How lighting interacts with this armour... ! Arggh! Help.

[ooofbaer]

See here:

 

http://s1172.photobucket.com/albums/r567/ooofbaer/

 

As you can see, the way light interacts with the feathers is problematic. Light hits the under side of the feathers, but never the surface. Basically, the surface is in shadow when it's supposed to be in light, and the under side is lit when it should be in shadow.

 

The effect is nice, but I'd also like to be able to see what the feathers look like when the sun or another light hits the surface, as I should do.

 

How do I fix this?

 

It was suggested that I

 

right click on the TriShape that contains the feathers and:

Mesh>Face Normals

Mesh>Update Tangent Space

 

Should fix things right up.

 

but that didn't work.

 

I'm in way over my head here. I've never modded meshes before. This is what I did in nifskope:

 

I opened the _0.nif file. I clicked on 0 NiNode. I clicked on 42 NiTriShape (the armour). Then I right clicked on the armour in the rendering screen and selected "Face Normals" and then "Update Tangent Space". Then I Save As the file and moved it the appropriate Data\ directory. I repeated this for the _1.nif.

 

It doesn't solve the problem... Am I doing something wrong?

 

Somebody. Please. Help.

Edited January 29, 2012 by ooofbaer

[SkjoldBjorn]

unable to see the pictures, it says it got removed or deleted.

[ghosu]

Jeah, no pics...you created a proper specular map (xxx_m.dds) as well ?

Really sound like a problem with the normals but if you already faced them...

Edited January 29, 2012 by ghosu

[ooofbaer]

Oh FFS. Link fixed.

 

Jeah, no pics...you created a proper specular map (xxx_m.dds) as well ?

Really sound like a problem with the normals but if you already faced them...

 

I'm just modding the Forsworn armour. I checked all of the available vanilla files, both the textures and the normals (including the alpha channels), and everything's as it should be. I'm pretty sure it's got something to do with the mesh, but this is the first time I'm using nifskope and I don't know left from right on it. I'm hoping someone can suggest the appropriate fix... ? Or if somebody would even open the .nif files (forswornarmorf_0.nif or forswornarmorf_1.nif) and see what the problem is...

Edited January 29, 2012 by ooofbaer

[ghosu]

You might upload your nifs?

I just replaced weapons until now but maybe i spot a known error.

 

While doing that you can delete the path for the specular map out of both files as well...just to test if the specular map is responsible for wrong light reaction (it's called xxx_m.dds). Your cubemap should be ok since you didn't change it...how you edited the mesh? Just altered the shape or added new polygons? If so, you made a new UV Map as well and your textures are updated correctly?

Edited January 29, 2012 by ghosu

[ooofbaer]

I haven't changed anything in the mesh (.nif). I'm modding the texture (.dds) of the armour.

 

I noticed that when I changed the feathers on the female armour, they looked like they were in shadow. (I can't tell if this is also a problem with the vanilla texture, because the vanilla feathers are black.) I went to the Bethesda forums, and someone suggested I

 

right click on the TriShape that contains the feathers and:

Mesh>Face Normals

Mesh>Update Tangent Space

 

Should fix things right up.

 

so I did that. But it didn't work.

 

Again: If there is a problem with the mesh, it's with the original mesh. I changed the mesh only after someone suggested this would fix the problem. It didn't. The problem is still there. It's not because of something I've done, as far as I can tell.

 

The .nif files I'm using with my texture (not mesh) mod are the ones that come with the game.

 

Thank you for trying to help, ghosu.

Edited January 29, 2012 by ooofbaer

[ghosu]

If you didn't touch the NIF (except facing the normal - that shouldn't lead to an error, even if you do it twice) then the error can only be with the textures.

 

You have to edit the original .dds, create a fitting _n.dds (in this case the old one should work as well) AND _m.dds

 

And I think the error is within the _m.dds - this is a black/white/grey texture that is responsible for light reflection when light hits the texture. Black = no reflection, white = maximum brightness - so if you only edit the dds and there was a non reflecting area before there won't be any light reflection when you step close to a fire or sunlight.

 

My knowledge is only basic, but i had similar problems i could solve by creating a proper specular map...you can open the NIF as i said before and delete the path to the _m.dds so the texture should look like the original dds ingame - if that is the case then the specular map was the error.

 

UPDATE: But the original _m.dds should work in this case as well so more important: How you saved the dds?

Edited January 29, 2012 by ghosu

[ooofbaer]

And I think the error is within the _m.dds - this is a black/white/grey texture that is responsible for light reflection when light hits the texture. Black = no reflection, white = maximum brightness - so if you only edit the dds and there was a non reflecting area before there won't be any light reflection when you step close to a fire or sunlight.

 

The Forsworn apparel doesn't have _m files -- the specularity (?) is handled in the alpha channel of the _n files. I checked the file now and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with any of the channels.

 

I'll create a new normal and specular map and see if that solves the problem. If it doesn't, then that means the problem is not with the textures. Don't know why I didn't think of that. Thanks. I'll let you know.

[Sunnie]

The specularity map is in the alpha channel of the normal map.

[ghosu]

How you saved the DDS? DXT1 or DXT5 with alpha? When you open the nif and click on the SHAPEDATA (the one you updated the normals) does NUM UV SETS in the below window say 1 or 4097...change that to 4097 if there is a 1, "HAS NORMALS" should be set to YES. Edited January 29, 2012 by ghosu