How to edit shield colors without editing tunic colors?

[Naja]

I really hate the flamboyant colors on some factions' uniforms. So I've been playing around with the faction_uniform_colours table to make the Iberian factions look more realistic with gray and white tunics for example.

The only problem is that modding uniform colors in the primary, secondary and tertiary categories also changes shield colors. I like bright and stylistic colors for shields - just not just uniforms.

Is there another option I can use, so I can have my drab gray tunics but bright and colorful shields?

[Kurisu Paifuaa]

You could edit the color mask for the shield(s). In the mask, red is primary, green is secondary and blue is tertiary. Just repaint or color fill the area with the corresponding color. E.g. If you're getting grey (or whatever your primary color is in faction_uniform_colors) and the shield base is primarily red in the color mask, paint that blue (for tertiary)... presuming the tertiary color you've defined is something more lively.

There may be other options, but that seems easiest, off the top of my head.

[Naja]

Is there any way to have a separate list of primary/secondary/tertiary RGB colors just for equipment like shields?

Or is my only option to manually edit shields in GIMP (or just give them nothing but a tertiary color in the Variants file)?

[Kurisu Paifuaa]

Is there any way to have a separate list of primary/secondary/tertiary RGB colors just for equipment like shields?

Or is my only option to manually edit shields in GIMP (or just give them nothing but a tertiary color in the Variants file)?

You can define alternate color values per unit (by adding entries to unit_variant_colours), but not per model part.

Now that I think about it, an easier method (than painting the color mask) would be to use the color mask switches in the shield's variantmeshdefinition file to simply swap color channels. You can create variants, or just use one channel.

There's some trouble going on lately with the variant system not reading all entries in a definition, however, you should still be able to get what you want presently since you're only after a single color.

So for example... in something like iberian_caetras.variantmeshdefinition, you could add mask0=2 to each entry (replaces primary color with tertiary), or simply remove all but one variant containing that mask switch. It's still helpful to look at the color mask dds to see the color layout.

mask0 = primary (red), mask1 = secondary (green), and mask2 = tertiary (blue).

Sorry I don't have time atm to create a better illustration... completing a move to a new house. Also not sure which specific Iberian shield you're looking at.