Nifskope Questions(s)

[KaptTorbjorn]

Thanks BarefootWarrior ... It would have been sssooo much easier if Bethesda had just included a full body under every armor/clothing mesh and set the files so that they could have 'invisible' parts where needed <sigh> ah well ... Maybe I should make a 'mod request' that someone create a 'modding resource' of every outfit in game with a body ... Looks like I might have to learn how to use Blender <shudder> I played around a bit with it a while ago, but <egad!> it's a cumbersome, clumsy, counter intuitive program to use.

 

Guess what? I didn't understand what you meant by this until today. It was one of those 'wtf' moments when I saw what you were taking about. I could not believe what I was looking at. I am creating a modified texture of the 'ragged pants' or prisoners pants to make a pair of ragged shorts as it were just to experiment with alpha textures. The alpha in my texture is fine, but...umm..well, there is no butt...or anything else for that matter. Nothing, lower legs and then nothing up to the waist? I don't get it, the avatars are 'wearing' the clothes or armor items, and they couldn't give a full body mesh? This is the damnedest thing I have ever seen.

 

Sooo..I do have a full nude male mod that came up recently and it is nicely done, thought I'd try to 'copy branch' in NifSkope of my modifed pants over to the nude body mesh (after a certain part was removed :rolleyes: ) and I can't get that to work either. If I wasn't confused before, I sure am now.

 

Then I tried to modify the 'underwear' nif and to see if I could copy the properties of the loin cloth thing and use that to place my modified pants to the underwear nif...guess what again? There isn't anything under the loin cloth either. Gonna have to write this project off for a while, shame too, made a nice texture. :wallbash:

 

You need to add an alpha channel to the mesh in nifskope:

http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope/Change_texture#Enabling_Alpha

 

As for just removing parts of the armor through image editing, it's very simple, you need something that can open dds files and edit alpha channels, such as Photoshop w/ the Nvidia DDS plugin, then go to channels and edit whatever you want transparent to be black. Sec, I'll get pics to explain:

 

So I'll use the wonderful 'Wolf Armor Remix' that can be found on the nexus here to explain:

First off I open up the texture I want to edit with the Photoshop + nvidia DDS plugin and get a screen like this (notice in the channels section in the bottom right there is one labelled 'Alpha' that is completely blank [meaning it will display in game everything that it detailed in the texture file...nothing will be transparent):

http://i.imgur.com/yNJyk.jpg

 

 

Say I want to edit out one of the chainmail parts to show part of the character's arm or leg, I selected the chainmail, then go to the alpha channel and fill the selected section in as black:

 

http://i.imgur.com/lQWYE.jpg

 

 

Then I just check to make sure I have everything selected by viewing the alpha channel as well as all the colour channels (RGB):

http://i.imgur.com/0cwG6.jpg

 

Done. Save, overwrite, load up your game and the part you edited out of the alpha wont appear in game.

 

If you have any other questions just pm me, I hardly ever check the forums

Edited January 5, 2012 by KaptTorbjorn

[Perraine]

KaptTorbjorn : Thanks for the help! Really appreciate your info ... I kinda had an idea that was the case, although I use Paint.net generally because I find the interface and controls easier to use, plus it supports .dds natively and apparently when saving .dds files as DXT5 it automatically adds the Alpha (of course) but it also Automatically makes any transparent parts black, so Ive never really paid a lot of attention to it before, most of the time this is OK but sometimes it doesn't work quite right and gets it wrong somehow and you end up with the dreaded black body parts in game ... I have got gimp as well and it's great for editing/customizing the Alpha channel so using both programs (one to edit texture + one to edit Alpha works great) ...

 

My other real problem is that I want to edit more varieties of clothes and armor but I don't really like the CBBE body mesh, however so many other modders seem to like girls with elephantiasis, so I guess I've go to learn how to copy/paste full body meshes inside of armors/outfits <ah well, keeps me out of trouble>

 

Seriously, Thanks again!

[KaptTorbjorn]

KaptTorbjorn : Thanks for the help! Really appreciate your info ... I kinda had an idea that was the case, although I use Paint.net generally because I find the interface and controls easier to use, plus it supports .dds natively and apparently when saving .dds files as DXT5 it automatically adds the Alpha (of course) but it also Automatically makes any transparent parts black, so Ive never really paid a lot of attention to it before, most of the time this is OK but sometimes it doesn't work quite right and gets it wrong somehow and you end up with the dreaded black body parts in game ... I have got gimp as well and it's great for editing/customizing the Alpha channel so using both programs (one to edit texture + one to edit Alpha works great) ...

 

My other real problem is that I want to edit more varieties of clothes and armor but I don't really like the CBBE body mesh, however so many other modders seem to like girls with elephantiasis, so I guess I've go to learn how to copy/paste full body meshes inside of armors/outfits <ah well, keeps me out of trouble>

 

Seriously, Thanks again!

 

Yea it doesn't really matter much, I'm more used to photoshop and I find I get the job done quicker with it but its personal preference really. When saving in DTX5 it does that as the alpha is interpolated rather then being a seperate channel (as is the case with DTX3), I find DTX3 to be easy as if you mess up with what you want to be editing you just change the seperate alpha, rather then having to have a backup due to the texture file being DTX5. GIMP I only really use for editing normal maps.

 

Tbh, as to the CBBE/Elephantitis thing: I'm of the mind that unless you're making yet another 'Super skimpy revealing slutty sexy' armor mod then there's no real point making it massive breast mesh compatible, since people probably won't dl it anyways, haha. Modding is much like writing, once you decide to mod for yourself as you do to write for yourself, it becomes much more enjoyable.

 

Im off now, shoot me a PM if you run into trouble with anything.

[BarefootWarrior]

Are you sure that mesh is not full? Isnt that just done with alphas witin the texture?

 

You are correct, this is simply a full mesh (pants) using alpha to hide the rope and lower part of the pants. There seems to be a full body mesh under, but not texture in the mid section, that is, lower waist and upper legs.

[BarefootWarrior]

Thanks BarefootWarrior ... It would have been sssooo much easier if Bethesda had just included a full body under every armor/clothing mesh and set the files so that they could have 'invisible' parts where needed <sigh> ah well ... Maybe I should make a 'mod request' that someone create a 'modding resource' of every outfit in game with a body ... Looks like I might have to learn how to use Blender <shudder> I played around a bit with it a while ago, but <egad!> it's a cumbersome, clumsy, counter intuitive program to use.

 

Guess what? I didn't understand what you meant by this until today. It was one of those 'wtf' moments when I saw what you were taking about. I could not believe what I was looking at. I am creating a modified texture of the 'ragged pants' or prisoners pants to make a pair of ragged shorts as it were just to experiment with alpha textures. The alpha in my texture is fine, but...umm..well, there is no butt...or anything else for that matter. Nothing, lower legs and then nothing up to the waist? I don't get it, the avatars are 'wearing' the clothes or armor items, and they couldn't give a full body mesh? This is the damnedest thing I have ever seen.

 

Sooo..I do have a full nude male mod that came up recently and it is nicely done, thought I'd try to 'copy branch' in NifSkope of my modifed pants over to the nude body mesh (after a certain part was removed :rolleyes: ) and I can't get that to work either. If I wasn't confused before, I sure am now.

 

Then I tried to modify the 'underwear' nif and to see if I could copy the properties of the loin cloth thing and use that to place my modified pants to the underwear nif...guess what again? There isn't anything under the loin cloth either. Gonna have to write this project off for a while, shame too, made a nice texture. :wallbash:

 

You need to add an alpha channel to the mesh in nifskope:

http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope/Change_texture#Enabling_Alpha

 

As for just removing parts of the armor through image editing, it's very simple, you need something that can open dds files and edit alpha channels, such as Photoshop w/ the Nvidia DDS plugin, then go to channels and edit whatever you want transparent to be black. Sec, I'll get pics to explain:

 

So I'll use the wonderful 'Wolf Armor Remix' that can be found on the nexus here to explain:

First off I open up the texture I want to edit with the Photoshop + nvidia DDS plugin and get a screen like this (notice in the channels section in the bottom right there is one labelled 'Alpha' that is completely blank [meaning it will display in game everything that it detailed in the texture file...nothing will be transparent):

http://i.imgur.com/yNJyk.jpg

 

 

Say I want to edit out one of the chainmail parts to show part of the character's arm or leg, I selected the chainmail, then go to the alpha channel and fill the selected section in as black:

 

http://i.imgur.com/lQWYE.jpg

 

 

Then I just check to make sure I have everything selected by viewing the alpha channel as well as all the colour channels (RGB):

http://i.imgur.com/0cwG6.jpg

 

Done. Save, overwrite, load up your game and the part you edited out of the alpha wont appear in game.

 

If you have any other questions just pm me, I hardly ever check the forums

 

Thanks much for this, I'll see if I can get this changed. :thumbsup:

 

In my case, I need to tell NifSkope that I do not want any alpha properties on the underlying body mesh. Since I don't have a full grasp on the commands yet, I'm trying ti get this figured out.

 

EDIT: forget that...there is no mesh for the upper legs and waist, thought there was. :facepalm:

Edited January 5, 2012 by BarefootWarrior

[BarefootWarrior]

Here is a screen shot of the project I am working on. I need to get a full body mesh under the modified pants / shorts. I modified the pants texture into shorts and am using alpha to hide the lower legs and upper waist, and rope tie of the 'ragged pants'.