Sheerness/Opacity

[Luminiari]

Try saving as DTX3.

[LadyAubrie]

Try saving as DTX3.

 

I don't know if it's just my imagination, but they look a little more sheer. Thank you!

 

I still can't seem to get the sheerness I get with some corset/stockings mods I've found, but I'll definitely take it.

 

Thank you all so much for all your help...I've learned a lot from your instruction. :)

[DrakeTheDragon]

Next time there's no need to copy an existing NiAlpha property. All you need to do is right-click the NiNode you want to insert one into and select "add property -> NiAlpha property" or something along that line.

The alpha channel of the texture directly defines how translucent it is and at which points. The alpha channel of the normalmaps ("..._n.dds") defines how reflective it will be at which points depending on the material type selected and the glossiness.

DXT3 is with alpha channel but direct values, a little hard transistions, while DXT5 is interpolated alpha with very smooth transitions. 8:8:8:8 or something similar is without any compression, probably a little large in file size, but it won't have any distortions or compression artifacts like the others have.

 

From there on it's just playing around to get a feeling for it. You will be able to create the exact effect you want after some time.

 

Take care that Oblivion has a horrible way of creating transparency effects. If you have several transparent layers one over the other, even if the actual section overlapping doesn't have any transparent part in the texture, the order in which the polygones are rendered determines which ones will be in the front, and only the front layer is rendered at all. A transparent layer over another usually makes the underlying layer disappear (heads getting bold when looked at through waterfalls etc.) Especially make sure any body meshes don't get a NiAlpha property by accident and their material always stays "skin" without any additional characters.

Edited May 5, 2011 by DrakeTheDragon

[LadyAubrie]

Drake, thank you...this is where I'm getting confused...

 

This is exactly my problem, I think. When I add a NiAlpha property to the .nif (even after playing around with the flag values), I still get the floating-shards-of-glass kind of thing happening where my legs are basically invisible except for a few pieces of floating texture. I went in last night and made sure that there *was* a body underneath the clothes (and that it didn't have a NiAlpha property too, and that it was normal) but the same thing still happens. I've messed with the texturing on the .dds for hours and hours (I understand Photoshop a lot better than NifSkope or Blender!) but of course...I'm not sure any of it mattered, really...something else has to be done and I have no idea what.

 

Could the floating glass thing be a result of me saving the .dds in the wrong way? :)

 

Here's what I have, and of course this gives me invisible woman legs in game -

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5226/5693397606_edd5c8cfc5_b.jpg

Edited May 6, 2011 by LadyAubrie

[DrakeTheDragon]

Hmm, I've seen this before, but I don't really know what exactly is going on there.

 

I've seen you're using a NiStencil property though, which will make both sides of the mesh visible while there's not much possibility to see the inner side anyways. Additionally the inner polygones might be earlier or later in polygon ordering than some outside polygones and this in combination with transparency, and the horrible flaws Oblivion's approach to this has, could cause exactly this result. I'd say give it a try and see if they go away when you remove this NiStencil property (right-click it -> block -> remove).

 

As for why you get invisible legs ingame, if the tights wouldn't show up, they'd miss their normalmap texture ("..._n.dds") going along with your new texture, but the body mesh itself also not showing up is unusual. What's the name of the "0 NiNode Scene Root" at the top of the tree? Is it really "Scene Root" or perhaps "Scene Root.00" or something? It has to be "Scene Root" or Oblivion won't use what's inside of it. Also we can't see the whole NIF tree here, so there could be something else wrong outside of our scope. A NIF file's contents not showing up at all usually means the NIF structure is malformed. NIF and NifSkope are far more forgiving and tolerant than the game engine. What shows up fine in there and doesn't cause any errors about is not necessarily a valid file for the game already.

[LadyAubrie]

(Sorry about taking so long to respond...urgh...last night...I won't even go into it)

 

Thank you so much for sticking around and giving me thoughtful responses. I thought I was doomed to having to tackle this problem on my own, and I'm so, so grateful. :) I wouldn't have known where to begin!

 

I was itching to get home and try your suggestion last night, and sure enough, it did *something*...:) I removed the NiStencil property and when I got into the game, I noticed my character's legs were just semi-transparent now...and the only weird clipping that happens is when you can see one leg through the other. I feel like progress is being made...:)

 

If it would be of any help at all, I'll give you a screenshot of the whole tree...

 

(Oh, and in case you're wondering...the NiAlpha flag is set at 237, if that matters at all...)

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3004/5695306297_8482959f46_b.jpg

Edited May 7, 2011 by LadyAubrie

[DrakeTheDragon]

This sounds like the legs aren't showing at all but only the tights.

 

From the NIF tree the structure seems to be totally fine, apart from the texture paths starting at your "c:"-drive and not at "textures" as they should be, but maybe this is only relevant when you're going to share your work with others not using the exact same location for their game as you. I'd fix it regardless though, as with Oblivion you never know and it's quite picky with files' locations.

 

I see no obvious cause for the legs to not show up though. Name's right, material's right, texture's right, and no wrong nodes in it or anything. I take it your body replacer "does" work with your race? As in when you unequipp the tights your legs show up fine?

If that's the case, maybe try and "copy branch"-"paste branch" the legs from your "meshes/characters/_male/femalelowerbody.nif" from another NifSkope into this. Then they should at least not be the cause anymore.

 

If you happen to not yet know how this is done, keep the NifSkope with your tights opened, open another one with the NIF you want to copy from, browse the NIF tree or do it directly in the render screen and right-click the legs or their NiTriShapes/Strips node, in the popup menu then click on "block -> copy branch". Now switch to your other NifSkope instance with your tights open and on the "0 NiNode Scene Root" right-click and in the popup menu click "block -> paste branch". Now a copy of the whole legs NiTriShapes/Strips branch, complete with rigging, texture, material etc., is inserted into your tree. You can then delete the old legs and save.

 

But by all means, make backups of your file, as I don't know where those legs were coming from to begin with and if default legs of your body replacer will even fit into them!

[LadyAubrie]

I feel like I'm almost there...and I'm learning a ton in the process...:)

 

I played around some with the suggestions you gave me. I tried replacing the actual leg mesh, and it turns out you were right! There was the texture I wanted...but most of it was dancing around my legs like a lightning storm made of weird brush strokes. Hmm.

 

So I replaced my (apparently modified by Deadly Reflex or DMC) HGEC legs with the original HGEC small legs...and it looked fine except that parts of my legs were sticking out like I was wearing torn pantyhose. I tried going to transform - edit to move the leg mesh around some inside the tights but other parts stuck out when parts of the legs got covered.

 

I'd ask the original author of the mod what legs they used...but they only speak Japanese, apparently...no English. It looks like I'm on my own with this one.

 

So...I guess where we are is that the tights mesh looks like it was made for non-HGEC legs. I tried putting the original mesh's legs back in but for some reason, they just....aren't....there. Like you said, they're tights with no legs.

 

So what should I do? :) Am I gonna be forced to go into Blender and try to make a set of my own? Or is there some sort of miracle we can perform to make this work without me having to watch more unhelpful Blender tutorials on Youtube? ;-)

 

 

EDIT: I know my problem now. I think I can consider it fixed...I just have to make my leg mesh work with the tights, which is work I have to do myself. Mystery solved. Drake, thank you for helping me understand exactly what was going on.....it had me totally stumped. I gave you kudos. :)

 

Thank you so much!!

Edited May 8, 2011 by LadyAubrie