LadyAubrie Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 So...I'm a beginner (like most people making their first post on this forum) and I'm trying my hardest to learn this mod stuff... My question is about sheerness. I downloaded Tona's Mod Store and I'm using the tights from that. They're opaque - and that's great - but I'd like to be able to adjust the sheerness; I've seen more sheer ones on some stockings/lingerie for download. I've gone into NifSkope and played with the "cloth" values under NiMaterialProperty. I'm able to make them look a little more like I want that way, but of course loading that .nif in game still gives me the same tights as before. (Yes, I remembered to save it. xD) Is this something I'll have to do in Blender? Thanks so much for your advice... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminiari Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 You can actually achieve this in Photoshop or any other image editor that can handle DDS files. All you need to do is edit the alpha channel. Black is totally transparent, white is completely opaque. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkInMKUK Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Paint.NET is free and can handle dds files. Good alternative to Photoshop for the impoverished! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyAubrie Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 (edited) DesuChan: Whew. That's a relief. Blender gives me nightmares...Photoshop is something I'm far more comfortable with. Please forgive my ignorance, but I read your post earlier and I've been looking around online for a description of what you suggested I do. I've added an alpha channel (all black to start with) but it causes my image to turn red! If I save it, with or without the RGB channels visible, it doesn't do anything to the texture I'm trying to edit. Would you be willing - briefly - to describe what it is you do? Regardless, thank you for your response...you've made me a lot more optimistic. :) For what it's worth, the sheerness of the pants in your Macabre Dancer outfit (Abbotsford mod) is almost exactly what I'm going for...:) MarkInMKUK: Actually I have a copy of Photoshop I can work with....but that's something I'll definitely keep in mind! :) Edited May 4, 2011 by LadyAubrie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminiari Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Is it like a red hue over it, and just before you save? Because that's just a mask; that happens when you have ALL the channels checked (RGB, Red, Green, Blue and Alpha). Essentially, when editing your alpha, you want to make sure that only the alpha channel is checked, then when you go back to look at the texture itself, make sure everything BUT the alpha channel is checked (or, at the very least, the RGB channel). I think images would be better. Incidentally, I'm using the texture for the pants from Macabre Dancer. Note the red box: The texture by itself- http://i.imgur.com/6VB67.jpg The alpha channel by itself- http://i.imgur.com/BJdP3.jpg The alpha channel masking the RGB channel (which is what I assume you were referring to)- http://i.imgur.com/cduzv.jpg If this doesn't make any sense, then my sincerest apologies... I've not slept in over 24 hours so I'm surprised I can type legibly! Let me know if you need me to clarify anything else and I'll get onto it when I get out of bed XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyAubrie Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 (edited) Aww...go get some rest! :) No, no....this makes perfect sense. In between conversation I took the liberty of looking at one of your textures too, so everything you're saying makes perfect sense. If I can't get my edited texture to show up differently in game (or in NifSkope) could there be something else I'm forgetting to do? Thank you so much for the detailed walkthrough (and yes, it was plenty detailed...thank you!)...you've helped me to understand something I never would have thought of...now I just have to play detective and find out what's going wrong on my end. :) Edit: I've tried taking lacy textures from other mods and pasting them across the alpha channel, blatantly inviting some garish texture to show up across my tights. Nothing at all. Grr...what am I doing wrong? *bangs head on desk* Edited May 4, 2011 by LadyAubrie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrakeTheDragon Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Does the mesh in NifSkope have a NiAlpha property? It should be same level as NiMaterial and NiTexture (or what it's called). It will need this to make transparency of textures work on meshes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazzerfong Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Did you save the texture under DXT5 or 8:8:8:8? If not, the texture itself doesn't have the alpha channel imbedded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyAubrie Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 (edited) Drake: Hmm...okay...I'll go mess around with that some... Dazzerfong: I think that's it!! I tried saving under DXT5, but it just wouldn't save. Then I tried it under 8.8.8.8....and now my photoshop crashes every time I try to load the image! :*-( Is there another way I can try saving it so it'll keep the alpha channel? Edit: Okay, so I saved it as 8.8.8.8 unsigned and got the alpha to stay. So far so good. Drake, there was no NiAlpha property on the mesh. Could that have something to do with it? I've copied NiAlpha values over from other meshes, but my legs always end up looking choppy and semi-see thru (which is getting there, but not *exactly* where I want to be...xD) How do I get rid of the choppiness? O.o;; (edited - double post) Edited May 5, 2011 by LadyAubrie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyAubrie Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 (edited) (double post - I didn't know how to delete it...please forgive me) Edited May 5, 2011 by LadyAubrie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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