kkim1975 Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 I know this is probably the 1,389,497th post you came across that has to do with texture issues. I assure you I did my share of search and tested various suggestions and tips to no avail -- and this can be perhaps my last attempt at resolving the issue before giving up. What I did - I created a custom mesh for Skyrim using the 'Creating an armor for Skyrim' tutorial on Nexus Wiki site. Everything works as intended. My problem - For the life of me, I just cannot seem to get the transparency on my mesh working. Step-by-step of how I created the texture: I opened the UV Map I created (within Blender) using Gimp. Added a layer with black background (with the UV map layer still under bottom). Added another layer on top of the black background layer for the actual texture (what is to be visible) parts. Merged all three layers before saving the file as DDS with DTX5 and 'Generate Minimaps' flag checked. Using the same DDS file, I proceeded to create the alpha map by selecting 'Colors' -> 'Color to alpha' in the Gimp menu. I set the alpha color to black (#000000). I selected the 'Wrap' flag and changed the value of 'Height source' to alpha. Also, tried various filters and scale value for the normal map. (I'd think these don't actually have anything to do with transparency, but I tried different settings anyway) Then I saved the file as '{Previous file name}_msn.dds' with the same settings (DTX5 & Generate minimaps). I did not forget to add the Alpha property in Nifskope, as laid out in the Nexus tutorial. So, despite following through the tutorial step-by-step, I couldn't get the transparency working as intended. For anyone who has time and interest to take part in my agony, you can take a look at my texture files to see if anything jumps out at you (I'd really appreciate it!). On a side note, I'd like to know if the Nexus tutorial is outdated and/or if the instruction for texture generation is still accurate. Any tips, thoughts, or help will be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghosu Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 (edited) I'm using Photoshop myself so i have no clue how to handle that in Gimp, but the issue is...your alpha channel is empty/white. http://666kb.com/i/cmwrknaakt3qhnx91.jpg Normally the .dds contains the texture itself (aka diffuse map with colors, details and so on in the RGB channel) and the alpha channel defines the areas that will be invisible ingame. Normally it should look like this (i blended out RGB channel, that's just the alpha channel), and the white space replaced with greyscale tones if you want the dress to be semi-transparent. http://666kb.com/i/cmwrxqt0bbqc4edqt.jpghttp://www.firedrive.com/file/CFBB064F3E70F2E4 Black = invisible, white = visible ... your alpha channel is simply white, means everything of the diffuse map will be visible. As mentioned before i'm using PS so i won't check that tutorial. In PS i could now simply access the alpha channel and paint it by hand or copy/paste a black/white version of my texture...whatever, that's your problem. Edited March 24, 2014 by ghosu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kkim1975 Posted March 24, 2014 Author Share Posted March 24, 2014 @ghosu - Thanks for taking time to look at the files and provide an answer. I was aware that my diffuse map had an alpha channel and it is white. But, to my limited knowledge, I thought the texture transparency actually gets picked up from the other .dds ('_msn') file, which also has an alpha channel and, in my case, it is in black and some shades of gray. So, in other words, both .dds files have their own alpha channels (is this okay?), but it's just that the diffuse map file has white one and the msn one has a black one. A solution using Gimp would be really helpful as I do not have a copy of Adobe Photoshop. :sad: Nonetheless, your point is clear to me and I will definitely make a note of the takeaway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kkim1975 Posted March 24, 2014 Author Share Posted March 24, 2014 (edited) Something to clarify for the time being -- and I would like to hear from Gimp users out there, if possible. In general, online tutorials on Skyrim textures would have you to create two .dds files, one for the diffuse map and the other for the normal map. In that case, can/should the alpha channel exist in both files? I would think the alpha channel has to exist in the normal map file (the '_msn' one) but I am still not sure if the diffuse map has to have its separate alpha channel as well -- it seems that alpha channel is automatically created when you save the file as DTX3/5 format. Edited March 24, 2014 by kkim1975 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghosu Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 (edited) Should the alpha channel exist in both files?The alpha channels have a different purposes in each map. The diffuse map alpha channel determines transparency and the normal map alpha channel, aka specular map, defines the object's shininess. But I am still not sure if the diffuse map has to have its separate alpha channel as well.No alpha channel in the diffuse map = no transparency http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/What_are_all_these_texture_files%3F Edited March 24, 2014 by ghosu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsterse Posted October 21, 2020 Share Posted October 21, 2020 Well, it is six years later, and I will have a question: if the specular data is from the msn file's alpha channel, why are there some meshes with a dedicated specular map like blah_s.dds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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