FrederickEmpalador

Hi. I'm just looking for help getting my sword properly retextured. The UV's are set properly and the texture shows properly in Oblivion, but my textures are crap, and I'm unable to achieve the look that I want ingame. I've tried using projection tools in different softwares, using the textures I made in 3DS Max, and achieved some sort of decent look ingame (still with painting errors due to the projection tool being poorly used), but it still wasn't the look I wanted, wich is a chrome-like polished metal finish, highly reflective. The sword also has a red gem in the core of the hilt wich should have a little red glow, and has a couple of turquoise gems along the grip, wich I'd like to look nice, and a ruby in the pommel, wich should have a lil bit of transparency (although I'm using an ENB and I've eperienced transparency issues like the textures glitching and going crazy when in first person view, so maybe I shouldn't have transparency? I don't know anymore..) So I started learning substance painter to try to achieve the look I wanted and I sort of succeeded (at least in render), but when I export the textures (Base Color, Normal, Metallic, Metallic Roughness, Emissive) I cannot make them work properly in Nifskope. I've converted them to .dds with Gimp, but I don't really know how to load them properly in Nifskope. I had help seting up the NIF file from a kind user of the Nexus called Pellape, so I really don't know how to make changes to it. I can load the base color map in Nifskope and it works, but it looks bland ingame, not shiny and glorious. I couldn't find a BSLightingShaderProperty so I tried to add that property and insert a BSShaderTextureSet to it, but I don't really know much about adding and flagging and all that, and when I add all those maps into the texture set I get the "WTF? I'm a missing mesh" thingy ingame. I know there are dozens of tutorials and it's such a long road that's overwhelming sometimes, that I just wish someone could do that retexture and just tell me exactly step by step how they did it, so I can copy them like a monkey next time. Seriously, I'll buy you a beer, publish the mod and be forever grateful in the front page. Here's a picture of the substance render, kind of what I'm looking for:

Hey Pellape, thanks for replying. I do have Blender installed, but never used it, always used Max for light modeling, mainly 3d printing and scenery. There is not much info about how to work properly from Max to Oblivion, so maybe Im forced to try going through Blender, but I'd love to avoid that due to time constrains. Im currently on Max 2020, and I couldn't get the nifskope plugin for that version. What I end up doing was exporting as .obj and imported it with Nifskope, replacing the steel sword and routing my new texture (wich I made in photoshop from a picture of the sword I took in Max, with materials applied, along with a basic normal map). My model would show up in Nifskope, I saved as a new .nif file and then I would boot up the construction set end edit the steel sword, adding my nif and my icon, saving with new ID and name (new form) and then I would try to drag and drop it into some location but I'd be invisible (not gray). I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with my mesh, although I had no inverted normals, no flipped UV's, a fairly clean mesh, something must have gone wrong on export/import. And there's definitely something wrong with my .nif (I'm a Niftard). So if it weren't too much trouble, I'd love to send you my mesh so you can instruct me on where I'm f----- up, I'm a self-taught 3d modeler for hobby purposes, there wasn't proper 3D education available back in the 90's lol, so I've leraned the hard way,and there is still a steep curve ahead of me, whatever help is really welcomed and appreciated.

I'm giving that a read right now, thank you mixxa! Tho is in Blender, if all else fails I will give it a try.

Hello everyone! I've been trying to make a Sword Of Omens mod (from the Thundercats classic show), but I'm a beginner and I could really use some help to make this dream come true. So far, I've made the model for the sword in 3ds Max, uv mapped it and made the textures, but I cannot get the sword to show in the game, I'd need some help getting through Nifskope and into the Construction set, sine there is something I'm obviously doing wrong and couldn't figure it out despite reading different guides and walkthroughts for oblivion modding. Having that come to life would be enough, but of course, I do have a thought thru idea of what features I'd dream about having in a Sword of Omens mod, but I have no idea of how to implement them or even if they're possible. I've also made the model for the dagger version of the sword: in the show, the sword would shrink until i'd become a dagger when Lion-O would sheathe it in it's "scabbard" (this would be like a lion glove/gauntlet strapped to his belt) and it would grow up again to its full size once drawn for a fight/duel. Perhaps this feature can be achieved through a scripted spell that once casted it could trigger an animation and switch dagger for sword? See, I don't know how this part works; should I make the animation in Max? And then, how do I implement it? So many questions. The sword should then shrink back to dagger automatically when sheathed. Besides that, the sword had 2 other key features in the show: - The Lord of the Thundercats would swing it 3 times while shouting: "Thunder...Thunder...Thundercats...!" (in the meanwhile, the dagger would be growing to sword in 3 steps, 1 step for each swing) and then it would raise the sword with both hands and shout "Hoooooo!!!!!" and a great beam of red light would fire from the sword's hilt and into the skies, and this would summon the rest of the Thundercats to come in his aid. This would involve animations and a new spell that would increment with each click, then it would trigger the summoning of some custom khajiits, hahaha. They could fight by your side for like a minute or something and then vanish, and maybe make this a once per day power. - The other famous feature of the sword from the show was the ability to be held in front of one's eyes and it would show you a short vision of the future, or something from far away, while one would pronounce the command: "Sword of Omens, show me what's beyond sight". This would need a custom animation and it could trigger a spell of Night Eye and Detect Life, and show you the path to the active quest; maybe making valuable items to glow also. Other than that, the Sword could have some other enchantment, like fire or/and shock damage. To obtain the sword, I'd be great if it was through a full quest. I've come up with a possible narrative: During the first sleep after installing the mod you receive a quest telling you that you had a dream about a sword, a khajiit and a mummy, and more than a vivid dream, it felt like a vision, and there was something about the sword: it was calling you. In your dream, they were inside some sort of cave/ruins you had never been to, but for some reason, you knew exactly were it was (location is added in your map). Once you get there, you find a redheaded khajiit in blue thights fighting a mummy. With a powerful spell, the mummy blows the sword form the khajiit hands, and then strucks him with a shock spell. The Khajiit falls unconscious. You fight the mummy and you defeat it. It vanishes while it swears to return. The Khajiit comes to you, he's badly wounded. He explains to you who he is, and who is Mum-ra, he tells you the story of the Sword of Omens and it's incredible powers. He gives you the lion glove/scabbard and asks you to prevent the sword from ever falling into the hands of Mum-ra or any other evil, and names you the new Lord of the Tundercats. Then, he dies from his wounds. Maybe later on, you can have another encounter with Mum-ra in his final form and fight him one last time, destroying his spirit, soul trapping his ass in the sword and wasting that energy with a lightbeam to the skies. And that, would be the whole package; a mod I've been dreaming about for some time now, but between work and family, haven't got the time to learn all there is needed to know to make this come true. I need help. I hope that someone finds this idea and project to be worth a shot, and to find someone interested in giving a hand in a project like this. Thank you all in advance! F.F.