"Purist" Vanilla Paperdoll & Inventory Fixes

[MrFlibble ●]

Update from 2023/08/21: The fix is now available at NexusMods: https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfall/mods/20/

Update from 2024/07/09: There is also now an optional chain mail fix/update, available separately here.

tl;dr (scroll down for a much more detailed description)

What is this? This is a patch that fixes some very annoying errors with how some clothes, armour and inventory items are displayed in unmodded (vanilla) DOS Daggerfall and in DFU (if used with the Steam version of DF, for example).

What does it do? Here's some examples of what gets fixed:



Where do I get it? Scroll down to the bottom of this post or go here.

Detailed mod description

I've finally got around to revisit, revise and update my clothes and armour fix, which should be properly called the Paperdoll & Inventory Fix, as it addresses issues with paperdoll and inventory items graphics.

While the original release attempted to fix all the various errors with paperdoll clothes, armour and inventory items, I did overlook some things, and in some cases took a little too many liberties with the source material, which I tried to rectify this time.

It is probably worth noting that my original intent with this update was to make a more "conservative" fix that would only fix the most glaring errors, like distorted colours on armour or missing parts of cloaks, etc. However, as I started working I eventually arrived at the conclusion that there are simply too many inconsistencies in the original vanilla paperdoll items as provided by Bethesda for this to work. So I kept most of my previous versions' changes intact, but generally tried to keep my additions to a minimum, referencing original art whenever possible. Here's a very short list of highlights compared to the 2014 fix:

• new fixes for Emerald, Ruby, Amber, Bracer and Cloth amulet inventory items
• more colour fixes for various artifacts
• restored the original Round shield -- I don't know why I decided to remove metallic pixels from the wooden part, now I believe this was the intended look
• restored original colours on some of the helmets
• cloak capes are now for the most part keeping original shapes, except where extra pixels had to be added to remove holes, including those resulting when the character wears a helmet
• fixed more colour issues with female Khajiit suits
• Elven male Khajiit suit is now based on the Human version but matches the Elven paperdoll body shape
• Human/Elven female belted garments now use updated shading on the belts, whereas originally some of these had older shading similar to Argonian and Khajiit versions

Additionally, now I've listed all changes that I made to each sprite in the readme file.

You can download the latest version here or at the Daggerfall Unity Forums.

Some screenshot comparisons (left is vanilla Daggerfall, right is the current fix):

Spoiler:

Last edited by MrFlibble on Tue Jul 09, 2024 7:23 pm, edited 9 times in total.

[MrFlibble ●]

I was not entirely happy with the updated fix, so I essentially recreated it from scratch, trying to stay as close to the source material as possible while correcting errors. The new version can be found here.

I learned not to focus on the absence of a uniform hand shape for human male and female characters (I mean the "hole" on garments or armour through which the paperdoll hand and arm is visible). In previous versions of the fix, I attempted to create an optimal shape and use it with all items, but was never really happy with the result. This time I mostly left this alone, but made sure that in Childguard mode, which is the default in DFU, human clothes always cover the underpants that are part of the paperdoll. Here's an example (left is vanilla and right is the fixed version):

Male Elf clothes got a complete overhaul, to give them the same look as of the male human clothes (where there are differences), but also taking into account the thinner waist line of the Elves, which is closer to that of male Khajiits. So I used both human male and Khajiit male clothes sets as a reference, because Bethesda basically gave elves Argonian clothes.

[MrFlibble ●]

I just pushed a small update, cleaning up a few minor issues, including fixed colours on greaves' belts for human characters:

[MrFlibble ●]

The fix has been updated to version 1.1, taking care of extra pixels for Redguard characters in childguard mode, plus some other minor things.

[MrFlibble ●]

I've just uploaded the latest version of the fix to NexusMods:
https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfall/mods/20/

[MrFlibble ●]

The fix has been updated to version 1.2. I've decided to separate the Childguard mode fixes into a subset of files that the user can install if they have Childguard mode on; Daggerfall Unity does not really need these fixes because it has its own way of handling non-nude character sprites without parts of the underwear showing through the clothes (as it happens in DOS Daggerfall in Childguard mode).

As a result, the main fix is now as close to the original Bethesda files (minus the errors) as possible.

The updated file can be found in the Daggerfall Unity forums thread, or can be downloaded here: df-dos-paperdoll-fix-12.zip

[MrFlibble ●]

The fix has been updated to version 1.2a. This includes several minor tweaks to male Elf clothes and armour. I have figured out the correct shape of the Elf/Argonian/Khajiit chain mail cuirass without the transparent pixels -- the human male chain cuirass is extended horizontally by one pixel, as column of pixels around the middle part of the sprite is duplicated. All other races have a narrower chain cuirass without any duplicate pixels. My previous update of the male Elf chain cuirass did not account for this, so now it has the correct shape as intended by Bethesda. I also replaced very dark pixels on right plate and chain pauldrons, by using the Khajiit armour set as reference.

In the clothes, I corrected the right arm part of the Formal cloak for male Elves by copying it from the human male clothes set (since the shape of the right arm is identical between the two races):

Additionally, the Elf Khajiit suit now does not extend beyond the greaves' belt.

[MrFlibble ●]

In addition to the main fix, I've put together an optional update that improves the appearance of chain mail armour for most characters.

You can download this fix from the Daggerfall Unity forums or here: df-chain-mail-fix.zip

It appears that Bethesda originally decided to make chain mail armour pieces semi-transparent by making them from a checkerboard pattern of metallic and transparent pixels. However, later on they updated the chain mail to have a solid look (still with checkerboard patterns of dark and light metallic pixels), similar to Arena. However, this was only done for human characters, both male and female, and the males still did not get the proper non-transparent chain pauldrons.

I decided to fix this, and manually filled in the missing pixels using the human female chain pauldrons for reference:

I also updated Argonians and Khajiit (the Elves already use the new chain mail variant in the main Papredoll & Inventory Fix) to use the new version of mail armour: