using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Rendering;
namespace NecromancerTome
{
///
/// Renders every trader in black and white (user request 2026-09-13: "сделать модельки всех
/// торговцев полупрозрачными и чёрнобелыми", then after two in-game looks: "прозрачность у
/// 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, 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:
///
/// 1. "Unlit/Transparent Greyscale" (what GameManager uses for greyed-out item icons) has
/// NO _Color - nowhere to put an alpha. Traders came out opaque, and because that shader
/// is built for NGUI atlases rather than skinned meshes, the user saw them "в негативе".
/// 2. "Unlit/Transparent Colored" has no _Color either: `has _Color: False` in the log.
/// NGUI tints through VERTEX colours, not a material property, and a character mesh has
/// none - so that whole family of shaders was always a dead end here.
///
/// WITHOUT THE ALPHA REQUIREMENT THE SHADER DOES NOT HAVE TO BE REPLACED AT ALL, and that is
/// strictly better than anything above: the material is cloned with its own shader intact and
/// only its albedo texture is swapped for a desaturated copy. Lighting, normal maps, specular,
/// skinning - all still the game's own. The trader looks exactly like himself, in black and
/// white. Nothing can go "negative", because nothing but the pixels changes.
///
/// THE ALBEDO IS FOUND, NOT ASSUMED - this is what the earlier runs bought us. The first
/// attempt reached for _MainTex and produced an untextured silhouette, because traders are
/// drawn by TWO different shaders and only one of them uses that name. The probe below walks
/// the shader's declared properties instead, and the log then said exactly what they are:
///
/// shader 'Game/Character' texture properties: _Albedo=set, _Normal=set, _RMOE=set,
/// _texcoord=empty; chosen albedo: HD_Rekt 4096x4096
/// shader 'Game/Autodesk' texture properties: _MainTex=set, _BumpMap=set, ...;
/// chosen albedo: HD_Rekt_Hair 2048x2048
///
/// So the body uses _Albedo and the hair uses _MainTex - which is precisely why the name is
/// discovered rather than hard-coded, and why the probe stays in: Jen is assembled by a
/// different character system than Rekt (AvatarSDCSController vs AvatarNpcController in
/// entityclasses.xml) and may well introduce a third shader.
///
/// GREYSCALE IS DONE TO THE TEXTURE, via a RenderTexture round trip. The round trip is the
/// point: game textures are compressed with isReadable=false, so GetPixels on the original
/// throws - blitting into an ARGB32 RenderTexture and reading THAT back is the standard way to
/// reach pixels the CPU was never handed. Luma weights 0.299/0.587/0.114 rather than a flat
/// average, so it reads like a black-and-white photograph instead of a muddy one. Cached per
/// 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.
/// Polling with ModEvents.UnityUpdate - the same approach PetFollowPatch.cs already uses here -
/// avoids guessing at the right moment inside someone else's character pipeline. A trader with
/// no renderers yet is simply not marked done and is picked up on the next sweep.
///
public static class GhostTraderPatch
{
/// Seconds between sweeps.
public const float SweepInterval = 2f;
/// 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;
/// 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();
/// Source shader names already described in the log, so the probe says each
/// distinct thing once rather than once per trader per part.
public static readonly HashSet ProbedShaders = new HashSet();
/// Desaturated copies, keyed by the texture they came from.
public static readonly Dictionary GreyTextures = new Dictionary();
/// Property names that look like an albedo, best first. Confirmed in game:
/// "Game/Character" uses _Albedo, "Game/Autodesk" uses _MainTex. Anything else falls
/// through to "the first texture property that has something in it".
public static readonly string[] AlbedoNameHints =
{
"_MainTex", "_Albedo", "_BaseMap", "_BaseColorMap", "_AlbedoMap", "_DiffuseMap",
"_Diffuse", "_ColorMap", "_MainTexture", "_Texture"
};
public static float timer;
/// Called from ModEntry.InitMod.
public static void Init()
{
ModEvents.UnityUpdate.RegisterHandler(OnUnityUpdate);
ModEvents.WorldShuttingDown.RegisterHandler(OnWorldShuttingDown);
}
public static void OnWorldShuttingDown(ref ModEvents.SWorldShuttingDownData _data)
{
Ghosted.Clear();
GreyTextures.Clear();
TintedMaterials.Clear();
Converted.Clear();
BlendShader = null;
timer = 0f;
}
public static void OnUnityUpdate(ref ModEvents.SUnityUpdateData _data)
{
timer += Time.deltaTime;
if (timer < SweepInterval)
{
return;
}
timer = 0f;
World world = GameManager.Instance != null ? GameManager.Instance.World : null;
if (world == null || world.EntityAlives == null)
{
return;
}
for (int i = 0; i < world.EntityAlives.Count; i++)
{
EntityAlive entity = world.EntityAlives[i];
if (!(entity is EntityTrader trader) || trader.IsDead())
{
continue;
}
if (Ghosted.Contains(trader.entityId))
{
continue;
}
if (ApplyGreyscale(trader))
{
Ghosted.Add(trader.entityId);
}
}
}
/// False when there is nothing to work on yet (model not built), so the caller
/// leaves this trader unmarked and tries again on the next sweep.
public static bool ApplyGreyscale(EntityTrader _trader)
{
Renderer[] renderers = _trader.GetComponentsInChildren(true);
if (renderers == null || renderers.Length == 0)
{
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)
{
continue;
}
Material[] sources = renderer.sharedMaterials;
if (sources == null || sources.Length == 0)
{
continue;
}
Converted.Add(new GhostRenderer { Renderer = renderer, Originals = sources });
if (Convert(renderer, sources))
{
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, " + (TintedMaterials.Count - leversBefore) + " opacity lever(s) installed");
return true;
}
/// 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)
{
return null;
}
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;
}
if (desaturated == null)
{
// Nothing to desaturate on this material; hand back the clone unchanged rather
// than dropping the renderer's material entirely.
return grey;
}
grey.SetTexture(albedoProperty, desaturated);
_changed = true;
return grey;
}
///
/// 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:
///
/// 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 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. 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, 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
/// why.
///
public static bool ApplyTransparency(Material _material)
{
bool touched = false;
foreach (string hint in TintNameHints)
{
if (!_material.HasProperty(hint))
{
continue;
}
Color tint = _material.GetColor(hint);
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;
}
if (_material.HasProperty("_SrcBlend") && _material.HasProperty("_DstBlend"))
{
_material.SetFloat("_SrcBlend", (float)BlendMode.SrcAlpha);
_material.SetFloat("_DstBlend", (float)BlendMode.OneMinusSrcAlpha);
_material.EnableKeyword("_ALPHABLEND_ON");
_material.renderQueue = (int)RenderQueue.Transparent;
touched = true;
}
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.
public static string FindAlbedoProperty(Material _source)
{
Shader shader = _source.shader;
if (shader == null)
{
return null;
}
foreach (string hint in AlbedoNameHints)
{
if (_source.HasProperty(hint) && _source.GetTexture(hint) != null)
{
return hint;
}
}
int count = shader.GetPropertyCount();
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
if (shader.GetPropertyType(i) != ShaderPropertyType.Texture)
{
continue;
}
string name = shader.GetPropertyName(i);
if (_source.GetTexture(name) != null)
{
return name;
}
}
return null;
}
/// Black-and-white copy of a texture. See the class comment for why this goes
/// through a RenderTexture instead of reading the source directly.
public static Texture2D Desaturate(Texture _source)
{
if (_source == null)
{
return null;
}
if (GreyTextures.TryGetValue(_source, out Texture2D cached))
{
return cached;
}
Texture2D grey = null;
RenderTexture rt = null;
RenderTexture previous = RenderTexture.active;
try
{
rt = RenderTexture.GetTemporary(_source.width, _source.height, 0,
RenderTextureFormat.ARGB32, RenderTextureReadWrite.sRGB);
Graphics.Blit(_source, rt);
RenderTexture.active = rt;
grey = new Texture2D(_source.width, _source.height, TextureFormat.RGBA32, false);
grey.ReadPixels(new Rect(0f, 0f, _source.width, _source.height), 0, 0);
Color32[] pixels = grey.GetPixels32();
for (int i = 0; i < pixels.Length; i++)
{
Color32 p = pixels[i];
byte luma = (byte)((p.r * 299 + p.g * 587 + p.b * 114) / 1000);
p.r = luma;
p.g = luma;
p.b = luma;
pixels[i] = p;
}
grey.SetPixels32(pixels);
grey.Apply(false, false);
}
catch (System.Exception e)
{
Debug.LogError("[NecromancerTome] GhostTraderPatch: could not desaturate '" + _source.name + "': " + e.Message);
grey = null;
}
finally
{
RenderTexture.active = previous;
if (rt != null)
{
RenderTexture.ReleaseTemporary(rt);
}
}
// Cached even on failure (as null) so an unreadable texture is not retried per trader.
GreyTextures[_source] = grey;
return grey;
}
/// Says, once per distinct source shader, which texture properties it has and
/// which carry anything. This is what told us the body uses _Albedo and the hair _MainTex;
/// it stays in because the next trader built by a different character system will announce
/// itself the same way.
public static void ProbeShaderOnce(Material _source)
{
Shader shader = _source.shader;
string shaderName = shader != null ? shader.name : "";
if (!ProbedShaders.Add(shaderName) || shader == null)
{
return;
}
// EVERY property, not just the textures. The texture-only version answered the
// "where is the albedo" question; this one has to answer "is there anything here that
// can make it transparent at all", and that lives among the floats and colours.
System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
int count = shader.GetPropertyCount();
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
string name = shader.GetPropertyName(i);
ShaderPropertyType type = shader.GetPropertyType(i);
sb.Append(sb.Length > 0 ? ", " : "").Append(name).Append(':').Append(type);
if (type == ShaderPropertyType.Texture)
{
sb.Append(_source.GetTexture(name) != null ? "=set" : "=empty");
}
}
string chosen = FindAlbedoProperty(_source);
Texture chosenTexture = chosen != null ? _source.GetTexture(chosen) : null;
string tint = "";
foreach (string hint in TintNameHints)
{
if (_source.HasProperty(hint))
{
tint = hint + " (alpha " + _source.GetColor(hint).a.ToString("0.###") + ")";
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 + "; fade property: " + fade +
"; blend-mode properties present: " + canBlend);
}
}
}