Retexturing Woes

[GothGirlDanielle]

So continuing to retexture, moving beyond basic coffins and into what Bethesda calls "stone tombs." In this case, I took the existing texture and opened it in Photoshop as a .bmp. This texture became the background. I created a new layer, using a seamless marble texture I had created. This layer was exactly the same size as the original image. I added some features, using the transparency slider to make sure each of my new features was in exactly the same place as the existing features. Finished, I checked the seamless tiling with Filter->Other->Offeset. Made some fixes. Checked again from the opposite setting. Again, fixed it so that it was seamless in both directions.

Converted the .bmp to a .dds, built a nomral map, opened Nifscope and attached it. This is what I got.

Marble Tomb

Marble Base

Image in my frustration to discover that Bethesda's texture don't tile ... they appear to overlap. Four hours of work which I could have spent moving my mod in a more positive direction ... anyway, is there any way to fix this? What did I do wrong?

Here is the texture. Just in case there's a problem with that.

Thanks for any suggestions.

~ Dani ~

Edit: I do still have the layered .psd file in case there's a fix ...

Edited November 20, 2010 by GothGirlDanielle

[DarkRider]

Texture looks great, best fix might be to remap the mesh so the texture doesn't overlap

[StarX]

Yup, The Rider is right. I checked out the mesh and it's UV map. You can view or edit the UV map in NifSkope by right-clicking on the mesh and selecting texture-->edit UV. When you choose Export Template the UV map will be saved as an image file that can be used in Photoshop.

I would ask if one of the modellers here can make a new UV map for you. It doesn't look complicated, so I think it's a pretty fast job.

[InsanitySorrow]

As StarX said you edit edit the UV Mapping in Nifskope, we have a tutorial here for it:

Guest Workshop - UV Mapping in Nifskope : by Lady N

If you can't get the results you want from Nifskope, you can send me the mesh and texture and I'll re-UVMap it for you

[GothGirlDanielle]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. Here's where I am:

Last night, after reading DarkRider's reply, I searched in the CS wiki and on this forum and found Lady Nevar's excellent tutorial, referenced in IS's reply above. As a result of that tutorial, reading it through about four times, I learned a couple of things that would have helped me.

1. I loved her idea of making a bright color template. This, when used in connection with Photoshop's opacity settings, would have saved me a LOT of grief. Here is the template I made last night. If you apply this template as a layer to my texture, you can see that my problem: my pattern crosses from one area into another that is positioned and tiles differently.

2. In the tutorial, Lady Nevar suggests that by editing the map, I can make the entire texturing process easier. By easier, she means flatter, neater, and easier to edit in Photoshop. I can see the logic here. I just can't make the logic work.

Seriously, I worked on this until 5:00 a.m. (only to learn Starbucks doesn't open until ... 6:00 a.m ... egggh). Here's what I understand: The UV map shows how the texture is applied to the model and so the white lines (now yellow) in Nifskope represent the same lines on the surface of the model. By moving the nodes, you can adjust how your texture "lays" on the model. By selecting and moving the nodes, you can change things like overlapping and what part of the texture attaches to what part of the model.

Only that's not how it worked for me. Instead, every time I tried to move the nodes, the texture ended up looking 100 times worse, smeared and distorted, than it did originally. For some reason that's lost on me, Bethesda has the "tiling decorative border" extend out on either side of the model, creating overlap. The tomb sides, however, do not extend. This creates the annoying overlap. When I try to fix it, it completely distorts the texture. I'm trying to fix it by selecting the nodes, as Lady Nevar suggested, and moving them with my mouse.

Is there some trick to getting the texture to line up on certain parts of the model? Since people keep saying this is easy, there must be something I'm not understanding.

Thanks.

~ Dani ~

Since this is supposed to be easy, I'm thinking I'm doing something wrong.

Edited November 20, 2010 by GothGirlDanielle

[GothGirlDanielle]

WooHoo!! Sorry for the double post but ... I did it!

I burned through about six .nifs today and an insane amount of frustration but I've managed to get a grasp of basic UV map editing, thanks to Lady Nerevar's tutorial. I now have a clean, usable .nif for stone tombs and a template to make sure ever goes where it should. Finished my first one tonight.

Thanks to everyone for the help. I really appreciate it!

~ Dani ~

[InsanitySorrow]

Glad you got it sorted out