Gloss effect on Face?

Jerbsinator · August 25, 2011

I'm trying to make my Moonshadow Elf's face glossy but no matter what I do it stays the same. I do not know that much about Nifscope and such but I know how to apply Gloss to armors and skin but for whatever reason it doesn't work on Moonshadow Elf faces. I tried everything suggested here (except editing the Texture itself) but I couldn't get the effect. It seems like gloss is completely disabled and thus changing it has no effect. I have a Moonshadowface.dds and Moonshadowface_n.dds but still nothing. I'm just wondering if anyone could help me out here I'd appreciate it.

Sizustar · August 25, 2011

I'm trying to make my Moonshadow Elf's face glossy but no matter what I do it stays the same. I do not know that much about Nifscope and such but I know how to apply Gloss to armors and skin but for whatever reason it doesn't work on Moonshadow Elf faces. I tried everything suggested here (except editing the Texture itself) but I couldn't get the effect. It seems like gloss is completely disabled and thus changing it has no effect. I have a Moonshadowface.dds and Moonshadowface_n.dds but still nothing. I'm just wondering if anyone could help me out here I'd appreciate it.

Check in CS to see which specific *nif and *dds the race you're using is actually using.

Sometime there can be multiple of the same race, each using a different file.

Jerbsinator · August 25, 2011

I'm trying to make my Moonshadow Elf's face glossy but no matter what I do it stays the same. I do not know that much about Nifscope and such but I know how to apply Gloss to armors and skin but for whatever reason it doesn't work on Moonshadow Elf faces. I tried everything suggested here (except editing the Texture itself) but I couldn't get the effect. It seems like gloss is completely disabled and thus changing it has no effect. I have a Moonshadowface.dds and Moonshadowface_n.dds but still nothing. I'm just wondering if anyone could help me out here I'd appreciate it.

Check in CS to see which specific *nif and *dds the race you're using is actually using.

Sometime there can be multiple of the same race' date=' each using a different file.

[/quote']

I thought this as well so I threw a new texture in (removes the tattoo) and it worked so I am using the correct one. Right now I'm actually trying to edit the alpha channel in Photoshop...it's not really going well though Im not sure exactly what I should be doing.

*HanPL* · August 25, 2011

Use last layer (it should been gray with face texture )

go to Adjustments => Brightness/Contrast and change it.

If you want very glossy face change layer properties to max brightness.

Then save > conver file back to DDS file.

Jerbsinator · August 26, 2011

Ok I finally got it. I only had to save it as DX5.

jihadoftomorrow · August 27, 2011

Ok I finally got it. I only had to save it as DX5.

May I ask how you did it? Did you edit the _n.dds or the .dds? And what do you mean by DX5?

Jerbsinator · September 9, 2011

Anyone that is still trying to figure out how to do this I will lay it out for you in one post.

You need Photoshop or Gimp, a dds plugin (Google it) and nifscope.

Just an FYI make sure that you backup anything that you are editing before you overwrite it!

1) Go to your race texture folder in my case it is Data/Textures/Characters/Moonshadow Elves

In here you should have folders named Head, Hair, Body, Ears, etc. In my case I wanted to make the face glossy so I went into the Head folder which contains MoonshadowFace.dds, MoonshadowFace_n.dds and a few other files. These 2 files are my main focus.

MoonshadowFace.dds is the texture itself, with the colors, tattoos and details. MoonshadowFace_n.dds is the normalmap. This is what you edit to get the gloss effect.

2) Open MoonshadowFace_n.dds in Photoshop. What I got was a bluish looking picture with some facial details. It looks weird but this is normal. In Photoshop on the right side there is a Channels tab next to the Layers tab, click it. You will see 3 - 4 color channels and (in some cases) a Alpha channel. The Alpha channel is the most important part here. If you do not have one in your file you need to create one which is very simple.

Just click the New Layer button (note: You MUST be in the channels tab when you do this!!) and it will create an Alpha Channel for you. If you click the Alpha channel most likely it will either be completely black or white. This is where you get the gloss effect. Black = no gloss, white = very glossy. Grey is mild gloss, etc. You can play around with it until you find something you like.

Now some Alpha channels will actually have facial features on them which helps make some parts more glossy than others. If you do not have this and you want it all you have to do is go into your MoonshadowFace.dds file and copy the original texture. Go back to MoonshadowFace_n.dds and paste your facial texture into your layer (yes, layer, not channel). Then go up to the Filter tab on top, and pull down to NVIDIA Tools -> Normal Map. The default settings are fine so click ok and it will turn your texture into an alpha channel. Adjust brightness as needed for more or less gloss. Again Black = no gloss, White = very glossy.

3) Now we have to save the file. This is where the dds plugin becomes very important. Click Save As and a dialog box will come up. In File types select D3D/DDS and change the name so that it matches the one in your folder, in my case MoonshadowFace_n.dds. Click Save and another Dialog box will appear. On top there is a pull down list, click it and select "DXT5 ARGB 8 bpp | explicit alpha". Make sure Generate MIP maps is selected and then click save.

4) Make sure that you set the gloss to 100% in nifscope as well.

Congratulations your character should now have a glossy face.

Just an FYI this can be applied to pretty much EVERYTHING so if you want something to be glossy this is all you have to do.

Histeria · September 9, 2011

hello, did anyone notice a different between DXT5 interpolated aplha with DXT3 explicit aplha?? i got problem with DXT3, especially in alpha channel normal map, i use Photoshop CS3.

to make balance alpha you have to drag colour map into normal map alpha right? so that the colour texture turn grayscale after you drag it.

when finish editing on normal map i save with DXT3 option, after done i open it again the edited _n texture with photoshop, i check on alpha channel again, it seems quality is very poor if you choose DXT3, so i try using DXT5 interpolated alpha, and the result is nice compare to DXT3

Jerbsinator · September 10, 2011

hello' date=' did anyone notice a different between DXT5 interpolated aplha with DXT3 explicit aplha?? i got problem with DXT3, especially in alpha channel normal map, i use Photoshop CS3.

to make balance alpha you have to drag colour map into normal map alpha right? so that the colour texture turn grayscale after you drag it.

when finish editing on normal map i save with DXT3 option, after done i open it again the edited _n texture with photoshop, i check on alpha channel again, it seems quality is very poor if you choose DXT3, so i try using DXT5 interpolated alpha, and the result is nice compare to DXT3

[img']http://i909.photobucket.com/albums/ac298/Valesti/Tutorial/DXT3Alpha.jpg[/img]

Either will work. Just don't use DX1...lol

bigpeto · September 24, 2011

which photoshop do you use? i cant get adobe photoshop cs5 to open dds files

Sizustar · September 25, 2011

which photoshop do you use? i cant get adobe photoshop cs5 to open dds files

You need to install plugin first

http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop

teals03 · October 18, 2011

I am using gimp 2.6 and I am trying to get a better gloss on my Moon&Diablo Elf. I am editing the DEface_n.dds file. If I open the file with load MIP maps I get this message when I try and save: "DDS: It appears your image may be a volume map, but not all layers are the same size, thus a volume map cannot be written." I am not 100% sure what it means, but I can still save the file just fine, but when I get into the game the texture now looks grainy and terrible, and the gloss is the same.

If I open the image without loading the MIP maps I don't get the error message, but the result is the same.

Also when I go to select the compression I have 3 different options for DXT5: BC3/DXT5, BC3n/DXT5n, and Alpha Exponent(DXT5). The format I can select just fine as ABGR8, but once I select the compression type the format option gets greyed out. Does this mean that the ABGR8 format doesn't matter, or isn't selected, or something along those lines?

And on top of all of that when I go to increase the brightness on the alpha channel it doesn't change at all for the DEface_n.dds file. If I increase the brightness on the DEface.dds file the alpha doesn't seem to change but the image on a whole gets brighter, which just turns her skin completely white.

It is quite obvious I have no idea what I am doing, haha.

Weightbomb · October 23, 2011

I am using gimp 2.6 and I am trying to get a better gloss on my Moon&Diablo Elf. I am editing the DEface_n.dds file. If I open the file with load MIP maps I get this message when I try and save: "DDS: It appears your image may be a volume map' date=' but not all layers are the same size, thus a volume map cannot be written." I am not 100% sure what it means, but I can still save the file just fine, but when I get into the game the texture now looks grainy and terrible, and the gloss is the same.

If I open the image without loading the MIP maps I don't get the error message, but the result is the same.

Also when I go to select the compression I have 3 different options for DXT5: BC3/DXT5, BC3n/DXT5n, and Alpha Exponent(DXT5). The format I can select just fine as ABGR8, but once I select the compression type the format option gets greyed out. Does this mean that the ABGR8 format doesn't matter, or isn't selected, or something along those lines?

And on top of all of that when I go to increase the brightness on the alpha channel it doesn't change at all for the DEface_n.dds file. If I increase the brightness on the DEface.dds file the alpha doesn't seem to change but the image on a whole gets brighter, which just turns her skin completely white.

It is quite obvious I have no idea what I am doing, haha.

[/quote']

i am having the same problem, i can't edit the alpha channel, i destroyed much textures now ...

and the idea about removing the alpha channel is stupid. my character has now seeable pixles, she looks like super mario

Jerbsinator · October 23, 2011

Go here for a detailed tutorial.

http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=2694

heaven2022 · November 5, 2011

I'm trying to make my Moonshadow Elf's face glossy but no matter what I do it stays the same. I do not know that much about Nifscope and such but I know how to apply Gloss to armors and skin but for whatever reason it doesn't work on Moonshadow Elf faces. I tried everything suggested here (except editing the Texture itself) but I couldn't get the effect. It seems like gloss is completely disabled and thus changing it has no effect. I have a Moonshadowface.dds and Moonshadowface_n.dds but still nothing. I'm just wondering if anyone could help me out here I'd appreciate it.

there are some of textures :