So what's the deal with cube maps?

[Stemin]

I tried doing a texture edit on a dwarven weapon and didn't remove the cubemap from the .nif file (because I wasn't sure if I could just remove the file entry) and it still had a bronze tint to it.

 

Can I just remove the bronze.dds entry from the nif file?

[Urwy]

Cubemaps are the texture files that are the actual reflection your seeing on a shiny sword/item.

So if that reflection has a bronze tint to it, your weapon will have a bronze reflection.

 

You could just remove the cubemap, but i dont think it'll have a positive effect on the look of the weapon ingame.

However, you could use a different cubemap.

If you have a BSA tool like BSA opt or BSA Browser, you could extract all cubemaps form the Textures.BSA file and have a look which one suits best. Another way to do this is by using the cubemap from the item that is closely related to your model in terms of material it is supposedly made from.

[Stemin]

Cubemaps are the texture files that are the actual reflection your seeing on a shiny sword/item.

So if that reflection has a bronze tint to it, your weapon will have a bronze reflection.

 

You could just remove the cubemap, but i dont think it'll have a positive effect on the look of the weapon ingame.

However, you could use a different cubemap.

If you have a BSA tool like BSA opt or BSA Browser, you could extract all cubemaps form the Textures.BSA file and have a look which one suits best. Another way to do this is by using the cubemap from the item that is closely related to your model in terms of material it is supposedly made from.

 

I extracted the cubemaps a long time ago when I extracted the textures, but all I see in them are little squares and I was never able to tell what they were supposed to amount to.

 

I will try your suggestion of switching to a different cubemap first before I remove it.

 

Another question.... do the cubemaps work in conjunction with the specular maps, or do they work independent of one another?

[Matth85]

The cube map is, well, a cube unwrapped. Which is why it is squares.

 

do the cubemaps work in conjunction with the specular maps, or do they work independent of one another?

The specularity decides how much will shine, the cube map decides what you will see reflected. I.E. If you have a cube map with a bronze color, it's what you will see reflected on a piece of metal inside Skyrim. On the other hand, if it is a forest cube map, you will see a green tint and a forest reflection.

 

Specularity: Values of shine.

Gloss map: Gloss of the specularity.

 

Environment/Reflection map: Value of reflection

Cube map: What is being reflected.

 

That's all the maps you need to worry about with shine and reflection.

[Matth85]

I extracted the cubemaps a long time ago when I extracted the textures, but all I see in them are little squares and I was never able to tell what they were supposed to amount to.

 

Cube map is a cube unwrapped, I.E. squares. That way the reflection can be seen from every angle.

 

Another question.... do the cubemaps work in conjunction with the specular maps, or do they work independent of one another?

I'll give you a rundown of the important maps:

 

Specularity map: Level of shine

Gloss map: Gloss of Specularity

Reflection/Environent map: Level of reflection

Cube map: What is being reflected.

 

So they work in independent of each other, in the way that you do not need a cube map for a specularity map. However, for any realistic shine you need a specularity map and a cube map. I'd also use a reflection map, and even a gloss map, for the more realistic stuff.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Matth85

[Stemin]

The cube map is, well, a cube unwrapped. Which is why it is squares.

 

do the cubemaps work in conjunction with the specular maps, or do they work independent of one another?

The specularity decides how much will shine, the cube map decides what you will see reflected. I.E. If you have a cube map with a bronze color, it's what you will see reflected on a piece of metal inside Skyrim. On the other hand, if it is a forest cube map, you will see a green tint and a forest reflection.

 

Specularity: Values of shine.

Gloss map: Gloss of the specularity.

 

Environment/Reflection map: Value of reflection

Cube map: What is being reflected.

 

That's all the maps you need to worry about with shine and reflection.

 

Ok... another question.. possible related, possibly not.. North Skybound Watch has this cool little area (or maybe it's the connecting zone, don't remember exactly) where there's jazabay grapes actually vining up the wall. I thought that was pretty cool and wanted to make my own grapes, with a more green hue than the yellowish leaves of the jazabay. So I duplicated the .nif's and textures, but when I went to edit the textures I noticed there are four squares of color in the florajazbay01.dds file (under plants) Are these likely to be some kind of cube map?

[Matth85]

Hm...

 

I don't got the textures unpacked, so I can't really what you mean.

Have you looked at the UVW of the flora? Perhaps the UVWs are simply put iside whatever color they want, and isntead of spending time on it they simply added squares of color?

[Urwy]

just had a look at the files you mentioned.. The nif and it's dds.

as far as i can tell those blue, green and purple squares arent used at all. Atleast not by the mesh for the jazabay grapes.

I think those squares serve as a sort of palette colours... just like those large leaves next to it.

 

Here's what i saw: Left to right: Florajazabay01.dds, the UV map for the Florajazabay01.nif, the nif itself.

[warning] Huge image! [/warning]

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/ZBGqE.jpg

 

 

 

I think it pretty much speaks for itself :)

Edited August 4, 2012 by Urwy