App & Project Settings

Learn about our App & Project Settings

Introduction

The Durty Cloth Tool provides two distinct sets of settings to fine-tune both the application's behavior and project-specific configurations. These are divided into App Settings and Project Settings.

Durty Cloth Tool App Options & Project Settings

App Settings

App settings are user-specific preferences that influence the overall operation of the Durty Cloth Tool. These settings persist across sessions and apply to all projects that you work on. It can be opened by clicking the top navigation "⚙️ Options" menu item.

Durty Cloth Tool App Options Window

Below are the sections available in the App Settings window:

General Settings

App

• Reopen last opened project automatically on startup If enabled, the last saved project will be automatically opened when the tool starts.

• Reset saved window settings This button resets the window size, grid splitter positions, and other saved UI configurations.

• Clear 'Recent Projects' history Clears the list of recently opened projects from the tool.

File Association and Link Status

This option displays the current status of the app's linkage to any DCT-related file formats such as .dctproj, .dctpackage, and .dctexport. It allows users to conveniently open DCT files or perform related actions directly from the file system without navigating the tool.

• Enable File Associations and Links Checkbox: Toggles the linking feature on or off.

• Status Display: Indicates whether the associations are functional, need fixing (e.g., after moving the DCT installation), or are disabled.

Prefer Windows File Dialogs By enabling this, the tool will use the default Windows file dialog instead of the themed dialogs, which may help avoid issues with visual styles, especially at night.

GTA V Installation You must specify your GTA V installation path here. The tool requires this path for running the 3D previewer.

• Option to reselect or change the installation folder is provided if needed.

Theming

• Theme & Color Variation Allows users to choose the theme for the UI (e.g., "Office") and select a color variation such as "Dark" or "Light" to customize the appearance.

Items Settings

General

• Don't automatically select newly added clothes/items Prevents the tool from auto-selecting items that have just been added to the list.

• Automatically update 3D previewed cloth/texture Automatically refreshes the 3D previewer whenever a new cloth or texture is selected.

• Fill unused item positions When adding new items, this option tries to fill any gaps or unused positions, keeping the drawable order cleaner.

• Resort item positions Reorganizes the items list based on specific criteria.

3D Previewer

• Disable missing diffuse texture information This option disables warnings about missing diffuse textures in the 3D previewer.

Cloth Textures Preview Icon/Thumbnail

• Enables or disables the generation of texture preview icons in the drawable list. Keep in mind that this may slow down performance.

Texture Preview Popup Size

This slider allows users to adjust the size of the Cloth Texture Preview Popup displayed on hover.

• Range: 200px to 600px.

• The preview image remains a square format regardless of size.

Project Settings

Project settings are saved with the currently loaded project and control specific rules, warnings, validations, and output configurations for the project. They can be either accessed via the View top navigation menu item or on the buttom the "⚙️ Settings" button.

Durty Cloth Tool Project Settings Window

General

Project

• Name The name of the project. This is used for both the project folder and internal project-related files. Keep it simple, avoiding special characters and uppercase letters.

• Author (optional) An optional field for specifying the name of the project’s author. This will be included in the cloth build files if provided.

• Version (optional) An optional field to specify the version of the project. If entered, this version will be included in the generated build files.

• Description (optional) An optional field for notes or information about the project.

• DLC Name The name used in-game for this project. As with the project name, keep it simple and without special characters.

• Output Folder This is the folder where the project's output will be saved. The folder structure here is essential, as moving or deleting the folder will cause the project to fail to build. The tool allows you to browse or specify a new path if needed.

Behavior

• Automatically save one up-to-date project backup If enabled, the tool will automatically save a backup of the current project every minute whenever unsaved changes are detected. These backups allow you to recover from crashes or unintended changes. If a backup with a newer timestamp than the last save exists, the tool will prompt whether to restore the backup.

• Automatically replace with dummies on remove When enabled, removing items will replace them with dummy placeholders to maintain drawable ID order. Removing these placeholders will completely delete the items.

• Automatically replace dummies when adding clothes If enabled, new items added to the project will replace any existing dummy placeholders, rather than being appended to the end of the list.

Sharing and Collaboration

The Sharing and Collaboration tab contains settings that enable and facilitate sharing Durty Cloth Projects through version control systems like Git. These settings ensure project consistency across different systems and users while maintaining flexibility for individual build environments.

Settings Overview

• Force relative file paths to allow for sharing this Project Enables relative paths for the cloth project. This adjusts the cloth project output folder to be relative to the .dctproj file, ensuring compatibility when sharing the project. Additionally, it forces build output locations to be saved per user, avoiding conflicts when the project is used across different systems.

• Sharing is enabled (Status Indicators): Displays the current status of the project’s setup for sharing. The following indicators confirm the readiness for sharing:

  • Project File Created and Setup: Indicates that the .dctproj file exists and is properly configured.

  • Cloth Project Folder is relative to Project File: Confirms that the project folder's path is relative, allowing it to be shared seamlessly.

  • User Specific Build Output is active: Ensures that each user has their own build output location, preventing overwrite issues during collaboration.

• Relative Output Folder Displays the current relative output folder path for the project.

  • This folder is determined based on the location of the .dctproj file.

  • To share the project effectively, ensure the .dctproj file and the associated project folder remain in the same relative structure.

These settings ensure that collaborative workflows with Durty Cloth Projects are smooth and compatible with tools like Git, making it easier for teams to work on projects together without path-related issues.

See Working Together for a more hands on documentation on how to collaborate on a Durty Cloth Project with your team.

Warnings and Validations

This section provides rules and settings to help ensure the integrity of the cloth project and the compatibility of resources with the game engine.

General Warnings

• Disable 'Reached max drawables for type' warning Disables warnings when you reach the maximum number of drawables (128 for certain types).

• Disable automatic file check for existing duplicates Stops the tool from checking for file duplicates during startup.

• Always import duplicates without any confirmation When enabled, the tool will allow duplicate imports without prompting for confirmation. However, it will still print a log entry about the duplicates.

Texture Optimizer

• Automatically select DirectX 11 compatible formats Ensures that texture compression formats compatible with DirectX 11 are selected automatically. This is only recommended if all users playing on a server can be ensured to have DX11 or newer.

Validation Rules

• Enable or Disable Validation Rules Allows you to turn off specific validation rules that the tool uses to check your project for potential issues.

• Information Levels (Warning, Error, Message) Each rule can be configured to trigger a different severity level, whether a Warning, Error, or just a Message.

• Configurable Thresholds Some rules allow thresholds to be set, such as:

  • Model File Size Exceeded

  • Excessive Texture Dimensions

  • Maximum Polygons for High, Medium, Low LODs

Clicking "Rerun all validations" will apply any adjusted settings immediately and recheck the project based on the active rules and thresholds.

Summary

These settings provide you with extensive control over how the tool functions and how your projects are validated and built. The App Settings are user-specific, while the Project Settings apply to the currently loaded project and provide a structured way to maintain the quality and compatibility of your cloth projects.