Need help!!!!

[hornplayer832]

I've been using the creating an armor mod for skyrim tutorial on the wiki site and I now know how to make the standard dds file and the _n file for my mesh. However I'm at a brick wall. I've tried everything to try to make a texture that is both of these things ---> Shiny and Transparent. So far I have been able to get transparency by adding an alpha mask layer to my dds file. But the shinyness is eluding me. If I use a cubemap it adds reflections but not exactly, "shininess". Please help! I've tried everything but I'm very bad at texturing! :( Thank you so much for your time!

[Werne]

To get the mesh to be shiny you need to add an alpha channel to the normal map (the one ending with _n). The whiter the part is in the alpha, the shinier it will be in game.

[hornplayer832]

To get the mesh to be shiny you need to add an alpha channel to the normal map (the one ending with _n). The whiter the part is in the alpha, the shinier it will be in game.

 

Thanks for replying! Should I use the add alpha layer mask option for the normal map? or should I start with the dds that has a layer mask and just make the normal map from that?

[JaydoDre]

Thanks for replying! Should I use the add alpha layer mask option for the normal map? or should I start with the dds that has a layer mask and just make the normal map from that?

 

Should not matter how you do it, as long as you ensure that your normal map ( _n.dds) has an Alpha channel and then, when you save the normal map, you save it as DXT5 Interpolated Alpha type or any other type that will leave the alpha channel intact.

Edited June 15, 2012 by Jedo_Dre

[hornplayer832]

Thanks for replying! Should I use the add alpha layer mask option for the normal map? or should I start with the dds that has a layer mask and just make the normal map from that?

 

Should not matter how you do it, as long as you ensure that your normal map ( _n.dds) has an Alpha channel and then, when you save the normal map, you save it as DXT5 Interpolated Alpha type or any other type that will leave the alpha channel intact.

 

okay well whats the difference between the gloss you get with the alpha in the normal map and the specular map? and thank you btw, that helped me, i finally got a bit of gloss!! :D

also, what textures need alphas?

Edited June 15, 2012 by hornplayer832

[Werne]

whats the difference between the gloss you get with the alpha in the normal map and the specular map?

Alpha in the normal map serves as a specular map on a Skyrim model.

 

what textures need alphas?

Normal map contains an alpha channel that is used as a specular map. Diffuse map sometimes contains an alpha chaneel that is used for transparency.