NifSkope Texture Help

[Matt6sic6]

Alright, I'm not sure that I can explain this briefly so prepare for a little reading.

 

I'm the creator of the original Militant Autumn retexture. It's a retexture of Colonel Autumns coat that is aimed to make it appear more Military oriented, to give it medals/ribbons/lapel pins/patches etc.

 

Recently, I announced on the original file page that I am working on a new version, this time my goal is to be more correct and true to the Colonel rank/insignia etc. I am about 1/3 of my way finished with the new version, but I've hit a major snag that I didn't run into during my original version of the retexture.

 

The way that the nif of this coat is set up it hinders the ability to correctly position decals on the arms. It may be a bit difficult to describe... The dds texture only has a texture for a single arm, and the UV is mapped to this section to mirror the texture, which is all well and fine, but when viewed in game any logo placed on the arm in the texture will display correctly on the left arm, but the right arms texture isn't just flipped, it's an exact mirror.

 

For example, I'm attempting to create an Enclave logo and place it on the shoulder like a division patch. The "E" shows correctly on the left arm, but on the right arm it is flipped making it look like a "3"

 

Now, I really haven't a clue what to do about this in NifSkope, other than clicking on the BSShaderTextureSet and knowing how to load the texture for viewing I am at a loss. Is there anyone out there that would be so kind as to help me get this working the way I need it to? I'd be happy to give you credit when I release the new texture.

[jackpack]

unfortunatly i think your stuck with it.

 

i can see your ok with a's as it will look like an a on the other side, maby try doing it like this "III","II" ect ect when you come to 5 just do 4 IIII & then put 1 thru the middle. it dosnt look so bad.

 

the only other thing you can do is open the armour in a 3d program & add a flat panel onto the shoulder & put the texture on that instead.

[Baelkin]

As jackpack wrote, this problem is best fixed in a 3d editor by making "decal" objects and then use those for adding military decals, insignias and other stuff. It's a pretty simple procedure so you could probably get someone to do it for you if you don't have any modelling experience yourself.

 

That being said, you can actually also use NifSkope to modify the texture map, but I can't recommend this as the tool included is barely a proper UVW editor. What you'd have to do is re-arrange the entire texture map (ie. edit the UV) to fit a texture on which you have implemented the mirrored parts of it as non-mirrored (by copying, moving and mirroring the parts of the texture you need non-mirrored) - however doing this in NifSkope would be an absolute nightmare due to the lack of features for the tool.

[Matt6sic6]

Well, what program would you recommend Baelkin? And would you have anybody in mind that might be interested in helping me out in the project?

[Baelkin]

I'd recommend Blender or a newer version of 3d Studio Max for the 3d editing as you can export the models directly to the Fallout 3 format without having to jump any hoops other than installing a plugin. If you haven't worked with 3d before the learning curve will be quite steep though, so be prepared to butt your head against the wall quite a few times if you decide to try your hand at it.

 

In any case, I just explored the NifSkope option a bit and I think I have come up with a solution. At least it beats learning full blown 3d editing as making decal planes most likely also requires you to learn how to skin the model to a skeleton. I've made it as a short pictorial as to avoid as much confusion as possible. :)

 

Anyway, here's what I think you should try:

 

First copy your diffuse texture file and the corresponding normal map file and call them something you easily can remember. Whether you use the original texture for the Colonel Autumn coat or your modified one doesn't really matter, as long as have two separate files. The reason for doing this is that we want to edit the UVW map of the arms and have them use an entirely different texture file from the body, allowing us to "un-mirror" the parts that are currently mirrored. For the sake of this solution I will simply call the new texture files "Arms.dds" and "Arms_n.dds".

 

Once you have copied the textures and placed them whatever folder structure you want (I'd recommend the same folder as the body texture file), open the Colonel Autumn Coat model in NifSkope and click the NiTriShape branch with the value "Arms[1]". Expand this branch by clicking the small arrow next to the entry and continue doing so until you can see the node BSShaderTextureSet. Expand the Textures entry in the Block Details window at the bottom of NifSkope and alter the texture paths listed there to point at the two new files you have created as seen on the image below (I recommend doubleclicking and typing the path rather than clicking the purple flower thingie as you then would neeed to edit the path again anyway).

 

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/NifSkope%20UV%20pictorial/1.jpg

 

 

 

When done, right click the NiTriShape and select "Texture -> Edit UV". This will bring up a the Edit UV window which is where we will make the change that will allow us to have the arms use different areas of the texture map - zoom in by scrolling the mousewheel up and vice versa, and scroll by holding the middle mouse button and moving the mouse. Within the Edit UV window select any single node by left clicking it (it will turn yellow) and right click it to bring up a menu. In this menu select "Select Connected" and notice how all the nodes turn yellow - if they don't, it's because you have selected the UV map for part of the arm that is displayed when the PipBoy is worn, but don't worry this is perfectly normal (If you are wondering where the rest of the texture map for the left arm is, it's defined by the "PipBoyOff" NiTriShape branch so if you want to move that around you'll have to edit the UV of that as well):

 

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/NifSkope%20UV%20pictorial/3.jpg

 

 

 

Once you have selected a set of connected nodes, simply left click the node again, hold the button and then drag the mouse to move the nodes to a different part of the map. This will cause the two arms to use different parts of the texture map, thus allowing you to make them unique and thus non-mirrored. The only drawback is that you now have another set of texture files to cope with, but that's just how it has to be when doing it this way.

 

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/NifSkope%20UV%20pictorial/4.jpg

 

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/NifSkope%20UV%20pictorial/5.jpg

 

 

 

Once you are satisfied with your work, close the UV editing window, right click the Arms NiTriShape again and select "Texture -> Export Template". Export the template in whatever format you want, personally I'd keep it the same as your "Arms.dds" and "Arms_n.dds" for consistency's sake as it'll make the next step a little easier. Save the model again to be on the safe side and close NifSkope.

 

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/NifSkope%20UV%20pictorial/6.jpg

 

 

 

Now comes the "easy" part. Now that we have moved the UV map of the arms, we need to move the texture painted parts of the "Arms.dds" and "Arms_n.dds" files such that they show up correctly on the model. To do this, simply open "Arms.dds" or "Arms_n.dds" in your texture editor of choice, and import the newly exported template as a layer which you then use as a guide for copying and moving the parts of the texture you need to duplicate into place. Remember to do this for both the "Arms.dds" and "Arms_n.dds" as the texture will otherwise look wonky as the wrong parts of the normal or diffuse maps will be applied to the model.

 

Basically this part is no different than regular texture making, we just need to copy the already existing texture for the arms to the newly mapped arm and adjust the decals such that they no longer appear to be mirrored. If your decals still appear mirrored on one of the arms, simply mirror/rotate/adjust the offending symbols/decals themselves and they should show up unmirrored on the model itself.

 

This method might take a few tries to get right, but I think it beats having one arm completely wonky because Bethesda had to take file size into consideration so that the game could fit on one DVD to run on inferior console technology.

 

Hope this will help, at least I think it'll be easier for you to follow these steps rather than wrestling a 3d editor into submission. If it doesn't make any sense at all it's probably because it's 8.00 am in the morning here and I haven't been to bed yet. :whistling:

[Matt6sic6]

Baelkin my new found friend, you are the perverbial MAN!

 

You've helped save my project and taught me something new all at once. Your directions were very easy to follow and after paying careful attention to what I was doing, everything turned out fantastic - First try!

 

I can't begin to express my gratitude, this is unreal. I know I may not be of much use, but if there is ever anything I can do for you in the future, please by all means ask. Thank you thank you thank you! For starters, I know it isn't much but you will be recieving partial credit when my new mod is finished.

 

- Matt

[Baelkin]

You are most welcome, but I still think it's a rather ugly hack compared to revamping the UV's entirely, even though that would take considerably longer to learn and do. :happy:

 

As for credit, it's not really necessary. I wouldn't accept credit for showing someone how to use a hammer either. ;D

 

Just remember to include the modified model when you distribute the mod as well as that now effectively isn't "vanilla" anymore due to the changes made to the UV and the BSShaderTextureSet node.