Latex and Leather Clothing and Specular Maps TUTORIAL

[Robin2486]

Hello Everyone!

 

After banging my head a few times trying to figure out how to make a piece of clothing from another mod look like it was made of leather or latex, I decided to experiment with the .dds files of the mod's textures and Photoshop CS5...and got exactly what I wanted! I accomplished this by creating a custom Specular Map of the clothing's original base texture

 

I decided to post this tutorial for anyone else wanting to sex up their character's outfits with a bit of leather or latex, or for anyone interested in learning how to make a Specular Map  

 

Tools Needed:

-Photoshop CS5 with NVIDIA .DDS Plugin

-Material Editor

 

Step 1: 

Navigate to the folder where the outfit's textures are located on your FO4 data folder. Copy/paste the actual texture (example_d.dds) to a working folder or your desktop and make a copy of it for backup reasons. The file extension will be example_d.dds. Leave the original specular map of the clothing alone because at this point it's useless and won't be used at all during this process.

 

Step 2:

Open the file with Photoshop CS5. Remember that you'll need an NVIDIA plugin that allows Photoshop to read .dds files. Under Filter scroll down to NVIDIA Tools and click on NormalMapFilter

 

Step 3:

A window will appear when you click on it. Enter the settings as per the screenshot below

 

Step 4:

Your texture will suddenly turn blue. Don't panic this is normal! Now we need to adjust the channels. On the bottom right-hand corner select the Channels tabs, then above that click on the Adjustments tab and select levels. From the scroll-down menu select Darker

 

Step 5:

The way Fallout 4 calculates specularity in-game is by using the red and green color channels. Blue does nothing and isn't used. The Red color channel controls the reflectivity of the surface (light and objects reflecting off the surface) while the Green channel controls the glossiness of the channel. Generally for thin leather, shiny latex and vinyl clothes you want the Green channel to be slighter higher then the red, and the specular map texture to have a slightly greenish yellow look like below. For the example screenshot I provide below of my finished product in the Output Levels box I enter 170 for Red, 180/190 for Green and 0 for Blue. There are two Output Channel boxes. Leave the one on the right at 255 for the Red and Green channels and enter your preferred values in the left box. For the Blue channel enter 0 in both boxes because the blue channel needs to be completely black. 

 

Step 6:

Your latex/leather/vinyl specular map is now complete and its time to save! Select File>Save As and save it as a 2D textured 3Dc file. Give the file the same name as the texture but example_s.dds instead of example_d.dds (or simply name it the same thing as the original specular map file if there is one). Remember to select the Generate MIP maps button. MIP Maps allow the reflectiveness of the material in-game to look more organic and realistic. Don't be alarmed if the file looks like a notepad document instead of a miniature thumbnail. This is normal and the file is still valid and will work. 

 

Step 7: 

Using Material Editor, open the .bgsm file belonging to the mod's clothing piece that your creating a Specular Map for

 

 

Step 8:

In Material Editor click on the Materials tab and ensure Specular is enabled, make the Specular white or another very light color and adjust the specular multiplier to your liking. For vinyl and latex I prefer 20 but you may prefer a lower or higher number

 

Step 9:

Cut/paste your newly created Specular Map back to the original textures folder belonging to the mod's clothing piece in the Fallout 4 data folder (the same folder you got the original texture from). Replace the original Specular Map texture (backup the original)

 

Results

Before

 

 

After!!!

[Andy14]

Then I think your question has been answered.

[Guest]

lol after you needed help with specular, now you post a tutorial for

On 23.11.2017 at 2:20 AM, Robin2486 said:

"anyone interested in learning"

you should have posed this "info" in the same thread 

and how you manage to solve your problem, and what tutorial you followed

ok i guess.

[Robin2486]

Huge apologies all around!

 

I tried using the technique people gave in the earlier thread I made but none of them seemed to work or have effects in-game.

 

Frustrated, I went back to digging on the net for any discussions or posts on Nexus Mods, here and Reddit on how specular maps work in FO4. After finding out about they use red and green RGB channels I decided to mess around with a texture in Photoshop because I figured "Hey, what have I got to lose?"

 

After finally figuring out what I wanted I decided to make this thread solely for helping those who happened to be stuck in the same predicament I was, because why hoard knowledge right?

 

Again sincere apologies to everyone. I wasn't intending on being a troll or annoying or condescending in anyway shape or form 

Edited November 24, 2017 by Robin2486

[Andy14]

No offense.
If someone has a question and gets answers and maybe help, it would be fine
to announce oneself in the question thread again and not shortly afterwards with the acquired knowledge to post a tutorial.

But do not answer at all and then write a tutorial on the base is already brave.

 

Topic speculars, normals, tutorials and half-knowledge of Google:

Contrary to the assumption, Fallout only supports red-green channels, even "old" black and white work. And "old" normal maps (tagent space) work.

All "old" maps wprk.
What is really important is just the right compression. That's the only important point.

By the way: Alpha blending is also supported. However, only in effect file - not material file. Blending mode is not very good - but it works.

[Robin2486]

37 minutes ago, Andy14 said:

No offense.
If someone has a question and gets answers and maybe help, it would be fine
to announce oneself in the question thread again and not shortly afterwards with the acquired knowledge to post a tutorial.

But do not answer at all and then write a tutorial on the base is already brave.

 

Topic speculars, normals, tutorials and half-knowledge of Google:

Contrary to the assumption, Fallout only supports red-green channels, even "old" black and white work. And "old" normal maps (tagent space) work.

All "old" maps wprk.
What is really important is just the right compression. That's the only important point.

By the way: Alpha blending is also supported. However, only in effect file - not material file. Blending mode is not very good - but it works.

Totally understand. I just got so excited when I finally figured out how to do what's in this tutorial that I couldn't wait to share it with everyone and made a new thread without even thinking twice about putting this in the thread I already made. My bad and it won't happen again!

 

Also to go back to the last thing you said, Alphas are for making clothes/objects transparent right? I'm still learning a ton about making custom clothing and textures and got lots of questions.

Edited November 25, 2017 by Robin2486

[Rdawgx]

Man, this tutorial was soooooooooooo helpful!  Thanks so much!  I just have one question, I tried doing this with the face texture and it made my character have the black face.  Do you know how to avoid this?  All other textures have been successful.

 

Thanks!

[Robin2486]

On 12/1/2017 at 3:19 AM, Rdawgx said:

Man, this tutorial was soooooooooooo helpful!  Thanks so much!  I just have one question, I tried doing this with the face texture and it made my character have the black face.  Do you know how to avoid this?  All other textures have been successful.

 

Thanks!

Hmm I'm not to sure. I mostly use this technique for clothing textures ad have a mod installed for my Char's skin. 

 

I get the black face bug to now and then. I find reloading from a save or restarting the game makes it go away.

[Rdawgx]

13 hours ago, Robin2486 said:

Hmm I'm not to sure. I mostly use this technique for clothing textures ad have a mod installed for my Char's skin. 

 

I get the black face bug to now and then. I find reloading from a save or restarting the game makes it go away.

Yeah for some reason when I put the old specular map back in the folder, the game has no black face.  I thought maybe it had to do with the makeup on my characters face or something.  Reloading doesn't change anything unfortunately.  When the black face happens, the specular map shows my face as shiny, like the rest of the body, but it's just black instead of the other skin tones.

 

edit: I figured out what the issue was.  Photoshop apparently craps out when you try to open certain specular files (also has trouble saving them).  I fixed it by downloading the Intel Texture plug-in and using that.

[sharmaalex010]

i was wondering if this can be done to normal pics also?

[jrpzh520]

good job