Merging existing tattoos

How to merge two or more existing tattoos

Summary

Published: Feb 03 2024 by manavortex, initial guide by Yggnire Last documented edit: Feb 03 2024 by manavortex

This guide will teach you how to merge multiple tattoos into one. It will not cover the process ofConverting between texture frameworks.

Level of difficulty

The ability to read: mandatory, because I'm not gonna lie — this is gonna be difficult otherwise. Knowing how to edit images: recommended, because this guide will not cover it. If you don't know it, the relevant section will tell you what to Google, though.

Expected time to complete

<1h for total noobs, <10 minutes if you know what you're doing

Prerequisites

• You have Wolvenkit installed
• You have all tattoo mods that you want to merge installed (even though only one of them will be active)

• All your tattoo mods are for the same framework (if not, check the guide about Converting between texture frameworks and do that first)

To see which files you need to edit, check this Overlay list

Step 0: Create a Wolvenkit Project

Depending on the supported framework, you need to name your project like this:

Framework	Prefix	Example name
KS UV	004	004_my_tattoo_mix
VTK	00	00_my_tattoo_mix

If you don't know how to create a project, you can look it up on the Wolvenkit wiki.

Step 1: Extract the files

Export all .xbm files from the tattoo mods that you want.

You can find a detailed guide on how to do this under Analysing other mods

1. Open the Asset Browser and switch it to Mod Browser
2. Find all .xbm files in the first.archive file from one of your tattoo mods
3. Add them to your project

4. Rename the files (e.g. by appending "mod1"). This is important, because the other mods' file names will be the same. Do not rename the files for the last mod you export.

5. Repeat the process with the other archives until you have all .xbm files that you want to merge in your project.

Step 2: Edit the files

1. Use Wolvenkit's Export Tool to export all the files to .png
2. Open the file in the image editing software of your choice (if you don't have one, use photopea.com)

3. Make sure to use the same resolution for all the tattoos, otherwise the tattoos will be placed incorrectly, they will either be too big or too small compared to other tattoos, usually 4096x4096 is the most used resolution.

4. Merge the textures. If you don't know how, you can google "how to merge layers in <software of your choice>" and find guides by the dozen.

5. Export the textures, overwriting the files from your last export in your Wolvenkit project's raw directory.

Make sure to check the linked guide for how to enable transparency!

Step 3: Import the files and pack the mod

1. Use the Import Tool to import the .png files into the original .xbm files
2. Delete all other (renamed) xbm file from your project directory — you don't need them anymore

3. Check the textures in the Image Preview to make sure that they look OK. Troubleshoot them if not.

Now it's time to install your new mod and launch the game. Click and hold the green play button on Wolvenkit's toolbar, select "Install and Play", and look at your new tattoo in action.

After installing your new tattoo mod, remember to delete the original files in your mod folder, otherwise it will cause conflict between the different tattoo mods.