jeffglobal Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 (edited) Ok, so, I tried to put a semi transparent visor on my army helmet using a donor helmet and I got this preview in NifSkope: Army Helmet highlighted:https://www.dropbox.com/s/np84uwt8day4uz0/Helmet.jpg?dl=0Donor VTHelmet highlighted:https://www.dropbox.com/s/tj02mhk7oa6qk8x/Underhelmet.jpg?dl=0Visor highlighted:https://www.dropbox.com/s/wn6fx8u95fekmc1/Visor.jpg?dl=0 Notice the visor is visible, the VT "underhelmet" or donor for visor is invisible, and the army helmet is visible. Included are the parameters and values in the pics. The bgsm has the alpha test checked and I tried another bgsm file with it checked and used 127 instead of the original -128 This is what I got in game:https://www.dropbox.com/s/ogznk9iiyl8o3gw/WhatIgot.jpg?dl=0 I tried changing the texture of the donor helmet to have an all black alpha saving with DXT5ARGB interpolated and an unchanged texture map, and I got the same result. The chin strap of the donor helmet, (which is ok with me, but I didn't choose that) and the army helmet is visible, without the visor which is a separate branch in the nif and unchanged except for position. I looked very carefully for a floating visor in the vicinity assuming I screwed up the position... The meshes in 3ds max had the pivots in the identical place (0,0,0) and the meshes positioned like shown in NifSkope. I can get the visor in it's original position if I don't touch it's position, to show in game, but that's useless to me...I see nothing different going on in 3ds max when all I do is rotate and move it 2". WTF is going on here? Why is the chin strap of the donor helmet showing and not the outside, and not the visor? Here's a pic of the dds:https://www.dropbox.com/s/82i9nv1lutma4n0/VTSecurityHelmet1_d.tga?dl=0...and here's my nif:https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vdlar263unm8ax/VTSecurityHelmet.nif?dl=0...and the original:https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vdlar263unm8ax/VTSecurityHelmet.nif?dl=0 I SEE in 3ds that the chin strap is a combination of separate elements, but the BSSubindex whatever chooses everything or nothing with 1 and 0. This is starting to feel like dating when I was 14, I get close and then fail, and fail and fail and fail and fail... Is it me? I think it's Beth, but the nif is using some data I don't see to chose the chinstrap. Edited January 21, 2016 by jeffglobal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffglobal Posted January 22, 2016 Author Share Posted January 22, 2016 Nobody loooooves you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AceGoober Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 jeffglobal, How is your comment conducive to constructive commentary considering the topic at-hand? Either respond with helpful commentary or refrain from responding at all. Take it to heart. Your NexusMods Staff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffglobal Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) jeffglobal, How is your comment conducive to constructive commentary considering the topic at-hand? Either respond with helpful commentary or refrain from responding at all. Take it to heart. Your NexusMods Stafffacetious[fuh-see-shuh s] adjective1. not meant to be taken seriously or literally:2. amusing; humorous.3. lacking serious intent; concerned with something nonessential, amusing, or frivolous:a facetious person. I'm confused multiple ways. Have I just become the first person to get a moderator response to a reply to himself? 1st, I was responding to MYSELF, so I checked with myself and Idc, so I was being facetious or I'm just kinda thick skinned given my decade helping ppl and sometimes watching them die or trying to revive them for a decade. After a few years of life and limb decisions, you tend to become very blunt. OR U R being facetious, but being a moderator, makes that less plausible. I was making a "joke" about a serious concern of mine either being an actually hard fix, OR a comment on the mod community's very tight lipped helping. Idk, I have found, I usually am the one that asks the questions everyone else wanted to ask but can't handle being called stupid to dare ask it. I'm actually trying to map the knowledge space so I can get things done, and if I can, it can be reproduceable and that helps everyone. I've tried many ways to skin a cat, and that cat keeps on getting away so far. Above is my latest attempt to do something and failing. Seemed like a good idea, seemed pretty straight forward. Take two things that work, make a third thing that works from them that would be cool. So I'm actually confused by your comment. I have to admit, it is very easy to confuse me though. Either way, the most parsimonious explanation of my comment, is that I was metacommenting on my comment in my post. One thing I do know, is god doesn't love me. So I'm glad that entity dne. Edited January 23, 2016 by jeffglobal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nixsy Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 The visor you have added does not appear to have a BSLightingShaderProperty. As far as I know this is where you add the new bgsm that links to the texture and controls transparency ect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belthan Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Have I just become the first person to get a moderator response to a reply to himself? I noticed that. Glad you didn't get banned for it :smile: Anyway, I was following this thread because I have the same problem. I haven't replied before because I don't know how to fix it yet, but maybe sharing the symptoms and what I've tried already will be useful. I also need partial opacity, but the alpha channel in the diffuse dds seems to be all or nothing. That is, if the greyscale in the alpha channel is below a certain level, the texture is completely opaque, otherwise it is completely transparent. Have tried numerous combinations of alpha threshold in the bgsm and the NiAlphaProperty in the nif to no avail. I'm still working on it, and I'll let you know if I figure it out (and hopefully vice versa if you figure it out before I do). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffglobal Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) Have I just become the first person to get a moderator response to a reply to himself? I noticed that. Glad you didn't get banned for it :smile: Anyway, I was following this thread because I have the same problem. I haven't replied before because I don't know how to fix it yet, but maybe sharing the symptoms and what I've tried already will be useful. I also need partial opacity, but the alpha channel in the diffuse dds seems to be all or nothing. That is, if the greyscale in the alpha channel is below a certain level, the texture is completely opaque, otherwise it is completely transparent. Have tried numerous combinations of alpha threshold in the bgsm and the NiAlphaProperty in the nif to no avail. I'm still working on it, and I'll let you know if I figure it out (and hopefully vice versa if you figure it out before I do). The all or nothing comes from the bgsm file being set to all or nothing with the alpha test reference check box. Eli's tutorial shows how to get all or nothing. The Alpha Blend Mode comes in none, standard, additive and multiplicative, but idk anyone who has used that yet, INCLUDING Bethesda. Beth seems to be using a totally different method with bgEm files referenced more in the nif in the mesh itself like the VTSecurityHelmet. That's why I thought, f' that, I'll just copy it and try to use it for my stuff. Either way, I'm gonna have to learn how to bone and really use NifSkope, cause I want to introduce standalone illegal immigration of helmets from other themes, but lore friendly... Edited January 23, 2016 by jeffglobal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffglobal Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) The visor you have added does not appear to have a BSLightingShaderProperty. As far as I know this is where you add the new bgsm that links to the texture and controls transparency ect. Ty for some direction of possible cure. Checking now...idk if the model helmet used it...I don't use a new bgsm, I just used the "old" donor helmet nifskopiness and copied it. [Edit]Ok, I see what you're saying about the BSLightingShaderProperty*, BUT it was there, EMPTY. It also referenced the bgem file, so I was hopeful... nope:https://www.dropbox.com/s/ghbfwm8zridkg6k/VisorNifskopiness.jpg?dl=0 *[Edit] WTF that is BSEffectShaderProperty...I can't read this early, goddamn it. The only difference between the donor model and mine was the BSEffectShaderProperty being empty... Using the BSLightShaderProperty seems to be able to swap bgsm pointers so sometime in the future I could make a nif tree that just uses that to reference the material files I want and not copy the donor model tree at all. oh boy. So then I checked the bones of the original and the modified form and saw this:https://www.dropbox.com/s/sqlom2lqwl5vvtc/Boned%20wrong.jpg?dl=0https://www.dropbox.com/s/61ob1q674u41ffz/Boned%20wrong2.jpg?dl=0 So somehow, my helmet got boned, but not the right way. (Hence, I'm learning rigging now, to understand how to bone correctly...) There's a post on the net that NifSkope f's up the bones on export but it's from 2013, is that still a problem? Any suggestions about that? Could that be the problem? I was looking for the visor floating anywhere, even under the ground around the model, but I didn't see it...though it would be hard to see, since it's almost invisible... Apologies for the phone pics, but for some reason my prtscn didn't want to work, and it's too early in the morning to figure out why. Edited January 23, 2016 by jeffglobal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nixsy Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 I usually cheat with the bones and use outfit studio. I load up a working nif as a reference eg helmet, then I export the desired objects from nifscope and import their shapes into the scene in outfit studio. Using outfit studio you can copy across the bone weights. It works maybe seven out of ten times and sometimes has some really weird effects. [edit]You would still need to add bgsm and texture references. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belthan Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 The all or nothing comes from the bgsm file being set to all or nothing with the alpha test reference check box. Eli's tutorial shows how to get all or nothing. The Alpha Blend Mode comes in none, standard, additive and multiplicative, but idk anyone who has used that yet,Yes, and one might assume that would work with a reasonable combination of blending flags in the nif's NiAlphaProperty. It doesn't, which is why I'm going through the time-consuming process of testing unreasonable combinations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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