Making Decals

[darthbdaman]

So I don't have any real experience working with models, and I was wondering if someone could help me with this.

 

I want to create something like this mod, which adds a chest decal, in addition to the shoulder decal, to the T-45 decal mesh, but for the T-51b decal mesh.

 

I would also like to try creating decals for the t-45d replacement mod, for the shoulder and chest as well, as it doesn't have any.

[madmongo]

There are two main methods of adding decals like that.

 

The first requires the armor (or whatever) to already have a decal defined for it. Then you just extract the nif and the textures from the game's BSA files, modify the decal texture with GIMP or Paint.Net or whatever your dds texture editor of choice is (remember to keep the background of the decal transparent). Go into NifSkope and modify your nif to use your new texture, then go into the GECK and create a copy of the armor (maybe modify the stats for it while you are there) and have it point to your new nif.

 

The second is if the armor in question doesn't already have a decal defined for it, often the easiest thing to do is just extract the nif and textures like above, then create a new layer on top of the texture, add your decal to that, then merge the layer down. So in this case it ends up becoming part of the existing texture rather than a true decal, but the end result is basically the same thing in-game.

 

If you've never used a texture editor before, Paint.Net is (in my opinion) easier to learn and a bit easier to use than GIMP, though GIMP can sometimes do things that Paint.Net can't. Often though, which texture editor you use is more a question of personal preference more than anything else. GIMP and Paint.Net both work fine.

 

If you google "fallout new vegas retexture tutorial" you'll find several tutorials that can give you the details.

[darthbdaman]

Yep, I know all that, I just wanted to have a separated decal mesh for retexture compatibility, instead of baking it into the texture.

 

The actual decal meshes that I want don't exist, so was I was looking for help with creating those. I know how to retexture in nifskope and gimp, but I don't know how you would go about actually editing meshes.

 

Thanks though

[madmongo]

Oh. I see.

 

How much experience do you have with Blender?

 

This is actually fairly easy to do. Import the armor into Blender, duplicate the piece that you want to put the decal on, scale it up just a tiny bit so that the decal will sit over top of the armor mesh and won't conflict with it. Then cut off all of the parts you don't need, texture it (again, making sure to use a transparent background), save your new mesh, and voila! Oh, and go into NifSkope and fix the shader flags because Blender never seems to do those right (well, if there's a way to make Blender do it right I haven't figured it out yet).

 

If you do it that way, you'll avoid all of the hassles of trying to match up the bone weights of a new custom mesh piece that you've added.

 

If you've never used Blender before, there's a fair amount you need to learn. Blender Noob to Pro is an excellent resource. Somewhere on the nexus there's a package that has Blender 2.49 and all of the nif tools you'll need all packaged together with versions that all work together.

[darthbdaman]

I have a bit of experience with blender (not much texturing but I'll try to figure it out). I've never tried to do any modding stuff with it, what is the exporting and importing process like?

 

Thanks

[madmongo]

Importing is easy. When you make a new blend, select all and delete before you import. That way you don't end up with any of the stuff that Blender automatically adds to new blends mixed in with your armor.

 

For exporting, you need to make sure you get the settings right for what you are exporting.

 

When exporting armor, click on "creature" (that's basically for any kind of "skin" texture) and also make sure that Use BSFadeNode Root is unchecked. If you leave Use BSFadeNode Root checked on armor you'll crash the GECK when you try to assign your nif to your new armor.

 

Blender always borks up the shader flags, so you'll have to fix those in NifSkope or your armor will be invisible in-game.

 

For regular armor parts, the type needs to be set to SHADER_DEFAULT and make sure SF_SHADOW_MAP and SF_REMAPABLE_TEXTURES are both checked.

 

For the any visible human skin body parts (arms, legs, etc) the type needs to be set to SHADER_SKIN and make sure SF_SHADOW_MAP and SF_FACEGEN are both checked.

 

Blender generally sets the rest of the flags correctly.

 

Also, make sure you select all when you export. Blender only exports what you have selected.