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Photoshop/texture help


bigblackguy

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I made a new texture for fallout 3 by extracting all the texture files with fallout mod manager, and edited a texture. The problem I'm having now is I don't know how to apply it to the game, As far as I know the G.E.C.K can't open dds files, so do I some how have to convert the dds file into a nif file, then open it with the G.E.C.K and then apply it with the G.E.C.K ? Please any help would be greatly appreciated.
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+90% of the time I use Paint.net because it's free, really fast, an doesn't require anything. GIMP 2.0 does the more advanced type of texturing but requires a DDS plug in and a Normal map plug in, also free. Photoshop would be about like GIMP but there are Nvidia tools that come as plug in's for it, if you can't find the DDS plug in then there is the old DDS converter.

 

In my mind if you don't have a design tablet an pen then why even bother to learn how to use professional tools. You should use whatever is the fastest for you. For example sometimes GIMP normal maps look better, an other times Crazybump normals look better. Most of the time I use crazybump though because it's faster even if I know it would look better in GIMP.

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Thanks but the problem isn't that I don't know where the DDS file is, I do, I just don't know how to put it in the game. I know that when you make a new texture like thing with nifskope it comes out as a nif file, and the G.E.C.K can open those files. But when you use adobe photoshop to make a custom texture it comes out a dds file, which can't be opened by the G.E.C.K, so I don't know how to apply it to the game.
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Let's say you have one single mesh that you want to use 20 different texture on to create 20 seperate items. Then it's less work to use the single mesh, but use GECK to create 20 different texture sets. Then you also use GECK to apply those texture sets to the model. This is done in the model selection for the item. You double click the empty boxes on each shape in the pick a model window, this brings up the interface to choose texture sets, but it only works on texture sets that are created in the GECK itself. This is a Form Id entry that basicly only holds the texture path data Texture/Your folder/Your project/texture.dds In the model selection you are only telling the game to use this form Id on this part of the mesh. Think of it like an override. It's a whole lot of trouble, but less work when you have to make a whole bunch of items using the same mesh.

 

Now say you have a single reskin. You need to use Nifscope to view the mesh. You need a fake data folder that holds your project textures. Then you need to point Nifscope to look in this fake data folder for textures. This will allow you to view textures on shapes with nifscope. Once you are there you need to learn how to read the structure of a mesh in order to find where the texture paths are. You can check the wiki. Look up, see that wiki button, it's "how to" Anyway. Crash course. Click one of the shapes in nifscope, this will highlight an area of the block list tree. Open that branch look for the plus sign, click that, then click the texture set, this will display the texture path in the block details. You can type in the texture path here, but you can also click the purple flower an navigate via windows.

 

Many meshes have more than one shape, often it's a lot of shapes. You can switch from show blocks in tree to show blocks in list. I think this is in the view tab. Anyway it allows you to see all of the branches in the mesh at once. Then you can adjust the collum for the names so that it's right on the end of one of the TextureSet lines. Then you'll notice that every line ends with ... or Set so it's easy to see how many an where they are. You can ignore this an do it the hard way, but I'm pretty sure you'll get tired of that. So it would be important for you to learn how to do this. Reskining a object is often changing many texture paths, not just one. So you want to find the easy way for you to do it. I use copy paste often too.

 

Once you get the texture paths set you save the mesh. Then move it an the textures into the game folder. This is your project folders.

 

Meshes/Your Funny Project Folder Name

Texture/Your Funny Project Folder Name

 

They should match. The names for the textures you create should also match.

 

M1911.dds

M1911_n.dds

M1911_m.dds

 

It isn't required to match names in order for it to work. However if it does match for example when you have a defuse/normal reskin situation. You can set the defuse path, copy it, paste that into the normal map path, an only have to add _n to get it to work. Which is easy an fast. Also you could just copy an paste it, then use the Flower, which it will open that folder. Sometimes a project folder can have a set of 6 or more textures which could be 18 or more seperate files, so in those cases the names matching helps you know what does what.

 

Everything that you make can go inside your main folders, but Sound files are more particular an will only work for certian paths or names.

 

Meshes/Your Funny Project Folder Name

Texture/Your Funny Project Folder Name

 

Sound/Fx/Wpn/Your Funny Project Folder Name

Sound/Voice/ Your .esp or .esm name (something like that)

 

If you just drop everything in those folders it will create a huge mess. There isn't a way to navigate thru that when you want to work or edit something later or even find it. So what you do is create subfolders. You see the same thing inside the BSA everything gets grouped together, then it's broken down into single project folders. Though it doesn't have to match what the pro's did in the BSA's. You can use silly an stupid names that makes it easy for you to remember.

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http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac156/grindedstone/Techsupport/SRFile2012_2_23_18_18_12_93.jpg

Adjusting the name collum for a Multiple reskin. Notice that all lines that are not texture sets end in ... while the Set part sticks out, making it easy to find the texture paths. If you click those in the block list, then it will display the texture path in the block details at the bottom of the screen, but you still need to open the + sign in order to see the path.

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http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac156/grindedstone/Techsupport/SRFile2012_2_23_18_30_53_375.jpg

The pain in the behind method, or at least when it's a single mesh. It can be a real time saver if you have many textures for a single mesh. There are other uses such as wanting to save harddrive space or for example first person weapon textures, but neither is very useful to us.

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