Texturing questions/observations

[koojinn]

Hey all!

 

 

 

So for the past month I have been learning how to texture FO4. I have been successful in making a couple things (re-textured PA frame, 4k PA rig etc) but I have learned some things along the way. I have the motivation to work on textures but I need a better workflow.

 

Current workflow:

 

1. Make a folder for the model and textures

2. Find mesh and open with NifSkope 2.0 Alpha and find the texture used with the mesh. Export OBJ to folder.

3. Open OBJ in Blender and rotate (most of the meshes are laying on their back). Export OBJ to folder.

4. Find textures and copy to folder. Make BMP 24bit of all the textures and copies that are flipped vertically. Flipped versions work sometimes when the normal doesn't look aligned.

5. Open SubPainter and import mesh and textures and paint.

 

Export set to:

Color - RGB

Normal Open GL- RGB

Specular - R+G+B Metallic to Red channel, Converted Glossiness to Green channel.

 

It works ok if you don't use materials or smart materials and just hand paint. But those materials are the coolest part of SP and Quixel.

 

 

http://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1151/images/5222-13-1449663760.jpg

 

http://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1151/images/2845-4-1449554333.jpg

 

Without a high poly mesh to bake AO into the texture I'm not sure about a workaround. The textures look alright but I know they could be so much more.

 

 

Statements (correct me if I'm wrong)

 

-It looks like FO4 is partly done using the PBR and standard (diffuse, normal, spec) ex: PA frame uses _d, _n, _s. Holo Tape uses only the _d, and _n. It has an _s but does not use it.

 

 

If true how are you guys dealing with it?

 

 

-I have been trying to texture in Substance Painter and Quixel but we are missing assets. Like a high poly mesh to correctly bake the normals and color ID maps.

 

I'm guessing some have opened the meshes in their favorite 3D suite and made ID maps manually or am a missing a hidden file?

 

-TIRES - 1 texture 3 meshes

 

Not sure how to 3d texture these because when you export the textures it blasts away the textures it didn't use. Saving 3 different file for each tire and cutting them up in photoshop maybe? I think I answered my own question lol.

Edited December 15, 2015 by koojinn

[throttlekitty]

 

 

4. Find textures and copy to folder. Make BMP 24bit of all the textures and copies that are flipped vertically. Flipped versions work sometimes when the normal doesn't look aligned.

 

You shouldn't need to be flipping images or having misaligned textures, you seem to have a problem with however you're converting the textures. The gloss/spec maps are packed into the _s files.

 

In PBR you generally don't put AO into the textures unless you're wanting to use it as a mask. We won't get Bethesda's high poly models, so just make do without, you can always bake a self-ao from the lowpoly. ID mask you can sometimes get with material assignment in a 3d app, but again, probably need to do some manual masking. Not having a clean normal map to work with kind of sucks for retextures, so yeah, it's either break it trying to paint out detail or remodel the high.

[koojinn]

 

You shouldn't need to be flipping images or having misaligned textures, you seem to have a problem with however you're converting the textures. The gloss/spec maps are packed into the _s files.

 

In PBR you generally don't put AO into the textures unless you're wanting to use it as a mask. We won't get Bethesda's high poly models, so just make do without, you can always bake a self-ao from the lowpoly. ID mask you can sometimes get with material assignment in a 3d app, but again, probably need to do some manual masking. Not having a clean normal map to work with kind of sucks for retextures, so yeah, it's either break it trying to paint out detail or remodel the high.

 

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

I had to do the flip thing with the textures when I was using Noesis to open the .nif files. NifSkope .obj does not require the flipped textures.

 

Not sure what you mean "bake a self-ao from the lowpoly". If you mean apply AO to the lowpoly and export then yeah, I do that. Can we fake the AO by making a greyscale of the normal and applying it over color layer using Multiply?

 

I was thinking that we would have to sculpt on the low poly and detail in something like zbrush to create our own highpoly. But before that I wanted to make sure I wan't missing something. Still new to this so thanks!