Vince

Is this something you UV mapped yourself?

I found both links in your topic on the OF broken. You might want to have someone else check to make sure it's not just me. They both work correctly from here.

I'm not sure that's true. Although usually no normal map means the texture doesn't show or doesn't show properly, that's not true of animated textures. There are two kinds of animated textures supported in Oblivion: transform and flip. Transform textures change the UV mapping in real time. Flip textures require a set of individual textures that are shown in sequence. I believe you can do what you want with a transform animated texture. If you're interested, I can wip up a working one this weekend that should give you a head start. EDIT: 'Sorry, I didn't read your original post as carefully as I should. Have you tried your flip texture without normal maps and verified it doesn't work?

There were some questions on the shouty recently concerning exactly what texture baking is. I've included some notes, examples, and links here that may help clarify the issue. Relative to the initial question, one useful answer can be found at: Answer to "What is Baking". For our modding applications, baking normal maps is especially useful. There are two basic methods: baking a normal map from a high poly model to applying to a low poly version and creating a normal map from a 3D model for application to an unrelated model. If you wish to save polys for faster frame rates in game, you can create a low poly version of your 3D model, bake a normal map from the original hi poly version, and apply it to the low poly version to get a rendered image that looks almost as good as the original with many fewer polygons. You can do this directly in 3D modelers like Blender (see: Baking Bump and Normal Maps in Blender). You can also do it with either of two powerful, free programs: xNormal and NVIDIA's Melody. You will find many tutorials on this method on the web. You can also bake a normal map from a 3D model for use on other, unrelated, models as a texture. Say you wanted to create a vase with a vine texture. You could create a 3D model of the vine, bake texture maps from it, and map the texture to the vase. See for example: . As a second example, I needed a coarse metal mesh for a device I was making for a mod. I created the model in Blender, but it was around 700,000 polys, certainly not practical for use in game. So I baked texture maps from it and applied the texture to a simple plane. The final result is reasonably convincing and only two polys, as you can see: . This method can be accomplished in Blender by rendering the model in a particular way, using a special material. There is a relatively brief description of the process in the Blender manual, see: Creating Normal Maps from a Model. There is a detailed tutorial on the process at: Creating Normal Maps from a Model. There was another detailed tutorial that appears to no longer be available on the net. I have the full tut and can upload it if the Blender manual and tutorial listed are not enough. BTW, if you use this process, make sure to save your Blend file so you can use the special material and rendering parameters with other models later.

You can create .bsa files with BSA Commander using the default compression that are readable by all. I've used .bsa's created with BSA commander, following the steps listed on the CS Wiki at: Creating BSA Files with BSA Commander for my Abandoned Mountain Shack. At present, the .bsa is around 75 MB uncompressed and just under 40 MB compressed. There have been more than 20K downloads so far and, although there have been hundreds of comments, there have been no complaints about the .bsa. If you find OBMM works for you, that's great. I just want people to know that BSA Commander is a reliable option for those not using OBMM.

John, As you implied, loading the GIMP or PS just to view an image takes too long. Besides NVDIA's thumbnail viewer, NVIDIA has a .dds viewer, WTV. It's fast and free; see: Windows Texture Viewer . The other option is XnView which is free, loads quickly, and reads many formats, including .dds. Vince

Meo, I'm glad to see you here. In Modding Schools > The Enclave > Modding General there is a Clutterers Guild. You might look it over and find some things missing that you could contribute. One with your modeling skills is always welcome here. I hope you'll stick around.

Tosky, you can change the glossiness by changing the Glossiness parameter in the block details of the NiMaterialProperty block in NifSkope. Alternately, you can change the glossiness, as donnato suggested, by changing the Hardness parameter in Blender. The Glossiness in the .nif file is 1/4th the Hardness parameter in Blender. You need to use a 2D graphic program to change the alpha value of the normal map. If you have trouble changing the alpha value in the GIMP, see: Creating Transparent Textures, an Alternate Approach here at the Alliance. Note: when you make the normal map partly transparent, you do not need to add a NiAlphProperty block. Looking at your screen shots, it appears that you changed the Apply Mode from APPLY_MODULATE to APPLY_HIGHLIGHT. I notice horizontal streaks in the texture of the blade. Maybe there's an issue with the UV map?