diff --git a/HarmonySrc/GhostTraderCommand.cs b/HarmonySrc/GhostTraderCommand.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5714664
--- /dev/null
+++ b/HarmonySrc/GhostTraderCommand.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,174 @@
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using UnityEngine.Scripting;
+
+namespace NecromancerTome
+{
+ ///
+ /// `necroghost [percent|reset]` - turns the traders' transparency live, without a rebuild
+ /// (user request 2026-09-14, right after the alpha went from 1% to 10%: "Сделай консольную
+ /// команду на альфу, чтобы крутить в игре"). The number being hunted - "a ghost, not a broken
+ /// model" - can only be judged by looking at him, and every step of that hunt otherwise costs
+ /// an edit, a `dotnet build`, a restart and the four-minute walk back to a trader, because
+ /// traders are streamed in on approach. This collapses the loop to one line in the console.
+ ///
+ /// IT TAKES PERCENT OF TRANSPARENCY, NOT ALPHA, and that is deliberate: percent is the unit
+ /// the request has been made in twice ("буквально 1%", "пусть будет 10%"), while alpha is the
+ /// unit the renderer wants, and they run in opposite directions - 10% transparent is alpha
+ /// 0.9. Guessing which one a typed "10" meant would be a coin flip, so the command fixes the
+ /// unit and prints both back every time.
+ ///
+ /// NOTHING IS PERSISTED. The value lives for the session; the one that turns out to be right
+ /// gets written into GhostTraderPatch.DefaultGhostAlpha, which is the line a release ships.
+ /// A settings file would just be a second place for the answer to hide.
+ ///
+ /// WHY THE GAME FINDS THIS CLASS WITHOUT ANY REGISTRATION. SdtdConsole.RegisterCommands goes
+ /// through ReflectionHelpers.FindTypesImplementingBase(typeof(IConsoleCommand)), and that
+ /// walks ModManager.GetLoadedAssemblies() alongside the game's own - so a ConsoleCmdAbstract
+ /// in a mod DLL is picked up like any vanilla one. Ordering is not a gamble either:
+ /// GameManager calls ModManager.LoadMods() three lines before RegisterCommands().
+ ///
+ /// IsExecuteOnClient IS true BECAUSE THIS CHANGES PIXELS. On a server the command would
+ /// otherwise run where there is nothing to look at; the flag makes the server bounce it back
+ /// to the client that typed it (ConnectionManager.ServerConsoleCommand), which is where the
+ /// materials and the eyes are. In single player it changes nothing.
+ ///
+ [Preserve]
+ public class ConsoleCmdNecroGhost : ConsoleCmdAbstract
+ {
+ public override bool IsExecuteOnClient => true;
+
+ public override bool AllowedInMainMenu => false;
+
+ public override string[] getCommands()
+ {
+ return new string[] { "necroghost", "necrotrader" };
+ }
+
+ public override string getDescription()
+ {
+ return "Necromancer's Tome: how transparent the ghost traders are, in percent.";
+ }
+
+ public override string getHelp()
+ {
+ return "necroghost - show the current value and mode\n" +
+ "necroghost <0-100> - set transparency in percent (10 = the default, barely there;\n" +
+ " 30 = clearly a ghost; past ~30 he stops reading as a body)\n" +
+ "necroghost blend - fade the body by blending (re-shades it; smooth)\n" +
+ "necroghost dither - fade the body by dithering (the game's own _Fade; grainy)\n" +
+ "necroghost reset - back to the built-in default value and mode\n" +
+ "\n" +
+ "Applies to traders already in the world, immediately - walk up to one first and\n" +
+ "watch him while you type. Not saved: tell the mod author what you settled on.\n" +
+ "\n" +
+ "THE MODES ARE NOT DEGREES OF ONE THING. The body's own shader cannot blend, so the\n" +
+ "game fades it by throwing pixels away in a pattern - that is the fine grid. Blend\n" +
+ "re-shades the body onto the hair's shader, which has a transparent pass, at the\n" +
+ "cost of the character shader's own lighting. The hair fades the same way either\n" +
+ "way, so it is the body you compare.\n" +
+ "\n" +
+ "If he comes apart instead of fading - teeth through the cheek, an arm through the\n" +
+ "chest - that is not this number, that is depth writing, and no value here will fix it.";
+ }
+
+ public override void Execute(List _params, CommandSenderInfo _senderInfo)
+ {
+ if (_params.Count == 0)
+ {
+ Report("Ghost traders");
+ return;
+ }
+
+ string argument = _params[0].Trim();
+ if (argument.EqualsCaseInsensitive("reset"))
+ {
+ GhostTraderPatch.GhostAlpha = GhostTraderPatch.DefaultGhostAlpha;
+ SetMode(GhostTraderPatch.BodyOpacityMode.Blend, "Reset");
+ return;
+ }
+
+ if (argument.EqualsCaseInsensitive("blend"))
+ {
+ SetMode(GhostTraderPatch.BodyOpacityMode.Blend, "Body mode");
+ return;
+ }
+
+ if (argument.EqualsCaseInsensitive("dither"))
+ {
+ SetMode(GhostTraderPatch.BodyOpacityMode.Dither, "Body mode");
+ return;
+ }
+
+ if (!TryParsePercent(argument, out float percent))
+ {
+ SingletonMonoBehaviour.Instance.Output(
+ "necroghost: '" + argument + "' is neither a percentage nor blend/dither/reset. " +
+ "Try 'necroghost 10', or 'help necroghost'.");
+ return;
+ }
+
+ if (percent < 0f || percent > 100f)
+ {
+ SingletonMonoBehaviour.Instance.Output(
+ "necroghost: " + percent.ToString("0.#") + "% is outside 0-100. 0 = solid, 100 = invisible.");
+ return;
+ }
+
+ GhostTraderPatch.GhostAlpha = 1f - percent / 100f;
+ Report("Set");
+
+ // Said only when asked for, and only once the value is actually past the point where
+ // the two failure modes stop looking different - see GhostTraderPatch.GhostAlpha.
+ if (GhostTraderPatch.GhostAlpha < 0.7f)
+ {
+ SingletonMonoBehaviour.Instance.Output(
+ " (past ~30% the silhouette stops reading as a solid body at all, which looks like " +
+ "a broken model for a different reason than depth writing does)");
+ }
+ }
+
+ /// Switches how the body is faded and rebuilds the traders already standing, which
+ /// is the expensive path - the materials have to be built again from the originals, since
+ /// a re-shaded material cannot be un-re-shaded. Changing only the number never comes here.
+ /// Saying so out loud matters: this is the one thing in the command that is not free, and
+ /// flipping modes back and forth while hunting a value is the obvious way to use it.
+ public static void SetMode(GhostTraderPatch.BodyOpacityMode _mode, string _prefix)
+ {
+ bool changed = GhostTraderPatch.BodyMode != _mode;
+ GhostTraderPatch.BodyMode = _mode;
+ int rebuilt = changed ? GhostTraderPatch.Reapply() : 0;
+ Report(_prefix);
+ if (changed && rebuilt > 0)
+ {
+ SingletonMonoBehaviour.Instance.Output(
+ " (" + rebuilt + " renderer(s) rebuilt from their original materials)");
+ }
+ }
+
+ /// Current value plus what it actually reached, in both units, and which way the
+ /// body is being faded. The count is the half that answers "did it do anything": 0
+ /// materials means no trader has been converted yet - they stream in on approach - not
+ /// that the number was refused.
+ public static void Report(string _prefix)
+ {
+ float alpha = GhostTraderPatch.GhostAlpha;
+ int applied = GhostTraderPatch.Retint();
+ SingletonMonoBehaviour.Instance.Output(
+ _prefix + ": " + ((1f - alpha) * 100f).ToString("0.#") + "% transparent (alpha " +
+ alpha.ToString("0.###") + "), body mode " + GhostTraderPatch.BodyMode +
+ ", applied to " + applied + " live material(s) across " +
+ GhostTraderPatch.Ghosted.Count + " trader(s) converted this session.");
+ }
+
+ /// Percent out of what the user typed. StringParsers is the game's own parser and
+ /// is culture-independent, which matters here - but it reads ',' as a THOUSANDS separator,
+ /// so on a keyboard where the decimal key produces a comma "12,5" would silently parse as
+ /// 125 and the trader would vanish. The comma is turned into a point before it gets there.
+ /// A trailing '%' is accepted because it is the obvious thing to type.
+ public static bool TryParsePercent(string _argument, out float _percent)
+ {
+ string text = _argument.Replace(',', '.').TrimEnd('%').Trim();
+ return StringParsers.TryParseFloat(text, out _percent);
+ }
+ }
+}
diff --git a/HarmonySrc/GhostTraderPatch.cs b/HarmonySrc/GhostTraderPatch.cs
index 2b76d53..336b766 100644
--- a/HarmonySrc/GhostTraderPatch.cs
+++ b/HarmonySrc/GhostTraderPatch.cs
@@ -10,12 +10,13 @@ namespace NecromancerTome
/// торговцев убираем совсем"). Fits the mod - the necromancer deals with the dead, and the
/// only people still trading are not quite alive.
///
- /// TRANSPARENCY WAS DROPPED, THEN ASKED BACK FOR AT A SLIVER. The user first said "убираем
- /// совсем", confirmed the result ("торговец стал непрозрачным и полностью чёрно-белым, как и
- /// требовалось"), and then asked for "лёгкую прозрачность, буквально 1%" to push him a little
- /// further towards a ghost. Dropping it was still the release this effect needed, because it
- /// is what allowed the shader to stay put - see below; the 1% is now a separate, optional
- /// layer on top (ApplyTransparency) that cannot break the greyscale if the shaders refuse it.
+ /// TRANSPARENCY WAS DROPPED, THEN ASKED BACK FOR AT A SLIVER, THEN RAISED TO 10%. The user
+ /// first said "убираем совсем", confirmed the result ("торговец стал непрозрачным и
+ /// полностью чёрно-белым, как и требовалось"), then asked for "лёгкую прозрачность,
+ /// буквально 1%", and on 2026-09-14 for 10% - "чтобы он выглядел как призрак, а не как
+ /// сломанная модель". Dropping it was still the release this effect needed, because it
+ /// is what allowed the shader to stay put - see below; the alpha is a separate, optional layer
+ /// on top (ApplyTransparency) that cannot break the greyscale if the shaders refuse it.
///
/// The two failed attempts are worth keeping written down, because neither could have been
/// predicted from the decompiler and each was settled by one log line:
@@ -56,6 +57,10 @@ namespace NecromancerTome
/// source texture: these are 4096x4096, and a readback per renderer per sweep would be
/// indefensible.
///
+ /// THE ALPHA IS TURNED FROM THE CONSOLE, not from this file: `necroghost `, in
+ /// GhostTraderCommand.cs. A rendering balance can only be judged by looking at it, and a
+ /// rebuild-restart-walk-to-a-trader cycle per step is not a way to look at anything.
+ ///
/// WHY A TICK AND NOT A SPAWN HOOK. Traders are streamed in on approach ("force spawning
/// pending entity npcTraderRekt" appeared ~4 minutes after the world loaded), and Jen is built
/// at runtime, so her renderers do not all exist when the entity is added to the world.
@@ -68,15 +73,125 @@ namespace NecromancerTome
/// Seconds between sweeps.
public const float SweepInterval = 2f;
- /// 1 = solid. 0.99 is the "буквально 1%" the user asked for on 2026-09-13 after
- /// seeing the black-and-white traders: a hint of not-quite-there rather than a ghost.
- /// Deliberately close to opaque for a second reason too - see ApplyTransparency, which
- /// keeps depth writing on precisely because a nearly-solid character can afford to.
- public const float GhostAlpha = 0.99f;
+ /// What a fresh game boots with. 1 = solid; 0.3 is what the hunt actually landed
+ /// on - the user set 70% transparency in game on 2026-09-14 once the body was blending
+ /// instead of dithering, and kept it. THE VALUE FOUND IN GAME BELONGS HERE: the console
+ /// command turns GhostAlpha for the session only and deliberately persists nothing, so a
+ /// number worth keeping has to be written into this line.
+ ///
+ /// The road here was 1% -> 10% -> 70%, and the last jump was not a change of taste: at 10%
+ /// the body was still being dithered, and a dither is only bearable while it is faint. Once
+ /// it became real blending, far more of it turned out to look right.
+ public const float DefaultGhostAlpha = 0.3f;
- /// Colour properties that might carry an alpha, best first.
+ /// The opacity actually in use. THIS IS THE ONE NUMBER TO TURN when hunting the
+ /// balance between "ghost" and "broken model" - everything else in this file is about
+ /// making the number mean what it says - and `necroghost <percent>` turns it live
+ /// (GhostTraderCommand.cs), because every step of that hunt otherwise costs a rebuild, a
+ /// restart and the four-minute walk to a trader.
+ ///
+ /// Which way to turn it is decided by WHICH failure you are looking at, and the two look
+ /// nothing alike:
+ /// - reads as a solid person, no ghost at all -> lower it (0.85, 0.8).
+ /// - the world shows through him but he still reads as one body -> this is the target.
+ /// - you can see his teeth through his cheek, eyes through eyelids, an arm through the
+ /// chest -> that is the "broken model", and it is NOT this number's fault. It means
+ /// depth writing came off somewhere; see _ZWrite in ApplyTransparency. Dropping the
+ /// alpha further only makes it worse.
+ /// THE OLD "nothing below ~0.7" NOTE WAS WRONG, and it is worth saying why rather than
+ /// quietly deleting: it was written while the body was still dithering, where a low value
+ /// means a coarse pattern and the silhouette falls apart early. With the body blending,
+ /// 0.3 reads as a ghost and holds together - the limit belonged to the technique, not to
+ /// the eye. Depth writing is what keeps him one body, and it does not care how low the
+ /// number goes.
+ public static float GhostAlpha = DefaultGhostAlpha;
+
+ /// One opacity lever this patch installed on a trader, remembered so the alpha
+ /// can be turned again WITHOUT rebuilding anything. Keeping the base value is the whole
+ /// point: the live value is always base * GhostAlpha, never "multiply what is there now by
+ /// the new number" - that would compound (0.9 then 0.8 would land on 0.72) and the second
+ /// turn of the dial would lie about where it put you.
+ ///
+ /// IsColour says which of the two kinds this is - the alpha channel of a colour, or a
+ /// plain float - because a trader needs BOTH and they are not interchangeable: the body
+ /// only has the float (_Fade) and the hair only has the colour (_Color). One material can
+ /// therefore contribute one entry, and one trader contributes several of both kinds.
+ public struct GhostMaterial
+ {
+ public Material Material;
+ public string Property;
+ public bool IsColour;
+ public float BaseValue;
+ }
+
+ /// A renderer this patch has taken over, with the materials it had before. The
+ /// originals are the reason a mode can be switched at all: after the first pass
+ /// renderer.sharedMaterials hands back OUR clones, so rebuilding from what is currently
+ /// on the renderer would re-shade an already re-shaded material and there would be no way
+ /// back to the body's real one. Rebuilding always starts here instead.
+ public struct GhostRenderer
+ {
+ public Renderer Renderer;
+ public Material[] Originals;
+ }
+
+ /// Every renderer taken over, in the order it was found. Pruned of destroyed
+ /// renderers as they are walked; dropped wholesale when the world unloads.
+ public static readonly List Converted = new List();
+
+ /// Every material installed on a live trader that has somewhere to put an alpha.
+ /// Retint walks this instead of redoing the work: re-running the sweep would re-clone the
+ /// materials and, far worse, hand the 4096x4096 desaturation another readback per trader.
+ /// Entries go stale when the game destroys the material with its trader - Retint prunes
+ /// those, and WorldShuttingDown drops the lot.
+ public static readonly List TintedMaterials = new List();
+
+ /// Colour properties that might carry an alpha, best first. Confirmed in game:
+ /// the hair/beard shader "Game/Autodesk" has _Color; the BODY shader "Game/Character" has
+ /// no colour property at all - see FadeNameHints.
public static readonly string[] TintNameHints = { "_Color", "_BaseColor", "_TintColor", "_Tint" };
+ /// How the BODY is made see-through. The two are not two settings of one thing,
+ /// they are two different renderers' worth of behaviour, and only a look in game can pick
+ /// between them - which is why both stay reachable from the console.
+ ///
+ /// Dither is the game's own _Fade, and on 2026-09-14 the user reported what it actually
+ /// looks like: "тело гаснет, но идёт мелкой сеточкой". That is screen-door transparency -
+ /// the shader is not blending anything, it is THROWING PIXELS AWAY in a fixed pattern.
+ /// It is what an opaque-queue character shader can do without a transparent pass, and no
+ /// value of GhostAlpha turns a dropped pixel into a translucent one.
+ ///
+ /// Blend re-shades the body onto the shader the HAIR is already drawn with, which does
+ /// have a transparent pass. The existence proof is on the same model in the same frame:
+ /// the beard has been fading smoothly this whole time while the body was dithering.
+ public enum BodyOpacityMode
+ {
+ Dither,
+ Blend
+ }
+
+ /// Blend by default: dither has been looked at and rejected. `necroghost blend`
+ /// and `necroghost dither` switch it live - see GhostTraderCommand.cs.
+ public static BodyOpacityMode BodyMode = BodyOpacityMode.Blend;
+
+ /// The hair's shader, kept once it is found on a real trader. Taken off the model
+ /// rather than through Shader.Find so it is the exact shader already proven to work in
+ /// this scene - name lookups can miss a stripped or renamed shader and hand back null,
+ /// and the mod has been down that road twice already with the Unlit family.
+ public static Shader BlendShader;
+
+ /// Normal-map properties, best first. "Game/Character" calls it _Normal, the hair
+ /// shader wants _BumpMap - the same disagreement the albedo has.
+ public static readonly string[] NormalNameHints = { "_BumpMap", "_Normal", "_NormalMap", "_NormalTex" };
+
+ /// Float properties that fade the whole material out, best first. This is the
+ /// body's only lever and the game's own: EntityModel.SetFade writes exactly "_Fade", and
+ /// guards it with `material.HasProperty("_Fade") && shader.name.Contains("Game/Character")`
+ /// - the same shader our traders' bodies are drawn with. EntityAlive.Update drives it from
+ /// renderFade, and SetVisible(renderFade > 0.01f) right next to it settles the direction
+ /// beyond doubt: 1 = solid, 0 = gone, exactly like an alpha.
+ public static readonly string[] FadeNameHints = { "_Fade" };
+
/// Entity ids already converted. Cleared when the world unloads.
public static readonly HashSet Ghosted = new HashSet();
@@ -109,6 +224,9 @@ namespace NecromancerTome
{
Ghosted.Clear();
GreyTextures.Clear();
+ TintedMaterials.Clear();
+ Converted.Clear();
+ BlendShader = null;
timer = 0f;
}
@@ -155,7 +273,12 @@ namespace NecromancerTome
return false;
}
+ // Before anything is touched, because the body's replacement shader is found on the
+ // trader's OWN hair and the hair is not guaranteed to come first in this array.
+ FindBlendShader(renderers);
+
int converted = 0;
+ int leversBefore = TintedMaterials.Count;
foreach (Renderer renderer in renderers)
{
if (renderer == null || renderer is ParticleSystemRenderer)
@@ -169,26 +292,266 @@ namespace NecromancerTome
continue;
}
- Material[] greys = new Material[sources.Length];
- bool anyChanged = false;
- for (int i = 0; i < sources.Length; i++)
+ Converted.Add(new GhostRenderer { Renderer = renderer, Originals = sources });
+ if (Convert(renderer, sources))
{
- greys[i] = MakeGreyMaterial(sources[i], ref anyChanged);
- }
- if (anyChanged)
- {
- renderer.materials = greys;
converted++;
}
}
+ // The lever count is the half that answers "will the console command reach him":
+ // desaturation and opacity come from different properties, and the body had the first
+ // without the second until 2026-09-14. Fewer levers than converted renderers means
+ // some part of this trader can only ever be black-and-white, never transparent.
Debug.Log("[NecromancerTome] GhostTraderPatch: " + _trader.EntityClass.entityClassName +
- " (entity " + _trader.entityId + ") - " + converted + " of " + renderers.Length + " renderer(s) desaturated");
+ " (entity " + _trader.entityId + ") - " + converted + " of " + renderers.Length +
+ " renderer(s) desaturated, " + (TintedMaterials.Count - leversBefore) + " opacity lever(s) installed");
return true;
}
- /// Clone of the source material - SAME shader, same everything - with only its
- /// albedo replaced by a black-and-white copy.
+ /// Builds and installs this renderer's ghost materials from the ORIGINALS it was
+ /// handed. True when anything was actually changed - a renderer nothing could be done to
+ /// keeps the materials it has rather than being handed a half-built array.
+ public static bool Convert(Renderer _renderer, Material[] _sources)
+ {
+ Material[] ghosts = new Material[_sources.Length];
+ bool anyChanged = false;
+ for (int i = 0; i < _sources.Length; i++)
+ {
+ ghosts[i] = MakeGreyMaterial(_sources[i], ref anyChanged);
+ }
+ if (anyChanged)
+ {
+ _renderer.materials = ghosts;
+ }
+ return anyChanged;
+ }
+
+ /// Rebuilds every trader already converted, from their original materials, under
+ /// whatever BodyMode is set now. This is the expensive path and exists only for the mode
+ /// switch; changing the alpha alone goes through Retint, which touches no materials at
+ /// all. Even here the 4096x4096 desaturation is not redone - GreyTextures is keyed by the
+ /// source texture, and the source is the same original every time.
+ public static int Reapply()
+ {
+ TintedMaterials.Clear();
+ int rebuilt = 0;
+ for (int i = Converted.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
+ {
+ GhostRenderer entry = Converted[i];
+ if (entry.Renderer == null)
+ {
+ Converted.RemoveAt(i);
+ continue;
+ }
+ if (Convert(entry.Renderer, entry.Originals))
+ {
+ rebuilt++;
+ }
+ }
+ return rebuilt;
+ }
+
+ /// Remembers the first shader on this model that can actually blend - it needs
+ /// both a colour to put an alpha in and a blend mode to honour it. On a trader that is the
+ /// hair's shader. Falls back to looking the name up only if the model somehow has no such
+ /// material, and says so either way, because a null here silently disables the whole Blend
+ /// mode and leaves the body dithering with no explanation.
+ public static Shader FindBlendShader(Renderer[] _renderers)
+ {
+ if (BlendShader != null)
+ {
+ return BlendShader;
+ }
+
+ foreach (Renderer renderer in _renderers)
+ {
+ if (renderer == null || renderer is ParticleSystemRenderer)
+ {
+ continue;
+ }
+ Material[] materials = renderer.sharedMaterials;
+ if (materials == null)
+ {
+ continue;
+ }
+ foreach (Material material in materials)
+ {
+ if (material == null || material.shader == null || !CanBlendInPlace(material))
+ {
+ continue;
+ }
+ BlendShader = material.shader;
+ Debug.Log("[NecromancerTome] GhostTraderPatch: blend shader taken off the model: '" +
+ BlendShader.name + "'");
+ return BlendShader;
+ }
+ }
+
+ BlendShader = Shader.Find("Game/Autodesk");
+ Debug.Log("[NecromancerTome] GhostTraderPatch: no blend-capable material on this model; " +
+ "the shader was looked up by name instead and came back " +
+ (BlendShader != null ? BlendShader.name : "NULL - the body stays dithered"));
+ return BlendShader;
+ }
+
+ /// Whether this material can be made see-through where it stands: somewhere to
+ /// put an alpha, and a blend mode to make the alpha mean something. The body fails both
+ /// halves and the hair passes both - which is the whole difference between them, and the
+ /// reason this is a capability test rather than a check on the shader's name.
+ public static bool CanBlendInPlace(Material _material)
+ {
+ if (!_material.HasProperty("_SrcBlend") || !_material.HasProperty("_DstBlend"))
+ {
+ return false;
+ }
+ foreach (string hint in TintNameHints)
+ {
+ if (_material.HasProperty(hint))
+ {
+ return true;
+ }
+ }
+ return false;
+ }
+
+ ///
+ /// The body, re-shaded onto the hair's shader so it can blend the way the hair does, with
+ /// the black-and-white albedo it would have had anyway.
+ ///
+ /// ONLY WHAT IS UNDERSTOOD IS CARRIED OVER - albedo and normal map. The body's third map,
+ /// _RMOE, is a packed roughness/metallic/occlusion/emission texture, and the destination
+ /// shader's _MetallicGlossMap expects metallic in R and smoothness in A: the channels do
+ /// not line up, and wiring them by hope is exactly how a character comes out looking like
+ /// wet plastic or a negative. It is left empty and the two floats are set by hand instead
+ /// - no metal, barely any gloss, which is what a dead man in black and white should be.
+ ///
+ /// This is a real trade and worth stating plainly: the body loses the character shader's
+ /// own lighting response and gets standard lighting instead. In exchange it can actually
+ /// be translucent rather than dithered. If it reads wrong in game, `necroghost dither` is
+ /// one line away and nothing has to be rebuilt.
+ ///
+ public static Material MakeBlendMaterial(Material _source, Texture2D _albedo)
+ {
+ Material blend = new Material(BlendShader);
+ blend.SetTexture("_MainTex", _albedo);
+
+ Texture normal = FindTexture(_source, NormalNameHints);
+ if (normal != null && blend.HasProperty("_BumpMap"))
+ {
+ blend.SetTexture("_BumpMap", normal);
+ }
+ MakeMatte(blend);
+ // Standard's own "Fade" setting. The shader branches on keywords rather than on this
+ // float, and ApplyTransparency sets those - but a material inspected later with its
+ // mode still reading "Opaque" is a trap for whoever looks next.
+ if (blend.HasProperty("_Mode"))
+ {
+ blend.SetFloat("_Mode", 2f);
+ }
+
+ ApplyTransparency(blend);
+ return blend;
+ }
+
+ ///
+ /// Takes the shine off (user request 2026-09-14, once the body was blending properly:
+ /// "слишком оно бликует, я бы вообще сделал матовым"). Applied to EVERY ghost material, not just the
+ /// re-shaded body: the hair is drawn by the same shader and was keeping its own shine, and
+ /// a matte body under a glossy beard would have read worse than either.
+ ///
+ /// THREE THINGS, BECAUSE THEY FAIL DIFFERENTLY:
+ ///
+ /// - _Glossiness (smoothness) to 0. This one is plain shader maths and always works -
+ /// the surface becomes maximally rough, and a rough surface has no tight highlight.
+ /// It is the load-bearing half of this method.
+ /// - _SpecularHighlights / _GlossyReflections to 0 WITH their keywords. These are the
+ /// Standard shader's [ToggleOff] pair: the float is only what the inspector shows, the
+ /// shader branches on _SPECULARHIGHLIGHTS_OFF / _GLOSSYREFLECTIONS_OFF, so setting the
+ /// float alone does nothing at all. They kill the direct highlight and the reflection
+ /// probe contribution outright.
+ /// - The gloss MAPS, cleared if anything is in them. A map wins over the float: leave
+ /// one in place and _Glossiness is ignored, which is the silent way for all of this to
+ /// appear to do nothing. They are empty on these traders today - this is for the next
+ /// model that is not.
+ ///
+ /// HONEST LIMIT: those two keywords are `shader_feature`, which Unity strips at build time
+ /// if no material in the game ships with them set. If they were stripped, EnableKeyword is
+ /// a no-op and only the roughness half lands. That is why the roughness half is not
+ /// treated as a fallback but as the main lever - and why this is not attempted at all on
+ /// the body's own "Game/Character" shader, which has none of these properties: its shine
+ /// lives inside the packed _RMOE texture and would have to be repainted, not switched off.
+ ///
+ public static void MakeMatte(Material _material)
+ {
+ if (_material.HasProperty("_Glossiness"))
+ {
+ _material.SetFloat("_Glossiness", 0f);
+ }
+ if (_material.HasProperty("_GlossMapScale"))
+ {
+ _material.SetFloat("_GlossMapScale", 0f);
+ }
+ if (_material.HasProperty("_Metallic"))
+ {
+ _material.SetFloat("_Metallic", 0f);
+ }
+ if (_material.HasProperty("_SpecularHighlights"))
+ {
+ _material.SetFloat("_SpecularHighlights", 0f);
+ _material.EnableKeyword("_SPECULARHIGHLIGHTS_OFF");
+ }
+ if (_material.HasProperty("_GlossyReflections"))
+ {
+ _material.SetFloat("_GlossyReflections", 0f);
+ _material.EnableKeyword("_GLOSSYREFLECTIONS_OFF");
+ }
+ ClearTexture(_material, "_SpecGlossMap");
+ ClearTexture(_material, "_MetallicGlossMap");
+ }
+
+ /// Empties a texture slot if this material has one and it is not already empty.
+ ///
+ public static void ClearTexture(Material _material, string _property)
+ {
+ if (_material.HasProperty(_property) && _material.GetTexture(_property) != null)
+ {
+ _material.SetTexture(_property, null);
+ }
+ }
+
+ /// First texture among these property names that this material actually has
+ /// something in.
+ public static Texture FindTexture(Material _source, string[] _hints)
+ {
+ foreach (string hint in _hints)
+ {
+ if (_source.HasProperty(hint))
+ {
+ Texture texture = _source.GetTexture(hint);
+ if (texture != null)
+ {
+ return texture;
+ }
+ }
+ }
+ return null;
+ }
+
+ ///
+ /// This material's ghost version. Two shapes, and which one it takes is decided by what
+ /// the material can do rather than by what it is called:
+ ///
+ /// - CAN be made see-through where it stands (the hair) -> a clone with the SAME shader
+ /// and only its albedo swapped for a black-and-white copy. Lighting, normal maps,
+ /// specular, skinning - all still the game's own.
+ /// - CANNOT (the body: no colour, no blend mode) -> under BodyMode.Blend it is re-shaded
+ /// onto the shader the hair uses, which can. Under BodyMode.Dither it takes the clone
+ /// path anyway and gets the _Fade lever, which works but throws pixels away.
+ ///
+ /// The albedo is desaturated first either way, because both shapes need it and the result
+ /// is cached per source texture - the re-shaded body is not paying for a second readback.
+ ///
public static Material MakeGreyMaterial(Material _source, ref bool _changed)
{
if (_source == null)
@@ -198,48 +561,83 @@ namespace NecromancerTome
ProbeShaderOnce(_source);
+ string albedoProperty = FindAlbedoProperty(_source);
+ Texture2D desaturated = albedoProperty != null
+ ? Desaturate(_source.GetTexture(albedoProperty))
+ : null;
+
+ // Re-shading without an albedo to hand over would produce an untextured silhouette -
+ // the exact failure this patch already shipped once, on 2026-09-13. If the texture
+ // could not be read, the body keeps its own shader and stays dithered instead, and
+ // the lever count in the log is what says so.
+ if (BodyMode == BodyOpacityMode.Blend && BlendShader != null && desaturated != null &&
+ !CanBlendInPlace(_source))
+ {
+ _changed = true;
+ return MakeBlendMaterial(_source, desaturated);
+ }
+
Material grey = new Material(_source);
+ MakeMatte(grey);
if (ApplyTransparency(grey))
{
_changed = true;
}
- string albedoProperty = FindAlbedoProperty(_source);
- if (albedoProperty == null)
+ if (desaturated == null)
{
// Nothing to desaturate on this material; hand back the clone unchanged rather
// than dropping the renderer's material entirely.
return grey;
}
- Texture2D desaturated = Desaturate(_source.GetTexture(albedoProperty));
- if (desaturated == null)
- {
- return grey;
- }
-
grey.SetTexture(albedoProperty, desaturated);
_changed = true;
return grey;
}
///
- /// Makes the material blend instead of being drawn solid, then dials its alpha down by the
- /// requested sliver. Two levers, both conditional, because the traders' own shaders are
- /// game-specific and nothing about them can be assumed:
+ /// Dials this material's opacity down to GhostAlpha. THREE levers, each conditional,
+ /// because a trader is drawn by two different shaders that have almost nothing in common -
+ /// and the first version of this method only had the levers the hair happens to own, which
+ /// is why the user reported on 2026-09-14 that the console command "управляет только
+ /// прозрачностью бороды". The probe had already printed the reason, one line each:
///
- /// - A COLOUR with an alpha channel (_Color and friends). This is the only thing that
- /// actually sets the opacity.
+ /// shader 'Game/Character' - albedo: _Albedo -> HD_Rekt 4096x4096;
+ /// tint property: ; blend-mode properties present: False
+ /// shader 'Game/Autodesk' - albedo: _MainTex -> HD_Rekt_Hair 2048x2048;
+ /// tint property: _Color (alpha 1); blend-mode properties present: True
+ ///
+ /// The BODY has no colour property and no blend mode at all. Two of the three levers below
+ /// simply do not exist on it, and no value of GhostAlpha was ever going to reach it.
+ ///
+ /// - A COLOUR with an alpha channel (_Color and friends). The hair's lever; the body
+ /// does not have one.
+ /// - THE FADE FLOAT (_Fade). The body's lever, and the game's own: EntityModel.SetFade
+ /// writes this exact property and guards it with a check for the "Game/Character"
+ /// shader by name, so this is not a property we found and hoped about - it is the one
+ /// the engine itself fades these very models with. Nothing else in the body's property
+ /// list can carry an opacity: the rest is _Albedo/_Normal/_RMOE, an alpha-CUTOUT
+ /// cluster (_AlphaCut, _AlphaCutoff, _SoftAlphaCutoff, _AlphaSoftness - a dissolve,
+ /// which punches holes rather than making glass), _EmissiveColor, and flags.
/// - THE BLEND MODE (_SrcBlend/_DstBlend). An opaque shader ignores any alpha it is
- /// handed, so without this the first lever does nothing visible - the same wall the
+ /// handed, so without this the COLOUR lever does nothing visible - the same wall the
/// mod's first transparency attempt hit back on 2026-08-28 with the summoned pets.
/// The recipe is the game's own: MeshDescription.SetupMaterialWithBlendMode writes
- /// exactly these properties plus _ZWrite and the _ALPHABLEND_ON keyword.
+ /// exactly these properties plus _ZWrite and the _ALPHABLEND_ON keyword. The _Fade
+ /// lever needs none of it - the shader does its own fading internally, which is
+ /// exactly why it exists.
///
- /// _ZWrite IS LEFT ALONE ON PURPOSE. The usual recipe switches depth writing off, which is
- /// right for glass and wrong for a person: without it every part of the model shows through
- /// every other part and the trader turns into a soup of overlapping limbs. At 99% opacity
- /// there is nothing to see through anyway, so keeping depth writing costs nothing visible
- /// and avoids that entirely.
+ /// _ZWrite IS LEFT ALONE ON PURPOSE, AND AT 10% THAT IS THE WHOLE BALANCE. The usual
+ /// transparency recipe switches depth writing off, which is right for glass and wrong for
+ /// a person: without it every surface of the model blends over every other one, and the
+ /// trader becomes teeth through cheeks, eyeballs through eyelids, the far arm through the
+ /// chest - exactly the "сломанная модель" the user does not want. With it on, the depth
+ /// test keeps only the nearest surface and that one surface blends with the WORLD behind
+ /// him. So he goes see-through without coming apart: a ghost, not a mess.
+ ///
+ /// At 99% this cost nothing because there was nothing to see through; at 90% it is the
+ /// reason the effect is usable at all. Note that it is not set here either way - these
+ /// shaders write depth by default, and leaving the property untouched is what keeps it.
///
/// Whatever is missing is reported by the probe rather than silently skipped - if neither
/// lever exists on these shaders, the traders stay solid black-and-white and the log says
@@ -256,8 +654,43 @@ namespace NecromancerTome
continue;
}
Color tint = _material.GetColor(hint);
- tint.a *= GhostAlpha;
+ float baseAlpha = tint.a;
+ tint.a = baseAlpha * GhostAlpha;
_material.SetColor(hint, tint);
+ TintedMaterials.Add(new GhostMaterial
+ {
+ Material = _material,
+ Property = hint,
+ IsColour = true,
+ BaseValue = baseAlpha
+ });
+ touched = true;
+ break;
+ }
+
+ foreach (string hint in FadeNameHints)
+ {
+ if (!_material.HasProperty(hint))
+ {
+ continue;
+ }
+ // A base of 0 would mean the material is already fully faded out, which no
+ // standing trader is - it means the property is sitting at a default nobody set.
+ // Multiplying by it would make him vanish outright and no value of GhostAlpha
+ // could bring him back, so it is read as "solid" instead.
+ float baseFade = _material.GetFloat(hint);
+ if (baseFade <= 0f)
+ {
+ baseFade = 1f;
+ }
+ _material.SetFloat(hint, baseFade * GhostAlpha);
+ TintedMaterials.Add(new GhostMaterial
+ {
+ Material = _material,
+ Property = hint,
+ IsColour = false,
+ BaseValue = baseFade
+ });
touched = true;
break;
}
@@ -274,6 +707,40 @@ namespace NecromancerTome
return touched;
}
+ /// Pushes the current GhostAlpha onto every trader already standing in the world,
+ /// and returns how many materials took it. Traders that spawn later need nothing from this
+ /// - ApplyTransparency reads the same field on the way past.
+ ///
+ /// Unity's fake null is the reason for the rebuild-in-place rather than a simple loop: a
+ /// destroyed Material compares equal to null but is still a live list entry, and touching
+ /// it throws. Walking backwards and dropping those as we go keeps the list from growing
+ /// across a session of traders streaming in and out.
+ public static int Retint()
+ {
+ int applied = 0;
+ for (int i = TintedMaterials.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
+ {
+ GhostMaterial entry = TintedMaterials[i];
+ if (entry.Material == null)
+ {
+ TintedMaterials.RemoveAt(i);
+ continue;
+ }
+ if (entry.IsColour)
+ {
+ Color tint = entry.Material.GetColor(entry.Property);
+ tint.a = entry.BaseValue * GhostAlpha;
+ entry.Material.SetColor(entry.Property, tint);
+ }
+ else
+ {
+ entry.Material.SetFloat(entry.Property, entry.BaseValue * GhostAlpha);
+ }
+ applied++;
+ }
+ return applied;
+ }
+
/// Name of the texture property holding this material's albedo, or null. Walks
/// the shader's declared properties rather than assuming a name - the body and the hair of
/// the same trader disagree about it.
@@ -407,13 +874,23 @@ namespace NecromancerTome
break;
}
}
+ string fade = "";
+ foreach (string hint in FadeNameHints)
+ {
+ if (_source.HasProperty(hint))
+ {
+ fade = hint + " (" + _source.GetFloat(hint).ToString("0.###") + ")";
+ break;
+ }
+ }
bool canBlend = _source.HasProperty("_SrcBlend") && _source.HasProperty("_DstBlend");
Debug.Log("[NecromancerTome] GhostTraderPatch: shader '" + shaderName + "' properties: " +
(sb.Length > 0 ? sb.ToString() : ""));
Debug.Log("[NecromancerTome] GhostTraderPatch: shader '" + shaderName + "' - albedo: " + (chosen ?? "") +
" -> " + (chosenTexture != null ? chosenTexture.name + " " + chosenTexture.width + "x" + chosenTexture.height : "") +
- "; tint property: " + tint + "; blend-mode properties present: " + canBlend);
+ "; tint property: " + tint + "; fade property: " + fade +
+ "; blend-mode properties present: " + canBlend);
}
}
}
diff --git a/NecromancerHarmony.dll b/NecromancerHarmony.dll
index b050062..b6cf2eb 100644
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diff --git a/NecromancerHarmony.pdb b/NecromancerHarmony.pdb
index 7d512a7..ab27063 100644
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