How To Add Glow Maps

[Site Bot]

Article link: How To Add Glow Maps

 

http://www.coldchaos.com/tutorial/glow01.jpg

1) Open the model you wish to add a glowmap to in NIFSkope

 

http://www.coldchaos.com/tutorial/glow02.jpg

2) Change the Emissive Color to full white

 

http://www.coldchaos.com/tutorial/glow03.jpg

3) Add a "ITEMNAME_g.dds" texture call to the texture properties for each piece that will have a glowing part

(warning: this will "corrupt" the NIF so be sure you have a backup copy before saving!)

 

http://www.coldchaos.com/tutorial/glow04.jpg

4) Open the model's original "ITEMNAME.dds" in Photoshop (or comparable image-editing program)

(important: you'll have to do the following steps for each texture if a part using that texture will have something glowing)

 

http://www.coldchaos.com/tutorial/glow05.jpg

5) Create a new layer and name it something like "Glowing Pieces"

 

http://www.coldchaos.com/tutorial/glow06.jpg

6) On this new layer, mark the areas you want to glow with the color you want them to glow with

(brighter colors = more glow, darker colors = less glow)

 

http://www.coldchaos.com/tutorial/glow07.jpg

7) Create another new layer, name it something like "Black Blanket," and place it between the original texture layer (background) and your "Glowing Pieces" layer

 

http://www.coldchaos.com/tutorial/glow08.jpg

8) Merge all your layers. Your image should now look like a simple black image with a few bright spots on it

 

http://www.coldchaos.com/tutorial/glow09.jpg

9) Go into the Channels section and delete the Alpha channel (it is unused and only increases file size)

 

http://www.coldchaos.com/tutorial/glow10.jpg

10) Merge Layers and save the image as "ITEMNAME_g.dds" (DXT5, No Mip Maps)

[B1x]

If you could specify what expandable and where the variable you changed was, that would help.

 

Did you change the entire file, or just the section you were adding the glow to?

 

EDIT: Basically I lose you at "Expand Textures List".

 

Where is that?

Edited December 23, 2008 by B1x

[GileadMaerlyn]

Basically I lose you at "Expand Textures List".

 

Where is that?

 

In the "Block Details" view (F3) at the bottom of the window ;)

[HadToRegister]

So what happens to the nif?

Does the nif get saved?

It's not mentioned in the tutorial

and if the nif gets corrupted how is it used in a mod with an .esp?

Edited January 5, 2009 by HadToRegister

[archtemplar]

It works, but you forgot a very important detail:

 

You need to adjust the "emitmulti" value. In the nifs i was working with, they were defaulted to 0.0000, thus didn't light up.

 

Just change the value to something >0, to whatever suits your model.

 

Anyway, Thanks a bunch! My armour looks awesome now.

[Deleted1133902User]

I'd have to say that as far as tutorials go, this is a very poorly-written one. For people who are new to NifSkope, they will most likely have no clue what they are doing. On top of that, you never once say how to do something or get somewhere in this tutorial. You would basically have to already know about all of this before you can even start, which is not the makings for a good tutorial.

 

I would definatly re-write it if I were you because as it stands, it is a good effect to write a tutorial on, but it really is horrible as far as tutorials go.

[LHammonds]

exerticus, we (and you) should be grateful that people write any tutorials to share their knowledge.

 

Not every tutorial "should" be written with a complete newbie in mind. As a tutorial writer, you need to keep focused on the material you are trying to teach and writing a click-for-click tutorial is not always the best idea due to becoming overly complex, getting side-tracked or simply too long / scary to follow.

 

I tend to write articles in such a way that they can be used as "base" knowledge for other, more complex tutorials just so I can have the freedom to not repeat myself or cover topics that are really prerequisites for the material. Nobody wants to write a how-to article to cover a specific set of instructions if they also have to write instructions on how to use that base tools mentioned. Imagine trying to create a tutorial on how to do something in Blender and need to explain each and every little baby step of the GUI (basic navigation should be a prerequisite to the article...not part of it). Here is an example of a tutorial written for a particular purpose and references other tutorials to keep from loosing focus on the task at hand (in case the reader already knows how to do those tasks...if they do not, the have more to learn) How To Create New Re-Textured Items

 

With this all said, if there are no prerequisite articles that people can read to gain the basic knowledge, it would be a good idea for somebody to create such an article and have it link to from this one. Nobody is better suited to write such articles than the ones that are newest to the tool and still struggling to figure out the features (pros have difficult times trying to remember how it was like to not know their way around the tool).

 

exerticus, are you willing to re-create this article to remove all prerequisites or create the prerequisite articles?

 

LHammonds

[roguehallow]

I appreciated this tutorial very much. I would only like to point out that mipmaps *should* be generated when the picture is saved. Thanks!

[kyleboy]

Totally lost, should be using blender right?

 

Apparently a "nif" is not an accepted file type.

[gurachn]

Thanks for this.

Not a bad tut, if you know a bit about nifskope and Photoshop.

As Archtemplar says though, its important to add that the "Emit Multi" in the block details for the NiMaterialProperty needs to be changed to 1 or more.

That had me stumped for a bit.