Textures are showing up with too much light reflection. Please Help&#3

[clintmich]

I just recently got back into FNV modding after taking a long break from it. And it seems some of my knowledge has been swept away after modding Skyrim for the past year.

 

 

I'm currently working on a Metal Gear re-creation mod for FNV. I've created numerous new models and textures without an issue. But my problem seems to be with the normal maps alpha channel. All my new objects are showing up shiny or highly reflective, and I can't figure out why.

 

Here's what I'm doing in GIMP:

 

- I create an alpha channel on my texture

 

- create my normal map

 

- add a layer mask set to black

 

- erase part of the mask to adjust what parts I want shiny

 

- apply the layer mask

 

- export from Gimp in DXT3 format

 

And here's the result I get:

 

http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/images/1520317-1361834389.jpg

 

 

 

 

I had this issue before but was able to resolve it with some tutorials and hints I found online. But now it seems everything I try ends in the same result. Half of the mesh shows up fine, and the other half is reflecting way too much light.

 

Does anyone have a solution for this problem? This issue is driving me nutty.

[brothershogo]

I instead off hand painting your specular map, I would just desaturate your color map play with the brightness/contrast settings and use that as your alpha.

[clintmich]

How would I set that as the alpha?

[brothershogo]

Copy your desaturated color map into your alpha channel......... Select all, copy, select your alpha channel, and paste.

[Ghogiel]

Copy your desaturated color map into your alpha channel......... Select all, copy, select your alpha channel, and paste.

GIMP doesn't have channels.

 

The creating a layer mask and filling it with black should be in effect, once exported, be making a black alpha channel.

 

Anyway. Just check the alpha channel to actually see that it has worked. If you don't use a program that supports channel editing, you can use many other programs to check DDS channels and confirm how things have exported.

You can try RADDS.

 

http://devblog.ctdp.net/2009/12/dds-utilities-released/

 

Just select alpha from the channel drop down.

 

Also check the gloss value of the material. If it is too low, it'll break.

Edited February 26, 2013 by Ghogiel

[brothershogo]

 

Copy your desaturated color map into your alpha channel......... Select all, copy, select your alpha channel, and paste.

GIMP doesn't have channels.

Oops my bad.

 

[clintmich]

Thanks for your responses. Sorry it took so long to reply. Been working a long shift today. Anyway Ghogiel, I downloaded that dds viewer. and checked into my alpha map. And low and behold it is totally black! I had already applied the black layer mask. As for the glossiness material property in Nifskope: I have it set for 12. But it don't seem to make any difference what I set it too. It seems to do nothing. So I'm still stuck with the result you see above in the picture.

[clintmich]

Ok so I did an experiment. I attached a vanilla normal map(with a black alpha) to the model just to see if I get the same shine. And I do. The vanilla alpha behaves exactly the same as mine. So therefore it must be a mesh issue. Guessing here.

 

What settings do I have to change in Nifskope to lower the reflective properties? I've messed around with Glossiness,alpha,and Emit Multi under the NiMaterialProperty. But none give me the results I want. Any ideas are welcomed. Thanks.

[clintmich]

--------SOLVED-------

So I did some more experiments and I have located and FIXED the problem. Here's what was going on:

 

- The new building mesh is fine. (no issues there, everything was set up properly before exporting from Blender)

- The normal map was built correctly. (it works as intended)

- The Layer Mask on the alpha had a black layer applied to eliminate plastic like glossiness (This was not the issue as I had previously thought)

- It turns out the problem was with the actual texture itself being to bright.(Not the normal map) I'll explain further, and tell you what I did to fix it.

Below is a couple pictures showing 3 buildings. Two vanilla buildings, one with a dark texture, and one with a light texture, and my new building mesh and texture. In the upper left picture, you can see my texture closely resembles the shine effects present on the side of the vanilla light building. And the dark building has none! Hmmm...... this got me thinking, maybe my texture is to light, I need to darken it up.

This is what I did to fix it:

- Opened my main texture in Gimp(not the normal map)

-Under the Colors tab I chose "Brightness-Contrast"

- I then pulled the brightness slider completely to the left making it as dark as it would go, then clicked OK

-Then I exported


You can see the results in the far right of the image below.

http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/images/1520317-1361950398.jpg