Creating textures - negative space won't stay that way

[dianacat777]

All right, I'll get to the point. I'm a new 'modder', if you can even call me that. A dabbler, maybe. Or just a curious person without a clue what she's doing. Long story short; I want to retexture things - I have access to photoshop, and convert dds files to pngs before working on them. The main areas of what I texture come out fine. But the parts that stick out, like fur details? Well...

 

You get this.

 

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d197/purricat777/skyrimddsfilesarehaters.jpg

 

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong? I've tried re-adding transparency, I've just left those bits of file entirely alone... but it still does this, and I can't work on anything remotely complicated unless I can understand what I'm messing up on.

[darthsloth74]

By the look of things you haven't saved the file with the alpha channel. Those black triangles you can see are the areas that would be transparent if the alpha channel was used. If you are saving a DDS colour texture with an alpha save as one of the following:

 

DXT1 1bit Alpha (Note this is not very good for a refined alpha channel, typically where fur and cloth are concerned)

DXT3 Explicit Alpha ( Usually the best result in most cases, the alpha channel is much neater)

DXT5 Interpolated Alpha (Only really of use when saving Normal Maps, the alpha allows for a very refined specular map when there are a lot of shades of grey)

 

Hope this makes sense. If not let me know and I will try to explain better. :)

 

Also why convert to PNG? Save the dds texture as PSD and you will keep the existing alpha channel anyway.

[dianacat777]

I didn't know I could play with DDS files on photoshop.

 

When I save a DDS file, I don't see any options for any sort of Alphas - just DDS. That's with my converter, though. :/

 

Thanks, though, going to try and use photoshop again.

Edited December 23, 2011 by dianacat777

[darthsloth74]

What version of Photoshop are you using? You can get Nvidia's DDS plugins here. http://developer.nvidia.com/content/nvidia-plug-adobe-photoshop-32-bit-85108161945

 

There is also a 64bit version here http://developer.nvidia.com/content/nvidia-plug-adobe-photoshop-64-bit-85108161945

 

However a strange bug exists in the current version depending on the version of Photoshop you have. Another alternative is the the Compressonator from ATI:

 

http://developer.amd.com/tools/compressonator/pages/default.aspx

 

If have any problems, feel free to ask and I guarantee someone will be able to help you out further with this. :)

[Septfox]

I didn't know I could play with DDS files on photoshop.

 

When I save a DDS file, I don't see any options for any sort of Alphas - just DDS. That's with my converter, though. :/

 

Thanks, though, going to try and use photoshop again.

That's because DDS doesn't handle alphas, not really.

What it does it save the alpha channel, which is what you edit in PS.

 

I dunno what version of PS you're using, but the alpha channel is accessed in the same box as Layers in PS6.0 (the version I use). Here:

http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa336/septfox/alpha.png

 

Hopefully it's somewhat the same for you.

 

If by chance the channel doesn't exist at all (which is what it sounds like), you can just click the little button at the bottom next to the trashcan button to create a new alpha channel.

 

After that, you might be able to get away with simply copying the normal image into the alpha channel. Then, save it in any transparency-enabled format (I'm pretty sure PNG does; PSD definitely does) and convert it to the DXT format of your choice (as above, DXT3 works pretty decently).

 

 

Also yea, getting the DDS converter for Photoshop streamlines things considerably, and I've never personally had problems with it.

 

Edit: also make sure the transparency controller/flags on that block (not sure which Skyrim uses) is working properly/set in the nif.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Septfox

[Ghogiel]

(as above, DXT3 works pretty decently).

:(

 

Do I need to explain these again?

[Septfox]

Buh?

 

But it does, where massive amounts of quality/detail aren't needed :\ it's not like the player is likely to run up and shove their face into the werewolf's head fur and snuggle it and tell it what a good werewolf and what a pretty werewolf it is and

 

*ahem* I personally use 8.8.8.8, but that's only because the save process takes a second whereas compressing it lower takes several. As for the source texture, a copy should always be kept in PSD.

 

Or is there something else I'm missing about the higher compressions? Please, by all means.

[darthsloth74]

Septfox: Yeah I'm at a loss to understand that too. The above method I pointed out has always worked for me no problem. So I'm sure we've both probably missed something important. :wink:

 

In regard to the DDS plugin I asked Mr.Dave a couple of days back about a problem relating to saving DXT1 no alpha and he confirmed that Nvidia had introduced a bug into the latest version where 9 out of 10 times the texture saves with an unwanted white alpha. I found I had backed up an earlier version of the plugin that works bug free but to be honest I'm now using ATI's compressonator instead.

[dianacat777]

Eeph, I feel bad now. You've all been so helpful... but photoshop's on my mom's computer, and I can use it, but if I download anything, she'll mangle me horribly and spit out my bones into a pile.

 

As it is... Photoshop (CS2, if that means anything) won't open ddses, so I guess I'm stuck with simple textures for now.

[dazzerfong]

@ Ghogiel:

 

I'll explain this time:

 

DXT3 is an inferior version to DXT5: same file space, but inferior quality. In other words, just use DXT5.