tiwa44 Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 (edited) Hello! Sorry if this has been asked a billion times, I've looked into it on google and on these forms for a while now and i can't seem to find the answer. I understand the specular map should be on the alpha channel of the normal map. However, when i add an alpha channel to my normal map, it screws up the normals very badly, as if they were inverted. If i invert the normals (how does that make sense??) i get a better result, but the specular is also inverted (what's white doesn't reflect and what's black reflects), and appear flat shaded instead of smooth (on seamingly random polygons), and where it's smooth, the specular appears with seams bang where the UV seams are. Which looks totally wrong. I'm really confused by this... I'm exporting from Max 2010 with a plugin that forces me to set the thinggy to 4097, remove the vertex colors, set the UV scale to 1,1 and the mapping to wrap, wrap every time i re-export something. Is my plugin not good? (i got it from here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/5622/?), so i'm thinking maybe this specular issue comes from the plugin that i use. I use the latest version, which seems to be the less buggy one. I've tried all the older versions, but there's always something wrong with them, if it's not one thing, it's another, if it doesn't screw up the emmissive, it screws up the normals, if it doesn't screw up the normals, it screws up the rigging, etc, etc. I would really appreciate it if someone could enlighten me because i've been banging my head on this for too long now :smile: Cheers thanks Edited November 30, 2013 by tiwa44 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImsumDave Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 Are you using the niftools shader in 3ds max? I would not recommend using it. Unless I'm mistaken, I'm not sure if it was ever made to work for Skyrim nif exports. You may want to check out the niftools forum for a different version of the 3ds max niftools plugin. The version I'm using with 3ds max 2012 only requires that I change "BS Num UV Sets" to 4097 and update tangent space. On my previous computer I had found a version that did not require me doing that, but I could not find it when setting up my new computer. As for the lighting/specular issues, it sounds like the in-game issues are caused by the screwy normal map. The normal map controls the surface normals of the model. If it is inverted and f*#@ed in general, it will make the model look completely wrong. What program are you using to edit you textures? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiwa44 Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 (edited) Thanks for replying :) im using photoshop, i just add an alpha channel and save as DDS ARGB with nVidia's plugin otherwise yes, i use the niftool shader in max. Should i get better results if i'd use a standard material? i'm not even going to wait for a reply and try this immediately :) Edited December 1, 2013 by tiwa44 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiwa44 Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 mmm with standard materials, i need to set even more flags in nifkope everytime i re-export, plus it doesn't seem to fix my specular issue... so i'm sticking with the niftools shader for now :) thanks for helping! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImsumDave Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Generally, what I do when exporting is:1. export and open in Nifskope2. delete all the material sub-blocks of the NiTriShapes (BSLightingShaderProperty and NiMaterialProperty)3. paste the NiTriShapes into a previous nif I've made or a vanilla nif4. paste a BSLightingShaderProperty block onto the NiTriShapes from a previous nif I've made or a vanilla nif5. change the settings and texture paths of the BSLightingShaderProperty to fit my need I think the 3ds max Niftools plugin that supports Skyrim was a slapdash modification of previous versions for Oblivion. I don't think material export is correctly implemented for Skyrim. EDIT: After re-reading the first post I think I made an incorrect assumption. The normal map looks fine in photoshop, correct? And the normals are screwy in-game? If that's the case, I really do think you're problem has to do with the material export. I recommend rebuilding you materials in Nifskope after export. Delete the exported material blocks and copy/paste the material blocks (BSLightingShaderProperty) from a vanilla nif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiwa44 Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 alright, i'll try this tomorrow! Thank you so much for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiwa44 Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 (edited) ImsumDave, thank you!! Thanks to your help i was able to narrow down my problem and it was the Photoshop nVidia DDS plugin that had its settings wrong when it comes to exporting normal maps with an alpha channel. Also I didn't know the safest way to set things up in nifscope was to paste properties from vanilla stuff, so thanks for that as well it will save me a lot of headaches!! It works in game now, my specular maps now reflect properly!! Cheers, thanks!!! :smile: edit: also an added bonus: i can now see my DDS' thumbnails in Windows folders, haha :) Edited December 1, 2013 by tiwa44 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImsumDave Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 :thumbsup: Good. I usually just manually add the alpha channel so it's saved with my main psd file. You can copy a layer and paste it right into the alpha channel. I will create all my textures in one psd file. I organize them into folders: spec, ref, diff, and norm. I will duplicate and merge the spec group, then paste it into the alpha channel. It's just ctrl+a, ctrl+c, ctrl+v, and a few clicks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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