Rust Tattoos: Tattoo Gun, Stencils and Fading in the Commits

Rust is getting tattoos. Facepunch has been building them on a branch called tattoos since at least mid October, and the commits now show a tattoo gun, a brush and stencil tool, your clan logo as a stencil, a tattoo chair and ink that fades and blurs over time.

There is no date. This is work in progress on its own branch, and any part of it could change or be cut before it ships.

How tattooing seems to work

The clearest picture comes from a November 4 commit by Taylor Reynolds that moved stencils into their own tool. The tattoo screen now has four tools that work like a simple paint program:

• Brush, kept small like a real tattoo needle.
• Eraser.
• Stencils, which can be stamped much larger than the brush.
• Color picker.

The same commit says your clan logo shows up in the stencil section, and that stencils cannot be tinted. A November 3 commit restricts brush type and size, and another one simplifies the tattoo colors so bright ink does not look too intense on skin.

On November 7 the team added tattoo stencils from the concept team, replacing the placeholder stencils used for testing. The stencil menu was also made scrollable, which hints at a fair number of designs. Another fix makes stencils look smooth instead of pixel-y.

Tattoo gun and tattoo chair

There is a real item behind this. Commits added tattoo gun textures on November 4 and tattoo gun viewmodel animations on November 5, so you will hold it in first person like any other tool.

On a separate branch, Pilgrim made a tattoo chair blockout on October 31 with a blockout update the same day. A blockout is a rough test model. This is our guess: the chair is where one player sits while another uses the gun, but no commit says how the two fit together yet.

Tattoos that fade

One of the more unusual parts is a tattoo fading pass from October 17. The commit says skin irritation turns into blur as a tattoo fades, so old tattoos stay blurred while new ones look sharp. Faded tattoos also pick up a blue or green tint, like real ink that has aged. The commit calls this somewhat experimental and says it depends on performance tests.

Tattoos on clothing and both bodies

Tattoos are not just a skin layer on bare arms. Commits show:

• Female body and male and female body LODs updated with tattoo support.
• A bulk update of all 32 clothing items that show skin, so tattoos stay visible with clothes on.
• Tattoos applied to clothing that shows skin.
• Tattoos that mostly carry over between male and female bodies.

Will tattoos hurt FPS?

Facepunch seems careful here. An October 17 commit makes sure players without tattoos cost nothing extra. Another compresses tattoo textures, and the commit says that cut a tattooed player's cost from about 8.4 MB of RAM plus 8.4 MB of VRAM down to about 2 MB of VRAM only. That matters on busy servers with lots of players on screen.

For more on the look of your survivor, see our post on the character customization redesign.

FAQ

Is Rust adding tattoos? Facepunch is building them. The commits show a tattoo gun, a brush and stencil tool, clan logo stencils and a tattoo chair. There is no date.

Can you put your clan logo on as a tattoo? A November 4 commit says the clan logo appears in the stencil section, so it looks that way.

Do Rust tattoos fade? An experimental commit makes old tattoos blur and pick up a blue or green tint over time. It may change after performance tests.

When will tattoos come out? No date has been given. It is on its own branch and is still being built.

Sanguine Rust

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Source: Facepunch commits