How do I make this texture

[paintballmaster254]

Would some one be able to tell me how to make this texture for oblivion. I made it in the 3D program I use and can give the texture channels I used, I just don't kn now how do duplicate it for oblivion. Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

Matt

[SickleYield]

What 3d program did you use? I use Blender so I won't be much help with Max or Maya.

 

However:

 

If the textures are procedural (created in and by the 3d program), you may or may not be able to export them. I know how to do this in Blender but not other programs.

 

Either way, you will need to save the textures into your Oblivion/data/textures folder somewhere. I suggest a folder with your name and/or the name of your intended mod, as in Data/textures/nameofyourmod/.

 

The textures will need to be saved as .dds, which most 3d programs don't export, so you will need to do that using GIMP or Photoshop or another 2d program. I normally save as DXT3 compression with mipmaps. There's a GIMP plugin HERE.

 

Then you will need a normal map for every texture. There are plugins for GIMP and Photoshop that create normal maps for you. (GIMP PLUGIN) ( PHOTOSHOP PLUGIN The normal maps should be saved to the same folder as the regular textures. Each one should have the name of the texture plus _n - that is, if the texture's name is texture.dds, the normal map should be texture_n.dds.

 

Then you will need to assign the textures to the mesh using NifSkope. There's a tutorial for this HERE. That's if you already have the mesh ready for use in Oblivion and not just the textures. If the weapon is just in your 3d program you will need to export it in a way that Oblivion can use. If you look around the site I just liked you to you will find tutorials for that and many other things.

[paintballmaster254]

I use Cinema 4D, I know that I can't export the texture for oblivion, thats why I need help "recreating it in Photoshop/ Nifscope

[ihateregisteringeverywhere]

Can't you export those textures at all?

[paintballmaster254]

No, and its not really a "texture" its a material color with different channels applied. I guess what I'm trying tomsay is that there is no image, just color and an envirornment channel with a specific effect.

[SickleYield]

Is there a UV map on the object? Without one it's not going to work for Oblivion.

 

If there is, you can look at the object in NifSkope, right-click on it, and choose texture--export UV. Then you can save the UV map to wherever you like and use that to get the texture the right shape.

[Vagrant0]

PLEASE use images on multiple lines so that it doesn't stretch the page. There is no bottom scrollbar within the forums, so doing things like this can make it hard to read responses or see your images.

 

As for your question, The easiest way would probably be to do a top town mapping style for the weapon and export the UV-map. Then, after you've added some lighting to remove any shinyness or glare, take renderings at exactly above the weapon, without perspective. You then use those renderings, adjusted to fit within the areas of the UV-map as the basis for your texture. The normal maps are a bit more touchy, but can also be based off that texture.

 

For the other 2 sides of the hilt, you will need to map those sides seperately somewhere else within that texture, then take 2 more renderings facing them straight on to use their texturing.

 

However, chances are that the weapon you made has quite alot of polygons, as curved surfaces are always high in polygon counts, so you may need to make a more simplified version of your weapon to apply the texture to. Typically, weapons should not have more than 1000 polygons. You may double this if the weapon will only be used in one instance, but more than that can reduce performance greatly. It is suggested that you use some program, like Blender to do this in since you can then export the mesh properly into .nif format.

[ihateregisteringeverywhere]

I asked because 3ds max lets you export materials as textures. Was wondering if that fancy program of yours had a similar function - which it probably does not.

[paintballmaster254]

Thanks for all the help, and sorry about putting the images on one line. The program I use doesnt't have an export feature for the material, but I can export moddels and UV maps. I just had an idea on how to get a similar effect, how can I make an object shinny around the edges (kinda like an inverse enviornment reflection) and can I make the reflection a certain color?

[ihateregisteringeverywhere]

Create a normal map in gimp/photoshop, The alpha chanel of this map controlls the specularity. White being shiny, black being mate. Don't use any of those extremes though, it look weird in-game.

 

I *THINK* that spec maps for oblivion have to be grayscale. But I know, that normaly you can create coloured spec maps and those reflect a certain colour. You could test that.