VikingrUlfr Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 (edited) Can anyone help me with a simple texture problem? I am not able to deal with textures... I created a mod that I am still developing, but I got stuck in a problem. This is the problem (the glow of the hoods): A friend tell me that is a texture problem: specifically, a missing a texture. The specular map into alpha channel. It seems very, very simple for those who already know what to do. But I am exhausted from trying to resolve this... In addition to not finding a BC7 plugin for GIMP, I'm dont' know how work on this alpha channel thing. All my attempts after copying and pasting the PNG image (the hood_s that I created) leave the file completely transparent! Here is everything I used to create the texture of the new vigilant hoods: https://app.mediafire.com/m8bmagtntfkdi hoodBKP.dds and hood_n.dds these are the original files that I took in game data. hood.dds is the file that I created using the color of towerguardcoat.dds using a layer overlay in HSL Color mode. Edited January 5, 2021 by VikingrUlfr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxarturo Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 (edited) The "Alpha Channel" dictates how strong and how much light it will be reflected by the mesh that uses those textures. The "Alpha Channel" is created in your "NORMAL MAP": - Black reflects no light - White reflects full light To quickly create an "Alpha Channel" convert your "Diffuse Texture" into GRAYSCALE and then back to RGB, the amount of darkness of your converted texture will dictate the shines, since you are making a textile texture unless it is 'Silk' you want it to be as dark as possible. * Your wishing end result can only be achieved through testings, this is something you only learn by trial and error (the amount of reflectiveness of a meshe's texture). Now that you are done with your DARK DIFFUSE MAP load your "Normal Map" and create a new channel in it, it must be named "Alpha 1". - COPY > PASTE the DARK DIFFUSE MAP to your new created "Alpha 1" channel. - Save it as DXT5 or whatever else file type SSE uses that can hold an 'Alpha Channel'. You are done. Edited January 5, 2021 by maxarturo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumbincubation Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 Here are a couple of things. The first is a previous forum post about normal maps, and includes a step-by-step of what I consider "the old way," how I used to do them. It is pretty simple and will still work for basic texturing. https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/6713277-regarding-normal-mps-please-help-me/ The next is a video I discovered sometime later, which is how I do them now. This way is a bit more complicated, but I think gives you more detail in the results, though if you have something with chainmail or a sharp contrast in the required textures, you may still need to select only certain areas and create your normal/specular separately for each selection. Also, AFAIK, there is no BC7 plugin for GIMP yet, but you can download paint.net for free, and it does work with BC7. It also opens more quickly than GIMP, though that's all I can say because I haven't gotten far enough to learn all the controls yet. I still use GIMP for most things, simply because I'm more familiar with it, though I'm no longer locked out of BC7s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VikingrUlfr Posted January 7, 2021 Author Share Posted January 7, 2021 Hey guys, I noticed another very strange detail! The hood works perfectly when equipped by the player, if it is a female character. In the vigilants, only the female black elf characters do not have the strange glow. See: Player: Nord female NPC in front: Nord female NPC on the corner: Dark elf female It's the same hood. I added it myself. I generated these vigilants and they use the same random set of equipment. The hood is a set, the same set. I used B.A.E to extract the texture and mesh from the game original bsa files. Extract the files I wanted from the "warlock" folder. It is the only hood of the game in this format. Originally black. What I did was to recolor the texture and put the proper path in the mesh file. Is it still the same problem with the Alpha channel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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