Hide part of a mesh without editing geometry?

[Veniat]

Is there a way to hide several parts of a mesh without editing the geometry or textures?  

 

I tried googling but I couldn't find anything in Skyrim, Fallout 4 mainly gave me links back to Fallout New Vegas or things that weren't relevant. 

 

I'm trying to make a partially undressed mod for men to use in future sex animations but I'm wondering if there's a way to do it without editing the original armour mesh geometry.  I was thinking I could make a series of penis armour mods that blend into the various outfits. 

 

I'll probably just edit the textures and materials if there's no other way to do it. 

[SadisticLiquid]

have u tried using outfitstudio u can make zap slider's that remove parts of armor's

 

it's part of bodyslide http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/25

[Veniat]

have u tried using outfitstudio u can make zap slider's that remove parts of armor's

 

it's part of bodyslide http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/25

I don't think that's really what I'm looking for.  I don't want to make something that players can use to hide part of a mesh with Outfit Studio but something that hides part of the geometry in-game without external edits beyond texture layers.  I don't know if it's possible though. 

[alucrad90]

 

have u tried using outfitstudio u can make zap slider's that remove parts of armor's

 

it's part of bodyslide http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/25

I don't think that's really what I'm looking for.  I don't want to make something that players can use to hide part of a mesh with Outfit Studio but something that hides part of the geometry in-game without external edits beyond texture layers.  I don't know if it's possible though. 

 

 

I've to say not every mesh file supports the ALPHA path of a _d.dds

 

So build a nif with the help of OS/bs is mostly a good idea

[Jarka Ruus]

 

have u tried using outfitstudio u can make zap slider's that remove parts of armor's

 

it's part of bodyslide http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/25

I don't think that's really what I'm looking for. I don't want to make something that players can use to hide part of a mesh with Outfit Studio but something that hides part of the geometry in-game without external edits beyond texture layers. I don't know if it's possible though.

Zap it and then publish/use the resulting mesh. There's no real need for other people to mess around with zap slider unless you want to give them that extra option.

[Z0mBieP00Nani]

1. Add transparency (Alpha Property) in NifSkope.

 

2. Figure out what part of the mesh needs to disappear using the texture (good luck with that if you need a print out of the UV maps to do that, NifSkope won't be much help there).

 

3. On the texture, using a selection tool in Shop or Gimp, select that part of the texture then jump to Channels.

 

4. Look for the layer that says "Alpha" (it should be all white), fill in the part that is still selected with black.

 

Now that part of the mesh should be gone without editing the geometry... IF that process even still works EXACTLY as described in this case.. some FO4 meshes are funny like that.

[Jarka Ruus]

Still much easier editing the actual mesh.

[Veniat]

1. Add transparency (Alpha Property) in NifSkope.

 

2. Figure out what part of the mesh needs to disappear using the texture (good luck with that if you need a print out of the UV maps to do that, NifSkope won't be much help there).

 

3. On the texture, using a selection tool in Shop or Gimp, select that part of the texture then jump to Channels.

 

4. Look for the layer that says "Alpha" (it should be all white), fill in the part that is still selected with black.

 

Now that part of the mesh should be gone without editing the geometry... IF that process even still works EXACTLY as described in this case.. some FO4 meshes are funny like that.

Thanks, that alpha property would've confused me for a while before I'd worked it out, I knew there was an alpha tag but I wasn't sure if it was in the material file or the model, well, or both in Fallout 4.  I can probs just import it into max to get the UV map either way and edit the texture in photoshop. 

 

I was asking more to see if anyone knew of or had discovered any new texture or material layering techniques that I might be able to use to pass on the alpha map instead of editing the original textures before I started experimenting myself, the new BGSM/BGEM files are confusing me a bit and I know some of the original NIF properties no longer work for the updated engine and are instead in the new material format, wasn't sure if anyone had worked out some more efficient methods to go along with it. 

[Z0mBieP00Nani]

 

1. Add transparency (Alpha Property) in NifSkope.

 

2. Figure out what part of the mesh needs to disappear using the texture (good luck with that if you need a print out of the UV maps to do that, NifSkope won't be much help there).

 

3. On the texture, using a selection tool in Shop or Gimp, select that part of the texture then jump to Channels.

 

4. Look for the layer that says "Alpha" (it should be all white), fill in the part that is still selected with black.

 

Now that part of the mesh should be gone without editing the geometry... IF that process even still works EXACTLY as described in this case.. some FO4 meshes are funny like that.

Thanks, that alpha property would've confused me for a while before I'd worked it out, I knew there was an alpha tag but I wasn't sure if it was in the material file or the model, well, or both in Fallout 4.  I can probs just import it into max to get the UV map either way and edit the texture in photoshop. 

 

I was asking more to see if anyone knew of or had discovered any new texture or material layering techniques that I might be able to use to pass on the alpha map instead of editing the original textures before I started experimenting myself, the new BGSM/BGEM files are confusing me a bit and I know some of the original NIF properties no longer work for the updated engine and are instead in the new material format, wasn't sure if anyone had worked out some more efficient methods to go along with it. 

 

 

No, I don't think transparency is affected by material files, only environment maps and glow maps as far as I can tell (which need their own file paths). Though, that's what is kind of weird about FO4 meshes, sometimes it IS the mesh that needs to be edited, and sometimes it's the material file that has to be changed, otherwise you won't see any difference in game... very confusing.

 

It kind of makes me wish they had just stuck to the old format, but, oh well...

[BlackShades]

 

1. Add transparency (Alpha Property) in NifSkope.

 

2. Figure out what part of the mesh needs to disappear using the texture (good luck with that if you need a print out of the UV maps to do that, NifSkope won't be much help there).

 

3. On the texture, using a selection tool in Shop or Gimp, select that part of the texture then jump to Channels.

 

4. Look for the layer that says "Alpha" (it should be all white), fill in the part that is still selected with black.

 

Now that part of the mesh should be gone without editing the geometry... IF that process even still works EXACTLY as described in this case.. some FO4 meshes are funny like that.

Thanks, that alpha property would've confused me for a while before I'd worked it out, I knew there was an alpha tag but I wasn't sure if it was in the material file or the model, well, or both in Fallout 4.  I can probs just import it into max to get the UV map either way and edit the texture in photoshop. 

 

I was asking more to see if anyone knew of or had discovered any new texture or material layering techniques that I might be able to use to pass on the alpha map instead of editing the original textures before I started experimenting myself, the new BGSM/BGEM files are confusing me a bit and I know some of the original NIF properties no longer work for the updated engine and are instead in the new material format, wasn't sure if anyone had worked out some more efficient methods to go along with it. 

 

 

If you plan on assigning a material file to the nif : Transparency for bgsm material files works only if the "alpha test" is checked in the material file. No actual need to insert a Nialphaproperty if you assign a material file with the alpha test checked (not 100% certain about this). Partial transparency using material files is done differently (Needs BSeffectShaderproperty+BGEM material file). Can skip using material files and assign textures/properties to the nif directly like in previous games.

 

 

[Veniat]

Thanks, I should be able to work stuff out from now on. 

[prinyo]

About the partial transparency... I would be really thankful for some hints. How can it be done using Nifskope or OS and/or editing the material files.

I made a test on an outfit and edited the texture the "Skyrim way" (selected only the Alpha layer and applied the Eraser with 30 - 50% opacity), then experimented with the bgsm file but the texture remained completely non-transparent. And it seems there are more than one ways to add partial transparency to the texture and they seem to need different tweaks to the nif. So now I'm completely confused :-)

Also the game will swap the materials so this needs to persist. For example I want to make all Institute uniforms semi-transparent. This means the game will show the same mesh with different bgsm files.