Texturing: less gloss more shimmer?

[MikeJones84]

I know the alpha channel of the normal map affects glossiness, but it seems to affect the whole mesh evenly. So how does one make only parts of the texture shiny rather than the whole thing? I was under the impression that this is what the normal map is for. Like the lighter parts receive more light reflection or something. But I'm not getting the results I'm looking for in game.

[DixiePig]

You're correct, but to be very specific: the alpha channel of the normal map controls the specular strength. By itself, we would call it a specular map.

If you find that it's not making a difference per-texel and is affecting the whole model at once, it could be a couple of things.

 

First I would check that you're using the correct type of DDS compression: the diffuse maps don't have an alpha channel, so if you use that compression on the normal map then the game will treat the whole map as white and give full specular power everywhere.

Another possibility is that your map is just too bright anyway, so try experimenting with making it darker.

Other than that, there are material settings in the .nif file (IIRC) that control other factors like the specular power or glossiness. It's different thing to specular strength It affects the material as a whole, so it isn't a texture.

[MikeJones84]

Thanks for the response. I made a basic underwear mesh, and I drew creases in the diffuse texture and I want the creases to shine more then the rest of the mesh. I copied the texture, desaturated it, and converted it to a normal map using the GIMP normalmap plugin with default settings. I guess I will just experiment some more. Perhaps the creases should not be in the color map, but in the normal map only?

[DixiePig]

The specular map needs to be lighter where you want it to shine more. Since it's in the alpha channel of the normal map, the way it looks is that shiny areas are more visible while matte areas are transparent.

 

Remember to use the correct .dds compression. I think it's DXT5 for normal maps, that's the one with the 8-bit alpha channel you need for the specular map.

 

Also, iirc, the normal map GIMP plugin converts bump maps to normal maps. So darker areas will be inset and lighter areas will be raised. just running it on a desaturated diffuse map won't produce believable results, but it might work for fine bump texture, if you don't make it too strong.

[MikeJones84]

What I am trying to achieve is a believable silk fabric texture. I feel like the diffuse and normal maps are fine but in game it just never looks right to me. Now I'm dealing the problem where a semi-transparent texture is really dark indoors and glowing bright outdoors.

 

The picture below was my starting point for the normal map. I desaturated the diffuse map, played with the Levels a bit and lowered the contrast. Then I applied the normalmap filter with default settings. I also copied it into the alpha channel and made everything almost fully transparent except the main front and back parts of the underwear which were slightly more visible. Is this the correct approach or am I doing it all wrong?

 

[DixiePig]

I really think you should look into the .nif material settings. Did you copy the data block from vanilla .nifs that were made of similar materials? I never had problems doing that.

Perhaps screenshots illustrating the problem would make it clearer.

[MikeJones84]

I can probably figure out the textures, but I'm still not sure why the mesh is so dark when I'm not standing next to a light source. This only happens when the texture is semi-transparent. The texture in the picture is almost white but doesn't look like it.

 

Standing in front of the door in Dragonsreach

[par6six6]

That looks more like an inverted normals issue with the mesh than a texturing issue.

[MikeJones84]

It does look like it, but the normals are correct. If I invert them then I get the opposite effect: the mesh is light in the dark and dark in the light.

[par6six6]

Alright, as long as you're sure. Then I agree with the other poster, possibly some setting is off. Hard to suggest anything else without seeing it firsthand. Would you be willing to post the mesh and textures?

[MikeJones84]

I suppose I can do that, but can you tell me what settings would cause something like this? I didn't really change much in nifskope. I copied the BSLightingShaderProperty from a vanilla mesh and attached my own textures. I turned the specular strength down to 0.5. Then I added the NiAlphaProperty and used the settings in the screenshot. Other than that I didn't change any settings.

 

[par6six6]

It looks like you have both Enable Blending and Enable Testing set in your alpha properties flags. Have you tried unchecking Enable Blending?

[MikeJones84]

Enable blending was not actually checked, just testing. The alpha mode.blend mode is set to Greater than or Equal. Could it be the niftools plugin causing issues like this? I tried several versions and stuck with an older one that adds the NiMaterialProperty instead of BSLightingShaderProperty. Of course I am deleting that though.

 

Here are the files if someone wants to take a look.

 

Panties2_0.nif

Panties2_white.dds

Panties2_n.dds

 

There is another issue I'm having with this. I am using mod slot 48 instead of the main skyrim body because when I export the body with my mesh the normalmap on the body is all messed up(looks way too glossy and dark), and the head, feet, and hands don't align with the body. I haven't even tried to resolve that issue yet. For the record I am working with a fresh install of Skyrim and the UNP body.

[par6six6]

Ah, I see the issue. You're missing tangents/bitangents. You have the panties set like "skin" is set up and not how clothing is set up.

 

In the NiTriShapeData, change BS Num UV sets to 4097 and run Spells > Update Tangent Spaces.

(If you're using the latest nifskope these fields were changed to Num UV Sets - 1, and Extra Vector Flags - tangents_bitangents then run Spells > Update All Tangent Spaces)

[MikeJones84]

Thanks for looking at it. Interesting, I don't know how that happened. I used the typical method of modeling and exporting. But whatever, I changed those settings that you mentioned and I don't think I'm seeing a difference in game. I'm beginning to think it may be the lighting in Skyrim. In most places it looks ok but in darker areas it seems darker than it should be, like in the screenshot I posted before. Did you happen to look at it in game and see if it has this problem for you?

 

On a slightly unrelated note, is it normal to have to select the whole skeleton + my mesh when exporting from 3DS Max? If I don't do that newer versions of the nif exporter complain about "no root node found".

 

And does anyone have input about the second issue I mentioned in my previous post?