Nifskope material properies

[TodaY]

Hiiyaah all! ;D

I've been texturing for quite some time now - eventhough I still consider myself newb in it :thumbsup: - and have lately done a retex of Grace Darklings Forestlight. During the progress, a friend of mine asked me to make an eyecandy version too, so I applied the skin texture to the mesh, and found out it didnt colour along. After some research I found out this was set in the material property, so I downloaded the originals by Alienslof and Jojjo, but the had the material properties of the armor itself set to a glass kind of thing. I looked over it, and looked over it again, and after 3 hours I still hadn't figured out what the sliders were for. So I'm basically asking for a good nifskope tutorial that explains the material thing to me. I've searched for ages, and even google didnt have the answer ;[. Also, how do you set a material to allow / unallow glow maps? And how do you "delete" a glow map once it has been attached to a mesh before?

Thanks for reading ;D

[ub3rman123]

I have yet to dig up a tutorial, so I'll just type out what I've figured out from playing with it and from other forum posts.

 

From what I can see and hear, here's what the following do:

 

Glossiness slider: Dunno, I haven't seen it do anything yet.

Alpha slider: Can make the material more or less transparent.

 

Specular color: Controls the reflectivity of the material.

Emissive color: Makes a thingy glow, dependent on the glow map on the object. No glow map = all of it glows. Can set colors for it to glow as well.

Diffuse color: No idea. It seems to alter the object's total color, e.g. making it more red or more white.

Ambient color: No idea.

 

Feel free to correct me on this if I actually have no idea what I'm saying (I get that feeling).

 

To change the reflectivity of it, you should change the specular color. More dark = less reflectiveness. I dunno if that's exactly how it works though, I've only done some half-working attempts with the normal maps (The color of the alpha channel affects the reflections as well somehow.)

 

For the glow maps, rename your glow map to the name of the texture and add _g to the end. So if your texture is called LampYellow.dds, name the glow map LampYellow_g.dds. Then, take the emissive color slider on the materials tab and change it. What you change it to affects it in a few ways. The closer to white it is, the brighter it glows. You can also set it to glow more in a certain color.

 

To remove the glow map, just set the emissive color back to black. Then delete the _g file if you don't need it anymore.

[TodaY]

For the glow maps, rename your glow map to the name of the texture and add _g to the end. So if your texture is called LampYellow.dds, name the glow map LampYellow_g.dds.

 

Lol, I did know that xD Not a complete newb :teehee:

Thanks for the help man, I think you already have my kudo, but if you dont, expect it commin your way ;D

[heavywaters]

This is the only real nifskope help available:

 

NifSkope Comprehensive Guide

 

I'm shure you already know about that.

 

As for the material properties...

Some of it is kinda hard to explain, you need to be able to understand lighting (or how the object reacts to light) because that is all it deals with.

I'll do my best to elaborate:

 

Ambient Color - ambient light has no single source (comes from everywhere) and is reflected in all directions.

No ambient light = you see nothing. (fill light)

 

Diffuse Color - diffuse light has a single source and (like ambient light) is reflected in all directions.

Like a spotlight on the object. (contrast)

 

Specular Color - specular light has a single source and is reflected in only one direction.

Like reflecting sunlight with a mirror. (shine or gloss)

 

Emissive Color - the light emitted by the object. (glow)

 

(sorry, cant finish my post, have a fire to put out. will continue later!!!!)

Edited June 27, 2010 by heavywaters

[TodaY]

(sorry, cant finish my post, have a fire to put out. will continue later!!!!)

 

Duuuuuuuddeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Lol xD

 

Thanks for your help, you have been kudo'd !

[heavywaters]

(cont.)

 

When setting these properties in Nifskope its misleading to call them color settings.

 

Most light sources will be in the white end of the spectrum and so should the reflected light.

So its best to keep them to a grey scale and use them to controll the amount of that light reflected by the object. (black = 0, white = 100%)

But adding a subtle color tint to the reflacted light can have a nice added effect.

 

There are 2 maps that have a direct connection with Specular Color and Emissive Color settngs.

The Glow Map you know about, and the normal maps alpha channel or "Specular Map". (these maps can also be color tinted)

 

The Specular Map is a "mask" and it controlls where the item is shinney (white) or dull (black).

A Glow Map is also a mask.

Setting either of these levels to black makes their respective maps irrelevant.

[heavywaters]

I'm not bumping here, really.

There have been no responses to my posts, so I figured I would ask....

 

Is the information in my posts correct?

 

You see, this is only my interpretation of the rather vague info I have dug up after a month of research.

I have no one (besides you people) to discuss this stuff with, so I cant be sure if I'm understanding it fully.

 

If anyone has mastered lighting, please correct me! (moderators?)

I learn more from being wrong...

...than from assuming I'm right.

 

heavywaters

[ub3rman123]

I tried the thing with the specular slider, and it didn't seem to do anything. I don't think, at least; I only checked it in the CS.

[heavywaters]

I tried the thing with the specular slider, and it didn't seem to do anything. I don't think, at least; I only checked it in the CS.

I've seen you refer to "sliders" quite a few times. There are only 2 sliders that I see in material properties when you click the little paint palette icon: one for Alpha Transparency and one for Glossiness.

 

Are you seeing something I'm not?

 

The Alpha slider is explained in the Comprehensive Guide.

The Glossiness slider is too but its kinda vague.

To me it sounds like increasing the value will make the edges of your specular reflections sharper and more defined, but to be honest, I dont see any difference.

(I'll do more testing to be sure)

 

If you have anymore questions, dont hesitate to ask.

Answering questions helps me figure this stuff out too.

[ub3rman123]

I'm just talking about the wheels. They're just three-dimensional sliders to me.