Hair conversion problem - alpha

[Jenn]

Hello, I've tried everything I could think of to fix this alpha issue, but I'm out of ideas.

 

Here is what it looks like in-game, no matter what:

 

 

 

 

Even though it looks perfectly fine in Nifskope:

 

 

 

 

I'm using Blender 2.49b. I've tried ordering the parts from the inside-out, outside-in, getting rid of the backfaces, but no matter how well (or poorly) my attempts look in NifSkope, the result is always the same in-game.. Maybe I've overly complicated this that I've missed something easy, but I can't think of anything else right now. Even though I could NiAlphaProperty flags to 4846/4844, I'd rather not unless fixing this alpha problem is entirely impossible... 

 

 

I've attached the .nif and texture files -

 

The 'ncshaved-original.nif' is before I touched the ordering at all. For the 'ncshaved-inner-to-outer.nif', I had deleted the original backfaces, sorted the hair parts from the inside to the outside, joined it, and duplicated the mesh and flipped normals to create new backfaces (because I made the poor decision of deleting the originals).

 

 

EDIT -

 

So it seems like the main problem is the strands on the very top. The textures for the parts underneath overlap correctly and look perfect in-game when I removed those strands, but it confuses me how they're defying the ordering when everything else is all right..

 

 

 

If anyone here could help, I'd be truly grateful. Thank you!

NC Shaved.zip

[Shocky]

Hello, I've tried everything I could think of to fix this alpha issue, but I'm out of ideas.

 

Here is what it looks like in-game, no matter what:

 

 

 

 

 

Even though it looks perfectly fine in Nifskope:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm using Blender 2.49b. I've tried ordering the parts from the inside-out, outside-in, getting rid of the backfaces, but no matter how well (or poorly) my attempts look in NifSkope, the result is always the same in-game.. Maybe I've overly complicated this that I've missed something easy, but I can't think of anything else right now. Even though I could NiAlphaProperty flags to 4846/4844, I'd rather not unless fixing this alpha problem is entirely impossible... 

 

 

I've attached the .nif and texture files -

 

The 'ncshaved-original.nif' is before I touched the ordering at all. For the 'ncshaved-inner-to-outer.nif', I had deleted the original backfaces, sorted the hair parts from the inside to the outside, joined it, and duplicated the mesh and flipped normals to create new backfaces (because I made the poor decision of deleting the originals).

 

 

 

 

If anyone here could help, I'd be truly grateful. Thank you!

 

 

You problem was the NiAlphaProperty, even if you set them to 4846 / 4845 you also need set the Threshold in Nifskope for them. I'm not sure how to explain this better but It should've looked this way:

 

(I renamed the NIFs for testing purposes, sorry.)

NCShaved.nif(original) - should be -> Flags 4845 -> Threshold 40 (yours is 0)

NCShavedHl.nif(inner-outer) should be -> Flags 4846 -> Threshold 200 (yours is still 0 and should have been 4846 instead of 4845)

 

I'd also suggest to reduce the specularity and implement it in the normal map instead, much easier that way.

 

Here are the NIF's in case you want to take a look.

(you should change the texture paths in nifskope in case you'll use those)

 

 

 

hairz.7z

[Jenn]

Shocky, thank you ever so much! Lesson learned.

 

 

Edit:

 

Ack. I got too excited and posted before seeing it in-game. I hope you'll be able to see this - I've just tried upping the thresholds to your settings, but it's either looking the same, or kind of bad..

 

With ncshaved-original when I had upped it to 40, it looked the same as the first picture I posted.

With ncshaved-inner-outer and your NCShavedHI, it looked like this: http://i.imgur.com/AhZaOAY.jpg. I've removed the specular .dds file and changed the specular value in the .nif, with the same result.

With your NCShaved, it looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/GNtpnjx.jpg. I noticed that you enabled the AssumeShadowmask and Vertex Alpha in the shader flags - I forgot to mention that I had originally disabled those properties because it gives off this halo/transparency effect  Though the way it blends the back parts of the hair is closest to the result I desire.

 

 

Sorry about the complications! Argh I wish it could be simpler. I wonder what's wrong...

[Shocky]

Shocky, thank you ever so much! Lesson learned.

 

 

Edit:

 

Ack. I got too excited and posted before seeing it in-game. I hope you'll be able to see this - I've just tried upping the thresholds to your settings, but it's either looking the same, or kind of bad..

 

With ncshaved-original when I had upped it to 40, it looked the same as the first picture I posted.

With ncshaved-inner-outer and your NCShavedHI, it looked like this: http://i.imgur.com/AhZaOAY.jpg. I've removed the specular .dds file and changed the specular value in the .nif, with the same result.

With your NCShaved, it looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/GNtpnjx.jpg. I noticed that you enabled the AssumeShadowmask and Vertex Alpha in the shader flags - I forgot to mention that I had originally disabled those properties because it gives off this halo/transparency effect  Though the way it blends the back parts of the hair is closest to the result I desire.

 

 

Sorry about the complications! Argh I wish it could be simpler. I wonder what's wrong...

 

Well, again that problem is because the NiAlphaProperty is not set correctly, I'm not sure how you want the hair to look, because every skyrim hair I know is done that way, with the settings I told you about. Do you want it to look 'sharp' and almost 'plastic-like' or you want it to look 'more realistic' ?

 

Did you also upped the Threshold to 200 for the inner-outer and put it to Flags 4846 ?

 

Or you could use the modified NIF's I uploaded and just disable the shadowmask / vertex alpha and see if it works the way you want?

[Jenn]

 

Shocky, thank you ever so much! Lesson learned.

 

 

Edit:

 

Ack. I got too excited and posted before seeing it in-game. I hope you'll be able to see this - I've just tried upping the thresholds to your settings, but it's either looking the same, or kind of bad..

 

With ncshaved-original when I had upped it to 40, it looked the same as the first picture I posted.

With ncshaved-inner-outer and your NCShavedHI, it looked like this: http://i.imgur.com/AhZaOAY.jpg. I've removed the specular .dds file and changed the specular value in the .nif, with the same result.

With your NCShaved, it looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/GNtpnjx.jpg. I noticed that you enabled the AssumeShadowmask and Vertex Alpha in the shader flags - I forgot to mention that I had originally disabled those properties because it gives off this halo/transparency effect  Though the way it blends the back parts of the hair is closest to the result I desire.

 

 

Sorry about the complications! Argh I wish it could be simpler. I wonder what's wrong...

 

Well, again that problem is because the NiAlphaProperty is not set correctly, I'm not sure how you want the hair to look, because every skyrim hair I know is done that way, with the settings I told you about. Do you want it to look 'sharp' and almost 'plastic-like' or you want it to look 'more realistic' ?

 

Did you also upped the Threshold to 200 for the inner-outer and put it to Flags 4846 ?

 

Or you could use the modified NIF's I uploaded and just disable the shadowmask / vertex alpha and see if it works the way you want?

 

Unfortunately I tried those, but it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.

 

This is how it stands right now, setting the NiAlphaProperty flag to 4845 and threshold to 120:

 

 

 

Which looks more correct now for the most part, except that the strands in the front are causing the scalp to be shown. It's really those strands in the front that are causing the problem. When I had removed them from the mesh, the whole thing looked perfectly fine.. except, I would like to preserve those strands if I can.

 

 

I really want it to look like this...

 

 

 

...where the strands blend correctly into the other hair parts below it, and the scalp doesn't poke through. I know it could easily be fixed by setting the flags to 4846, but it causes rough/jagged edges.