8 replies to this topic

[Soul_Slayer]

As some of you already know, I'm not a modder by any stretch of the imagination.

While looking on PES, I came across this rather cool looking sword, called the Wave katana, so I DL'ed it, only to find that it's only available as a two-handed sword, but I only use one-handed swords. I decided to see if I could fix this little problem myself, and I'm happy to be able to say that I did it.

Now to the problem, it's too shiny, especially in the wrong places, here's some pics to illustrate:






The origional sword is a modified version of VagabondAngel's two-handed Itami, so I used the one handed Itami to get what I wanted, and used NifSkope to point to the Wave texture, which is a MAJOR accomplishment for me, but how can I get it to be not so shiny?

Thanks in advance for any help.

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[Luchaire]

One way would be to adjust the alpha layer on the texture normal map. Darker = less shiny surface. A solid black alpha layer would be virtually shine-free.

[Spike4072]

I think this problem is in the Nif file. There is a material property in it that controls gloss and other thing. Also if there is a specular property that will make it more glossy.

[Soul_Slayer]

Here's another quetion.

The mod came with three files in the texture folder, the files are named:

wavekatana3.dds
wavekatana3_g.dds
wavekatana3_n.dds


I only pointed the nif file to wavekatana3.dds, could that be the problem, if so, how do I fix it?

[Luchaire]

No, the other two are the "glow" (_g.dds) texture and the "normal map" (_n.dds) - the game will find them automatically when it finds the main texture. The fact that it *has* a glow map at all, though, is probably why it... well, glows. See what happens if you rename (or outright delete) that texture to something like wavekatana3_g_OLD.dds.

[Spike4072]

No, the other two are the "glow" (_g.dds) texture and the "normal map" (_n.dds) - the game will find them automatically when it finds the main texture. The fact that it *has* a glow map at all, though, is probably why it... well, glows. See what happens if you rename (or outright delete) that texture to something like wavekatana3_g_OLD.dds.

If you remove the glowmap it will glow all over. The glowing is set in the nif but the glowmap tells it what parts to make glow. Without it everything glows. I was going to take a look at the nif but PES wont let me download it. It keeps telling me to log in even after I have logged in three times.

Edited by Spike4072, 16 May 2007 - 03:49 PM.

[Soul_Slayer]

VA's katana also has a glowmap applied to it, the three .dds files are very similar between the two swords, which is why I don't understand why it's acting like it is.

Even the grip on the sword has a reflection on it, and the areas that should have a reflection on them are overpoweringly bright.

[Spike4072]

Is the mod on another download site or can you send it to me? Or maybe just take a screenshot of the material property in Nifskope?

[SickleYield]

You don't even have to hand-tweak the weapon's material settings. If you rename it to a material that exists in Oblivion, I 'm pretty sure it will reset to those settings in game. I often use the "gold" and "silver" setting for things I want to be metallic but not ubershiny. Works great.

Alternately, click on the nitexturingproperty node for the sword. Look down at the area below. It should say "Apply_Hilight" or Apply_ something else. Try changing it to Apply_Modulate; this should get rid of the ubershiny when combined with deleting the glow map.

I learned this from Sshodan. Apply_Hilight is great for things you want to be really glassy or chromed, but otherwise it tends to be overkill.