[Tutorial] Enabling EV mapping with NifSkope

[Hallodria]

This is a quick and dirty tutorial, written as per request, on how to enable the missing environment mapping in some meshes of the popular bikini-armor mod by nisetanaka using the open-source tool NifSkope. No more and no less.

 

Obviously you only need to "fix" the environment mapping on the meshes that should have it, but don't. In the most recent mod updates most of them have been fixed by the good modding team already, however they missed a few. If for example your Ebony- or Dwarven bikini is all dull and matte instead of shiny and full of rich highlights chances are you either need to download the most recent mod version... or you need to fix the mesh :wink:

The mesh edit will be performed on the Bodyslide base meshes of the mod, simply because it is half the work to edit just one mesh per item, instead of two. Naturally you need to rebuild the edited armor pieces in Bodyslide before the enabled environment mapping can be enjoyed in-game.

The editing technique is exactly the same should you want to edit any pre-made meshes for your type of body-replacer instead, however in this case you have to edit both meshes for 0- and 1-weight of each armor piece. This is not optional! They both need to be edited in exactly the same way!

 

1. If you don't have it already, download NifSkope from https://github.com/niftools/nifskope/releases
For the purpose of this job it is irrelevant if you get a pre-alpha release or the latest stable version. The posted screenshots were made with the current pre-Alpha 6.
Decompress the downloaded archive into a folder of your choice and create a shortcut to NifSkope.exe somewhere where you will be able to find it again, like on your desktop.

 

2. Decompress the downloaded bikini armor Bodyslide files into your Bodyslide installation directory. All the files that we need to look at for this tutorial will be - and must be - in the following subdirectory:
[drive letter]\Bodyslide and Outfit Studio\Caliente Tools\Bodyslide\ShapeData\The Amazing World of Bikini Armor
In this directory will be 806 elements (based on the mod version current as of 2017-09-17), half of which are *.osd files and of no interest to this job, the other half are the base meshes, some of which will need to be edited. Don't worry, not all of them need to get worked on, lol.

Fortunately the meshes are named in such a way that it's pretty clear which ones to choose. For example, the Dwarven boots #1 need fixing. They are named Dwarven Bikini Boots 1.nif.

 

3. Double-clicking the file of that name (not the Dwarven Bikini Boots 1.osd file - it really helps if you have set up your Windows to show file extensions, hint, hint...) and NifSkope should start up and open the file. If not, right-click the file, select "open with..." and navigate to NifSkope.exe and make sure that Windows remembers this option ("Always open this file type with that executable").

 

4. On the left side in the NifSkope Window is your block list. Some meshes, such as this one, have multiple blocks (called NiTriShapes) that need to be edited one by one, others have just one. Right now you only see >0 NiNode. Click on the tiny triangle to expand the block list.

 

5. Click on the triangle beside each >NiTriShape to expand them, too.

 

6. Finally, click on the triangle beside >BSLightingShaderProperty to expand that. All our work will be done in there.

 

7. Highlight the line that says "7 BSLightingShaderProperty" to to show the actual properties in the bottom left pane.

Your NifSkope window now should roughly look like this:

 

 

8. Double-click the value that says "Default" next to "Skyrim Shader Type" to enable a pull-down menu. In this pulldown-menu, select "Environment Map". It's the second value from the top.

 

9. Double-click the value that begins with "SLSF1_Specular" next to "Shader Flags 1" to enable another pulldown-menu. In this pulldown menu, set the missing checkmark for SLSF1_Environment_Mapping. Leave the other checkmarks alone.

 

10. Depending on the NifSkope version you use, there may now be a new item at the bottom of this pane (in older versions it was always there). This item is called "Environment Map Scale" and is presently at a value of 0.00000. Double-click on that 0.00000 to make it editable and type 1 into this field. Hit enter.
Fortunately the values for Glossiness, Specular Color and Specular Strength are already correct so this concludes the edits of BSLightingShaderProperty... but we're not done just yet.

 

 

11. Select the line "8 BSShaderTextureSet". In the new bottom left pane that you can now see, verify that there are four paths exactly as shown.

 

 

12. In some other meshes, there may be only the top two texture paths. This means that you need to copy and paste the bottom two paths from a correctly fitted mesh. The position where you paste the paths is also critical - note that there are two empty lines between the _n texture (that's the normal map) and the _e texture (that's the cubemap). Not one empty line and not three. Two!
It's also important that the textures are all from the same set, in this example, the male (!) DwarvenArmor - never mix textures from different sets, e. g. the diffuse map from some gauntlets, the normal map from the cuirass, the specular map from boots... BAD! Very BAD!
It's simple though, they mostly have the same base name with different suffixes, like _n and _m. The cubemap is always the same for all the gear from the same set, i. e. all Dwarven stuff uses the Bronze_e cubemap.
Other armors of course have different textures and cubemaps. Always open a known working mesh as a template and look for the correct values!

 

13. Repeat the above edits of BSLightingShaderProperties for all other >NiTriShapes, if there are any. In our example, that would be numbers >9, >16, and >23. Don't forget to expand the blocks and double-check the texture paths are correct, as in steps 11 and 12.
One exception: if the armor piece or segment is mostly cloth and little to no metal, it is probably not a good idea to enable environmental mapping for that NiTriShape because more often than not, it will result in the cloth parts becoming all glossy and shiny. An example for such a mesh is the Dwarven Cape (Dwarven Bikini Cap.nif) - better leave that on "Default".

 

14. Double-check all the edits you performed again. If you forgot even one, it was all for nothing.
Save and close.

 

Oh and btw, please leave all the other values and blocks of your meshes completely in peace and untouched unless you know exactly what you are doing. The best that can happen if you butcher a mesh is that it will look weird and ugly in-game. The worst that can happen is that it will crash your game.

 

If I made a mistake or if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reply to this topic.

Thank you for your attention and your patience.

Edited September 17, 2017 by Hallodria

[Hallodria]

Once you're quite firm with NifSkope and got the hang of this, you can even try to enable environmental mapping on armors where Bethesda themselves neglected to do so - and of course on their bikini counterparts as well.

You can find the resources you need to accomplish that (namely cube- and specular maps, as well as good template meshes) in this excellent mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/74871/?

Edited September 17, 2017 by Hallodria

[Hallodria]

Just in case anyone is wondering whether or not it's even worth it, this is what proper environmental mapping (right), as opposed to "Default" shader type (left), will do for you:

 

[lucidstorm1]

HI FRIEND

 

how are u?

 

do you have more of such great tutorials?

 

best