Question about NiAlphaProperty

[Andyno]

I got a mesh with 2 materials (glass, metal). Both should have a NiAlphaProperty with the different values (Flags, Threshold), but since I exported the mesh in Blender, they have all values identical. If I change one, it applies to all others. So how do I achieve to have both materials with proper Alpha Properties? Here is the file, if someone's interested (Nexus doesn't allow me to upload this kind of file, so I had to put it somewhere else, sorry about that).

 

Thanks in advance...

https://www.mediafire.com/file/6t1guqwd7d4gf2v/BMdlc05tubecorin01.nif

[skittered]

As far as I recall, Nifs can have only one material per piece, and any pieces that share a material will have the material properties combined on export.

 

Your glass portion of the mesh needs to be a separate piece from your metal portion, and they both need to have a unique material applied to them so they can be adjusted separately.

Edited December 4, 2017 by skittered

[Andyno]

Thanks, but how do I achieve such thing? How do I separate one material from another? Is it something related to NifSkope, or do I have to export the mesh again with different settings?

[skittered]

Each piece that needs a different material needs to be a separate object in blender. You give each object a unique material with unique properties.

 

When you're ready to export, make sure to select all of your objects and they will export to a single Nif.

 

An other way of doing it is to build the transparency/opacity you want for each piece directly into the main image and just make sure your UV mapping is accurate.

 

 

 

Unfortunately however, I can't really provide much more help. I've never been good at simplifying things that have steep learning curves.

Edited December 4, 2017 by skittered

[Andyno]

Yes, I know about that. I actually have 4 NiTriStrips in the mesh (3 for metal, 1 for glass). I never had such problems before, but maybe that's because I got meshes with only 1 NiAlphaProperty. Funny thing is, that all that import/export things in Blender I did because I need a more detailed collision. I tried to copy/paste only collision from my mesh to original mesh (see the picture), but it doesn't allow me to do it (it writes: failed to map parent link BSFadeNode|Scene Root).

 

 

I understand. NifSkope is a good headache maker...

Edited December 4, 2017 by Andyno

[Deleted1205226User]

When you import into Blender, make sure the option "Combine Properties and NiNode" is not checked.
This is the reason why NiMaterialProperties can "disappear".

Note that NiAlphaProperties value and threshold are reseting after being passed into Blender, so they need to be readjusted in NifSkope anyway.

[Andyno]

There's no such option like ''Combine Properties and NiNode" in my Blender (2.49b). If you mean the button "Combine NiNode + Shapes Into Single Mesh", then yes, I got it always unchecked when importing. Otherwise I wouldn't end up with 4 different NiNodes, right?

 

Yes, I know that, but when I adjust one, it applies to all other NiNodes. It wouldn't allow me to have 2 different values in the mesh.

[Deleted1205226User]

I'm not at my computer so I do it from memory, "Combine NiNode + Shapes Into Single mesh" is what I meant.

 

If unchecked it should leave with the same number of NiNodes, NiTriStrips, etc

If checked it will combine everything that is possible into one.

 

See if there's any option (at Import and Export) proposing to optimize properties.

 

When adjusting it applies to all other NiNodes because they are sharing the same property.

 

I've grabbed your mesh and will look into it. You should hear from me in a couple of days.

[skittered]

Apparently the NiAlphaProperty is a shared property, a single instance that applies to all shapes. If you open the vanilla NIF and change any one of the NiAlphaProperty you'll see it changes all of them. If it works like that in the vanilla NIF, which obviously has unique textures for each piece, then it's not likely it can be done any differently in any custom NIFs either.

 

It seems that if you need or want different transparencies for each piece you're going to need to build it into the main images.

[Deleted1205226User]

Let me correct this.

NiAlphaProperty can be a shared property.

But you can have several, each which applies to a different shape inside the nif.

Having several NiAlphaProperties can lead to oddities if they have different flags, some of the flags will not mix with each other.