Glossiness and head mesh question

[QuiteTheTail]

I ran Glossmax on my entire meshes folder recently, to uniformate all the meshes to the same value (=100). The head texture requires some finishing touch in GIMP or PS, however, to mitigate the texture seam (I took the time to read Jerbsinator's Tutorial). Moreover, the author of the skinset I'm using was kind enough to include a modders resource to edit the Alpha channel, and accurate instructions about how to recreate the normal map.

 

My question is: do I need to apply the same correction also to age maps? (I have six progressive _n.dds in total, perhaps this is the standard number). By the way, I wonder how the glossy skin would look on elder characters...

 

P.S.

Actually I have 12  _n.dds for age maps here (6 for headhumanf.dds, and 6 for headhumanm.dds)

[myuhinny]

Head meshes are different from the rest of the body parts they will not work in glossmax just like any body part that the NiMaterialProperty isn't named skin so you have to manually adjust the glossiness float manually just like how you have to manually adjust glossiness float for skin if the NiMaterialProperty is named something other then skin.

 

Not sure on the texture part as I have never done it I just manually adjusted the glossiness float for the heads.

[QuiteTheTail]

Age maps increase realism but also introduce undesired effects on the skin tone.

Mine come from the "Improved Facial Textures" mod, but by default they are located in the bsa archive for textures.

 

In Robert's Male v5 there are two (optional) blank age maps:

headhumanf10.dds / headhumanf10_n.dds

headhumanm10.dds / headhumanm10_n.dds

 

Installing them, the aging effect is still preserved for most of the elder characters.

Creating copies of these files, renaming them as

headhuman20f.dds / headhumanm20.dds

headhuman30f.dds / headhumanm30.dds

(..and so on, up to 60)

then running archive invalidation, would "smooth" the skin even for more mature characters (losing realism, of corse).

 

The relationship between age maps and gloss effect is still unclear to me. I suppose that also age maps should be edited to obtain glossy faces for all NPCs, but I might be wrong. I'm starting to suspect that glossiness and vanilla races do not mix too well.

 

Furthermore, despite my efforts, I am unable to reproduce in GIMP the method described in the tutorial (based on Photoshop). Even my (young) character seems unaffected.

 

@ myuhinny

Yes, I have set the gloss value of the head mesh to an impossible value - 10000 - in Nifskope.

 

Here are my files, in case some kind soul wants to give it a try:

face textures and normal maps.7z

age maps.7z

 

P.S.

Looks like adding a layer mask is the only way to edit alpha channel in GIMP.

[QuiteTheTail]

...and these are the resources included in the original mod, in case you want to use the alternative method suggested by the mod author.

glossy_matte alphas and instructions.7z

[DeadSomething]

okay. i guess i know what was issued here:

the head doesn't have material set to skin, so it doesnt have the same glossiness as the body.

select the head mesh and go to the material section and adjust the glossiness value manually.

there's nothing else to be done, as the headmesh usually has the same general properties to use the gloss, just like the body does.

 

have you checked if the body has the NiAlphaProperty? if not, then don't just add it to the head or you'll break something.

[QuiteTheTail]

No, the body meshes I use don't have any NiAlphaProperty attached, are plain body meshes.

 

P.S.

My skinset is a bit old. It's contemporary to Robert's Male v4.

Perhaps the texture seam is due to the change I made using  Robert v5 head.

I could try restoring the head mesh from v4 (I don't think the neck seam geometry changed, though). 

[DeadSomething]

omg, this is actually way more complicated than what i can solve.

i usually just install mods and mix and match from different mods to get what i want and if the new mesh doesnt have transparancy or the new texture doesnt, i just add it. most things beyond that just have me sighing and reverting to what it was before.

[QuiteTheTail]

No problem, and thanks for caring.