hoodoo_man

You mentioned Photoshop, so I assume you're reasonably proficient with it, or at least have a copy . Each of the color seperations (i.e. in this case you're using RGB color) has it's own "channel" containing the pixel data for that color. So in an RGB file, you normally have three channels--Red, Green, and Blue. Additional channels can be added to contain things like masks, etc. These are referred to as "alpha channels." Skyrim uses the alpha channel from some texture files to determine luminosity, what areas the spectral map affects and how much, transparency, etc. So Hanaisse was suggesting that in one of the texture files you re-painted there is an alpha channel you failed to edit. I would add that if there is a separate specular map file--usually "_s" that that would need to be edited also, and could easily be causing your problem, as the spec. map affects reflectivity (is that a word? ) accross the whole model. I hope that helps, and didn't come off as condescending. I don't know what your experience level with various things is, so I tried to keep it to basics, and assume nothing. Good luck with your mod! Hoodoo Man

It's really not that many pieces. You should see some of my uvmaps on my basket-hilts--and those were for Oblivion . The problem I think you're trying to point out is that A) it could be done a lot more simply--which comes from experience. B) a lot of those pieces look like they should be connected--which is a problem unless you're flood filling the area with texture. It is best to keep individual parts of the mesh as single maps, if you don't want to deal with seams, and who does? Incidentaly, it is also possible to split the texture at the uv-mapping stage. Or most uv-mapping software will let you do it. In uvmapper you make a planar map of the object and select the "1 side only" option--then both sides of the mesh (however you split it when you generated your map--x, y, z YMMV , will map to the same UV coordinates in the image. You can also just superimpose the meshes on the uv map, but if it's not symmetrical, one side may be backwards . There are many "less complicated" options, depending on your level of comfortability with certain tools as opposed to others. There are as many ways to skin a mesh--not a perfect metaphor--as there are a cat--sometimes with equally unpleasant results. I thought it wasn't bad at all for a first try with uvmapping. At least people are trying. Some of the work-arounds I've seen on Nexus lately are just disappointing. /Begin Rant/ Like the other day I saw something that used General Tullius's belt--so I was like, cool, I wonder how they got the belt off? It turned out they left the whole mesh in there and made everything but the belt transparent. There were several other people in there as well. Somehow it works in-game, but it's sloppy as h*ll as a mod. Also, where did all the swords with two-dimensional hilts start coming from? I'm exaggerating--but there are a lot of people with fairly thin horizontal profiles on their hilts--and based on the number of flat sword hilts I've seen on Nexus, and the number I've seen in real life. . . and I am clearly missing something somewhere. . . . /End Rant/ Hoodoo Man

This is just a shot in the dark--but how tall is your mountain? I remember when I was building a worldspace in Oblivion that there were hard limits on how high you could go. Maybe your door is outside that range--that's why it bumps you back to cell 0,0. No idea if that's actually what's going on--but even in Skyrim I'm sure there's a limit to the altitude at which things like doors are a good idea . Good luck with the bashing your head against the wall--sometimes the wall does break. I hope you don't have to start from scratch either--as I know a little bit about how much work goes into that sort of thing. Have you ever tried creating TES topography from satellite data of real-world topography? I have. I don't recommend it for amateurs or people who like sleep . Hoodoo Man

Mostly as an aside, there are several programs that greatly simplify the process of re-uv mapping an item or items and produces a helpful template you can use in Pshop or whatever your poison is. I like uvmapper myself, but the free, legacy version I've used forever only take OBJ file input or export--which is problematic with the newer nifskope versions. I'm still using 1.1.0 for that reason. If you extract an object--or in this case "save as" your model--to OBJ format this will NOT preserve weighting. This used to be a good thing--as you could pull a geometry out, modify and/or re-map/texture it, and as long as you didn't change the number of vertices or their order, you could then replace the mesh in the nif file and it would pick up the original weighting. I'm not sure if you can export as nif from Max and then accomplish roughly the same thing. You used to be able to. Just replace the geometry node in the nif file--not the weighting/rigging attached to it and you might be able to copy/paste between nif files. They also offer the new, spiffy uvmapper with real-time 3d previews and other things real men don't need (Why is my character half-naked in the snow--that's right, real men--and dragonborn--don't need clothes to stay warm! ) on a free 30 day trial basis. I'm sure if one were persistant enough one could find a way to extend that. There are other mapping programs as well, that's just the one I'm familiar with and have used for years. Good luck with your texturing! Hoodoo Man

Hi everybody, I think this is the appropriate place to ask this. If I'm wrong, could one of the mods kindly move and/or delete this (since they probably would anyway ). Anyway, I did something stupid--not sure quite what yet--Oblivion-style and lost all the weights on my mesh. To compound this, I didn't notice for a while. I now have to backtrack quite a ways, because rigging and/or weight painting and/or whatever anyone wants to call it, is a rather esoteric skill and I try to stay away from it as much as possible . It occurred to me that if I just finally bit the bullet and learned to more or less re-weight things myself, I wouldn't have these problems. I could make my mesh look like whatever I want and just re-rig it at the end. Is that possible? If so, could someone possibly--if there were enough cookies (or fishy sticks) or whatever involved--write a small tutorial on rigging/weight painting your model that was comprehensible to someone with little to no experience and finally, how to do it in 3DS Max since I know this is mostly a Blender crowd, and I've seen people suggest really arcane work-arounds to NOT have to re-weight in Blender (and I thought Blender had a re-weight button basically)? I understand the theory behind it just fine. Every vertex needs to be attached/influenced by one or more bones in order for it to animate correctly--or at all . The various bone weights in any given vertex need to add to one, because they are essentiallly percentiges showing how much a given bone affects that vertex. Am I doing OK so far? It's when you have something complex like an outfit, armor, a body, you know , and you have a mesh, you have a skeleton, and you want to attach your mesh to said skeleton, how do you go about that? Obviously you can't calculate each of like 4000 vertex weights seperately--or you really, really, don't want to and wouldn't know how to divide them up anyway (and this is coming from someone who once-upon-a-time, long ago, actually edited an image pixel by pixel in MS Paint on a 486 machine, for lack of better options.) So let the fear and trembling begin--or please, please, please could someone who knows what they're doing finally reveal either that A) there is a "re-weight" button in Max, and I just can't find it. That's entirely possible. The interface for Max is designed so back-a$$wardsly that it could easily be in some icon somewhere, or B) the arcane secrets of rigging meshes for those of us who are clueless about it and will do almost anything to avoid messing with vertex weights if they can help it. I realize it's probably not that simple--but it can't be as complex as I think it is, or no one would do it. Ever. And then where would we be? So if there are any 3DSMax gurus about, could you possibly take some time to at least explain why what I'm asking is totally infeasable and I need to go back to square one, and continue to fear rigging ? Thanks in advance if anyone is willing to take this on, Hoodoo Man