Creating Blade-and-Whip Skins

With the way our melee weapons are set up, we are able to do complete mesh swaps for them per weapon type! This lets our players use these skins for a variety of melees, unlike our weapon-exclusive primary and secondary skins.

Unlike a Sword or Hammer, Blade and Whips are a little more complicated to implement custom models for — hence the need for a custom guide!

Technical Guidelines

Blade and Whip weapons are made up of 3 parts: the sword, the chain, and the hook.

• The Sword can have one point of articulation — this is optional, but some melee combos do make use of it.
  • The movement mechanism should be limited to one moving part, with the goal of creating a shearing motion like the Lacera or Mios.
• The Hook is held in the off-hand during the idle animations.
  • This piece should be small enough at its connection point to the chain to be able to plug into the sword handle.
• The Chain mesh cannot be edited but can be retextured.

Technical Specs:

• Triangle budget: 7,500
• Maps: Authored at 2048 x 1024.
  • In-game resolution: 1024 x 512.
• Requires one full set of textures as per our texturing guide here.
  • Non-Metals at roughly 50% luminance, or 128 on a 255 point scale.
  • Metals at roughly 80% luminance, or 186 on a 255 point scale.
• The cord and blade must be in the same positions and be at the same scale as the example, so design with those constraints in mind.
  • TIP: Keep the original model visible as you work on your concept so you can easily refer to the proportions and positions!
• If you want to add a special scrolling texture to your emissives, you need to provide us with the file!
• For custom FX, please make sure it’s set up on a separate mesh that fits within the triangle budget, with its own material set/UV unwrap.

Aesthetically:

• Like all other TennoGen pieces, Weapon Skins must be based on a Faction. We recommend looking at other weapons in that Faction for further inspiration, and to ensure you’re bringing a fresh idea to the game!
• For weapons with moving elements or sheaths, think of how the item will look in both states. TennoGen creations are premium items, so your piece should look great while in use and also while stowed.
• Ensure your skin includes design elements from its chosen Faction!
• Do not use gold as the metal color (unless allowed in the Faction guidelines).
• Keep the construction of this piece in mind — how would it have been made? How do the various elements work together?
  • Simple panels and “toothpaste-y” swirls do not meet the detail level you’d see in-game.
  • Complex layers of materials are necessary to make this item fit in-universe.
  • Here’s an example of this complexity, when applied to Tenno metal details.
    https://imgur.com/BlBV8hc
• Avoid pop culture, copyrighted, or otherwise out-of-universe references, as outlined in our Common Reasons for Rejection.

Checklist:

Prior to submission, please refer to the handy checklist below to make sure your Blade and Whip skin meets all the TennoGen criteria: