nognow

I've been trying to import Heffy's AK/AR15 set for FO4 into FNV, and for some reason I get these lighting lines that I've never experienced before. Lighting looks like sheets of paper being scrolled through. Updating tangent spaces and removing unused vertices didn't help. any idea how to fix it? Thanks!

Ohh wow thanks!!! I've been looking for this for ever! If I understand correctly, FO4 only reads the two remaining planes and automatically calculates the third one; a normal texture file can have an image of me in the blue channel for all that matters right lol?. While NV isn't able to calculate the missing plane on it's own, and requires all three planes/all three channels. Did I get it right? I don't remember seeing them in UE4 but it's been a while since I've worked with it. And nothing about bathesdas system is in any way PBR. I went on a super long tirade on discord literally yesterday about how nonsensical and convoluted it is. I've worked with PBR systems before and it's night and day. I'm convinced that FO4 and SSE crank the glossiness of everything to 11 to mask just how shitty the lighting and reflections look. When I first tried importing FO4 maps into NV and noticed that everything is very shinny, I assumed that it's an incompatibility/ improper conversion/etc. But then I tried them in FO4 and realized that they are indeed obscenely glossy. Although, I could've sworn that I've seen some of those green normals used in NV somewhere. Some modded weapons I think

That's the green channel; I'm referring to the blue channel (image appears red/green in an RGB setting because the blue channel is missing/empty)

I've noticed that some normals have a flipped Z/blue channel ("green-looking" normals) Except for other Bethesda games, I haven't seen them used anywhere. What's the difference and when, if ever, should they be used? Thanks!

I've been trying to generate object LOD, but some of Much Needed LOD's meshes are too complex for xLODgen. Much Needed LOD is supposedly optimized for generation, has anyone encountered this issue?

Do object bounds even matter? I've noticed that the same meshes in different mods (Like Millenia's individual releases vs the same weapons in WotNM) often have different object bounds in GECK. Also, since many weapon mods add silencers, extended mags/barrels, etc., the mesh parameters are bound to change. And when importing the nifs into Blender, the Convex Poly (same thing?) generally clips as well.

I noticed that most FO4 and even some NV normals have a flipped blue channel. From what I know, the blue channel isn't used by either game. What gives?

is there a point to use them for anything else?

I had already known that since the slot is called "height/Parallax" in nifskope.That wasn't my question. I asked why am I not seeing any effects and why is it never used. I haven't seen a single mesh of any kind that uses it.

I never used them, especially for glow textures, I'm not sure what the point would be Unrelated to glow maps. Just didn't want to start a new topic for a very similar question. There's a dedicated texture slot for them but I haven't seen them used

does anyone know if height maps are used in FNV?

update 1: setting emissive mult to values under 1.0 DOES work and seems to work inversely (reduces glow maps' colors strength) similar question: do height maps do anything? there's a slot for them, but I can't see any changes in-game.

You can make the part you want to glow any color you want Glow Map Tutorial for Skyrim https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/63066 When I was doing it, I would make the part I didn't want to glow, Black, and then I'd use whichever other colors for the parts I wanted to glow. Red, Blue, Green, Yellow etc. I figured that part out by Experimenting to see if using different colors would work. Don't forget to name your glow map properly, with a 'g' at the end of it. IIRC it's like goggles_g.dds Then you edit the path in the nif to reference the goggles_g.dds Thanks! I fckd around with adding full glow maps (as part of a specular workflow with diffuse/normal/glow) to the entire weapon, actually quite interesting results! setting the multiplier to something low like 1.1. I can't tell if setting values below 1.0 does anything

Actually, spec color can be changed. Do you mean that the value doesn't do anything?

I did search on google. I can't believe I missed it. But it's missing my main question about TYPES of glow maps. NV's included weapon glow maps are black and white, but I've seen various other permutations.

From my research: Albedo or (Albedo x AO) x Metal = diffuse Albedo or (Albedo x AO) x Inv. Metal = spec or via this method(slightly different results): https://marmoset.co/posts/pbr-texture-conversion/#metaltospec Inv. Roughness = Glow So that's obviously very straight forward and simple. But in practice, it doesn't look good in-game. Metals are too dark because the original meshes lean heavily on shaders. Here's a comparison of a rendered model, and an in-game demo of this https://gamebanana.com/models/3666.

I gave that as an example.I meant to ask is there a way to combine those textures with existing ones or something. I know how to convert metallic workflow to specular workflow, but there's still something missing; the diffuse always looks too dark and lacking detail. Like it's missing a layer of something

no, how is it done?   You need to use nifskope to edit the mesh file, by adding luminance to it. There are plenty of tutorials on how to make glow maps, I used to make them for Fallout 3, ad "maybe" New Vegas (I don't remember) Could you please give a bit more details about the nifskope part? How do I add luminescence to a mesh? There are plenty of tutorials but I couldn't find anything specific to FNV/FO3. Since everything about this engine is so unusual, I figured it can't be as simple as a run of the mill glow map; there must be some quirk.

There's no such thing in NV, unfortunately. Thanks! Is there a way to convert/optimize those incompatible textures to work with NV? Kinda like combining the spec map with the alpha channel of the normals etc.

T Short answer: yes. Optimization is less about the weight of the nif than the way it is proceeded trough a 2006 game engine (Oblivion) patched for FO3 and later once again for FNV. A poorly made nif will not make a big difference if only added to the Vanilla mistakes already existing. But the accumulation of bad material will only lead to poor performance and/or issues difficult to troubleshoot. And yes, many modders don't have the knowledge or the will to learn and bring clean mods but that doesn't mean they have to be imitated. Thanks! Sorry for late the late "thank you"; I took a few days to test this stuff in-game. Is there a loss of quality when stripifying meshes? why aren't all meshes FNV tristips (in fact, most are trishapes I think)?

no, how is it done?

I tried adding glow maps to weapons I'm working on, but nothing seems to change. How do they work? which of the following examples is in the appropriate form for fake LEDs on a weapon (two-tone black and white, greyscale, regular RGB, Transparent background RGB)?

of course I notice

thanks! What about metalness, roughness, ao?

Correct, my mistake. You should Stripify your nif. Correct, my mistake. You should Stripify your nif. Does it matter though? I noticed that file sizes decrease by less than 0.1 kbs at most. And modders seem to use both interchangeably.