NIFSkope Trouble

[YesRoyalty]

So, I'm using version 20.0.0.5 of NIFSkope, and it doesn't seem as though any of the tutorials I've found are pertinent any longer. The tutorials call for activating options that don't exist, features that are not present, AND the texture paths won't work.

I'm obviously missing something here, but I've exhausted every available resource trying to find out what that is and I've still got nothing. What's going on here?

[Heffy]

Are you sure 20.0.0.5 is the version for nifskope or the version of your nif file? Because the latest nifskope version is 1.0.22 and 20.0.0.5 corresponds to the later Oblivion nif file version.

 

Also, available options depend on file version. Which means, for example, that if you try to edit a Fallout 3/NV nif file, following a tutorial written for Oblivion, some options will differ. Well, it won’t be like 100% different, but there will be differences.

 

Texture paths do work, unless these are set wrong. A correct texture path looks something like this: “textures\weapons\2handautomatic\ak74m_body.dds”. However, the texture will appear in the nifskope 3d view only if you have set the correct game path in Render > Settings > Rendering. There you have to enter your Data folder path (“Fallout NV install path”\Data\). Also the textures can’t be packed in a bsa, if want to preview them in nifskope.

[YesRoyalty]

Something's weird about the whole business. Every tutorial talks about a texture file with a little flower next to it; mine doesn't have that. The texture shows up just fine in New Vegas, but to make it reflective I need to mess with it in NifSkope. I've navigated to the Data/ folder, still with no results; it seems that NifSkope is just generally behaving differently than it ought to be.

[Heffy]

Do you mean you’re getting only one texture slot ? That happens when exporting with the wrong material type. In max the material should be blinn, not nitexture (or something like that). If you export it correctly, you should get a BSShaderTextureSet under BSShaderPPLightingProperty (can’t remember what the wrong one was called).

 

To make the material reflective, you need to set several things first: in NiMaterialProperty, you need to set glossiness and activate alpha (set it to 1). Obviously, you’ll need a specular map too and that spec map needs to be added to the normal map texture as alpha channel.

Then, in BSShaderTextureSet, the first slot (there are 6 in total) is for the texture, the second one is for the normal map. The spec map has to go into the very last (6th) slot. In the 5th slot, you should input, for example, “textures\effects\shinybright_e.dds” (depends on what effect you want to achieve, but it’s generally optional).

 

The little (purple) flowers open a browser menu (for manually selecting the texture file) and there’s one in front of every texture slot in the BSShaderTextureSet property. But, you can as well type-in or paste the tex-path in each slot.

Edited November 4, 2011 by Heffy

[YesRoyalty]

This is what I'm trying to work with:

 

 

 

More and more, I'm getting the feeling that there's something missing. Possibly more than one something.

This is a fresh export in the picture; I haven't messed with anything.

Edited November 4, 2011 by YesRoyalty

[Quetzlsacatanango]

Highlight bsshadertextureset, you will see it under there.

[Heffy]

What Quetzlsacatanango said and what I was referring to as well earlier on. Here's an example:

 

 

[YesRoyalty]

Aha! Now we're getting somewhere!

Next up: How do I access the texture property (specifically, to change it from Apply_Modulate to Apply_Hilight)?

[Heffy]

As far as I know, in this case, you don't... What you are referring to is for (if I remember right) NiTexturingProperty, which you're not using here. Edited November 5, 2011 by Heffy

[YesRoyalty]

Okay... I guess this means we're officially deviating from the tutorial I was trying to follow. Seeing as it was largely dysfunctional, I'm okay with that.

So, I've got the 5th and 6th texture slots set up; does anything need to go in slot 3 or 4?