Recolored Robe Fades to Vanilla Color When Zoomed Out

[LenneDalben]

Hello all!

 

I attempted to search the internet for this but I wasn't even sure how to describe it in words.

 

I recolored some of the mage robes using GIMP as a .dds converter (and back) but made the actual edits in Photoshop.

 

The actual issue: when I load the mod into Skyrim, the robes show up recolored. The problem is when the robes are equipped. Up close (zoomed in), the robes have the color they are supposed to, though they have a weird glow to them. Far away (zoomed out) the recolor fades, and the robes are the vanilla color.

Some links of up close and far away. I assure you, the character is wearing the same robes. This happened with all 4 of the robes I recolored.

 

I have no idea what's causing this. Can anyone help? Is it something to do with the mipmaps?

 

I have successfully recolored vampire armor using the same process before and didn't have this problem, so I'm not sure how to tackle it.

 

The process:

1) extract the textures using the Fallout Mod Manager's BSA extraction feature

2) open the .dds file in GIMP, importing the mipmaps

3) extract the file from GIMP as a .psd

4) open the .psd file in Photoshop, edit it, save it

5) open the edited .psd file in GIMP

6) extract the edited .psd file in GIMP as a .dds, using existing mipmaps (not generating new ones)

(Note: I'm aware that Photoshop has a .dds plugin but I had some issues with it so I've avoided it)

 

Here's the YouTube video that I got that process from:

 

Thanks in advance!

[sLoPpYdOtBiGhOlE]

Not sure about gimp and photoshop at all and I'm pretty clueless with textures and image editing..

 

I just opened the vanilla \Clothes\Monk\bluevariantrobes.dds in Paint Dot Net.

 

Added New layer, Set the layer property as Overlay and left opacity at 255.

 

Selected an orange color and filled the new layer with it.

 

Flattened the layers.

 

Saved the new texture same name in my data folder keeping the path.

When saving I used the options DTX 1, Iterate, Generate MipMaps, SuperSampling.

(the modded texture was the same size as the original after saving).

 

Spawned the vanilla blue mage robes (D1F3B) in my inventory, gave them to my follower and the new orange color stays the same at any distance for me.

 

Sorry I can't watch vid tuts to see what you've done as I don't have the bandwidth to watch online vids.

[IsharaMeradin]

Someone else had a similar issue before. Never did nail down what caused it. But I can tell you that when I open my DDS in GIMP, I never import the mipmaps. It may be possible that that could be the root cause. I have no idea tho, just musing out loud really...

[LenneDalben]

I got it to work by simply flattening the layers in Photoshop (with the imported mipmaps) and then when converting back to .dds in GIMP, I generated new mipmaps, since I'm pretty sure in flattening the layers in Photoshop the original mipmaps were deleted. In the future, I guess I shouldn't import the mipmaps and simply generate new ones at the end. Thanks for the responses guys!

Edited March 14, 2016 by LenneDalben

[JetSteele]

Even though your issue was fixed I just wanted to confirm for anyone that passes by this thread that it is indeed the mipmaps that cause this issue to occur. After you have your new surface done you need to regenerate new mipmaps or; as you said; when zooming out you'll see the old colors return.

 

You can auto generate the new mipmaps for the DDS and it'll work like a charm (just thought I'd say it since I used to actually make the mipmaps by hand until I found out that it was something that could have been done automatically by the image editing software :tongue:​).

 

You could import the mipmaps (I do it all the time) you just have to make sure to overwrite them with new ones when exporting; or you could just generate new ones after your done.

[LenneDalben]

Even though your issue was fixed I just wanted to confirm for anyone that passes by this thread that it is indeed the mipmaps that cause this issue to occur. After you have your new surface done you need to regenerate new mipmaps or; as you said; when zooming out you'll see the old colors return.

 

You can auto generate the new mipmaps for the DDS and it'll work like a charm (just thought I'd say it since I used to actually make the mipmaps by hand until I found out that it was something that could have been done automatically by the image editing software :tongue:​).

 

You could import the mipmaps (I do it all the time) you just have to make sure to overwrite them with new ones when exporting; or you could just generate new ones after your done.

Ok great! I had my suspicions that's what it was, but since I've recolored armor and not had this problem before, and I'm not all that Photoshop savvy, I wasn't sure. Thanks for confirming it!