Making Reskins Glow (aka Neon)

Overview

So you made reskins. Want to make them glow?

Preface

I’m going to be brief and direct as possible. This guide assumes you know how to:

Export/Import textures from the KF SDK
Edit exported textures
Use edited skins

If you do not, then find a guide that teaches you that I made a guide for you.
[link]

Moving onward…

Note: click on pictures to enlarge them

Video Presentation

Create the Neon

For examples, notice KF neon skins has two textures for both weapons and characters.

The DIFFUSED(normal)
The EMISSIVE(neon)

The alpha for each file is important, as the alpha channel for the DIFFUSED file indicates what will be sleek and shiny while the alpha channel for the EMISIVE file indicates what will glow neon.

Name

Normal

Alpha Channel

AK47 DIFFUSED

AK47 EMISSIVE

DJ DIFFUSED

DJ EMISSIVE

To check/edit alpha layer in photoshop:

When saving, make sure it is at least DXT3 compression and alpha information is saved.

Combine in KF SDK

Import the textures into a package

Create combiners and shaders

Before:

File > New

Properties

After:

Note: Material #2 for the first Combiner is always

TexEnvMap’KF_Weapons_Trip_T.reflection.weapon_reflection_env’

Publish

To use reskinned characters, locate the correct character’s .upl file in your …killingfloor/system folder and redirect the BODYSKIN= and sometimes FACESKIN= (depends on the character) to the shader of your package.

In all honesty, I’m still trying to figure out the best way to use the neon weapons reskins. How I got them to work was follow this tutorial[forums.tripwireinteractive.com] to replace weapon skins by the mutator method. But since it pollutes clients’ files… I’m trying to find a better method.

Use the SHDR texture on weapons and characters and enjoy glowing reskins

Killing Floor Guide