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Need Help Adding Texture Over Transparency


terrordoll

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I'm working on modifying an existing bodysuit to add selective transparency to certain areas. After playing around a bit I've got the modified suit in game and looking passable for now. The next step was going to be overlaying the transparent areas with a mesh or net texture (also with transparency) but I can't seem to get that to work at all. When I tried to place the pattern over transparent portions of the texture nothing shows up in game. I can see the area on the texture but it's as if the game is ignoring it. I thought it might be a problem with the mesh texture I was using as an overlay but even directly painting on it does nothing.

 

I'm really new at this and I'n not sure whats causing the issue. It almost feels like once the area is marked transparent it is ignoring that part of the texture permanently.

 

Any suggestions would be helpful!

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Hello,

 

Is the alpha channel updated with your changes? Also you may need to update the BGSM-file and change the alphas "tolerance" (think default is 128). Also make sure you save the file as DXT5 not 3 or 1. Had similar problems, it helps to think of the alpha channel as just another color channel.

 

Alpha can be a bit tricky when you want nuances in the game for many reasons.

This subject though was thoroughly discussed recently over on Bethesda.net:

https://community.bethesda.net/thread/87304

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Hello,

 

Is the alpha channel updated with your changes? Also you may need to update the BGSM-file and change the alphas "tolerance" (think default is 128). Also make sure you save the file as DXT5 not 3 or 1. Had similar problems, it helps to think of the alpha channel as just another color channel.

 

Alpha can be a bit tricky when you want nuances in the game for many reasons.

This subject though was thoroughly discussed recently over on Bethesda.net:

https://community.bethesda.net/thread/87304

Thanks for the reply!

 

I went through the steps here:

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6839/?

 

Basically, I cut out a part of the texture and saved the file as a DXT5 argb 8bpp interpolated alpha. I then added a transparency to the .nif and updated the material/bsgm. The alpha is set to 128 on the nif and 127 on the bgsm as per the tutorial.

 

This all works great if that's all I want to do. For some reason, trying to add anything back over the sections that I've removed/erased doesn't work though. This is probably the wrong way to say this, but its as if the UV or something is permanently ignoring that section now because no matter what I put over that transparency it wont take, solid or not. I have to reload the texture from my saved backup to undo that.

 

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out and see if there is anything I can glean form it.

 

BTW if any of this isn't coming across clearly I can try to upload pictures if you'd think that would help.

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You don't need to change anything in the nif (unless you make changes to the actual model). The BGSM overrrides the information for the part of the nif it's in control of.

 

Make sure you don't work on the file in DDS format, always work on it as a PSD or PDN and export or "save as copy" when you are satisfied. It's easy to get confused as you work in layers and the DDS shows up with weird errors due to it being flattened.

 

Sorry I can't add any more than that, not very good at explaining.

 

If you problems persist a screenshot and a link to the file in question would probably greatly help your chances getting help. Also add what software you are using and what plugin (if any) you are using to save the file.

 

I've never seen the UV of a nif behave in a manner as you suspect. Open it in Nifskope and check the UV from there. To do this you need the latest unoffical version, you can grab it from here:

http://afkmods.iguanadons.net/index.php?/topic/4136-nifskope-20-dev/page-22&do=findComment&comment=162804

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I'm using Photoshop CC and the Nvidia plugin to open DDS. I'm not actually sure if I've been working on the file as a DDS or if the plugin was converting it for me. I have been noticing some oddness while editing so it would not surprise me at all if this was my issue.

 

I would like to upload the texture and the bsgm to try and get some help, but it's a personal edit of an existing mod and I'm not sure sure what the protocol is for that. I'm basically mixing in some mesh/webbing into the Precursor GITS suit.

 

I'll see if editing as a texture only will help. Thanks again!

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Alright I gotcha, yeah then you should avoid doing that indeed.

 

For your own peace of mind you should open the file from scratch, save it as a PSD and then you can either import your changes as masks or layers - or redo them from scratch unless it was very time consuming.

 

Not sure if this is true or not but if it's anything like audio you will want to keep the number of transcodes to a bare minimum and always copy to a lossless, uncompressed format that you work with. It makes sense to do the same when working on heavily compressed graphics. Just a general thought.

 

Should you lose you Alpha channel you can do this:

Go to Layer -> Layer Mask -> select From Transparency. Then go to Channels and duplicate the Layer Mask and name it Alpha.

 

This is something you have to do when working with Intels DDS-plugin a lot. I haven't used the Nvidia one much and not at all since Intel released theirs but it's supposed to handle alpha in a way more familiar to users.

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Alright I gotcha, yeah then you should avoid doing that indeed.

 

For your own peace of mind you should open the file from scratch, save it as a PSD and then you can either import your changes as masks or layers - or redo them from scratch unless it was very time consuming.

 

Not sure if this is true or not but if it's anything like audio you will want to keep the number of transcodes to a bare minimum and always copy to a lossless, uncompressed format that you work with. It makes sense to do the same when working on heavily compressed graphics. Just a general thought.

 

Should you lose you Alpha channel you can do this:

Go to Layer -> Layer Mask -> select From Transparency. Then go to Channels and duplicate the Layer Mask and name it Alpha.

 

This is something you have to do when working with Intels DDS-plugin a lot. I haven't used the Nvidia one much and not at all since Intel released theirs but it's supposed to handle alpha in a way more familiar to users.

Gotcha, super helpful tips. I really appreciate your time trying to help out. I'll give this another go later this evening and see if I can get it all straightened out!

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