Mismatching Hand and Body Textures (?)

[FadetoBlack04]

I'm still new to modding by myself. I can usually be able to resize an armor and modify textures that are already made, so I have a vague understanding of how some things work.

 

But my problem seems to come somewhere I can't find with my puny skills. The hands on my character seems to always be very glossy compared to the body. I've tried matching the colors between the main .dds and the hands .dds near the wrists. I've even messed around with Nifskope a bit with the NiMaterialproperty to see if that would change anything.

 

It's probably a simple fix but like I said before, I'm not very experienced so if there's anyone that can tell me what to try to change I appreciate it. Or if it has been discussed and solved before, that's just as good.

 

If ya request a screenshot to better understand my situation I'll see what I can do next time I'm on the forums.

 

-thanks in advance

[mrlosesafer]

I'm still new to modding by myself. I can usually be able to resize an armor and modify textures that are already made, so I have a vague understanding of how some things work.

 

But my problem seems to come somewhere I can't find with my puny skills. The hands on my character seems to always be very glossy compared to the body. I've tried matching the colors between the main .dds and the hands .dds near the wrists. I've even messed around with Nifskope a bit with the NiMaterialproperty to see if that would change anything.

 

It's probably a simple fix but like I said before, I'm not very experienced so if there's anyone that can tell me what to try to change I appreciate it. Or if it has been discussed and solved before, that's just as good.

 

If ya request a screenshot to better understand my situation I'll see what I can do next time I'm on the forums.

 

-thanks in advance

 

Iam not sure but ill take a shot at it. In nifskope click the icon that looks like a painters pallet... thingy.... and adjust the ambient ect well there are four to set up .. look at the vanilla one in nifskope to get the settings.

I hoped I understood the question correctly...? This should adjust the lighting , glossyness of/for the nif... right..

[DrakeTheDragon]

The trouble with this is, the material "skin" is controlled by the game engine. No matter what you set up here in any NIF, it won't make it into the game.

And it "shouldn't" either, because your body comes with your clothes, and even changing the glossiness of the default body meshes, you're still back at step one once you equip an item and it's no longer the default body meshes showing but the one from inside the item.

Are you going to change the glossiness of body parts in "ALL" items you could possibly equip next? I doubt it, and that's why changing the glossiness (or other material settings) of body parts doesn't have any effect to begin with.

Changing the texture file used will also only mess up the file, as those again are controlled by the game engine, or you won't have different textures for different races, as the NIF can only have 1 file assigned.

 

Now, down to the culprit, I guess you're using an Exnem-family body, like HGEC for example? I'm asking because you're talking of a "main" body texture and a "hands" texture, and this setup only exists with these bodies. All others either have 1 single file for all, no seams at the wrists possible, or 1 for each body part (Vanilla). That's where the "difference" comes from, two seperate files in use, but it can't be caused by material settings, like I explained, or the body meshes themselves would be faulty and no real body meshes. The difference is in the alpha channel (translucency) of the "normalmaps" ("..._n.dds") as this is what defines the shine, the amount of light that is reflected.

 

Now, I doubt the body mod itself was designed with differing normalmap alpha values so it will definitely cause seams between hands and body. Did you touch any of those files (either the hand or body (foot) normalmaps) already and forgot to do the same with the others? Or are you perhaps using a body mod with glossy skin textures but not a proper Stock Clothing And Armor Replacer for the items you're currently wearing, so you will have a Vanilla body (chest using Vanilla upperbody texture, which will not fit the body mod's textures at all) beneath them and only the hands are the proper meshes using the proper glossy skin textures? Then that's a prime explanation for why it doesn't fit. The texture files and normalmaps in use (body mod for the hands, Vanilla for the upperbody) aren't meant to fit to begin with.

 

Again, it's the normalmaps responsible for this, neither the skin texture files themselves nor the material settings or anything in the NIF. Of course, if it's a missing Stock Replacer, thus Vanilla meshes used, it "is" something in the NIF, the little something telling the game to use the chest textures (not from the body mod) instead of the foot textures (from the body mod), but it is nothing you could change about it unless you change it in "ALL" items you can equip, and that's what the Stock Replacers do.

 

I hope this information helps a little with your troubles.

 

For those curious, I found this out the hard way, as usual:

- If a mesh uses material "skin" (case doesn't matter), the game engine is in control of this material's actual settings and it is attempting to treat the mesh as a body mesh.

- Then the "name" of the NiTriShape/Strips node defines which body texture slot of the current race will be used, according to a keyword in said name.

- The keywords I could find out so far are pretty self-explaining:

"upperbody"/"arms", "lowerbody", "hand", "foot", again case doesn't matter. "tail" does also exist, but it was a little unreliable in my investigations so far.

- The ":" serves as a "remark" indicator, so everything coming after this is "ignored" by the game engine, only to be read by the user for information. That's why "foot:lowerbody" isn't uncommon in nowaday's body mods, telling the engine to use the "foot" texture but the reader that it is meant to be the "lowerbody" mesh.

- If the node's name doesn't contain one of those keywords, the game's likely to bug out trying to determine which slot to use, causing texture issues a plenty.

- If the material name isn't "skin", it doesn't matter whether there are keywords in the node's name or not. It is a regular mesh, not controlled by the engine, using the material settings provided in the NIF and the one single texture file assigned in the NIF.

- The texture file assigned to a body mesh doesn't matter to the engine, BUT if it doesn't exist or doesn't have a normalmap "_n.dds" file going along, it WILL cause the according error indicators (purple for textures, pitch black or invisible for normalmaps) ingame! Gotta love this engine, don't you?

(- There is some oddity when the assigned texture files don't follow the default location rules, but as they don't matter anyways, it's always best to leave them at default Imperial textures anyways.)

Edited April 15, 2012 by DrakeTheDragon

[FadetoBlack04]

It is an HGEC body.

 

I think my problem lies within those _n.dds files or the alpha channels. I actually should check it out with several other races just to see. But as far as issues with clothing replacers as you were suggesting, I was having this problem before even equiping anything (total nude). I wouldn't really notice this anyway if I were to have the normal set of clothes equipped as anything I have on is either a set of gauntlets or gloves, but its just one of those things that annoys me on the occasion I try to make a screenshot.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll mess around with what I can and then come back in a while with any results.

 

 

 

 

EDIT:

Apperantly the femalehand_n.dds got misplaced. After getting a hold of that everything seems to be better now.

Edited April 16, 2012 by FadetoBlack04