SSE Gemstone textures getting "blurred" after editing the mesh

[xardud]

Hi folks,

been modding for some months now, but this will be the first time ever I have to make a post asking for help about any modding issue. No amount of searching or googling can seem to bring any answers to my problem this time, so might as well see if any of you guys here can help sort this out. :sad:

 

So, I'm in Outfit Studio editing the mesh of a circlet (from a mod, editing for personal use) in order to fix some clipping issues it has with certain head types. It's all well and good, until the gemstone in the circlet immediately becomes odd and blurry in the texture/refraction. Some pictures for demonstration and comparison:

 

Before editing

After editing

 

The amount of editing doesn't seem to matter either; as soon as you begin modifying the gem mesh the slightest bit, even just moving it a fraction in either xyz-direction, it becomes this blurry. A while back I managed to find a solution that could fix this issue to some extent, or at least temporarily (right-click on mesh(es) > Properties > Geometry > untick "Skinned"). So afterwards when you go into the CK and redirect the new mesh to the ArmorAddon, it looks mostly fine (except for a slight blurriness in the refractions). However once in game, the color of the gem is off. If I wanted it to have a purple amethyst color for example, it would appear purple in the CK, whereas in game it would appear transparent/white-ish (like a diamond).

 

As far as I managed to figure out on my own, this might have something to do with the UV-map? Or at least something about the textures of the gem not adjusting with the edited mesh accordingly? Unfortunately I'm not yet very experienced in 3d-modelling, texturing and whatnot. But if my suspicions are right, and this is an issue that will require some more advanced mesh/texture editing--- I'd still be grateful if anyone of you could redirect me to some helpful step-by-step guide in how to properly edit the textures and meshes.

 

Lastly, I should point out that I might have noticed a slight "blurriness" in other textures I've edited, though they never were as apparent or problematic as those of edited gem meshes. Also, this doesn't seem to be a problem exclusive to Outfit Studio, since I got the same results after exporting and editing in various other 3d software.

 

Keeping my fingers crossed and hope anyone out there can point me towards a solution! Been struggling with this issue more than I like to admit... :wallbash: :sweat:

[cumbrianlad]

I'm not the expert on this but I just thought I'd say that if either of those turned up in my game, I'd like them.

 

That said, all I can offer is my Nifskope experience for editing UV.

 

Open up the file, click on the tri-shape in question in the render window, right-click and select 'Texture', then 'EditUV'. This will bring up a separate window of the texture with all the nodes displayed. Note that this separate window disappears behind the main Nifskope window if you click anywhere back in the main window. I find it easier to re-size the Nifskope window so that I can see both at the same time. This is sometimes necessary because changes in the UVeditor are not always visible without rotating or zooming the object in the Nifskope render window. (You think you've got the right parts but they're on the other side!)

 

With that done, click on any node in the UV editor that you think is relevant to the part you want to edit. Right click that and 'Select Connected' should select all nodes connected to that one. I say 'should' because it can be hit and miss. If it gets all of your gem parts, you should be able to click and drag them around the texture. I say 'should' here because sometimes Nifskope insists on simply stretching the node you selected. If that happens, 'undo move' and right click on it and select 'Scale and translate selected'. Enter any x or y value and it will move these into another part of the texture. You can then move them around normally.

 

You can also use the 'scale and translate selected' or 'rotate selected' to edit only the (now yellow) vertices that are displayed. Scaling allows you to edit the scale of just this bit of the texture: a bit like the UV scale in the BSLightingShaderProperty but more useful, since you aren't re-scaling the whole texture... just the bit you're interested in. Rotate can be handy, too. Sometimes, especially when applying another texture to a vanilla item (eg, you want an ancient Nord texture on a High Hrothgar chair), the texture doesn't look right however you translate or scale individual parts, but by rotating one it looks fine!

 

Hope this is of some use to you.

 

For answers concerning meshes, I'll hand over to someone who actually knows what they're doing!

[xardud]

Thank you so very much for the info! If nothing else, it will come in handy later on! :happy: (Nifscope is another area where I have much to learn yet...)

 

I never got as far as editing the nodes/vertices though. Decided to open up the original mesh and my modified mesh separately in Nifscope and compare their respective UV-maps side-by-side, to detect any anomalies in the edited one. But while doing that, I discovered that they look exactly the same. That is, the vertices/nodes are positioned in exactly the same positions against the UV (which also looks the exact same), so it would seem there's nothing I can do with regards to editing the UV of the problematic mesh towards the better. :sad:

 

So it seems the problem lies elsewhere, likely an issue with a mesh itself. I'm absolutely at a loss though, and hope immensely more help can be given here :sad:

[cumbrianlad]

Sure, I see where you're going now, but whilst I could guess at answers, my comments would be little better than that... guesses. I wonder about all sorts but I'd rather hand this to someone better than me.

 

Still pleased the Nifskope stuff may be of use sometime... All the best, mate.

[xardud]

I've been thinking of all sorts of things too, even far-fetched things like maybe my graphics driver isn't up-to-date or something? But that still wouldn't quite make sense, given that the unmodified gems look perfectly fine in-game.

 

Thanks again! And I really appreciate the help and feedback regardless! Fingers crossed that someone might eventually come with a solution. Until then, I might have to give google yet another few tries. Been thinking if maybe I could ask the mod author about this. I'll update here if by rare chance I'd come up with anything, of course. :smile:

[Hanaisse]

Gemstones typically have an inner mesh and an outer mesh, both very similar but for adding different effects (sometimes textures) to them.

 

From the looks of the pictures you may have inadvertantly grabbed the inner mesh and pulled it outside of the outer mesh (or vice versa), resulting in the warped look. Hard to tell without seeing it firsthand though. Use the wireframe feature (W key) in Outfit Studio to check where each mesh is located then use the increase/decrease brushes to push verts around if that's the case.

 

Or, I'd suggest starting over, use the scale tool to increase on Y if that's what you needed to do to resize. If you do feel you need to increase certain sections I'd also suggest using a larger brush, selecting all the mesh shapes at the same time (CTRL+select) and make sure everything moves together.