Body Texture(ing)

[Pacman0188]

there are plenty of edits of CBBE stuff on the nexus... my question is this:

 

is there a way to edit the texture while they are on a 3d model?

 

maybe with programs like Nifskope, Outfit studio, etc?

 

one of the major problems i run into is often times the texture will be split in two different places - i.e backside of the body to the front around the waist area, when editing that area any mistakes can easily show the dividing line on the model in game. im curious if there is an easier way to prevent this

[dibz666]

When I started out my modding I was just making texture edits.....

 

I know there are way's of texturing a mesh when it's being rendered in something like blender,

 

But that costs money for dumb subscriptions & permission to use the advanced tool (which u need for such features).

 

Speaking as somone with texture experience, It may be annoying but practice makes perfect..... Keep trying & eventually u'll find the seams.

[ralfetas]

Substance Painter, i think there is a 10 dollars subscription today, or even a trial, all your texturing skills will improve 400% with it.

 

To avoid this seam problem, the best is to make the padding, is when the texture bleed outside the UV.

[AWP3RATOR]

9 hours ago, ralfetas said:

Substance Painter, i think there is a 10 dollars subscription today, or even a trial, all your texturing skills will improve 400% with it.

 

To avoid this seam problem, the best is to make the padding, is when the texture bleed outside the UV.

This is what I was going to say - subspace painter is a great option.  Alternatively, there is Mudbox, which is what I use -requires a license from Autodesk.

 

What you are seeing is the UV map border, and it can be ugly - depending on how it was painted/manipulated.  Generally, when it's "done right" in a 3d software painter - there are no seams.  When the texture has been manipulated in Photoshop, often times, there will be a visible seam due to the fact the three textures that make up what you see in game cannot be edited simultaneously, with the the same effects.  This generally causes a noticeable seam in the render.

 

 

Below are the seams on the CBBE body, but you cannot see these noticeably in game, due to the textures being generarted (in concert) from a 3d software platform.

 

 

 

 

[Andy14]

If it should be free, use Blender.
I use 2.79 and it's better to use than MudBox and has many more feautures.

 

Otherwise Substance Painter - but is a bit complicated to use. (because I rarely work with it )

 

[Pacman0188]

 

 

12 hours ago, AWP3RATOR said:

This is what I was going to say - subspace painter is a great option.  Alternatively, there is Mudbox, which is what I use -requires a license from Autodesk.

 

7 hours ago, Andy14 said:

If it should be free, use Blender.
I use 2.79 and it's better to use than MudBox and has many more feautures.

 

Otherwise Substance Painter - but is a bit complicated to use. (because I rarely work with it )

 

 

i tested out mudbox and it worked better than i'd hoped for, thank you. at this rate i should be able to pump something out quite shortly if all continues to go smoothly

 

---

Edit:

this is the part i always seem to get hung up on...

 

file structure. now, ive done some investigating (mostly searching using the BAE to trace back where these files would go) and have come to this file structure which i believe to be correct:

 

Data>Textures>'Myname'>Character>BaseHumanFemale

 

(since im basing this off the CBBE textures that would mean i have to include "base textures" aswell?or is it enough to only provide just the normal,specular,and diffuse map?)

 

im under the impression that i now need something to reference those textures as a body texture or to compact it into a ESP im not quite sure where to go from here...

ive found plenty of tutorials on textures of objects and terrain and ive gotten this far with some assumption but i seem to have hit an impasse.

 

 

[AWP3RATOR]

Getting your object in to the game requires 2 things:

 

1. Working mesh (NIF) with
   1. Materials file pointing to
      1. Diffuse texture
      2. Normal texture
      3. Specular texture
2. Plugin (ESP)
   1. Pointing to your object
      1. Armor
      2. Weapon
      3. NPC
      4. etc.

Here is a whole host of tutorials and articles on these and many other modding subjects:

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/5978333-fo4-modding-tutorial-list/

 

 

[Pacman0188]

23 hours ago, AWP3RATOR said:

Getting your object in to the game requires 2 things:

 

1. Working mesh (NIF) with
   1. Materials file pointing to
      1. Diffuse texture
      2. Normal texture
      3. Specular texture
2. Plugin (ESP)
   1. Pointing to your object
      1. Armor
      2. Weapon
      3. NPC
      4. etc.

Here is a whole host of tutorials and articles on these and many other modding subjects:

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/5978333-fo4-modding-tutorial-list/

 

 

thank you for the tutorials this is certainly a resource i appreciate, sometimes it can be difficult to find materials on a subject - im glad this exists.

 

one question though, in one of the tutorials i found on making an esp it suggests FO4Edit. although i've used this before in the past and as you mentioned the esp needs to point to an object while this would be fairly obvious to do for something like an armor or clothing piece im what category a body texture is going to be referenced here.

 

would the Creation kit be more suited for texture replacements of this sort?

[AWP3RATOR]

Straight texture replacements of existing textures would not require any plugin (esp).  You would only need to create a mod with the folder paths to the textures themselves and make sure you name them exactly as they are named in the vanilla content.

 

For example, if you wished to replace the vanilla female body textures, you would need to create a mod like this:

 

 

..YourModFolder\Textures\Actors\Character\BaseHumanFemale

 

Then in the folder above, you would have your 3 textures:  femalebody_d.dds, femalebody_n.dds, femalebody_s.dds

Optionally include hands and head:  basefemalehead_d.dds, basefemalehead_n.dds, basefemalehead_s.dds, basefemalehands_d.dds, basefemalehands_n.dds, basefemalehands_s.dds

 

The "YourModFolder" is the "Data" folder.  When you zip this mod up and install it with NMM or Mod Organizer, the textures will go to the correct places - but replace the vanilla versions in game.

 

 

[Pacman0188]

2 hours ago, AWP3RATOR said:

Straight texture replacements of existing textures would not require any plugin (esp).  You would only need to create a mod with the folder paths to the textures themselves and make sure you name them exactly as they are named in the vanilla content.

 

For example, if you wished to replace the vanilla female body textures, you would need to create a mod like this:

 

 

..YourModFolder\Textures\Actors\Character\BaseHumanFemale

 

Then in the folder above, you would have your 3 textures:  femalebody_d.dds, femalebody_n.dds, femalebody_s.dds

Optionally include hands and head:  basefemalehead_d.dds, basefemalehead_n.dds, basefemalehead_s.dds, basefemalehands_d.dds, basefemalehands_n.dds, basefemalehands_s.dds

 

The "YourModFolder" is the "Data" folder.  When you zip this mod up and install it with NMM or Mod Organizer, the textures will go to the correct places - but replace the vanilla versions in game.

 

 

 

thank you, i managed to get everything in working, things seem to be going smoothly. at this point id even go so far as to say its ready for release, thank you.