LE Questions regarding weapon texturing

[SerShreddington]

Hi everyone,

 

I've recently been working an a custom sword to eventually import to skyrim.

I am working with 3ds max and photoshop, and I already have a small bit of experience modelling game assets.

Now, I've read up on a lot of tutorials, guides etc. but there are still some questions regarding texturing that are seemingly left unanswered, and google is not really helping to answer them.

 

My first question is in regards to a glossiness map.

From what I've gathered so far, there is no way to use an actual glossiness map on skyrim in-game models.

How is glossiness controlled then? My assumption is that the engine uses tthe specular map as a glossiness map as well, Is this actually the case?

 

My second questions revolves around the environment map/mask.

This one is for people with experience in 3ds max (or maybe similar software). Is there any way to test out an environment mask within 3ds max? So far I've figured out how to actually use a cube map, but I have no clue on how to actually mask it with a texture map. This results in my whole model being super reflective, like someone barfed chrome on it, it's driving me crazy. I have also seen people on sketchfab upload their models with the environment mask enabled, so I figured it would either be possible, or they're using different software.

 

If anyone can share any information regarding these questions, it would make me a very happy man.

Thanks in advance.

[jkruse05]

Specular maps

Specular maps contain two kinds of information: reflection to the light and glossiness of the different parts of the armour. This information is stored in the RGB channels (see picture Specular maps and RGB Channels for an example of a specular map in Fallout 4)

• Red Channel: stores the reflection to the light information. The darker the red channel is, the less reflective the armour, the lighter it is, the more reflective the armour. For metallic reflections, the red channel is very light, and for non-reflective materials like cloth, it is painted dark.
• Green Channel: stores the glossiness information. The darker the green channel the less glossy is the material. It also stores information of how the material looks when wet. If your armour looks too shinny when wet (when it is raining), then it is probably because the green channel is too light.
• Blue Channel: does nothing, so just paint it in white (it will look blue in GIMP).

From here http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Fallout_4._Part_3

I assume it is the same for Skyrim. If not, just ignore me.

[SerShreddington]

Ah thanks man, I probably never would've figured this out on my own. I'll give it a try to see if this actually works the same way in Skyrim.

[FrankFamily]

Skyrim is different than fallout 4. In skyrim specular map is single channel and goes in normal map's alpha. Then there is the _m, the environment mask usually called. Which even though it has three channels its monochromatic... The logic behind that is that very few items use enviroment mapping so it was best to optimize the specular and don't give a choice for colored specular map...

 

So, yes there is no glossiness map in skyrim, there a per-mesh glossiness setting in nifskope and the environment mask that sort of does glossiness work to a degree in the sense that white enviro will look chromish as a gloss map would.

 

Not sure if there is a way to get that into 3dsmax accurately but I'd recommend getting nifskope 2.0 (Google) that renders stuff like the game, so it's useful for preview and adjust the maps.

 

For the enviro mask you can start with a copy of the specular painting black areas that should have zero environment mapping and then adjust from there.