Research: item visual variants

Probed on 2026-09-14 against the installed game paks, the bundled mappings, and all Cascade player and world fixtures. The repeatable probes live in tests/AbioticEditor.Probes/ItemVariantProbeTests.cs.

Result

The game has enough data to build a useful visual-variant catalog, but it does not provide a direct item id -> allowed variant rows table.

There are three related systems that must not be mixed together:

1. An inventory instance can carry ChangeableData -> TextureVariantRow, a row handle into DT_TextureVariants. This is the field already read and written by the editor.
2. Every item definition also has a TextureVariant row handle in ItemTable_Global. For many upgraded or specialized items this is a fixed default appearance, not a player-selectable skin.
3. Placed-object paint uses DT_PaintedDeployables, a separate 38-row table with material arrays for Default plus White, Blue, Red, Green, Orange, Purple, Yellow, Black, Cyan, Lime, Pink, Brown, and Glitch. It is not the helmet, poster, or weapon variant system.

DT_TextureVariants currently has 575 rows. Its row struct has only:

• item name override
• description override
• flavor-text override
• icon override
• an array of replacement materials

It has no item id, base mesh, compatibility tag, family id, or allowed-items column. The item table points from an item to one fixed row, but never to a list of choices.

Fixed appearances versus selectable candidates

Of the 575 texture-variant rows, 383 are referenced as fixed defaults by an item-table row. This explains most apparent weapon and armor "variants": they are distinct item IDs, often upgrade tiers, and should not automatically be offered as skins for the base item.

Examples:

Item ID	Fixed appearance row
shotgun_doublebarrel_U1	antiqueshotgun_polished
shotgun_military_U2	shotgun_military_u2
smg_military_U2	smg_u2
rifle_sniper_U2	sniper_u2
pistol_energy_U1	pistol_energy_u1
armor_helmet_forge_U1	armor_helmet_forge_U1
armor_helmet_forge_U2	armor_helmet_forge_u2

The other 192 rows are not fixed defaults for any item definition. They are the plausible pool for instance-level variants, but absence from the item table is a heuristic rather than proof. Some may be set by placed actors, scripted spawns, DLC logic, or retired content.

Confirmed in real save fixtures

These non-None instance overrides occur in the Cascade fixtures:

Item ID	Observed variant row(s)
armor_hat_bonnet	bonnet_black
armor_hat_buckethat	buckethat_green
armor_helmet_hydrohat	hydrohat_yellow
backpack_small	backpack_small_red
Bench_Locker	lockerroombench_brown
Deployable_Chair_Executive_01	office_chair_executive_black
Deployable_Couch_Office_Armchair_01	office_couch_black, office_couch_blue
Deployable_Couch_Office_Long_01	office_couch_blue
fish_antefish	fish_ante_rare1
fish_rad	fish_rad_rare1
fish_reaper	fish_reaper_rare1

This is direct evidence that the same item ID can safely carry these alternate appearance rows.

Strong candidate families

The following families are strong candidates because their unclaimed row names, replacement material paths, and item catalog entries agree. Only the fixture-observed rows above are proven by saves in this repository.

Wearables

Base item	Candidate rows
Basic Backpack (backpack_small)	backpack_small_gray, _green, _purple, _red, _white, _yellow
Bucket Hat (armor_hat_buckethat)	buckethat_green, _navy, _red
Hard Hat (armor_helmet_hardhat)	gear_hardhat_blue, _brown, _gray, _green, _red, _white, _yellow
Karate Helmet (armor_helmet_karate)	gear_armor_karatehelmet_black, _red, _white
Hydroplant Hat (armor_helmet_hydrohat)	hydrohat_green, _orange, _red, _yellow
Lab Mask, likely armor_helmet_labs	labmask_shiny_blue, _dark, _gold, _green, _orange, _pink, _purple, _red
Puffy Coat (armor_chest_puffycoat)	puffycoat_gray, _red, _white

Single alternate rows also exist for the Bonnet (bonnet_black), Floppy Hat (hat_floppy_orange), Security Cap (securitycap_blue), Safety Vest (safetyvest_blue), Biometric Arms (armor_arms_biometric_purple), and Crystal armor (armor_crystal_u2). These need an observed save or blueprint-level confirmation before being treated as a complete family.

Collectibles and furniture

• Poster has eight named art rows: poster_0091, poster_Detour, poster_TDL, poster_USM, and poster_VOTV_01 through _04. Each row supplies its own in-game name and icon.
• The painting rows contain 26 named artworks. Their prefixes include painting_a_, painting_L_, painting_S_, and painting_V_, which appear to encode compatible aspect or frame families. The game has nine painting item IDs across desk, landscape, square, vertical, large, and fancy-frame forms. The tables do not directly state which artwork prefix belongs to each frame, so this mapping still needs save evidence or an in-game test.
• There are 24 photoframe_* rows, but no matching current item-table ID was found by name. Treat these as actor-driven or possibly retired until an item instance confirms the base ID.
• Four arcade cabinet rows and eleven TV screen rows exist.
• Office chairs/couches, fancy and modern couches, residential beds, military cots, fridges, cafeteria tables/trays, stools, rugs, a stapler, toolbox, and warning sign all have plausible alternate rows. Several office couch/chair choices are already confirmed by fixtures.
• Rare-fish rows cover Antefish, Gem Crab, Darkwater Fish, Eel, Fog Fish, Ice Fish, IS-98, Moon Fish, Portal Fish, Radfish, Inkfish, Silk Shark, and Umbra Fish. Three families are confirmed in fixtures.

Painted deployables are separate

DT_PaintedDeployables contains these 38 paint profiles:

bagwall, barrelcrafted, barricade_office, bed, bedT2, BridgeT1, bridgeT2, carboncrate, cauldron, craftingbench, crateT4, nine cubicle forms, laser_emitter, Light, makeshiftcrate, oildrum, three pet beds, PlankBarricade, three carved pumpkins, ramp, reinforcedcrate, four rug forms, teleporterpad, and wallshelfing.

The table describes materials per paint color. It does not identify the inventory TextureVariantRow, and helmets and weapons do not appear in it.

Safe catalog rule

Do not expose all 575 rows for every item. A safe first catalog should:

1. Include the fixture-confirmed item/row pairs.
2. Add only reviewed families whose row names and material assets clearly match the base item.
3. Keep fixed item defaults out of another item's picker unless separately confirmed.
4. Keep painting frame/aspect groups separate until their mapping is grounded.
5. Preserve an unknown current row from a newer game build, even if the local catalog cannot classify it.