textures for a mod

[ulfricauditore]

I have created a nif model that work in game, but I don't know how to create textures for the mod. If anyone knows how to create new textures, not modify an existing one, can tell me how can I do this?

[David Brasher]

You can create and edit .dds textures in GIMP or Photoshop. GIMP is free and downloadable. The hard part is building the UV map in Blender or whatever tool you use. The UV map takes your three-dimensional model and makes a flat map of it for use by your texture. It can be hard to make a map that is not a Flying Spaghetti Monster mess, does not stretch your textures into low res lines, or does not have razor sharp lines between texture areas.

 

Once the UV map is created in Blender, it can be edited in NifSkope. You can go back and forth and back and forth between GIMP and NifSkope until you like how the model is textured.

[steve40]

You can make a UV template in Nifskope by right-clicking on your model and selecting Texture-> export UV. The UV will be saved as a tga file iirc. You can then open this file in your favourite painting program (eg. Gimp or Photoshop).

 

If you're not sure how the pattern on the UV template corresponds with your model, then draw numbers and reference points all over the template, save it as a dds then go back to Nifskope and add this dds texture template to your model. You can then see where the numbers are positioned on your model.

 

Now you can go back to your painting program. Create a new layer and make it slightly transparent so that you can see the UV template underneath. Start painting or clone brushing into the new layer. I find it best to paint a small area on a layer, then to create a new layer and paint another small area on it, and so on. That way if I make any mistakes I can simply delete that layer without having to start painting the entire texture again completely from scratch.

 

I also find it handy to first select the UV template layer and use the magic wand to select individual shapes, then make layer masks from them. Enlarge your selection by a few pixels so that the mask areas will be slightly larger than those in your template. This is so that you can paint slightly over the pattern lines, as this will prevent your texture from having visible seams when it is applied to the model.

 

When finished painting the whole texture, delete the bottom template layer (and any mask layers if necessary), merge all the painted layers and then save the texture as a dds (you need the nVidia dds plugin of course), then load it up in Nifskope.

 

To add new textures to your model, you will need to load your model in Nifskope, then look for the "BSLightingShaderProperty" blocks. They should have a child "BSShaderTextureSet" which contains the paths for the textures. You can change the filename to point to your new textures here, OR, you can leave that alone and instead, use the CK to create a new TEXTURE SET (under Miscellaneous in the Object Window).