[still searching] How to add reflection to Armor?

[SirDuke]

Spoiler

 

 

Either this is a quite good fake, or I can see the real envoirement on the armor.

 

If it´s real: How to do that?

 

I want to add this effect to a wholesome of armors, but I always thought that kind of true reflection was not possible...

[Kendo 2]

That is done with a combination of Shader Flags, the normal maps, cube maps, an _m texture, environment mapping, specular strength and material glossiness.  If you don't know what that stuff is then it's time to read some tutorials.

[SirDuke]

shader flags = only very few experience

normal maps = knowledge acceptable

cube maps = I only know their effect, but not the way it works

*_m textures = not very well (isn´t that nearly the same as envoirement mapping?)

envoirement mapping = only what´s left of FO3 (and I think Skyrim worked a bit different)

specular strength = played around with it, to get a faked reflection effect, but never got a "real one"

material glossiness = played around as above

 

I know how my gimp works, I know how my paint.net works, I know where to find my way through nifskope

 

but overall = never got a "real" reflection of the actual envoirement. Only a faked preset, with always faking a false skyline.

 

Your answer was fast, and I do know who you are... (it´s a true honor, to speak with a guy, who gave me skimpy mods for about a decade now!)

 

But answering "it's time to read some tutorials"...

It just isn´t very helpful.

 

If you could point me to the right tutorials, I´d be very thankful to read them.

Even more, if we could skip the parts of the tutorials, which I don´t need to understand.

 

I only want to understand, how to create a real reflection.

 

Oh, and I once asked here:

 

 

 

[Kendo 2]

I looked at the image more closely and I think it's photoshopped.  To be honest, I don't think a Bethesda game engine is capable of producing mirror quality reflections.  If it was, mirrors and such would be in the vanilla game or modders would have added them.  Dicking around with the BSLightingShaderProperty in nifscope will be the closest you're going to get; something like shine/reflection on the vanilla ebony armor.  Like you said, 'fake' reflections.   I thought I was helping, but what I suggested isn't capable of achieving what's in that image.  Sorry 'bout that.

[SirDuke]

No need to be sorry about that!

 

Thanks for your opinion; cause I take that very serious.

And nevertheless, it´s what I expected myself;

some kind of fake.

But it looked so stunning true like a screenshot, that I hoped it could still be possible.

 

 

[Guest]

Actually, as bad as the engine is, i'm "somewhat" sure it can be done with the engine + ENB. It's done for water for example, if you turn reflections way up in ENB, and have land, object, and sky reflections enabled. ENB also has settings for object-reflections IIRC, but armor is technically not an object, but a bodypart.

 

So, the engine + ENB definatelly can render full screenspace reflections (minus actors, AFAIK, so you won't see other actors reflected) - don't know if it's possible for armor, though.

[kziitd]

I don't think it's possible to achieve this effect.

The reflection on Turi's armor seems to have a lake, but the land in the game should not have the lake in the reflection.

So, I think it's probably just a map of armor...

[t.ara]

On 9/19/2019 at 5:06 AM, kziitd said:

I don't think it's possible to achieve this effect.

The reflection on Turi's armor seems to have a lake, but the land in the game should not have the lake in the reflection.

So, I think it's probably just a map of armor...

This is very much the fake-reflexion of skyrim-also ENB´ed skyrim can not offer a sharp reflexion (there is one, but it´s very BAD so far I tried to get it sharper)-if "yes", there would be a real working-mirror-but there´s nothing like that-i guess some others before me had the same idea, lot of years ago;-))).

Such reflexions are caused by a cube-map, which is sitting beside the other texture-links of the NIF-files. ZAP works with metal-cube maps in different colors and so you get a very shiny homogen surface without any "contence in it"...i can show you one cute example, where  the cube-map is switched  "on" without a diffuse map: - it´s a pot which is standing inside of the zap-farmhouse:-)))-but it´s reflecting the outside landscape of tamriel-near whiterun....

 

You can add a suiting existing cube-map to your armor and let it "reflect" something, what is not really there-gggg - or let it reflect "nothing"-in that case it´s "shiny", without a contence.