had basic or already paid at that point

I'll have to agree; starting with H5-Basic and then upgrading to H5-Extended could also be advantageous when you're new to the whole Hook-thing. It makes the learning curve a little less steep/more focused/more incremental than going full on hardcore all at once trying to get HairWorks, Room Lighting, LUT, Object-stuff, Customizable Skins/Skin Layers, Displacements, etc. to work all in a single game launch. That might just result in the mouse/keyboard flying out the window due to a fit of rage... but maybe that's just me... I'll should probably work on that .

Sure, you'll have to live with making changes with a text-editor instead of the UI-way for most things but at least for me it was a good way to learn how stuff works & what it is so that when I upgraded to the Extended-version it was mostly all about learning the new features available.

Installation wise I went the route of first installing Basic (checked that it was working) & then upgraded to Extended, worked like a charm  . 

8 hours ago, mrshadow said:

Hello,

For some reason on Hook5 paid / extended version the cum textures don't show at all!
I have a backup binaries folder with hook5 free/basic and cum textures display just fine....

Does anyone had this problem ?

Thank you!

This sounds somewhat familiar... either I've read of someone having this or a similar issue or I've had it myself (it's now a while since I migrated from H5-Basic to H5-Extended so my memory is a little fuzzy). I know I've had some kind of issue but that might also have been getting them to work with Hook in general.

Anyway...

Textures that work in H5-Basic should work in H5-Extended (since the extended version has all H5-Basic-features and simply adds new ones), so I would not see this being a texture problem, although that is easy to check by swapping them out for some other ones like the ones @McKeu posted above. Just Remember to make backups of all the textures you're replacing so that you can easily revert back if needed.

Maybe there's some setting(s) in your "main.fx" that's been there all along but only activated by H5-extended but I would be quite surprised if those only affects cum-textures.

So swap out the ActiveMod-textures and see if that fixes it. REMEMBER BACKUP WHAT YOU'RE REPLACING!

22 hours ago, sergioadvocatus2019 said:

Great work! I tried to make my model based on Mia Khalifa many years ago, with dubious results, however, your work has much better results!

 

By the way, any chance to upload a model based in the gorgeous Private actresses Nikki Anderson and Joy Kiss? I would love to have a threesome with these two.  If you doubt they're worth it, do a Google search  

 

Congratulations again!

Well, it's not mine, glad you liked it though... can't remember who made it. I found it in some old zip-bundle I had on a external HDD.

9 hours ago, cattie50552 said:

Hi. You may have cleared up a major confusion for me.   Are you saying that you need H5$ to display _ANY_ objects? If correct then I believe many rooms on this site require H5$ and they do just not indicate that.

Maybe some objects work, I can't remember, I think fire works but but all "custom" objects like those in Siberia's pack won't show up with H5-Basic. All in-game editing of skins, level definitions etc. are disabled. You can use custom skins but you'll have to do all the editing with a text editor; displacement and other stuff mentioned in the guide above that @Sexvision linked that are not supported by H5-Basic won't work. You can layer stuff like eyebrows, makeup, tattoos and it will show up.

Yeah, sometimes info/requirements can be a little lacking... That being said... I think the sub category "H5 Object Rooms" is a fairly recent addition so rooms uploaded before that might be in the wrong category...

This site has been getting so many new and amazing features, both when it to organizing stuff & other things, it's frankly hard to keep up to speed .

On 11/24/2021 at 6:57 AM, cattie50552 said:

I have tried two different VX/H5 distros and for both TK17 crashes when I try to open the Photostudio_H5 from the H5 Starter Pack.  I have the 4GB setting.  Any suggestions?

Thanks. I did that. No H5 objects are displayed and many H5 rooms crash including the Photostudio room from the H5 starter content  package. Any suggestions?

Hi!

1. Regarding H5-Basic & CTD when loading the PhotoStudio:

There is some kind of issue within the ActiveMod-folder "R_h5p_Photostudio_Ps" provided with H5-Starter Content (04.04.2018) which resulted in crashing. I never bothered to investigate further but instead copied the version from 26.07.2017 and that solved it. 

2. If someone hasn't said it already (scrolled through this thread kinda fast...) I believe you need H5$ for things like objects, displacements & HairWorks to work.

Unfortunately not. The game is a 32-bit application and can't therefore use more than 4GB. It won't hurt, it's even a good thing, if your machine has more though since background tasks (OS) and other apps want some RAM too.

4 hours ago, drmls said:

Everyone can use the tool below for age prediction of a model:

https://age.toolpie.com/

 

Cool!

It'll be interesting to see how well it works and of course if I can trick it into telling me I look like 100 years old .

7 hours ago, Load81 said:

My game folder is getting or has been out of control...So i wanted to try a clean install with only the mods I really need on a different hard drive...But yeah none of the skin bumps and now that i check again alot of hook5 stuff isnt working

Hi!

So you're currently have 2 portable installations running as I understand it...

1.  My first step would be to make sure the H5-installation on the new HDD is working with all files included & in the right place (Binaries-folder & ActiveMod/_hook5data).  Below: Two installation guides and the most up to date H5-Guide (English) that I'm aware of if you need them. The one from @Titanoboa Serpentes lists all the binaries for both H5-Basic & H5-$.
   Spoiler

   Spoiler

    

    

2.  If Hook is installed correctly then the issue must be in ActiveMod... like missing files/incorrect search paths in the "_pass-files" or customizable skin/skin system txt-files. I assume you copy things like skins and such from your old ActiveMod right?  

ps. Your're launching the game using the launcher or the executable from within the Binaries-folder, right?

On 11/2/2021 at 11:44 PM, Condoriano said:

The Skin File looks like this

[skin_data_file]
name = _monique.txt

The things is that this model works fine in the V7.5 that I already have but I changed to VX versión but it doesn´t work well in VX

And you've got a txt-file named "_monique.txt" in the same folder in ActiveMod?

There's always a possibility for some issues when migrating from 7.5 to VX... can't remember them all but things like the face shape of a model can be different.

If you want / haven't got it working you can zip and pm me the model save and the ActiveMod-content related to the skin and I can take a quick look a see if I can spot the issue...

Then there's probably an issue with "_skin_definition.txt" located in the folder (skin you're trying to launch)...

It should look like this:

Where "_skin_SkinDefinitionFile.txt" specifies the name of the file where all parameters/settings & search paths are specified for all skin layers.

If "name = " points to nothing the it probably won't show in H5 UI.

Do you mean the Monique skin by Morokei? I think it's part of Universal Skin System for Hook5 but otherwise you can get it here:

On 10/18/2021 at 7:37 PM, Jokolo said:

Hello there,

i guess, i have a problem with an addon or texture i installed lately. Sadly, i installed a lot so i have no idea which one it could be.

When i change boots in the customizer the game always crashes to desktop when it comes to the boot in slot 128. 

Is there any way to find out the name of the texture or addon used by this boot?

Normally i would see the boot's name in the dropdown menu for boots but this also crashes...

I would be glad for any advice.

Thank you!

 

 

 

So it crashes even before the addon / texture is loaded by clicking on the dropdown menu?

You can try looking in "mainfx_errors.txt" located in (...\Binaries). I don't know/think if a faulty addon will show up there but I know bugged normal and specular textures do at least... had some issues with a couple of those a while back. You can also have a look in "VX-addon.log" (...\Logs) and see if you can identify any sort of error / fault there.

Hope it helps.

So I'm now assuming you're trying to use the skin system since you have launched H5 UI...

Make sure you've selected 1x skins in the body tab and a skin system compatible skin from the skins you've got in your ActiveMod-folder (the dropdown list in the in game body tab... ) then all stuff like make up, eye brows, nipples etc. are to be applied as "new layers" using the H5 UI.

Need a little more info / description of your particular issue in order to help further.

3 hours ago, blindside18 said:

Does replacing the jp2 with png correct the transparency? Does it need further editing?

I open .jp2 with GIMP and using the default import settings (just clicking ok) has been working great. I may recall some specific texture being a little tricky but I think that was actually a clothing texture.