Retexure question

[Hexxagone]

I want to learn how to retexture things for skyrim. If I recolor or retexture an existing mod (lets say a sword) will I have to do anything with the normal maps that are already there or would I work with just the texture in GIMP?

 

Thanks

[Bloodinfested]

If its just changing the color of the existing texture you don’t have to mess with the normal unless it wasn’t that good of an normal to began with. A totally new texture would require a new normal...I'm fond of using 3^rd party programs for normals you can make normals in photo shop and gimp but for time saving measures 3^rd party programs/plugins are the way to go.

For example InsaneBump is a good free one https://code.google.com/p/gimp-plugin-insanebump/wiki/MainPage

[Hexxagone]

Changing the texture that comes with the mod to look diffident or higher quality, is that considered a "new" texture?

[Bloodinfested]

Adding more detail in the texture you would want a new normal to fully take advantage of that new texture.

[Hexxagone]

Ok got it thanks. Any tutorials you recommend?

Edited August 22, 2015 by Hexxagone

[Matth85]

A texture set often consist of 3 maps: A diffuse map, a specular map and a normals map. Aditionaly, we use a cube map and an Environment map for Skyrim. Skyrim also uses .dds for compression. Fior fancy effects we also got the good old glow map to play with.

 

- The Diffuse map is the color map. The alpha channel of the diffuse map contains the transparancy(if you want something invisible, or partly invisible).

- The Specular map is the strength of the shine. A pure white specular map will shine a lot, whilst a black one won't. The specular map will sit in the alpha channel of the normal map(For the most part.)

- The Normals map is not a texture map per se, but a mathematical set of information in terms of color. It tells the shader what sort of "depth" the model got, so the lighting will fake it. The specular map is found in the alpha channel.

- The Environment map is often called reflection map and contains the reflection amount of the cube map. A full white map will reflect the cube map fully, a black one will not reflect it at all.

- The Cube map is, well, an unwrapped cube texture that the enironment map uses for reflection.

- The Glow map adds a glow effect(Most noticeable in the dark).

 

Anyways. Retexturing and recoloring are 2 different beasts, although used interchangeably from time to time. Recoloring is the act of playing with the hue and pure color of the diffuse map of a texture. No changes done to any of the other textures. Retexturing is the act of redoing all, or parts, of the texture - redoing the corresponding normals, specular, glow and environment map.

 

So, for your question. If you want to create a new texture(aka; a retexture and not recoloring), then you want both a new normal/specular and possibly environment map. Fret not, they are not difficult to create, but can be a tad bit annoying to get right without experience.

shows the workflow in depth, although there is no reflection/enivironment map (I made a gloss map, which governs the width of the shine. ala; sharp vs matte). For more information google and youtube will get you what you need. In any case, here is a quick rundown for you:

 

1) Do the diffuse texturing. Do whatever change you want. If the new texture looks somewhat similar to the old one, you can get by with the old normal/specular. If not;

2) Copy the diffuse and grayscale it. Start playing with values and get a good specular map working. Remember white = shine, black = no shine. So for wood you'd want a black specular, for rusted iron you'd want a lot of noisy contrast and for clean steel you'd want a rather bright gray/white. After that;

3) Copy the overlays you've got for the texture. Grayscale and contrast it again. Run it via a NVIDIA .dds plugin to get the corresponding normal map. Copy and paste it over to your main normal map, overlay it and play with opacity. If the old normal map is detailed, you can either A) try to clean it up or B) Just delete it and just go with your new one. Do this for each material you got.

4) For the reflection map, just contrast the metal part of the specular map even more, and make anything non-reflective pure black.

4) Copy and paste the specular map and throw it into the alpha channel of the normal map. Save this as a .dds at DXT5. Name it *name*_n.dds

5) Save the diffuse as a *Name*.dds at DXT1

6) Finally save the envornment map at *Name*_m.dds at DXT1.

7) Place these 3 textures in your Data/Textures/YourMod folder.

 

* If you want to make this a unique retexture, and not change existing models.

 

1) Find whatever mesh you just retextured, open the .nif, click on the mesh and then expand the NiTriShape nod(Click the arrow). Expand BsLightingShaderProperty and click on BsShaderTextureSet. Check down at the Block Details window, expand "Textures" and just click on the flowers and find your new textures. Save this .nif as YourNif.nif under Data/Meshes/YourMod.

2) In the CK you will need to change the static model and the 1st person model. So, first you go under WorldObjects --> Static --> Weaponns --> right click New. Name it something like HEX1stPersonAwesomeSword(or, you know, whatever you want) and click edit. Find your new mesh in the YourMod folder. If nothing crashes, you should see it.

* If the mesh is black, vertex coloring is on and set to black.

**If the mesh is purple, the texture pathing is wrong.

***If there is a big exclamation mark, the mesh pathing is wrong or the model is broken.

**** If CK crashes some nifskope settings are wrong.

3) next go under Items -> Weapons -> find the weapon you wanted to retexture, edit it --> give it a new name and ID --> under the ART tab change the 1st person model to the one we just made(dropdown menu) and click EDIT --> Add the model again.

4) Add it in-game, or use - Help "name of weapon" - in the console in-game.

 

* If you want to replace the original texture for all models.

1) Go under the CK and find the 1stperson model the weapon used. Just search for it under the statics. Like "Ironwaraxe" will give the 1stpersonironwaraxe static. Simply click edit to your new nif.

2) Do the same for the Item-weapon part. Find the weapon, edit the model to your new one.

 

Then you save, and it's done.

 

A lot of stuff? Yeah. I recommend using YouTube. Visual help is more valuable than written help when it comes to something like this. Nifskope can be tricky to work with!

[Hexxagone]

Thanks ill try it out.