How to create blank textures to hide flat rubble/trash?

[inawe]

Many of the flat rubble textures that are used throughout the Commonwealth really look bad to me. Things like flattened cans, bits of metal, etc. They tried to make them look 3D-ish, but they just look like flat pictures of 3D objects. I don't know if this is due to normal maps that are too weak or what. They are immersion-breaking bad to me though.

 

Completely lacking the skills to improve the textures or normal maps, I would like instead to make the textures invisible. I have a few questions on how to do this:

1 - I know that the base textures and normal maps would need to be edited. Would the specular maps and materials files (alpha value?) need to be edited too? The nifs (they all appear to be flat in the CK)? Anything else? I'm still pretty hazy on how the textures, materials files, and nifs are linked together.

2 - What is the smallest size that the replacement textures can be? 4x4? 1x1? Same size as the originals?

3 - What colors do the different texture types need to be for transparent, flat, and no shine?

 

Hopefully I can create one set of blank texture files and reuse it to hide all of them that I find annoying.

 

The textures in question are under SetDressing\Rubble, with names like Rubble_Flat_Trash_Sm03, FYI.

 

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

 

P.S. - Maybe someone with some real texturing skills could take a look at these to see if the 3D-ishness of them can be improved.

[inawe]

To answer one of my own questions after more reading, it looks like 4x4 is the smallest texture size.

 

I see that the textures have multiple layers, to contain the different mip levels. Is it OK to have a texture with a single layer/mip level?

 

If the alpha channel on the diffuse texture is set to 100% transparent, are the normal and specular textures ignored? If not, do they have their own alpha channels?

 

Is 0 alpha completely transparent and 255 alpha completely opaque?

 

Sorry for the newbie texture questions. I'm trying to wrap my head around the concepts, but I'm having to assemble the knowledge from bits and pieces I'm finding all over the place. I've yet to find a complete guide to modding textures for Fallout 4.

[inawe]

I figured things out enough to do what I wanted, and have uploaded the results.

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/19711/?