3DS Max Textures

[Gormania]

I spent quite some time getting used to the way Fallout 3 handles textures, and retextured pretty much everything in the game in Photoshop. Now I decided I might try making some .NIF's, and after a while made some crappy models in 3DS Max. The only problem is, I don't know how to make a texture map for my models. I applied all sorts of colours in 3DS Max but (unsurprisingly) the .NIF was just plain white in NifSkope.

 

Does anyone know how to make a texture from scratch in 3DS Max?

[Baelkin]

If the textures don't show up in NifSkope, I think it's because of how your Nifskope is setup. To show the textures in Nifskope itself, you'll need to set the program to point at the correct file directories, otherwise it just uses the default material for rendering objects in the viewport. To setup NifSkope for showing textures, go into the Render menu and pick settings: In the general tab there is an Auto Detect Game Paths button which, when pressed, usually autodetects the folder path such that textures are shown.

 

If you already have NifSkope setup proper, I don't know what's wrong, however you can always right click the .nif files and select the GECK as the "open with..." option - this will allow you to preview the mesh with textures without having to load up the entire GECK. In fact, I'd recommend using this for previewing the textures as it displays the objects closer to what they will appear in-game than NifSkope does.

[Gormania]

If the textures don't show up in NifSkope, I think it's because of how your Nifskope is setup. To show the textures in Nifskope itself, you'll need to set the program to point at the correct file directories, otherwise it just uses the default material for rendering objects in the viewport. To setup NifSkope for showing textures, go into the Render menu and pick settings: In the general tab there is an Auto Detect Game Paths button which, when pressed, usually autodetects the folder path such that textures are shown.

 

If you already have NifSkope setup proper, I don't know what's wrong, however you can always right click the .nif files and select the GECK as the "open with..." option - this will allow you to preview the mesh with textures without having to load up the entire GECK. In fact, I'd recommend using this for previewing the textures as it displays the objects closer to what they will appear in-game than NifSkope does.

 

 

That isn't the problem, my NifSkope is set up fine. I can display textures, I just dont know how to make textures.

[Baelkin]

That isn't the problem, my NifSkope is set up fine. I can display textures, I just dont know how to make textures.

 

Materials that just consist of a diffuse color and not a texture image map isn't included in the exported .nif. If you make a material with a bitmap and export the mesh as a .nif, the NiTriStrips/shapesNode will have a BSShaderPPLightingProperty node in which the image used for the material you applied in 3DsMax is referenced.

 

This won't give you a working UVW template though, only export the texture along with the mesh in a .nif. To get texture files like those used in the game, you'll need to UVW unwrap your mesh, which is done by applying the UVW unwrap modifier to the mesh and using the tools on it to unwrap the shape such that it can be textured by people. There are tutorials on how to do this around the net, so I won't go into details how it's done here.

[Gormania]

Thanks!

 

I'll find my way around the rest of it, but thanks for getting me started.

[JustAnotherFool]

Also, it is very important that you have your textures applied to your model at the time of exporting it from max. I made a texture, but didn't apply it to my model and when I exported it it didn't create a BSSshader-etcetc so the model just appear white and I had no way of applying textures to it.

 

Good luck =]