Making something glossy or shiny?

[kungfubellydancer]

So I'm still new to texturing in Fallout. How can I make a normally non-reflective object have a glossy sheen that reflects the light, such as the way wine-bottles catch light? Do I need to make a certain map texture, or can it be done in nifskope without an additional map?

[FavoredSoul]

You need BOTH a special texture AND a simple setting adjustment in nifskope.

 

Here's how.

 

 

EXAMPLE:

 

All objects have 2 textures.

 

mytexture.dds (left image)

mytexture_n.dds (right image)

 

http://www.brotherhood-tech.com/scrap/1_textures.jpg

 

The difference between the texture map and the normal map is that the normal map always has an extra channel. This channel is the alpha channel. You need an alpha channel to create shininess/glossiness.

 

If your normal map doesn't already have an alpha channel, create one. In the image below, a new channel was created and I pasted an image into it. If you already have an alpha channel, you will need to edit this image.

 

http://www.brotherhood-tech.com/scrap/2_newchannel.jpg

 

The image contained in the alpha channel is always black and white. If yours is empty, copy your main texture and paste it into the alpha channel. You'll get a black and white version of it once its been entered.

 

http://www.brotherhood-tech.com/scrap/3_grayscale.jpg

 

Controlling how bright and dark this image is will control how shiny or not-shiny your object will be. Black means not shiny, white means maximum shine, grey is somewhere in the middle. Using my example, I want the knife part of the combat knife to have maximum shine, therefore I will use the lasso tool to select the areas I want to adjust the shininess of, and then use Adjustments => Brightness/Contrast. In the image below you can see i've made the blade portion very white. White means lots of shine, so now I can rest assured my blade will be very shiny

 

http://www.brotherhood-tech.com/scrap/4_adjustment.jpg

 

Thats it. Now save your texture.

 

WARNING: Sometimes when you've created or manipulated an alpha channel for your texture, you'll get an error when you try to save it as DDS: Too Many Channels to Export (5) . If this happens, the solution is to save your texture in 32Bit TGA Format, close the file, load the TGA, then save the TGA as *.DDS. When saving as DDS I use DXT5 ARGB 8bpp | interpolated alpha because the other formats have a tendency to ruin the resolution of your alpha channel image, which can lead to very undesirable results.

 

Now you are ready to make the necessary adjustment in Nifskope. Look at my image below if you don't know how to do it. I select the object which uses that normal map texture I just edited. The object I selected is the knife, and its been highlighted in yellow. In the Block List Panel, I select the NiMaterialProperty node owned by that object, and then scroll down to the Glossiness property in the Block Details Panel. These entries are highlighted in blue. A value of 0 means no shine. A value of 100 means maximum shine. Both the glossiness property and the alpha channel work to create shine and glossiness. Most objects have a default glossiness index of 60. It is the whiteness and blackness of the alpha channel that is used to exercise desired control over glossiness.

 

http://www.brotherhood-tech.com/scrap/5_nifskope.jpg

 

Now go have ice cream.

Edited January 5, 2011 by FavoredSoul

[scruples]

Easier way around "Too Many Channels to Export" is to Layer>Flatten Image, because Photoshop thinks you have 2 alpha's....the other way is to keep the 'Background' layer around that is normally locked with no alpha.

You can't create a "Background" once you delete it without flattening (afaik), but you can always duplicate existing layers into a new image with a background layer.

[kungfubellydancer]

Thanks for the reply, but I suppose I should have mentioned I used GIMP to do my textures. Attached is an image of what my alpha layer looks like; empty. How do I paste the greyscale image of my texture into it?

[kungfubellydancer]

Okay, this is what I did; I added a mask layer to the normal map, painted in the white, black, and grey areas, and then applied it to the channels. Unfortunately, it is shared across the RGB channels rather than the alpha, but in-game, it has the same effect an alpha would, which is fantastic. The end-result is what I wanted. Thanks for your help!

[FavoredSoul]

It should be the same even if you are using GIMP.

 

Channels are selectable just like layers. To select the alpha layer you should just be able to click it, and then use the eyeball to switch off visibility of the red, green and blue channels. To put something in the alpha channel, it should still be cut and paste once you have the alpha channel selected.

[StarMystyk]

That was very helpful and well written, thanks FavoredSoul :thumbsup: