3D Previewing Clothes

Introduction

The Clothes 3D Preview window in Durty Cloth Tool provides a real-time 3D visualization of clothing assets with various adjustable settings for precise previewing and debugging.

This is an integral part of the Durty Cloth Tool, allowing users to visualize how clothes will appear on the ped model and apply various rendering and preview options. This helps in ensuring proper fitting, rigging and overall look and feel of textures before exporting or using the clothes in the game.

Main Features:

• Real-time 3D model rendering

• Texture, model, and animation previews

• Advanced rendering controls (shadows, HDR, time of day, render modes, tex samples and more)

• Model breakdown and inspection

• Texture breakdown and inspection

Options Tab

The Options Tab provides various rendering settings and control over how the clothing is displayed in the preview window.

Rendering

• HDR rendering: Enables or disables High Dynamic Range rendering for enhanced visual fidelity.

• Shadows: Toggles the rendering of shadows in the scene.

Render Mode

• Choose between multiple render modes, such as:

  • Default: Standard rendering.

  • Single Texture: Highlights individual textures.

  • Vertex Normals, Vertex Tangents, Vertex Colours, Texture Coordinates: Debug modes to visualize different aspects of the geometry and textures.

Tex Sampler

• Select which texture sampling mode to apply:

  • Diffuse Sampler: Standard texture sample.

  • Other specialized modes (like vertex tangents or custom textures).

Tex Coords

• Select which set of texture coordinates to preview:

  • Texture coord 1, Texture coord 2, etc.

Control Light Direction

• Enable manual control over the light direction for better previewing.

Time of Day

• Adjust the time of day slider to simulate different lighting conditions.

Preview Settings

• Wireframe: View the model in wireframe mode to see the underlying geometry.

• Grid: Overlay a grid in the center for reference.

• Show Floor: Toggle the floor display to get a feel where exactly the ped would be standing and whether shoes or clothes will potentially glitch.

• Ped Skeleton: Visualize the skeleton structure of the model for debugging rigging issues.

• Only selected cloth: Preview only the currently selected clothing piece.

• Auto Rotate Camera: Automatically rotates the camera around the model.

• Preview Alternation Model: Adjust the loaded model of the currently selected cloth to either their first-person (_1) or other (_2, _3 etc.) alternation models.

• Level of Detail (LOD): Select the level of detail for the preview (e.g., High, Medium, Low).

Ped Tab

The Ped Tab allows users to configure the appearance of the character wearing the clothing, including body components and animations.

Base Components

• Control the currently visible base components on the character, such as:

  • head, berd (beard), hair, uppr (upper body), hand, feet, teef, accs (accessories), task, jbib (jackets and tops).

• Reset to Default: Quickly revert the components to their default settings.

• Don't reset components on change: Enable this to preview multiple addon clothes by simply selecting them in Durty Cloth Tool.

Animation

• Enable Animation: Toggle animation on or off.

• Enable Root Motion: Enable the root motion for specific animations (useful for walking or action animations, to understand the actual animation movement).

• Quick Select: Choose a pre-configured animation from a dropdown, suitable for most cloth rigging tests.

• Clip Dict: Enter any of the GTA V animation clip dictionaries to preview clothes using that animation.

• Clip: Provide the related clip of the clip dictionary that should be playing.

• Playback Speed: Adjust the playback speed of the animation to understand glitching better.

Custom Animations Loading

The Custom Animations Loading feature in the 3D Preview allows you to load and use custom .YCD animation files directly within the preview environment. This enhances the flexibility of the tool, enabling users to preview clothing items with custom animations for precise adjustments and visualization.

How to Use Custom Animations

1. Loading a Custom Animation

   • Navigate to the "Ped" tab in the 3D Previewer.

   • Under the Animations section, select the "Custom" option.

   • A file dialog will open, allowing you to choose any .YCD animation file.

   • Once selected, the .YCD file is automatically copied to the DCT App Folder/anims subfolder and preserved for later use.

2. Selecting a Custom Animation

   • After loading a custom animation, it will appear in the Custom Animation dropdown within the 3D Previewer.

   • Select the desired animation from the dropdown to apply it in the preview environment.

3. Adding Animations Manually

   • You can also add animations manually by moving .YCD files into the DCT App Folder/anims subfolder while the application is running.

   • Durty Cloth Tool automatically detects and loads these files, making them available in the Custom Animation dropdown.

4. Removing Saved Animations

   • To remove saved animations, delete the corresponding .YCD files from the DCT App Folder/anims subfolder manually.

   • Restarting the application ensures the dropdown reflects the updated list of available animations.

Models Data Tab

The Models Data Tab provides a hierarchical view of the model’s data, including the breakdown of each loaded cloth / body part, and its different LODs (Level of Detail).

Key Elements:

• High Detail, Medium Detail, Low Detail: View the number of geometries and vertices for each model component.

• Collapsible List: Expand and collapse each component to view the detailed geometry of the head, hair, upper body, lower body, feet, and specific clothing pieces.

Textures Data Tab

The Textures Data Tab breaks down the applied textures on each part of the clothing and character model. This tab is essential for inspecting texture maps such as diffuse, bump, specular, and more.

Key Features:

• DiffuseSampler: View and inspect the applied diffuse textures for each model part.

• SpecSampler: Inspect specular maps (used for reflections and light response).

• Texture Coordinates: View the UV mapping applied to the model.

• VolumeSampler: Used for 3D textures, view how volumetric textures are applied if applicable.

Preview multiple Addon Clothes at the same time

To preview clothing items in 3D without resetting components on each change, follow these steps:

1. Open the 3D Preview: Start by accessing the 3D Preview window.

2. Navigate to the Ped Tab: On the left-side menu, select the "Ped" tab.

3. Enable 'Don't Reset Components on Change': In the Ped tab, locate and tick the "Don't reset components on change" checkbox. This setting will keep previously loaded components in place as you preview new items.

4. Load Clothes for Preview: Simply double-click on a clothing item or select it and click the "3D Preview" button. The item will load in the 3D preview without resetting other components, making it easy to test combinations seamlessly.