theapeleader Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 (edited) So basically I'm on my maiden voyage and making a companion mod and I've decided I want him to wear an slightly edited version of the "Elite Riot gear", basically I've just been trying to get it to work so I've done something very simple and just changed the visor from red to blue. I can't find the texture set for the armor nor the helmet so I just went ahead and made my own texture set so I don't really know what it's supposed to look like. As such I'm sort of just winging it, but I've watched some youtube tutorials and I don't see what I'm doing wrong. So I unpacked new vegas BSA's, I needed the DLC4 one so I got that. Anyway here is an imgur with all the images of the maps, I've tried like everything and I've googled for a long ass time, I'm just probably not aware of the correct terminology and not sure what to look for. here is an imgur album with what I assume is all the images I need to show you guys? if you need more let me know, (going to bed so will check in the morning, been trying to get this to work for hours lol.)as a note I tried it ingame and it looks the same, super bright and doesn't look correct.https://imgur.com/a/uKmeAeA Edited July 31, 2018 by theapeleader Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubiousintent Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 The "shininess" of a texture is controlled by the "alpha channel". This and other texture/mesh terminology is explained in the "Glossary" page on "The Elder Scrolls Texture Guide (TESTG)" site. You need to read the Working with DDS/DXT Files (HTML article) by Gary "Buckaroo" Neely regarding the format you want to save your texture file using in order to get the alpha channel you need. You might want to also see the 'Armor & Clothes' section of the wiki "Getting started creating mods using GECK" article. -Dubious- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theapeleader Posted July 31, 2018 Author Share Posted July 31, 2018 I've looked through and I sort of understand it, but I get that the alpha channel controls "shininess" and I've noticed that on the default item(nvdlc04riotgearhelmetb.dds) when imported it does not have an alpha channel, but when I save it the DDS extension for photoshop gives it a alpha channel and I do not understand how to save it without one. It seems the alpha channel it's giving it is just pure white which is causing it to get all messed up, however I have no clue how to fix that. if anyone has experience with the photoshop DDS extension (the official one from nvidia is the one I'm using) then maybe they have the answer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theapeleader Posted July 31, 2018 Author Share Posted July 31, 2018 alright now i really don't understand what's going on, I have no clue where I'm going wrong, even the original files aren't working. https://imgur.com/a/LFfH9pe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubiousintent Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 As I understand it (I don't work with art; what I know has been learned in self-defense of graphic problems) you first save your "texture file" as DXT1 (no alpha channel) or DXT5 (with alpha channel) format first. Then you compress it into DDS format. Because the DDS file is compressed, you don't want to edit it (according to the Working with DDS/DXT Files HTML article). As mentioned, I don't create artwork, so I don't really know the different "paint" tools and their pros and cons. But if you are using Photoshop and it's DDS export extension is not carrying forward the alpha channel from your DXT5 formatted file, then you should check on Photoshop forums about the process. Alternatively you might want to see about loading the DXT5 file into another "paint" program to see if you get better results from it's export. Or send a PM to madmongo, devinpatterson, or EPDGaffney, who all have experience in this area. I would be interested in learning the solution. This seems to be something we should add to the wiki "Getting started creating mods using GECK" article. -Dubious- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devinpatterson Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 I don't have as much experience in photoshop as I do gimp, but the alpha is a layer and you should be able to delete the layer. I also think saving it in DXT1 as Dubious suggested should also flatten it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devinpatterson Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 Google says; To remove the alpha channel, click Layer->Layer Mask->From Transparency, then right click on the mask in the layer pallet and select Delete Layer Mask. If there really is an alpha channel that you'd like to delete, then you just drag that channel to the trash icon in the channels panel. Quite a few more out there along the same theme...,see if any of those help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devinpatterson Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 Also we can probably clear this up for you a *lot* quicker if you make the texture available to DL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devinpatterson Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 Also _g is glow map, on that nif it's used for the lighting effect (red glow) of the visor IIRC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theapeleader Posted August 3, 2018 Author Share Posted August 3, 2018 thanks for the response! if you look at my response #4 I use the original game files (or what I think them to be). here are the files, but like I said they are unedited and literally pulled from what fallout mod manager unpacked from the game, I used the original files to set it up in the geck and it still had the graphical issue without ANY changes to the files from me. I don't know how to upload the file when I try it says "you aren't permitted to upload this kind of file." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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