ModAddedHeads
Tracking Issue: #219
Tags: customization, pawns
Allows Human Pawns to freely switch between default head and separate skeletal mesh heads without resorting to invisible head hacks and helmets.
+BodyPartTemplateConfig=(PartType="Head", TemplateName="Augmentations_Head_AFR", ArchetypeName="MusashiAndroidHeads.ARC_Head_Afr_M", Gender=eGender_Male, Race=eRace_African, bCanUseOnCivilian=false, SpecializedType=false, DLCName="Augmentations")
Base-game behavior
There are two kinds of Human Pawns in the game: Pawns that share their head mesh with their pawn mesh, and pawns that don't. Note that the pawn mesh itself never has any geometry except for a possible head.
In more concrete terms, the standard human pawn meshes have their head included, and the head archetypes reference the same mesh. The Human Pawn recognizes this and doesn't actually attach a head, and instead aliases the head component to the pawn component so that all changes to the head customization apply to the mesh.
Sparks on the other hand have the option to switch between different head meshes, and the head mesh never references the pawn mesh. The pawn mesh is entirely void of geometry. The Human Pawn recognizes this and uses a separate mesh component for the head.
Where it all goes wrong is when those two types of heads are being mixed. The Human Pawn first aliases the head to the pawn, and when a custom head is being used, it changes the head mesh -- and, due to the alias, also the base pawn mesh. Even worse, it tries to attach the pawn to the pawn itself instead of the head to the pawn. This generally crashes the game.
The fix
- We handle the case where we go from a standard head to a custom head correctly and don't crash
- We apply an invisible material to the entire pawn mesh when a custom head is being used
- For Sparks, this causes no change in behavior because the Spark pawn has no geometry
- For Humans, this is desired because otherwise, the base head clips with any custom head
- An invisible material is used because outright hiding the pawn turns off parts of the animation system =)
Additional nice-to-have
Some mod-added heads don't work well with certain customization categories. For example, the Augmentations mod adds Cyborg heads, which generally don't have facial hair (but other facial props are okay!)
This change allows custom head archetypes to suppress certain facial customization categories. Example from Augmentations:
XComContent.ini:
[XComGame.X2BodyPartTemplateManager]
+BodyPartTemplateConfig=(PartType="Head", TemplateName="Augmentations_Head_AFR", ArchetypeName="MusashiAndroidHeads.ARC_Head_Afr_M", Gender=eGender_Male, Race=eRace_African, bCanUseOnCivilian=false, SpecializedType=false, DLCName="Augmentations")
; Object name ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
[XComGame.CHHelpers]
+HeadSuppressesHair="ARC_Head_Afr_M"
+HeadSuppressesBeard="ARC_Head_Afr_M"
The specified name is the object name of the archetype. Full list of arrays:
HeadSuppressesHairHeadSuppressesLowerFacePropHeadSuppressesUpperFacePropHeadSuppressesHelmetHeadSuppressesBeard