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Nickel-Zinc Alloy (black nickel) for Ebony?


tiberseptm

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Some modders have created some particularly impressive enhancements to the existing ebony armor and weapon textures that shipped with the game. I'm a big fan of Zalzama's re-texture offering for example. Many of these provide hard-to-dispute and significant enhancements that offer the user the option to retain or alter the styling of the originals.

 

I was wondering though if someone would consider using low-gloss or matte finish nickel-zinc allow (black nickel) as a possible basis for a re-texture. This material tends to have more muted and diffuse reflectivity than most metals and might serve as a nice reference for a possible ebony texture replacement.

 

Here's a good source for examples of zinc-nickel alloy in the form of plating material:

http://thersic.com/wordpress/wordpress/?p=9166

 

More specifically, these parts here with the relatively dark coloring and less glossy finish:

http://thersic.com/wordpress/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/black-nickel-plating002.jpg

 

This engine does have some parts giving an example of a couple different types of finishes (some pieces are just plastic though):

http://tunerzstore.com/web_images/r2c_black_nickel_finish.jpg

 

I was considering something between that polished finish and this sort of matte finish:

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/images/finish-option-example-black-nickel.jpg

 

Would anyone be willing to consider it as a possible basis or reference point for their ebony texturing of weapons, armor, and the relevant artifacts?

Edited by tiberseptm
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It's practically steel-grey in the light, but black otherwise? I do think this is a great idea, since ebony armor is boring as a design. As it is now, it's just black armor with fancy style, but that's all it boasts. If it had that glossy finish on it, such as in your fourth example, it would make ebony armor look more interesting. I'd download this mod if it was made, even though I tend to avoid using heavy armor.
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Yeah, it's a cool looking real-world material and there's a large range of ways you can finish it. I went and fixed the first link (posted some news story by mistake) and that shows some of them. The first example might be a little light, but the second one:

 

http://thersic.com/wordpress/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/black-nickel-plating002.jpg

 

or

 

http://www.signaturebrass.com/BlackNickel.jpg

 

Might be a bit better. Is that along the lines of what you were thinking too? I don't know if its a good model though because I don't know if there's a way to handle the iridescent quality of the material, I made an amateurish attempt at it for weapons a while ago but couldn't stand it because it looked like black glossy plastic when I did it. That was my first attempt to try to create a texture mod and I don't really have any skill or experience myself though.

 

Also some black titanium nitride coatings look pretty applicable:

http://lux-rc.com/data/comments/content/products/complete_lights/FL33_system/2b2f72.jpg

http://bladereviews.com/images/crkt/img-crkt-drifter-02.jpg

Edited by tiberseptm
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