Making an alternate texture for armour, I'm doing it wrong?

[Mahws]

I've been looking at guides all afternoon and I'm struggling to find an answer anywhere.

 

I'm trying to make a copy of an existing item with a new texture (in this case armour).

 

I've got my recoloured version of the texture saved as a .dds, along with a copy of the original normal map texture saved under new names in data/textures/armor/testmod/

 

According to the guides I've read all I need to do is create a new Texture Set, add the altered texture as the Diffuse and the normal as the Normal/Gloss then save it, then create a duplicate of an item using the same mesh (in this case the T-45d power armour) hit edit under Bipedal Model then set the upper body and arms to the Texture set I just created.

 

However whenever I do that it just uses the standard texture. The preview changes appropriately whenever I apply a different texture set, but the one I'm making just doesn't seem to show up. What am I doing wrong?

[HSovieticus]

It's been a while since I replaced a texture without replacing the model, and I haven't done a lot of it -- but I just tried to replicate your failure, and I get the same issue. Also, whenever I export a modded mesh (with textures) from blender, the resulting NIF does not display any textures that have been replaced (within blender), instead colouring them with a single shade of white. And sometimes the GECK will not display the textures properly either. But the nif works just fine in game. So my first suggestion is to load the new NIF file in geck, and put it somewhere in the game that will be easy to access. Then load up the game and test it out.

 

If that doesn't work, try to follow one of the mesh exporting tutorials, applying the tutorial selectively according to your purposes. What you want to do is to follow the tutorial without actually changing the mesh or doing any of the things that only need to be done when the mesh has been changed. I could go into more detail if it were a normal piece of armour, but the power armour is different, and I have never worked with power armour. If it were a typical piece of armour, you would want to do the following: a) import the nif file into blender using the correct settings, b) edit the materials appropriately (in your case, follow section 5 of the "Miaxs_GECK_Manuals_on_3DObjects_v1.1.pdf" tutorial, all the way up to and including step 15, but you are probably safe to ignore the parts about the normal map since you have not changed it in any way), and c) export your armour by deselecting all, selecting the armature only, opening scripts window and exporting with the proper settings (for regular armour, I would use the settings in the "Creating Armour Mashups" tutorial. For regular armour, this should work perfectly in game, but not in NifSKope, but you will not even need to use NifSkope if you do it properly. For Power Armour, you may have to adapt the process somewhat, or maybe not.

 

Good Luck.

Edited September 14, 2011 by HSovieticus

[Mahws]

Oh damn.

 

Was hoping to avoid having to touch the .nif files. Makes me long for the good old days of Oblivion/Morrowind construction sets.

 

Thanks for the help though. :)

[HSovieticus]

Wait, do you mean that you have not even tried using NifSkope to change the texture path? Because if you haven't, then you definitely should.

[Mahws]

Wait, do you mean that you have not even tried using NifSkope to change the texture path? Because if you haven't, then you definitely should.

I'm just using a default mesh and applying an alternate texture. Altering the .nif to a new texture path would just end up doing the same thing but requiring me to include an unneeded mesh with the download wouldn't it?

 

At any rate, I've got it working, the texture worked in game but not in the construction set, like you said. Bit of a pain as it means I have to fire up the game every time I want to check how it looks, but at least it's working now.

[HSovieticus]

You could always import the diffuse into blender and attach it to the model, or even export the nif as an OBJ so that you can test the diffuse in photoshop. But, either way, you will not see the normal map, and I do not even know if NifSkope will display normal maps. Probably wouldn't matter, since NifSkope has no lighting.

[LordGawaine]

After you have successfully created your Texture set for your armor open up the Armor window (of the armor you want to modify), under Biped Model click 'Edit,' which opens the Model Data window. Under alternate texture, the pieces of the armor (and body) should be listed, double click on the armor piece you want to change the texture of which opens the Select Form window. Scroll to your texture set and select it and click ok.

 

That's it, pretty simple unless I'm missing what you're problem is.

[Mahws]

Yeah I was doing that, but it wasn't changing the texture in the GECK for some reason, so I assumed it wasn't working. Works fine in game however. Something I probably should have checked before making this thread. :P

 

I've bit the bullet and started learning my way around nifskope and making a new mesh file for each item as I keep needing to edit backpacks/multipart meshes now. Not the easiest program to get started with, but unfortunately necessary once you move onto retexturing more complex things.