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Graphic Artistry: General Questions


InsanitySorrow
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  • 3 weeks later...

I don't know how to make my last block shiny,I've made an environmental map and set the directory in the sixth line in NifSkope but the cube is still no shinier than the other ones. I see cube maps in other nifs but I don't know what that is or how to make one, do I need one for my block to be shiny?

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...

Ok, for what it`s worth, I went back into PS and redid the boot tex with your original texture reduced to 512 to match the vanilla boot tex then thought to check the "chanels"....I found this with only the Alpha visible...I`m thinking that deleting this before converting to .dds would solve the mystery...??

EDIT: Deleting the default Alpha chanel (which here has the eye which means. visible) fixed the gimp issue.

GimpAnomaly02.png

Edited by donnato
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  • 2 months later...

Thank you, sir! And I have yet more questions. :)

Just for a lark, I'm following this- http://www.lucasforu...ad.php?t=209758 using a copy of the Thalmor robe texture. Gimp being what it is, this one is wondering how he can keep saving it as a .dds file?

So I'd like to make a logo for Mystmod but have this problem. I'd like it to look like Morrowind's title screen, but obviously there's no letter Y in the logo. Fortunately there's Morrowind-style Main Menu that I could copy the Y from; unfortunately, aside from getting the author's permission, I'm unsure how to proceed. Help?

Edited by Tigersong
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  • 6 months later...

I started modding about 6 months ago and have since learned a LOT of different things from a lot of different people in the community. From mesh and model edits nifskope to simple record edits in tes5edit, ive dabbled in a little bit of everything. I am having a little trouble trying to determine all of the various uses of the alpha channel for all the various different textures types and what type of model theyre being applied to.  For example, the alpha in normals serves as specularity. For my transparent glass weapons, the alpha channel  has to be done properly in my color maps (along with shader flags in the mesh, but i digress).  

One thing however I have not been able to figure out is what role the alpha channel plays in diffuse maps other than opacity/transparency.  For example, a lot of landscape diffuse textures will have the alpha filled with a grayscale version of the rgb.. other times it will be completely blacked out except for areas where certain rocks are (imagine a texture that is all grass with 10 medium sized rocks scattered about... all/most of the grass will be blacked out, with all of the rocks kept white).  

 

Can someone explain to me what technique is being used here? I think for some textures, like rocks.dds that are used as "trim" textures around the base of mountains and such, this technique allows only the rocks to appear.. based on NiAlphaProperty alpha threshold of the mesh, maybe?

 

Is there any place that has good documentation of the different techniques used for textures? Are there any techniques that are general or any that are specific to skyrim or the gamebryo engine?

 

Anything else you can think of that would be helpful?

Thanks thumbsup.gif

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Aside from transparency the alpha channel in the diffuse texture is for the the parallax effect. The alpha controls the depth of the effect on specific areas of the texture.

 

Parallax mapping has not been documented for the games, it's not used or rarely used within the game itself and only a few modders have made use of it for their projects, mainly texture replacers.

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ok thanks. i dont believe ive seen any parallax maps in the diffuse alpha, but its good to know its possible.

 

so if a landscape texture is using alpha for transparency, what exactly does that mean in terms of final effect? Unlike a glass weapon that has transparency set on the mesh, we dont really expect to see through the ground :) It seems that the transparency is being used sort of as a threshold. like, any pixel with alpha value greater or equal to 150 will be displayed/rendered in full, but any pixels with alpha below 150 will not appear at all.

This is but one example that I have seen and tried to figure out on multiple occasions. There have been other times where i have seen a diffuse alpha being used on objects that dont display actual transparency.. the landscape textures is the most common though.

(my other thought is maybe adding some transparency data to the color map can produce a sort of "dull" effect when being used on non-transparent objects. but this is only speculation.

Thanks for helping me out with this.. there arent a lot of experienced texture artists just hanging around to answer questions :)

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  • 3 months later...

Hi i want to start doing these lesson i have all of the stuff i need but recently my photoshop has gained a bug, i need to know if there is anyway to fix this, basically as soon as i open up the DDS it is basically copied continuously like this https://www.dropbox.com/s/5lf1y2f1ogc4wkq/Glitch.png, do you know how to fix it please i really want to do these lessons.

Edited by Duck
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  • 11 months later...
 
 
 
This is to continue the discussion from the shouty I was having with Tamira and Hanaisse about meshes disappearing in the CK after re-texturing them using Oblivion-style textures and normal maps; the issues of changing over to Skyrim normal maps:  
 
 
This is in game, clearly showing the bleedthrough of the old (Skyrim) normal map:
 
 
 
 
 
In the CK - the best example I have is the kitchen fireplace.  This is the texture it is supposed to have, but this only shows up with the CK light on:
 
 
 
 
Without that CK light on, the textures show bleedthrough of the original (Skyrim) normal map:
 
 
 
 
If I use the Oblivion (mod) normal map, the entire mesh disappears in the CK (although it shows just fine in NifSkope).  If I try to use a different Skyrim normal map that is more closely suited to what I need, the mesh disappears in the CK.  
 
In game - some are disappeared and some aren't, (but that may have something to do with my room portals - they were needing to be fixed at the time I was there in game).
Edited by mALX
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For an indepth analysis, would probably need more information, like what are these other textures you're trying to use.

 

For a quick answer, because you mentioned Texture sets, are you sure you are creating them properly? Check my tutorial. With both the diffuse and the normals specified in the texture set there's no reason it should "bleed through" the old normal map.

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For an indepth analysis, would probably need more information, like what are these other textures you're trying to use.

 

For a quick answer, because you mentioned Texture sets, are you sure you are creating them properly? Check my tutorial. With both the diffuse and the normals specified in the texture set there's no reason it should "bleed through" the old normal map.

 

I actually haven't set up a Texture Set for these yet - I was just doing the retexture in NifSkope and adding the newly retextured mesh in the CK.   -  But this tutorial you made is tremendous, I was just trying to learn this to make a stand-alone follower! 

 

What I was wondering was - if I do make a Texture Set in the CK of these wood and marble textures - would it stabilize them so they could be uploaded with the mod for this CK Basics final exam? 

 

(What I need to learn is some way to make them stable enough to be uploaded with the mod).  

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Following the instructions on your tutorial, I am going to try to change the textures directly in the CK instead of changing them in NifSkope and uploading the new mesh  (but in a test mod just in case, so my Final Exam mod isn't messed with).   That would also slim down the size of the uploaded mod since I wouldn't have to package all those vanilla meshes.  

 

Thank you, Hanaisse, thank you very much!

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