@TheMinxLynx
Glad to be of help. This mod is always my favorite portrait when playing machine intelligence empires.

Besides, I have changed the category file to fit the new code structure of portrait mod since v3.6 Paradox updated the portrait structure. By using this new code structure, modders can add portraits into vanilla species category (such as HUM and MACHINE) without overwrite the vanilla code, thus become fully compatible with other portrait mods. Here is the modified files, you may check it for details (I have put both human ANGEL & holographic ANGEL into the MACHINE and ROBOT category, while put human ANGEL alone into the HUM category):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cZUdK3eGBu34wSktf1eGdUxgkOrspXXO/view?usp=sharing

Appreciate the patch job! Glad people are still enjoying the work, even if circumstances are less than ideal.

Here is the download link of modified "pdxmesh.shader" file, download it and put it into the path "workshop\content\281990\2302539204\gfx\FX\", then confirm overwrite the same file, and remember to backup the old file in case you encounter new problems.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QHPyKvPN0CgM0Q3_kbi4n-rsPljU-46P/view?usp=sharing

I've modified the "pdxmesh.shader" file according to some information referenced from the same file in Gigacolle Portrait mod. Now at least Project ANGEL will not crash directly when playing RingWorld origin.
I shall post the modified file here, but be warned: I am not very familiar with Stellaris shader code, thus I cannot promise there wouldn't be other problems on this modified "pdxmesh.shader" file, so use it at your own risk. And by using Project ANGEL, certain portrait of the Gigacolle Portrait mod will become blank (precisely, only some of the crisis portrait, thus there will be almost no conflict if you are together using the vanilla crisis patch of Gigacolle)

@TheMinxLynx
I've encountered the same crash as tolaburke when using Ringworlds origin.
I've tried to analysis this crash, and found the following details:
AI generated empires using ANGEL portrait and Ringworlds origin won't crash, the crash only happens when player ourselves try to control such an empire or load a savefile which plays such an empire.
Also enabling ANGEL mod will cause any other empire to crash when using Ringworlds origin, even when this empire is not using ANGEL portrait, which is indeed weird.
No matter what your decision might be in the future, I still want to thank you for making such a great portrait mod and maintained it for so many times. Thank you.

Hmm. Your call. This was a nice portrait animation thing. Liked it.

If I had to take a guess, I'd assume it's related to the shader file overwrite.

I haven't been interested in Stellaris for a while and 4.x hasn't enticed me in the least, so I can't speculate on when (or if) there'll be another update coming.

Odd. Project Angel under 4.x causes a crash with Ringworlds.

this is my go to for any synthetic playthrough, thanks a bunch

3.12.x update has been pushed. Apologies for the incompatibilities with other species mods that may edit vanilla categories, but until PDX cleans up their method and re-implements additive modularity, the alternative is too cumbersome to be worth the trouble.

DIY Update to 3.12 for everyone at home: Navigate to your steamapps/common/Stellaris/common folder, scroll down to the "portrait sets" folder, open the .txt file, press ctrl + f to open the search function, type "machines" and hit enter. Under this header you will find a list of portraits that are written out like this: "sd_hum_robot", "sd_mam_robot", etc. Create a new line at the bottom of this list, and copy/ paste (INCLUDING the quotations) "prj_angel" to get the blue portrait to appear in the machines tab on the species menu. Then, create a new line and copy/paste "prj_angel_android" for the colorful portrait to appear in the machines tab on the species menu. If you want to play as an organic ANGEL, you can search for "humanoids" and repeat this process.

I think the 3.12 update could be as straightforward as reverting the portrait back to its own category either way thanks for keeping this mod up to date

i always thought this was one of the coolest mods on here tbh

@TheMinxLynx Sigh, I will try to remove the conflicting parts locally to solve this bug temporarily. Anyway, thank you for all the efforts. ANGEL has always been the best Machine Intelligence empire portrait in my mind.

@Cathelia Samicora, Gigacolle is aware of the issue I'm sure, and I don't think there's much of anything either of us could do to fix it aside from publishing a compatibility patch. Shader files don't appear to be very modular, as my early experiments on making a non-overwriting file didn't bear any fruit—this is something we'll ultimately need to wait on PDX to fix.

@TheMinxLynx The second problem confirmed, it is caused by "randomized = { always = no }" as I said before. I have turned off all other mods, and the pre-designed ANGEL AI empire cannot show itself.
After I changed the parameter to:
randomized = {
host_has_dlc = "Synthetic Dawn Story Pack"
NOT = { has_global_flag = game_started }
}
Then everything is ok, the pre-designed AI empire will show itself correctly.

@TheMinxLynx Sigh...the first conflict is caused by Gigacolle... once again. Should I report to Gigacolle, or is there possibility to fix this conflict on your side?

@TheMinxLynx Thank you for the reply. For the first question, I will try to check the conflict about shader. For the second, I will try to disable all other mods then retry a new game to confirm whether pre-designed AI empires that using ANGEL portrait will or will not show itself. And I must apologize for the potential false reports, I shall delete the post when all these test is done and problem solved.

@Cathelia Samicora, I've verified that the portrait group is defined properly; you've missed the entry when you went searching. Instead, the blank portrait is being caused by a mod conflict relating to the overwritten shader file. Please note the description and check your testing environment in the future to prevent similar false reports.
As to your second concern, thank you for the information regarding "non_randomized_portraits" as the option did not exist at the time this mod was originally made. I will investigate its viability at a later time, but at the moment it's not a priority.

@tolaburke, there's very little to be done aside from reducing polycount, unfortunately, although it shouldn't be an issue, given it's minuscule compared to what you see with fleets in the world. I'd done some testing on the old UI and not experienced trouble, but it's something of a known issue that portrait code is not well-optimized. It may become smoother over time as they continue to iterate.

While it still works well, the leader screen gets a little slow with this. Dunno if anything can or should be done, but it should probably be mentioned

I love this mod; please keep it up to date!

Just wanted to say this is the most beautiful portrait mod I've ever used. Really innovative, too.

Thanks for the information, I'll take a look at it next time I'm poking around Stellaris!

Hey, Pdox "updated" the way names are parsed, so all the %O% in the army names got screwed up. You can either move the lot to the language files .yml or add to the complaints here:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/stellaris-3-6-x-broke-every-old-name-list-mod.1567620/

Like I said, if it's a dependency, go for it. Sounds cool enough, though last time I poked at synthetic ascension/etc, things were a real pain. Hope you can figure it out!

The idea was to make an origin.

Uploaded consciousness leading a society. Sorta like https://m.fanfiction.net/s/9271192/1/Transcendent-Humanity .
Was also going to add them to the Robot and Machine portrait sets (So Synthetic ascension can use them).

I would most def give credit and list you a dependency. Assuming you cool with it of course.

@Frai7ty, be my guest to rip things apart and poke around. I'd prefer that if you made something from it, it was sufficiently transformative and original, or otherwise points back to this mod directly as a dependency, but if you're just playing about for personal use, go to town however you want.

I've been messing around with some ideas in relation to species modding and was wondering if I had permission to use (with credit given) the assets of this mod. I may never release anything, but if I do I was seeking permission :P.

Also I love this, TY for making it :P.

Thanks so much for updating!

@TheMinxLynx
I see... thank you for the reply, I'm not very famillar with Stellaris modding, but I'll try to leave a comment for the Gigacolle's author, about suggesting him not to overwrite vanilla shaders.

@Cathelia Samicora, I would assume that the Gigacolle portraits have edited shaders in some way or another and overwritten or otherwise damaged the one I chose to use for ANGEL. Given it's a vanilla shader that probably shouldn't be edited directly, it may be something worth bringing up to the mod author.

@TheMinxLynx
Damn it... Finally I have found the true reason. I'm very sorry, the blank portrait bug is not caused by Paradox's update or anything else, it is just caused by a conflict with another mod, so you don't need to fix it, please forget my words posted before.
To the details, the mod which is conflict with your Project ANGEL is "Gigacolle- Original Animated Anime Portrait Pack". For now I don't know why, but after uninstalling it, the missing portrait is back. I'll try to figure out why it happens if I can.

I have tried re-installing the mod, sort it as highest priority in the mod list, but it still cannot work, the portrait is now completely blank. This is a great mod, is there any chance of fixing it? (Besides, have to say Paradox's updates often turn out to be a nightmare for modders, sigh)

@TheMinxLynx
The portrait seems to be missing after last update (Oct.11 - just yesterday) ...

Awww yiss been missing this mod!

Machine portraits cannot be primitives.

can this spawn as a primitive species?

This portrait has been updated and the shader issue fixed. Enjoy, everybody!

I am also having this problem.

Ditto what Bill the Cat said below, hope this is an easy fix for you TheMinxLynx. Have a hard time playing without this mod!

After the Overlord update, the portrait is not as intended anymore. The hair is more opaque covering up the face of the portrait, not sure if this is an easy fix or a complex fix, but it's a shame.

Seeing through from one side to the other is an unavoidable, unfortunate reality from the portrait shader. I may or may not be able to fix this if I experiment with other shaders.

Someone probably said it but the head seems...a bit broken? You can see the inside of the hair through the face.

Sounds simple, but I'd need a visual tutorial to help me there. I learn better that way.

@Archmage_Bael, it's rather simple. Namelists are just a text file listing what names to use for different things in all the different conditions, and then a localization file that gives your namelist designation (i.e. MAM1) a proper name ("Mammalian 1").

Ironically, they're independent from the localization, meaning you need "duplicate" lists for anything that would need to be translated (i.e. the Avian one which is "[Body Part] of [Color]", although they don't do this in vanilla).

I'm interested in the namelist. What's that like? I enjoy coming up with angelic sounding names and titles, but I don't know how to begin implementing something like that.

I'll take a look at it, thanks.

Something about the Overlord update has made an... 'interesting' change to the head animation.

I wonder if there's a way to animate all the existing portraits to be 3D and have idle animations?