Need help with retextures

[EnigManic]

I am having trouble with a retexture. I've done an exhausting online search and have not found any help.

 

I wanted to make a mod to offer texture variants for several clothing and armors for FO3. I edited the textures in photoshop and installed them to the correct directories.

 

In-game and in the G.E.C.K. the new textures appear but sections of the texture are missing and are completely black. I am exhausted trying to figure this out. I even made a texture set to try filling in the missing pieces but it didn't work.

 

Does anyone know how to fix this?

 

 

[prensa]

EnigManic - Hello!

 

Did you change just the textures or did you modify the meshes at all?

 

If you've taken the mesh through Blender at all it's probably had it's Alpha setting changed. Blender tends to pop out meshes with Alpha flag settings of 4845 which is unsuitable for some items, you can check the original mesh for the correct settings if this is the case.

 

Did you save the new textures to the correct size, either 256 x 256, 512 x 512, 1024 x 1024, 2048 x 2048, 4096 x 4096, etc..

 

Have you saved your texture to the correct format, DXT1, DXT3 or DXT5?

 

If the mesh requires transparency on part of it you'll need to use DXT3 or DXT5.

 

Have you set normal maps to go with your new textures? They should end in _n & give "depth" to textures as well as containing an Alpha channel that sets specularity (shininess).

 

Don't forget to use a form of archive invalidation to ensure new textures work properly. If you use a mod manager archive invalidation, toggle archive invalidation off & back on after adding new textures.

 

Perhaps giving an example of what one of the affected items is & a screenshot might help someone diagnose the issue.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Prensa

[EnigManic]

I have not touched the mesh, only the textures. I have saved them under various formats with generated mipmaps and the original alpha channel and using the vanilla normals. Always with the same results you can see below. Parts of the texture are completely black. Monkeying around in the geck yielded no help.

 

As for invalidation, I use FMM, the unofficial patch and FWE, amongst other mods. All installed mods work fine.

 

I made a few color variants of the prewar causal and relaxed wear and recolored the t-51b armor. The prewar clothes were given duplicate meshes with the appropriate texture file paths set so I could add the color variants with the geck. Everything worked fine except the clothes had chunks of texture missing that were all black.

 

The power armor missing texture in the calves, the crotch and the round handle on the back.

 

 

[EnigManic]

I keep trying to post a screenshot and this sight is refusing to let me post the jpeg. I'm seriously ready to punch a wall.

 

"http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c96/enigmanic/stuff/posthelp1_zps2d26ab2b.jpg~original"

[prensa]

EnigManic - Hello!

 

"I keep trying to post a screenshot and this sight is refusing to let me post the jpeg."

 

Click on the little painting symbol just under the Emoticon smile, you can paste the image link in the window that comes up for your image to be in your post.

 

I've looked at the picture you link to & it looks like the texture is jumbled even where the parts aren't black, though the image is small so it could just be that you're using a camo texture.

 

Checking the T-51b mesh & those black areas use the same texture as the other parts so you should not be missing anything there if the correct texture is set.

 

Have you modified a copy of the original texture for the Armor, T-51b PowerArmor.dds?

 

Found in the Fallout - Textures under:

 

textures\armor\t-51bpowerarmor\T-51b PowerArmor.dds

 

As, unless you've altered the model's UV, the new texture must conform to the placement of the original.

 

Are you using Texture Sets in GECK or are you changing the texture paths within new copies of the clothing meshes?

 

If it's new paths in the meshes, make sure you've pointed them to the correct texture.

 

If it's Texture Sets in GECK, remember that the Texture set has to match the model's UV that it is being applied to, for example you can't apply pre-war outfit textures to power armor & get working results.

 

The original texture should be used as a base upon which to make the new texture.

 

If you are using the correct vanilla textures as a base for your new custom ones & nothing else above applies, all I can think to check is if you've altered vanilla textures but are trying to apply them to some mod added custom armor meshes you may have installed.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Prensa

Edited November 6, 2014 by prensa

[EnigManic]

I used the image icon to post the jpeg and it keeps saying "this site doesn't use that file extension". I give up.

 

As for the textures, here's my process of doing things:

 

1 - I extract the texture and mesh files from the BSA. I don't change anything in the meshes. I only open the meshes in nifskope so I can make sure I'm using the correct folder path when I install the new textures.

 

2 - Next, I open the DDS files in photoshop to make my changes. I alter the color, hues, saturation, etc to change the colors of the clothing or armor. For instance, with the t-51b armor I made it darker, almost black. With the prewar clothes, I made the shirts and pants different colors.

 

3 - I save the DDS file with generated mipmaps with the original alpha. That's the only way it would let me save it. I install the texture files in my data folder in the right place. For the clothes, I duplicate the mesh and give it the proper texture paths. The new textures and the duplicate mesh are renamed so I can add the clothing variants in the geck.

 

4 - The esp is saved and installed.

 

 

What you said about modded meshes makes perfect sense. But I use the same exact textures those armor mods use. I just tweak the colors. For example, I use jkruse05's http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/5212/? mod to apply a female mesh for the t-51b armor and I use the altered texture. Both the male and the female version show the black areas with texture missing.

Edited November 6, 2014 by EnigManic

[Deleted1205226User]

When you open the DDS in Photoshop, it comes already with mip maps, do you keep them and save while generating mip map again?

[EnigManic]

The first time, yeah. Then I took another copy of my texture, opened it in PS without mipmaps and then saved it with generated mipmaps. That didn't fix it.

[EnigManic]

When you open the DDS in Photoshop, it comes already with mip maps, do you keep them and save while generating mip map again?

 

pixelhate, you're friggin' awesome! I just loaded the vanilla texture into PS without the mipmaps, made my changes and saved it with newly generated mipmaps and it worked. Thank you so much!

[Deleted1205226User]

Glad you solved your problem! :)

 

Now, I am interested to know how do you load dds in PS without the mip map. I'm use to load them, then crop them to have only the main texture, tweak and save with newly generated mip map.

 

I never found a setting to load them without the mip map. I would be happy to skip the cropping part!

I'm using old PS CS2.