ChaosWWW

So I posted this as a mod now. Check it out: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/5286/? @1096bimu: Thanks! Very generally, I'm using Substance Designer and Substance Painter for the retexturing. I'm starting with the vanilla normal map and doing everything else from scratch. Was there something specific you wanted to know about?

Fallout 4 uses a 2 channel packed format for specular, one channel represents the spec, another the glossiness. This is a specular based PBR system, and you can read about this implementation here: http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/pbr-practice (spec is called reflectivity here, and glossiness is called microsurface) TLDR: For a brick texture like that, the spec should be a flat color that's about 16% grey. Even Bethesda gets this very wrong in their textures I've noticed, for the most part unless you're dealing with different materials (like metals and wood on the same texture) your spec should be almost completely flat. You get plasicy looking materials otherwise. What I do that works for spec files that works is put the gloss in the red channel, the spec in the green channel and save it out as the "3dc" format using the Photoshop DDS tool. What's in the blue channel doesn't matter, that gets dropped with this texture format. I'm pretty sure Bethesda has a different format they save as, but 3dc works perfectly. Hope this helps!

Ah okay, that's what those are for, I noticed those in the texture files. I figured they had a system like this when I noticed several areas in game that seemed to be using a tinting system, most obviously in the subways where each subway had a different color. Figured it would be smarter for them to use a recoloring system rather than having a new texture for each color. I can't really figure out how the heck these color gradient things actually work to be honest. Just seems like lots of random gradients, I dunno how they would actually be applied to a shader. I understand how they could work, but just they way the textures are laid out seems really strange. To add to the weirdness, a lot of stuff I thought would use this tinting system seem not to, like the aforementioned subway tiles. To your point about customizable weapons, seems like something similar to that might already be in place with some of Bethesda's assets? Check out "PA_palette_d.DDS" in the power armor folder for example. Might be used for tinting to some extent, but it seems like most if not all of the recolors are actually separate textures. It seems like very few things that would logically use this tinting system actually use it.

Added another image to the OP. Please reply if you are interested or not because I would like to know :)

Hey Nexus forums! I was looking at the textures for fallout 4 and messed around with importing custom textures. Made a deathclaw texture for fun, but I'm curious if you guys would be interested in a release for this? If you guys dig it I might do some more creatures and maybe some armors...? http://i.imgur.com/0EAoMqR.png http://i.imgur.com/8yFKJUW.jpg Check out the images and let me know what you think!

I don't know how much this will help in your case, but I'd recommend the Requiem overhaul if the base game is not immersing you. When I first played Skyrim, I played it vanilla and I couldn't help but be fairly unengaged. It felt like all I was trying to do was test to see how big the world was by exploring every dungeon and doing every quest without even really thinking about it. And in general I could go anywhere and do whatever I wanted without it really mattering. The game was essentially a cycle of "go to x location > dominate guys by just backing up and pressing the "fireball" button (I was a mage) > Get a bunch of loot > spend really long times selling and organizing loot > rinse and repeat". There was no real feeling of immersion at all, I was just milking the game mechanics for all they were worth, which the game allows very easily. Once I installed Requiem for a new playthrough, however, everything changed. Suddenly, the world didn't exist just for me to loot. Now I actually had to act like I was a part of the world. As someone who was nearly executed in a new land I knew nothing about, I wasn't able to just run up to everything I see and expect a positive outcome. With just rags and a dagger, I was dominated by mere wolfs. Instead, I had to think very carefully about everything I did. I couldn't just wander around in the overworld, instead I had to avoid dangerous locations and travel with a purpose. If I wanted to loot a place, I had to sneak (was a rouge this time) around and see what the threats are. If the place is guarded by heavily armored bandits or draugr, then it was time to look somewhere else. I could go on like this, but the main thing that Requiem offers is a de-leveled version of Skyrim that designs itself around that fact. That means the world doesn't adjust itself around you like the base game does (which is very un-immersive, I will add), but instead is what it is. If a cave is full of trolls that can kill you in one hit, that's just what's there, it's not going to change to accommodate you. What this does is close off the world, giving the game more mystery, more of a feeling of dramatic tension and just makes the game more believable. It slows the game down and gives you some time to appreciate the subtleties in the world that Bethesda put a lot of effort into that most people probably didn't even notice because they were rushing through the game. Not only that, but you genuinely feel like you are progressing a lot in the game, giving you a stronger connection to your character. Another immersive element is how much more your character class mattered. In the base game, you could fairly arbitrarily decide what you want to be at any point in the game. Getting sick of being a warrior? Just start firing fireballs and before you know it you are a mage now! With Requiem, you have to stick to your class, increasing roleplaying and immersion. Heavy armor is virtually unusable without investing skill points into it, you'll fail every time unless you invest in alchemy, etc etc. Although Requiem sounds like it might not address the issues you are talking about, I'd definitely at least give it a shot. Additionally, you'd be surprised at how the game gets more immersive with visual mods. A good ENB goes a long way.