[MISC] Nifskope - textures of plants transparent/not transparent?

[Tamira]

I found some nice 3D files of plants with textures on the web. For instance these palm trees:

https://picasaweb.go...feat=directlink

I added alpha property to the BSLightingShaderProperty and the background can be seen through the leaves but why not the other leaves?

There is a nasty rim where you see the background instead of the other leaves.

https://picasaweb.go...feat=directlink

This is how it looks in Nifskope

https://picasaweb.go...feat=directlink

This is the UV Map

https://picasaweb.go...feat=directlink

This is the DDS

https://picasaweb.go...feat=directlink

Is there anything I can do about this issue?

[Hanaisse]

Hmm, you might want to double check the alpha channel of the texture, make sure the background is black around the leaves.

[Tamira]

I am not quite sure what you mean. You speak Photoshop, I speak Gimp

Here is the alpha channel of the dds, the background is transparent:

https://picasaweb.go...feat=directlink

Or dou you mean the Normalmap?

This is how I created it (the usual way):

Colour to alpha -> black

https://picasaweb.go...feat=directlink

[Tamira]

I asked my friend Beolo over here and he had the answer (as always ):

In Nifskope go to Alpha Property -> Flags

Type in the value 4845

Go to -> Threshold

Type in a value between 80 - 100.

And so it looks now:

https://picasaweb.go...feat=directlink

[Hanaisse]

Aha .. very nice.

[Vince]

I think Tamira has covered most of what you need. If you want the leaves to look right from both sides, you need a NiStencilProperty block with all the flags set correctly. I've included a link below to a .nif with everything correct, at least for Oblivion. Good luck.

http://www.mediafire...n24nuxb4ud3uidr

Please ignore this post. After I made it I realized that without including the textures in the correct folder structure, so the .nif can use them, the file isn't very useful.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Vince

[Tamira]

Hi Vince, it was me who was in need

Skyrim nifs don't have a NiStencilProperty anymore. You can add "double sided" in the BSLightingShaderProperty -> Shader Flags 2

[InsanitySorrow]

You can also use an NiStencilProperty in Skyrim, but you have to add it to the Node's property list (Which is limited to 2 entries) like with the textures.

[Tamira]

I have not yet met a NiStencilProperty in a Skyrim nif so I supposed it no longer exists.

So you can not use it at the same time with a NiAlphaProperty as this would occupy the second slot after the textures.

[Vince]

I guess I'll have a lot to learn once I get Skyrim. I see that there still isn't a .nif exporter for Blender to Skyrim.

BTW, Tamira, I saw your normal map. Did you make it mostly transparent to minimize the specular reflection?

[Tamira]

The trees now look really nice in the game (as shown in the screenshot) but I noticed that they didn’t cast shadows. I already had activated the „cast shadows“ in the BSShaderLightingProperty but it didn’t work.

Then I copied the complete BSLightingShaderProperty from the vanilla ivy01.nif which has AlphaProperty too and casts shadows. But there were still no shadows of my trees in the game.

So I compared the settings of the Alpha property of my nif and the Ivy01.nif and it differs in the Alpha Property -> Flags which is 4844 in the Ivy.nif.

Both - Vince and my friend Beolo - referred to an Oblivion nif with the settings of 4845. This value looks great in Skyrim too but you need the setting 4844 to make the object cast shadows. This is at cost of the „beauty“ of the appearance, as it draws a more or less noticeable small rim round the leaves so that it looks a bit like a pencil-drawing.

When you don’t necessarily need shadows for your custom object – for instance potted flowers in interiors – it might look better to set the Alpha property tags to the Oblivion setting of 4845.

For casting shadows the setting is 4844.

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@ Vince: These Normalmap settings are the settings that work best for me. Alpha is totally transparent.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Tamira

[MessiahXII]

I've been using the 4845 alpha setting on many imports.  Thanks for for the info about how shadows that don't cast on that setting.  It also seems that when I switched to 4844, leaves ect. no longer illuminate in the dark.  It was driving me crazy why certain meshes (not using the glow map functionability) were lit up as it were day time.  Flipping  normals seemed like step in the right direction but still gave an undesired effect.  Now, if there was only a combined 4845/4844 setting...