#NPV is a go

[genocidalfetus]

NPV Progress

So Vilem went from this

To this

And all I had to do was switch eye submesh 01 and 02 AND THEN switch them back....or at least that's all I did to FINALLY get his eyes to be normal and the right color. I'm sure it was something more than that, but that was all I did today that somehow worked so I'll take it.

So Vilem has been built. Now he can be dressed and given alternate looks.

So big thanks to everyone who put up with my amateur and annoying ass @arcandoria @pinkydude @sh00kspeared @lokiina @dreams-in-green-forests @jaymber and everyone else who cheered me on and convinced me not to give in to the goblins who told me to just throw in the towel.

[elvenbeard]

SO. While blorbo-modding I stumbled over something (that is probably known already but made me all giddy and validated in my cyberware headcanons rn xD).

I think it's a more-or-less popular hc that Kerry is deaf af and has some kind of hearing implants. And I always hc'ed the little golden pieces behind his ears as connected to that in a way (be it just fancy decorative covers for maintenance access for the hearing implants or actual touch-based volume control for example - to mute Kovachek whenever he's talking too much again, for example).

BUT NOW looking at the actual mesh and such in wkit it looks like the golden lines on the outside of his neck are actually supposed to be connected to the bits behind the ears (and I can't unsee it now aaahhh, but I also like the broken-up look). And like. I can see how that would happen, with the body and head/neck being separate parts and Kerry in general having some clipping going on here and there. But also, I've always been a little annoyed at the clipping bc it didn't make sense, why would this little part clip so weirdly in such a triangular shape when it's supposed to end right below his ear... well, cause it's not supposed to end there but actually continues?! What to make of this info now (and also, forever gonna be debating now if I want to "fix" this by restoring more of a look like in the left picture or editing the mesh to get more of the "vanilla" look with the gap between - cause I think otherwise it might clip with his lil music note thingy, which I'd be sad about xD).

But also, no matter what I do, I'm feeling so validated in the hearing aid headcanon that can be synced to a microphone for monitoring BUT intead adding on sth new: the hearing implant is directly connected to his voice box implant, making this whole piece of tech capable of built-in monitoring during concerts :3

[clockworkvenus]

Dirty, little perfect angel Grab her hand under the table Tension thick and stares so fatal

Secret kisses on the bar Covered in her lipstick marks Leave 'em on like pretty scars(x)

"You havin' a good time?"

The question snapped Sierra abruptly out of her daze.

"Hm?" she responded, blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear her thoughts.

Elise chuckled, leaning back on the sofa.

"I said, are you having a good time?"

"Oh!" Sierra laughed coyly. "Yeah. I am, actually."

"Good." Elise smiled at her, then patted the sofa next to her. "Come on, siddown. Feel like I've barely spoken to you all night."

Sierra made a poor attempt at hiding her smile as she moved round the table towards the sofa.

"Well, you've been chatting up the dolls all night." Sierra said as she sat down.

"You jealous?" Elise asked with a smirk, twisting her torso slightly to face her.

"Should I be?" Sierra responded. The words left her mouth before she'd even really thought about them.

Elise shrugged nonchalantly, still smirking.

"I'unno. You tell me." she said as she leaned in ever so slightly closer, resting her elbow on her knee. Sierra felt her heart pound in her chest. She wasn't sure if it was the buzz from the alcohol, or from the merc she just couldn't get enough of.

"Do you always do this?" Sierra asked.

"Do what?" Elise replied, raising a brow.

"Flirt with your clients." Sierra said, unable to stop her eyes from glancing down at Elise's lips as she tilted her head.

Elise edged in closer towards her again, her smokey black eyelids low. Sierra felt another involuntary smile spread across her lips as she leaned in closer too, gazing into her pale blue eyes. Elise slowly shifted her hand towards Sierra's perched on the edge of the sofa, lightly running her fingers over hers. Sierra swallowed as her eyes flicked down to Elise's lips again.

"Only if they're hot." Elise said quietly.

(a continuation from this post)

[wraithsoutlaws]

we are back babey

[bitegore]

textbook voice: this is incorrect and you shouldn't do it! here's how you do it. because it's incorrect, here's another version! it's also incorrect and you shouldn't do it. anyway, here's how you do it

[jaymber]

☽ ... ☾

☽ 🅐🅜🅨 🅦🅘🅣🅗🅔🅡🅢 ☾

[chevvy-ryder]

[NC_RES]-31102049-EUR-GER scharfenberg_g_portraits_033_CC_GBM.file ///core:_ryder_von_scharfenberg.file\\\

—

⚠️ READ: Please do not repost/reupload any of my art here or to any other platform, or I will be forced to do anything to get it annihilated.

[pvthfinder]

How I think of my nomad OC versus how I screenshot her.

[byberbunk2069]

I want to get back to modding and actually start making a couple of NPVs

But also I don't want to

[pinkyjulien]

⚡ WIP Whenever

I'm sure I was tagged somewhere forever ago so HGHFH I'm using this as my excuse to show my lil project of the moment 👉👈

Working on my proper Fallout AU ✨ Cause I caught the rot like everyone else 'round me ofc ofc

Watched the show (loved it!) and bought Fallout 4, playing a bit there and there but I'm eager to continue 👀 I enjoy it so far

AND SO, With all that came the inevitable AU rot

HE IS OBVIOUSLY A BIG WIP STILL-- I quickly popped him in game to check if the mesh was ok, but I need to fix the different maps, especially the roughness one cause it got corrupted on import (got all kind of tiny artifacts/glowy pixels, that means it's the wrong compression!)

BUT Yeah so- I debated with myself if Mitch would be a ghoul or nah- I liked the idea, it fits him? Came up with a quick lil backstory too, War Veteran (duh) who "sacrificed" himself to help his folks get into a bunker (non-vault) when the bombs began to drop', he rushed to get everyone safe and didn't had time to get inside, making sure it was correctly sealed before runnin' away

He came back weeks / months later to check on them, knockin' on the door expecting another knock or some kind of life inside- but he couldn't hear anything, so he opened it and they were all dead

So he's the sole survivor of his lil group?? wandering the wasteland alone and all-- ghfhghfh hgf making myself sad

But then he met up with this awesome group of people who accept ghouls and all (cough aldecaldodaldlsld cough) and they help people without risking their own group security ofc :>

THEN COME Valentin lil gonkass

He's gonna be a Vaultie, or Ex Vaultie, who got falsly accused of something bad (not sure what yet) and yeeted from his vault, punished to go OUTSIDE

Idk yet if it's gonna be a recent thing, or if it's been a couple of months / years already and while he's still struggling to "fit in", he got a bit of time to adapt to the surface

As always with my AUs, how the two meet is similar to my CP77 Canon; Valentin ends up in trouble, life or death situation, and Mitch comes at the right time and save his ass uwu (I'm a sucker for THIISSS DONT @ ME)

Need to find a Vault that would fit Val's lil lore, need to customize his outfits more- and I also have Sturges's outfit to port for Mitch because of COURSE he's a lil techie here too 😔👌 what can I say

Not gonna tag anyone but if you read all that, you're automatically tagged 👁👄👁 👈 mwah

[elvenbeard]

🏳️‍⚧️ Happy TDOV! 🏳️‍⚧️

This year with a freshly recruited Arasaka!Vince, and for a reason!

I'm sure I talked about it before in an OC questionnaire or answered asks, or random blorbo ramblings post, but one of the things I love and admire so much about Vince is how he was always true to himself and his identity from the moment he realized he was trans.

Yes, he'd had his moments of doubt, but more about all the obstacles in between where he was and where he wanted to be, and how to get there, less about how he felt on the inside. But even so, he never denied or hid who he was, and from the get-go he stood up for himself, more and more with every year that passed, and no matter how many people turned out to be obstacles in his path. His mother who did not have his back, exes who thought they knew better than himself, random agressive or belittling encounters, and so on... he was never deterred or faltered and knew exactly what he wanted. He learned to not give a shit about stupid opinions (sth I still gotta work on for myself irl).

Though after cutting ties with his family, money was always an issue and a problem, and, as we know, medical care in NC is basically unaffordable without (or even with) insurance. So when that Arasaka job offer came along seemingly out of nowhere, it was not only finally the chance and challenge he'd been yearning for career-wise. It also meant paying for top-surgery was no longer off the table for the near future. He never denied that that was one big incentive, and for enabling him to take that final step of his journey he is still grateful years later, even after getting fired and living through many other horrid experiences while working there.

So yeah, as a backstory for the pics above, picture that he's only just gotten his full work contract post-basic-training, it's his first night in his new, fancy company apartment, and he's realizing he is really finally getting there, despite the obstacles and hardships. One big step closer to fully becoming himself.

(And NPV-making sidenote, if you look closely, he doesn't have a lot of his signature tattoos yet bc those follow later uwu).

And now a final little tangent on my own life! My online presence and my freelance work and streaming etc etc over the past ten-ish years has in a way also been a stepping stone on becoming myself. I've tried my way through various names and pronouns until I was sure about what feels right and what doesn't when I couldn't really be my true self irl. Being [Elven (he/him)] online was escapism and wish-fulfillment at the same time, and while it made existing "in the real world" in the closet more bearable, it also made it more painful in a way. Last year I came out to some irl friends and my mom, and today I took the leap and also told everyone at my workplace - idek how long I've been putting it off, out of fear of judgement, rejection, etc etc. And it was exhausting and exciting, and stressful and scary but now it's also a big relief. It's gonna be a struggle in the future still for sure, because unlike Vince, I'm not quite as strong and have a harder time standing up for myself and daring to take up space and talk back and, as I said, cannot as easily brush aside stupid comments (even if they were made not out of malice, but simple unknowingly).

Leading a bit of a double life and carrying around a "secret" for over 15 years left its mark, and it's gonna need some work to bring online-me and irl-me closer back together (metaphorically speaking, I'm of course the same person... just been wearing a mask and protective armor for... yeah, more than half of my life at this point, which has worn me down quite a bit).

So yeh! Because of all that I'm always so happy to hear stories about young trans kids who have people in their surroundings that accept them, and I hope in the future fewer and fewer people will have to hide for whatever reason, and can be their true selves much sooner. And for my own journey forward I'll be thinking of Vince and try to be a little more like him - unapologetic, taking opportunities, and true to myself in every aspect of life, in all my colors!

(Also, thank you @pinkyjulien for the binder mod (and all your transmasc mods fr) uwu it was the last missing puzzle piece I needed for this VP idea, so perfect timing!)

[nemiepies]

A few days ago, someone leaked my best friends NPV on Nexus. The community banded together to help get it removed and it was quickly taken down with the user banned. They made a new account to repost it and once more everyone came together despite their feelings and helped to get it removed.

I want to say that the culprit has since been caught, and there has been whispers of who it was. I would like to go ahead and clarify that @wingdeer , @aurorartz , and @viralnymph had nothing to do with it. We know who the leaker is as they have confessed and while participating parties have chosen to keep this person’s identity hidden I thought it was important to stop the rumors before they begin to spiral.

Please do not harass or assume anything about these lovely women and if you support them please continue to do so. If not please dont use this as an excuse to send any hate their way as they have done nothing wrong and assisted greatly in catching who was responsible. Please show them some love if you can.

[wraithsoutlaws]

light me up ft. @faepunkprince's valentine

[sh00kspeared]

I've made a beginner friendly shapekeying tutorial for anyone who's been wanting to make an NPV but has no modding experience! Go check it out if it's something you're interested in!

[streetkid-named-desire]

NPV Skin Textures - A Primer

Hello, I promise at some point I will put together a full tutorial with lots of screenshots and my own tutorial file (primarily for the folder structure but it won't be required) and such. For now, I just wanna talk about custom pathing skin textures and especially UV/VTK overlays.

Glossary

custom pathing: renaming a file or adding it to a different folder in your project to prevent any other game files (vanilla or modded) from overwriting your project and vice versa. I prefer custom folder structures because it helps me find files more easily.

.mi file: material instance. You can read more about these on the wiki. All you need to know is that it is a type of texture file.

.xbm file: from the wiki: .dds files in a format REDEngine can use. Essentially, just images. When you export them, they usually get exported as PNGs for you to edit. The majority of modded skin textures are going to be .xbm files and what you want to pay particular attention to when custom pathing.

localMaterialBuffer: this tells the game what texture files to look for and use when loading an entity.

DepotPath: the file path to an asset (e.g. the xbm or mi file)

relative path: this is the path to an asset contained in the project.

(Let me know if more should be added here!)

Pro tip: how to easily add a modded file to your project

The easiest way to quickly find and add the texture you need to your project is to search for the texture name in the asset browser. Then, you can right click on the file and hover over "Add selected from archive." You should then see a list of mods that contain that file. Pay attention to the file size and if there are other files with the same name in the list of results in the asset browser.

Click on the mod and the file from that specific mod will be added to your project!

Custom Pathing the Textures

For this, we're going to be looking at t0_000_pma_base__full.mesh from the NPV of my dear boy Vincent Guerra. I also use the UV framework for him, so we're using the mesh included in the UV framework.

If you're using a tutorial file, make sure you overwrite the vanilla body mesh with the modded one for the framework you're using. Each framework's body will include additional file paths in their respective textures for the various overlays.

1. In the mesh file

In my screenshot, I've cleaned up the appearances I don't need for this NPV. This is generally good practice to keep things neat and tidy.

VG uses 02_ca_limestone. Find the material entry in the localMaterialBuffer that matches the skin tone your NPV is using. You can use NoraLee's Parts Picker if you're not sure what the name of the skin tone your V uses is.

You'll need to add the .mi file listed under baseMaterial and the d03_naked.xbm and n03_naked.xbm underneath "values" to your project. Make sure you rename the files or move the files to a different folder inside the project. That's the whole point of custom pathing after all. (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Right click on the file in your project explorer (on the left with all the files and folders for your project) and select "copy relative path to game file". That's what you'll paste on the right when you select the texture.

Once that's done, save the file and open up the .mi file you just added to your project.

2. The first .mi file

This one is simple, there's only one file we need to add and custom path.

Save, and open up the new .mi file you just added to your project.

3. The second .mi file

This one has another .mi file and textures we'll need to add. It will include the same d03_naked.xbm and n03_naked.xbm. Since we already added those to our project in the first step, we can just recopy their respective relative paths and paste into the appropriate sections.

Add the roughness file to your project and path that. Remember, you can copy and paste the file name into the asset browser if you need to add it from a mod instead of the base game vanilla files.

Save and open the next .mi file.

4. The third .mi file

This is where you'll usually find the spots to put your tattoo and other overlays.

Save, and you're done!

The last .mi file

Generally, once you hit base\materials\file.exe or engine\textures, you don't need to custom path those. You may still want to add this .mi file to your project anyway, just in case the friend you're sending the NPV to has some kind of mod that overwrites it.

Personally, I take a very thorough approach and custom path as much as I can to ensure the NPV is a completely self-contained entity outside of base engine files.

Final Thoughts

This process applies for custom pathing any mesh in your NPV. The body, complexion, hair, clothes. You're going to find the localMaterialBuffer and follow the texture paths.

Some general tips:

Look into any .mi file to see if it has additional items that may need to be custom pathed.

Don't forget to check the "values" section in the cMaterialInstance. If something looks off with textures, you likely just forgot to check there and path them appropriately.

When in doubt, just redo the pathing. Right click > copy relative path > paste.

And remember, NPVs are essentially Mr. Potato Head dolls. The .app file is the body and all the components are the features and clothing you can slap on the doll. Wanna add two different types of face cyberware? Just add 'em!

My DMs are always open if you need help with your NPV. You can also find me in the main modding discord under ratstick.

[chevvy-ryder]

2024 VP REVIEW

I'm not good in taking pics every month. I probably managed to do it but I have no vigor to look through over 1000 files for which months I took them at all. As it usually takes me some time that ranges from just a few days until up to past a year (YES!) until I decide to 'publish' my VP.

So here is just a quick throw-together of VP I came across that I threw into the collage from last year in no specific order:

I also noticed that especially Ryder received way more attention than my other blorbos. Thyjs mostly together with Ryder instead of alone. Its because I want to see Ryder happy. He deserves the world after what I wrote him into. Thyjs was my gift for him, Ry's way out of his misery so I decided to give them also a collage for this year:

Along this year I managed to create Hizumi eventually (YAY!) and I also created two new characters I hadn't in mind last year: Garnet and Loreley. I am very happy they exist and they will help me to compensate different stuff. Which is also why especially Vijay fell of the wagon (SADLY!) during this year. Thankfully he received a lot of love by @nervouswizardcycle instead by spawning him into Arki's game so often. <3

Followed by Jaysen, who got slightly more attention as his lil brother bc I managed to end the process I do for comm a NPV and thankfully also @gloryride gave Jay lots of love picturing him with Enzo through the entire year! I am very moved by that I have met people in this fandom who really do love my own ocs on a similar level (never expected this) and that they are so caring about my ginger twins. They managed to give them the love I could not manage because of my chaotic self. I am really thankful of that and I definitely want to give this back even tho it takes me a lot of time to get to it. Also a big shoutout to everyone who showed interest in my pixel dudes and expressed their love with likes and comments and even long discord talks about it. You are the coolest people ever <3

I hope 2025 will change something in my way of processing VP and all connected to it. I know I can't treat every oc equally with having 7 of them. It is fact that Ryder truly is my spoiled child. But that doesn't mean I love my other ocs less. I just need to find a good way how to work with these 7 blorbos. And this starts with working on myself first also.

I want to take a lot more VP as I still have a lot of ideas untouched and I am not going to abandon this game. My ocs mean too much to me to stop play CP and heading over to a new game (I mean atm I am throwing together a high-end gaming pc just for them, ok).

I want to create and share much more even though I know this fandom is getting smaller by every month passing by but it doesn't stop me bc I know I have friends and mutuals still interested in it.

Thank you! <3