Modified a texture, but too shiny??

[soulslayerzx]

I researched and read about this before, so I used the Fallout 3 archive thing and extraced the nocturnaloutfitf.dds and it's nrm version.dds. I opened the nocturnaloutfitf.dds in photoshop and just changed the colors by: going to hue/saturation and desaturating it a bit, changing the hue so that the trimmings went to purple and the rest of it was black, then I think I increased the contrast. I did not tamper with the normal map at all. So then, I renamed the .dds and its nrm.dds that was no altered at all. Then, I go to texture set and locate the nocturnaloutfitf.dds, gave it a name and hit ok. I think the problem was right here. Unless I had to add some alpha layer to the .dds that I edited cuz all I did was ctrl + j to make a copy in case I messed up. Then, I saved it. Forgot how to do alpha layers and stuff. But yea, it might be a setting in the texture set entry too cuz I didn't do anything with it. If no one replies, I'll just go find the original nocturnaloutfit texture set entry and modify from there so it contains the settings, rename it. Cuz in game, it has my custom texture now that I put it in an arrmow addon and then made it into a new armor by assigning that armor addon to the armor. But it's just too shiny. Like it's plastic with gloss painted all over it. Anyone know what to fix?

[vineyard]

try to tune down the brightness of this _n file in texture file

[Zaflis]

Shininess is sometimes in the xxxxxx_s.dds but it's also possible that your normal map is made wrong, in which case you can make it transparent, to "hide the problem under the carpet".

[Matth85]

Something being shiny lies in the specularity. This can be it's own map, or it can be the alpha of the normal map. The tip is to find the specularity map then tone it down. If there is no specularity, I would recommend making one by grayscaling your difuse texture and work on getting the values right. Bright means shiny, whilst dark means not-shiny. No specularity translates to all white, which looks a lot like plastic.

It could also be that the shader is set to make it shiny, which is fixed in nifskope itself.

 

It's hard to answer without knowing the problematic area.

 

Cheers,

Matth

[MaelstromDesign]

TO clarify, what shader settings effect this glossiness?

[soulslayerzx]

The original normal map of the nocturnal robes was not altered and the original files looked fine. I only tampered with the non-nrm file.dds do I still go mess with the nrm? Edited March 26, 2012 by soulslayerzx

[soulslayerzx]

Okay nvm. I still need help, so in my custom world the nocturnal robes are very glossy and shiny in creation kit. Do I have to configure lighting for each world. I even deleted the normal map from the directory and it's still just as shiny, I think I set the contrast to max which look fine to me in photoshop in the .dds, not nrm.dds . Do I have to lower down the contrast in the nocturnalrobes.dds?

[trees415]

Okay nvm. I still need help, so in my custom world the nocturnal robes are very glossy and shiny in creation kit. Do I have to configure lighting for each world. I even deleted the normal map from the directory and it's still just as shiny, I think I set the contrast to max which look fine to me in photoshop in the .dds, not nrm.dds . Do I have to lower down the contrast in the nocturnalrobes.dds?

No, in fact decreasing the contrast will make it brighter, though I believe you're using the term contrast incorrectly. Rather, you will need to reduce the brightness of your texture. Most of the time, textures will appear to be much brighter in-game than how they appear in photoshop. Try adjusting the brightness of the texture so it appears slightly darker in photoshop than you would like it to be. When the texture renders in-game, it should be fine. Just remember that you should be making all of these changes prior to DXT compression (converting the file to dds format).

 

I also wanted to point out something a lot of people seem to misunderstand. It is never a good idea to completely remove all specularity (which would be done by "blacking out" the alpha channel of the normal map), as it will significantly degrade the quality and detail that the normal map produces for the texture. Instead, make your alpha channel very dark, but do not completely black it out. This will allow the texture to retain important surface detail without producing the undesirable glossy sheen.

 

Edit: Also, I know you were just doing it as a test, but it's never a good idea to remove the normal map for a texture. DXT compression significantly degrades the quality of your texture, and the normal map is meant to supplement the texture with detail as a result. Thus, if you remove the normal, you're texture will look pretty bad when it renders in-game.

Edited March 26, 2012 by trees415

[soulslayerzx]

I think I saved the .dds in a wrong format then It's like dxt 5 interopolaced alpha, but I think I accidentally deleted the alpha layer...

[trees415]

I think I saved the .dds in a wrong format then It's like dxt 5 interopolaced alpha, but I think I accidentally deleted the alpha layer...

It's a channel, not a layer. There's a big difference between the two. In Photoshop, select and copy your texture, then go into the channels tab (usually near layers), and if the alpha layer is there, then select it and hit paste. If it isn't there, then just hit the button towards the bottom of the menu that says create new channel, and then simply paste your texture onto the alpha channel. Once you've done this, the alpha channel should look like a greyscale image of your normal map texture. Then just tweak the brightness settings, and save in dds format to compress it again. Personally, I find DXT3 to be the most ideal format. I often get problems with DXT1, and DXT5 is just an unnecessary waste of disc space.