Table of Contents

Custom Textures

The framework renders UI elements with the MyTransparentGeometry API. This means custom textures follow the same workflow as other mods that use Transparent Materials: a .dds texture paired with an .sbc definition.

Textures are applied to UI elements via a Material handle, which is initialized using the SubtypeId for that texture defined in your .sbc file. For a usage example, see the TexturedBox API reference page.

Texture Conversion

Textures must be converted to DDS format using BC7_UNORM compression. Other block compression (BC) formats may work, but BC7 is a good default. Use Microsoft’s texconv utility, included with Space Engineers in \SteamApps\common\SpaceEngineers\Tools\TexturePacking\Tools\texconv.exe.

The following batch script examples will convert textures in the same directory to the given format using texconv (drag and drop), provided the batch file, executable and texture are in the same directory. If texconv outputs .DDS (uppercase), rename to lowercase .dds. The engine will complain otherwise.

To DDS Batch

texconv -y -f BC7_UNORM -pmalpha -if LINEAR %*

To PNG Batch

You should generally avoid converting from .dds, as it's a highly lossy format. Originals should be kept in a lossless format, like PNG, TIFF, PSD, etc.

texconv -y -ft PNG %*
Tip

For advanced options, see the official texconv documentation.

Transparent Material Definitions

Create an .sbc for your textures based on the following template.

Key Points

  • SubtypeId is the name you’ll reference in code when creating a Material (e.g., new Material("MyUniqueSubtypeId", new Vector2(64))).
  • Texture path is relative to your mod’s root folder.
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<Definitions xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xmlns:xsd='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'>
    <TransparentMaterials>
    <!-- Multiple TransparentMaterials can be defined in the same TransparentMaterials block -->
    <!-- Your first texture -->
        <TransparentMaterial>
            <Id>
                <TypeId>TransparentMaterialDefinition</TypeId>
                <!-- The name of your texture required by SE and referenced in RHF Material -->
                <SubtypeId>MyUniqueSubtypeId</SubtypeId>
            </Id>
            <!-- Path to your texture, inside your mod directory -->
            <Texture>MyTexturesFolder\MyTextureName.dds</Texture>
            <Reflectivity>0</Reflectivity>
        </TransparentMaterial>
        <!-- Your second texture...
        <TransparentMaterial>
        ...
        </TransparentMaterial> -->
    </TransparentMaterials>
</Definitions>

Save the file with a .sbc extension (e.g., MyTextureDefinitions.sbc) and place it anywhere inside your mod’s Data folder or its subfolders. The game automatically loads every .sbc it finds there.

Example Folder Structure

MyMod/
├── Data/
│   └── MyTextureDefinitions.sbc
└── MyTexturesFolder/
    └── MyTextureName.dds
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