Custom Weapon and Texture

[SarielEvriel]

So I have recently started trying to make my own mods for Skyrim, and I am starting out with a custom sword with custom textures.

 

What I have done:

• Built the weapon mesh and converted it to .nif
• Created the bump and texture maps for the weapon.

 

What I need help with:

• Implementing the bump and texture maps onto the .nif mesh
• Creating the normal and environment maps, as well as implementing them onto the .nif mesh
• Setting everything up for implementation into Skyrim, as a unique weapon (not a replacment for a vanilla weapon).

 

Software I am using:

• Cinema 4D R12 (exporting mesh from .c4d to .3ds)
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 (with NVidia .dds Texture Tool)
• Nifscope (importing .3ds and saving as .nif)

 

If anyone can help me find the relavent tutorials, or can give me some advice, please reply.

 

Thank you for any help you guys can provide :)

[Matth85]

Here is the short to-do-list:

 

The texture maps

I am unsure how familiar you are with the different texture maps, so I will just run through them quickly.

Difuse - the color information. You can utilize its alpha for opacity, which is useful for things like glass.

Specular - The level of shine a model will have. The Specular map is usualy a grayscaled difuse map, with some level tweaking and hand-painted spots to add realism. This map isn't directly used in Skyrim, and is instead used within the normal map.

Normals - Not a texture map per se, but a mathematical algorithm that explains the shader how to "fake" depth. There are many ways to make normal maps. You can sculpt a high poly model and bake it out, you can edit it in Photoshop using the nDO2 "plugin" or the Nvidia dds plugin. Within the Alpha channel is the specular map.

Environment - The reflection map. It basically tells the engine how much it will "reflect" the cube map. It's usually a black/white map, which in turn is made from really contrasting the values of the specular map.

Cube Map - a Cube map is a texture map layed out as a cube, and is used together with the environment map to reflect a surrounding.

 

So, to answer your question: The normal is in a multitude of ways. Which one you chose is up to you. The environment map is a tweaked specular map. If you already got a bump map, you can edit its value slightly and use the Nvidia dds tool to turn it into a normals map.

The texture format we use are .dds, if you did not know. I save the textures with no alpha out as a DXT1, and the one with alpha as DXT5.

Skyrim uses naming affixes with the textures. The difuse got none, so it's MyTexture.dds. The Normal map uses _n, so it's MyTexture_n.dds and the Environment uses _m, so it's MyTexture_m.dds

 

 

Pre Work

- Make a model.

- Import an existing model from Bethesda. Unpack the Meshes.BSA if you have not. Scale your model to be at the same size, approximately.

- Export the model as a .nif/whatever method you got to get a .nif out of your model.

- Find your unpacked BSA, find the bethesda mesh you just used as a reference for scale. Open it.

- Open your new .nif model.

 

- Make the textures. Name them as MainTexture.dds, MainTexture_n.dds. MainTexture_m.dds.

* The specularity map should be in the normal (_n) maps alpha channel.

- Put the textures within Data/Textures/YourMod

 

Basic Nif work

Note: When I say collapes, or expand, nodes; I mean you click the arrow next to the names in Nifskope. The important thing to know: BSFadeNode is the main node, BsIncMarker/BSXFlags/NiStringExtraData/BhkCollisionObject will be copied, so do not pay these any attention for now, NiTriShape are your object(s) and BsLightingShaderProperty are the texture/material information.

 

- Open your model. Lets call it NewModel.nif for now. Expand the first Node, and expand the NiTriShape(s). There should only be a NiTriShapeData under there for now. If anything else is present, like a material node, delete it.

- Go to the bethesda mesh .nif. Let's call it IronSword.nif. Expand the BsFadeNode, then the NiTriShape of the weapon itself. Find the BsLightningShaderProperty and copy it.

- Back to NewModel.nif paste the BSLightingShaderProperty node by clicking on your NiTriShape node, and paste it.

- Expand the BsLightingShaderProperty node and click on the BSShaderTextureSet. Look down on the screen, under Block Details and you will see "Textures". Click on the flower and find your textures within the Data/Textures folder. There are allready texture information here, so it is a mere question of changing it to yours. You can also play with the Cube Map, but that is not important for now.

- Your model should now have all the textures. (Difuse/Normal with specular/Environment). Next up is to click on your NiTriShapeData, and look under Block Details for BS Num UV Sets. It will be set to 1. Change it to 4097. That way you activate your normal map. Also, at the top menu of Nifskope you will find "Spells" --> Batch --> Update all tangent space. Click that.

- Copy the whole NiTriShape of your model NewModel.nif. Go back into the Bethesda model IronSword.nif and paste it in. You can now delete the original mesh within the nifskope. Simply delete all the NiTriShapes that are not your mehs. This includes the blood edge NiTriShapes.

- Save the nif under Data/Meshes/YourMod.

- Open the CK

 

CK work

- With the CK open, scroll down to WorldObjects, and find Weapons. Simply edit any existing weapons there. Edit the ID, so you don't save over existing models. Change the mesh to your new nif under Data/Meshes/YourMod. It should come up with no problems. There might be an material error popping up, but that us not a problem. Save it.

- Scroll up under Items and click on Weapons. Find a weapon that is as close to your weapon, in term of speed/size/damage and is the same type as your weapon.

- First off, edit the name and ID. You can also give it an enchantement and change the value.

- Under Art and Sound change the "model" to your nif, and change the 1stPersonModelObject to your newly saved world object (the step above. Search for the ID you changed it to).

- Save it.

- Put it anywhere in-game. If the model shows up fine in the screen, and the CK doesn't freeze/crash, you are pretty much safe.

- Test it. You might need to change the specular map, or edit the Gloss values within the BSLightingShaderProperty. But, hey, you got the weapon in-game now. The hard work is over!

 

Good luck!

Edited September 18, 2014 by Matth85

[SarielEvriel]

I am getting this message when I try to copy the BSLightingSaderProperty

 

Nif versions differ!

Current File Version: 20.0.0.5

Clipboard Data Version: 20.2.0.7

The Results will be unpridictable...

I click continue, then get this message:

""array Extra Data List much too large. 16777215 bytes requested""

I click the x button and the BSLightingShaderProperty now has a y with an umlaut in place of the Txt, and the BSShaderTextureSet isn't there.

[Matth85]

Do you got the newest version of Nifskope?

Otherwise this could be an export thing, at which I really can't help with, as I use 3ds max, where I can export as .nif.