mgbeach Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Hey all- I am new to modding and actually just released my first weapon and armor retexture, the Heroic Dwarven Weapons and Armor. I wanted to next take a look at the Orcish set and when I opened up the archive I saw an unfamiliar "_d" extension on the color map files. I think that implies that the alpha file will affect more than just transparency but I'm not sure. When I looked at the alpha channel in photoshop it looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/3OaZk.jpg It appears to mask some of the fur textures into shape but I don't really get why that is. Any information would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FavoredSoul Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 (edited) To save on polygons Skyrim uses Alpha Transparency Maps to simulate the appearance of more complex geometry. As you can see in the image of the orc armor below, game models can be masked in the exact same way raster/vector images can in Photoshop and Gimp. Anything that has been masked will simply not appear when rendered in game. Because of the mask, in the left image the fur looks like a piece of mesh with a hundred sides. The right image shows what the mesh actually looks like without the mask applied. http://www.favoredsoul.com/images/TESV-2011-12-30-12-29-03.jpg Edited December 30, 2011 by FavoredSoul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgbeach Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 Thanks so much! I know very little about the nuts and bolts of 3D models but you made this make a lot of sense to me. Looks like I can move forward with modding all the Orcish stuff now. Thanks again, and have a happy New Year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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