Question about NiAlphaProperty

[Andyno]

I accidentally fixed that. I just copy/pasted the whole Glass branch, and it works. I'm pretty sure I did this method before, and it didn't work. Ahh, NifSkope... :wallbash:

Anyway, since I didn't learn anything new from this problem, please, look at my mesh, and tell me what I was doing wrong. Maybe you'll find some more messy things (like a 2nd collision that has its own branch, for example :rolleyes: ).

Edited December 5, 2017 by Andyno

[Mktavish]

I accidentally fixed that.

 

Anyway, since I didn't learn anything new from this problem,

 

Nah you're always learning something when modding. Even the people helping most the time.

 

I think you're selling yourself short ... I mean cheese and rice ... you have been modding for how many years now ? And your very adept at what you do with the geck imo .

 

So ... sorry ... I am just going to go ahead and say this public , for some outside opinions.

 

You really should consider releasing it for public beta testing , once we get these few loose ends tied up.

 

I mean there is a lot of people who publish alpha stage content for testing. So beta ain't no big deal .

In fact I think it is the industry standard now ... even for professionally .

[Andyno]

Yes, after all that years of modding I got pretty decent skills in GECK, IMO. :tongue: But we're talking about NifSkope in this thread, right? :wink: That piece of software is marvelous, yes, but it gives me everytime a headache when I'm trying to do something I never did before. :wacko: I was always wondering how those like pixelhate lerned so much about it, since there's very little amount of tutorials on the web... to me it looks like he must be one of the developers or something... :rolleyes:

[Deleted1205226User]

Good that you found a solution by yourself.

You asked me to look for anything else to correct, here's how I've proceed:

2 Collisions and 4 NiTriStrips are constituting your mesh.
The 4 NiTriStrips have 4 different textures.
3 of these textures have Alpha parts.

Conclusion: The NiTriStrips with a DXT1 texture (no Alpha) doesn't require a NiAlphaProperty.
By having a look at the UV mapping of the 3 remaining NiTriStrips, I can tell only one (the glass) actually requires Transparency to be enabled.

After selecting the NiTriStrips, I expand the Properties of the 3 NiTriStrips in the Block Details window and remove the NiAlphaProperty entry.

Only the glass NiTriStrips is left with a NiAlphaProperty. Its Flag is set on 4844 with a threshold of 120, which is pretty standard setting. Out of curiosity, I would test a flag on 4333 with a threshold of 0, which is often found with pure glass texture.

Now, by removing the NiAlphaProperty entries, I left holes in the structure which can lead to random crash. I rely on NifSkope to fix it wih the "Auto Sanitize before Save" option, enabled in Menu > File .

To complete the Alpha part, I select each BSShaderPPLightingProperty and in the Block Details window I look at the Shader Flags, uncheck the SF_Alpha_Texture flag where it is not needed and make sure the one in the glass part is present.

While looking at the BSShaderTextureSet, I noticed that EnvCubeMaps were referenced, while the SF_Environment_Mapping flag was not enabled in the BSShaderPPLightingProperty.

I have enabled them here but you have to decide what aspect you want.
If you keep the EnvCubeMaps, you need the SF_Environment_Mapping flag enabled. And vice-versa.

In the Details of the BSShaderPPLightingProperty there's a setting named " Envmap Scale" In V1 of NifSkope and "Environment Map Scale" in V2 but actually these are more a strength setting. It makes the effect more or less subtle. Unfortunately the effect is not rendered in NifSkope.

Then I would check the different NiMaterialProperty, especially the one with a Glow Mask, its Emissive Color and Emit Mult which combined will give the Glow effect.

The Collisions look OK, although in game the decals don't show on metal parts. I moved the metal collision out of the dummy node and attached it to the metal part. This seems to do the trick.

Analyzing the mesh and correct it took me less than 10 minutes, writing this and trying to make it, hopefully, understandable took me more than 40 minutes.
I can't evaluate the time I needed to learn and understand this.

To have a maximum control over the possibilities offered by the GameBryo Engine on a mesh and to make it clean and optimized in a couples of clicks, Nifskope is the contrary of an enemy and time is the Master.

I hope that, now, you also have the feeling that you have learned something.

Pix.

[Andyno]

Conclusion: The NiTriStrips with a DXT1 texture (no Alpha) doesn't require a NiAlphaProperty.

By having a look at the UV mapping of the 3 remaining NiTriStrips, I can tell only one (the glass) actually requires Transparency to be enabled.

You should tell this to Bethesda, since they put these here. So, why would they do this? Why should they use something that is not required? o_O

 

I rely on NifSkope to fix it wih the "Auto Sanitize before Save" option, enabled in Menu > File .

 

So you recommend to run this process before every save?

 

While looking at the BSShaderTextureSet, I noticed that EnvCubeMaps were referenced, while the SF_Environment_Mapping flag was not enabled in the BSShaderPPLightingProperty.

 

Where can I find EnvCubeMaps? While looking at the BSShaderTextureSet I see no such thing.

 

I moved the metal collision out of the dummy node and attached it to the metal part.

 

I'd definitely like to know how you did this. With that collisiondummy node it looks pretty messy.

[Mktavish]

But we're talking about NifSkope in this thread, right? :wink: That piece of software is marvelous, yes, but it gives me everytime a headache when I'm trying to do something I never did before. :wacko:

 

Ya sorry I derailed the thread :pirate:

 

Honestly I just don't even talk about nifskope and blender if you noticed ? That's how I avoid the headache :happy:

[Deleted1205226User]

You should tell this to Bethesda, since they put these here. So, why would they do this? Why should they use something that is not required?

I guess for the same reason they leave other bugs and we need an UP.

 

 

 

So you recommend to run this process before every save?

Have it checked and it'll work for every save.

 

 

 

Where can I find EnvCubeMaps? While looking at the BSShaderTextureSet I see no such thing.

 

In the BSShaderTextureSet, when the slot of the EnvCube map is used.

 

 

I'd definitely like to know how you did this.

 

Basically by de-linking the collision from the Dummy node and relinking it to the desired node.

Again a situation where explaining this correctly and in details would take a lot more times than the 2 clicks to perform it.

 

You have to understand that a nif is just a collection of blocks (Nodes) each with a specific function, linked together.

Once you know what parts do what and how to attach them to each other, you are simply Legoing.

 

I'll come with a series of guides that should help with basic manipulation, soon.

[Andyno]

In the BSShaderTextureSet, when the slot of the EnvCube map is used.

 

Ahh, I suppose it's the texture with _m prefix...

 

I'll come with a series of guides that should help with basic manipulation, soon.

 

Probably the news of the day! :thumbsup: I'll be eagerly waiting...

[Deleted1205226User]

Ahh, I suppose it's the texture with _m prefix

6 Slots for textures

 

1 Diffuse/Alpha - Texture/Transparency - Name.dds

2 Normal/Specular- Relief/Specularity - Name_n.dds

3 Glow Mask - Mask for Emissive color - Name_g.dds

4 Parallax Map - Depth effect - Name_p

5 Environment Cube Map - Reflection projected on the object - Name_e.dds

6 Environment Cube Mask- Mask for the reflection cube - Name_em.dds or Name_m.dds