R&R: Colour Editing
Doing a custom recolor of the Netrunning suit
This page is a subsection of the Netrunning Suit guide. It will teach you how to recolour Cyberpunk items via MLSetupBuilder.
Other resources
None of this is required for completing this guide, but if you're curious, you can poke around the wiki and learn a lot more about materials! Just follow the links and get lost... :)
Another guide: Changing materials, colors and textures
Theory: Material properties
Assumed level of skill:
You know how to read — if you can read and struggle with this guide, then it's not yet good enough. Please reach out to manavortex on the redModding Discord so that I can improve it.
Time to complete:
<1h for the tutorial
< 5 minutes once you know how it works
Prerequisites:
If you can check all those boxes, let's go.
Overview
MLSetupBuilder can't directly edit game files. For that reason, we need to
export our
.mlsetup
to an.mlsetup.json
edit that file via MLSetupBuilder
import it back
You can't skip any steps in this section that don't say otherwise.
Do not move any of the files. Wolvenkit will lose track of them if you move them around.
Step 1: Loading the file into MLSetupBuilder
Getting the file into the tool, and opening the right preview
Now that you have added the right file(s) to your project, right-click on them or on their folder and select the option to export them as json:
Once you have done that, switch to your project browser's raw
tab, right-click on the first file, and select the option to open it in MLSetupBuilder:
This will open MLSB with the correct file already loaded.
Alternatively, you can also open MLSetupBuilder by hand, then press Ctrl+I
or select Import
from the menu.
If your material list is saying [object object], check the MLSB troubleshooting page.
(Optional) Step 2: Preview and Layer Masks
If you don't care for this, you can skip to Step 3: Recolouring
Enable preview
Switch to MLSetupBuilder's Library tab.
Check if the .mlsetup that you want to edit is in a subfolder
layer_mask_2
No: Search for
t0_005_pwa_body__t_bug
Yes: Search for
t0_001_wa_body__t_bug
Click on the entry that has no suffixes (
_cuff
or_tight
) to load the model into the 3d viewport.Close the library tab again.
Songbird's suit has a custom mlmask, which I've been too lazy to set up. Future MLSetupBuilder updates will support dynamic switching.
Step 3: Recolouring
Prerequisites
There will be a bunch of links in this section, which you can absolutely ignore. They'll lead you to look-up tables or extra theory.
Potential breaking point
If you are here to edit other mlsetups, you can skip this section
Some suits are using custom materials, which MLSB isn't yet equipped to handle. You can identify them by the missing icon in the preview (see the screenshot below). For details on how to handle those, check Custom material paths below.
Change the colours
Click through the layer list on the left (1).
The
Material
value (2) changes based on your layer selection, as will the available optionsChange the colour by clicking on it in the Color Picker (3)
Click "Apply Edits", Hotkey:
Ctrl+Shift+A
(4)
Repeat the process until you're satisfied
Now export the
.mlsetup
(shortcut:Ctrl+E
).Overwrite the file you imported (e.g.
mirror_hex_black.mlsetup.json
)Change more .mlsetup files, or head to Step 4: Importing into Wolvenkit
Custom material paths
This section tells you how to deal with custom materials. You can identify them by their broken preview icon.
If you don't have any of those in your .mlsetup or if you are just recolouring MlSetups independently from the Netrunner guide, then you can skip to Step 4: Importing into Wolvenkit
Since I knew that I was going to share this, I've moved custom materials into a subfolder manavortex
in their original path.
To get the original color picker back, we'll need to change the path while you're editing the material, then put the original back when it's time for export. You do it like this:
Click into the material path (orange box)
Press
Ctrl+A
to select the path.Press
Ctrl+C
to copy it. Paste it into a text document so that you can restore it later.Find the subfolder
manavortex\
in the path and delete itIf the name of the material is
mirror_01_300
, change it tomirror_01_100
You now have a working colour palette and can edit the material.
When you're done, click into the material path again and restore the original value.
You can now export (ctrl+E)
Step 4: Importing into Wolvenkit
Switch back to Wolvenkit.
Make sure that the Project Explorer shows either of the tabs
source
orraw
Find the file that you just edited
Right-click on it and select the option to convert it from JSON:
Step 5: Testing
Time to test! Install and launch your Wolvenkit project:
If you did everything right, your recolour will now be active.
Otherwise, check R&R: Troubleshooting.
Last updated