How to make Urban Posters ?

[Blame666]

Im not sure if a topic like this has been made.

 

How would i make urban posters im trying to Theme my fallout 3 but i cant make posters i dont what to do is there a 3D program i need ? i only have geck and photoshop. :wallbash:

 

If anway knows how i think it would be a good idea to post here so other users know how to Create Urban posters.

 

:thanks:

[jackpack]

get fomm. you might also want a program called gimp. then extract the urban posters from the fallout3 main file.

 

then open a copy of the poster & do what you want with it.

 

then save it as a dss file & make shure minimaps is selected.

 

then do this. its basicly the same for every item. this talks about an armour.

 

 

1. Make a clone of the item you have made a new texture for just as if you were making a new item. Give it a new name, tweak the stats and so on.

 

2. Find the Texture Set for the this item and clone it if any exists, otherwise make a new one and give it a new name.

 

3. Assign the textures you have made for the new item to the slots in the Texture set according to the map slots as indicated, ie. the diffuse map goes into the diffuse slot, the normal map into the normal slot and so on. If you have only made a single new texture map, simply assign this as above as the game will use whatever texture maps that are hardcoded into the model's BSShaderTextureset for the unassigned slots. Save the texture set when done assigning maps.

 

4. Return to the item entry you made in step 1 and click the "Edit" button next to whatever Biped model you want to change the texture of. In this window you should see the different parts of the model listed in the "Alternate textures" list and the model itself in the rendering window - if no model shows it's probably because you haven't unpacked the model from the "Fallout - Meshes.bsa" into the correct folder. It's not strictly necessary to unpack the models, but it's nice to be able to check if your new texture is applied correctly.

 

5. Double click any entry on the list and select your newly made texture set by double clicking it and voilá; the item should now use this texture set for the corresponding part of the model and the model in the rendering window should have changed texture to reflect this. Repeat as necessary for the relevant parts of the model (try avoid assigning new textures to meatcaps or other parts that have their own texture files ) until you are satisfied with the result. Remember to do this for all the models in the Biped section of the item edit window as you'll otherwise end up with different versions of the model using different textures. When you are done assigning texture sets to the various model parts, simply press ok and save the item as normal.

[Blame666]

:blink: Thanks for taking the time to explain this.

 

I have gimp but could i also use photoshop or does it not support the files ?

 

Do i ues BSA unpacker in fomm ? is that what you mean by extract ?

[jackpack]

yep bsa unpack the urban poster. & gimp it qite good however if you want to use something else then open the texture in gimp & then save it as a format your paint program reconises & then use photoshop. once your done open your texture in gimp & save it as a dss file "tick minimaps" :thumbsup:

[Blame666]

Do i need to do anything in geck ? ....

 

Anyway im getting there i think ... after i unpack it, it puts it in the folders :

 

\textures\architecture\urban inside are the DSS files. How do i get from DSS format into aformat i can use in gimp ? :wallbash:

 

sorry for not knowing im new to this and willing to learn :rolleyes: ^_^

[jackpack]

i think theres a dss pluging you get for the gimp?.

http://registry.gimp.org/node/70

 

everything else is explained in previous posts.

[Blame666]

I just found DSS converter 2 converts the DSS to jpeg then u can convert it back

 

Thanx alot now all i need to do is test it :)

[BadPenney]

You don't need Gimp if you have Photoshop, you only need to download the .dds plugin for Photoshop in order to edit FO3 textures. In can be downloaded from Adobe's website for free. Many people like Gimp because it is free, but if you already paid for Photoshop than it will simply be redundant. With Photoshop you can edit the .dds files directly without converting back and forth to .jpg.

 

The textures that you need to unpack from the .bsa files have .dds extensions, not dss. Any associated meshes use .nif extensions. Fallout Mod Manager will let you pick and choose the files that you want to extract. Extract is a button selection from the BSA Unpacker that you click once you have highlighted the files that you want. If you select more than one file at a time and direct them to be extracted into the Data directory of your Fallout 3 installation, FOMM will maintain the subdirectory placement of the files, creating appropriately named folders as needed. This can be helpful.

 

You do not have to worry about biped characteristics with posters, they are static forms and have no legs.

 

You may want to download NifScope. If you find the poster that you want to retexture in the GECK, you can open the edit window for that item and find the name of its associated NIF. If you extract that NIF and open it in NifScope then you can find the name of the .dds files that are associated with it, and then extract those for editing. By choosing the .dds files that you are editing in NifScope you can check your new textures to see how they look on the meshes. The image will update each time that you save your .dds file.

 

I understand that the GECK has a viewer that can be used without opening the full GECK editor. I haven't used it yet because I am familiar with NifScope, though I hear that the GECK viewer gives you a truer idea of how your image will appear in game.

 

Copying an urban poster and giving it a unique ID is a good idea so that you don't overwrite vanilla posters. Copying the textureset for that item is also a good start as long as you also give it a unique ID for the same reason. If you create a unique textureset and apply it to an existing mesh, then you only have to provide a folder with your new .dds file. You won't have to keep the .nif if you used it to check your work. It can be deleted once you are finished editing.

 

Most of the posters in the game have .dds files that provide images for more than one poster. Four posters per .dds is common. You just need to make sure that you put your edited images in the same locations as the original so that they are mapped onto the mesh correctly. The nice part of that arrangement is that you can make 4 new posters and only have one .dds file for all of them.

 

You can usually use the original normal texture for posters; they just give a slighty wrinkled look to the surface of the poster most of the time. A nicely redone poster can be had just by assigning your full color image to the diffuse texture slot of the textureset.

 

If you want to keep the ragged edge look of Fallout 3 posters then be sure to preserve the alpha channel data of the original .dds. In Photoshop the selection for mini-maps is "Generate Mini-maps." I believe that I normally use the DXT5 ARGB 8 bpp interpolated alpha generate mipmap save option for posters.

[Blame666]

I ment to say dds ... So i just google the plugin .. will it work with cs3 ?

 

Thank you very much for the information very helpful :bunny:

[BadPenney]

I ment to say dds ... So i just google the plugin .. will it work with cs3 ?

 

Thank you very much for the information very helpful :bunny:

NVidia has this site:

 

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photosh...ds_plugins.html

 

That would probably have something that would work with CS3. Not sure if it works with graphics cards other than NVidia's though. If you use some other manufacturer's graphics card, then you might need to Google for something similar, or go back to the 3rd party dds to jpg converter that you found.