Hello folks,

Now let me begin by stating that modelling and texturing are really not my thing. I can do some basic retexturing and whatnot and make some basic edits to nif files, but that's about it.

I'm having some issues with some meshes and textures here. Here's what I did:

1. Extracted ShrineStone02.dds, ShrineStone02_n.dds from Oblivion's Texture BSA file
2. Extracted ShrineAltar01.nif from Oblivion's Meshes BSA file
3. Retextured ShrineStone02.dds and created a new normal map (ShrineStone02_n.dds)
4. Tested the changes in the game

Now, it worked perfectly, no issues whatsoever. I continue:

5. Renamed ShrineStone02.dds and ShrineStone02_n.dds to ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid.dds and ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid_n.dds
6. Renamed the ShrineAltar01.nif file to ShrineAltar01_COTD.nif
7. Edited the ShrineAltar01_COTD.nif file to make use of the COTD textures instead of the normal ones
8. Placed the new mesh in a cell via the construction set
9. Tested changes in the game

Once again, no issues whatsoever. Works perfectly fine in the game. I continue:

10. I create a few new folders (/Meshes/COTD/Dungeons/Misc)
11. I place ShrineAltar01_COTD.nif in the abovementioned folder
12. I create a few new folders (/Textures/COTD/Dungeons/Misc)
13. I place ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid.dds and ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid_n.dds in the abovementioned folder
14. I edit ShrineAltar01_COTD.nif to update the texture paths to their new locations
15. Tested changes in the game

Now here things go wrong. Pretty badly too. Whenever I move a mesh and the textures associated with the mesh to other directories, even when the mesh is updated with the new and correct texture paths, "lighting" no longer has any visible effect on these meshes in-game. What I mean by that is that if I place a lightsource near the object, the lighting isn't "placed" on the object, it just remains dark and "unlit".

Works just fine (Lighting is "applied" on the meshes/textures):
/Meshes/Dungeons/Misc/ShrineAltar01_COTD.nif
/Textures/Dungeons/Misc/ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid.dds
/Textures/Dungeons/Misc/ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid_n.dds

Does not work properly (Lighting is no longer "applied" on the meshes/textures):
/Meshes/COTD/Dungeons/Misc/ShrineAltar01_COTD.nif
/Textures/COTD/Dungeons/Misc/ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid.dds
/Textures/COTD/Dungeons/Misc/ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid_n.dds

I'm not sure what I'm missing here, but I'm sure it's something obvious, but as I said, modelling, texturing and all the creative stuff is really not my thing. I prefer scripting and that sort of stuff haha. Hope someone can point out the obvious.

Thanks in advance.

Trademark

I only have extremely limited knowledge of modeling and texturing. But from what i read when i was looking into it a while back (very long while lol) it was the normal map that caused light to be reflected of an object. From what you said is the problem, it sounds like it has something to do with the normal map.

Hope this helps.

The only thing I can think of is that the game doesn't like things being put in non-standard parent directories... Which really wouldn't surprise me. Have you tried using a more typical directory structure like:
/Meshes/Dungeons/COTD/ShrineAltar01_COTD.nif
/Textures/Dungeons/COTD/ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid.dds
/Textures/Dungeons/COTD/ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid_n.dds
And making sure that the texture paths on the nif are correct for textures on the .nif (there may be more than 1).

And, are we talking about just the reflected (white sheen) on the object, or the actual brightness of the face (how well you can see the texture in a dark cell)?

you've probably tricked the game into thinking you have no normal map.

The the diffuse texture ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid.dds doesn't work with the normal map ShrineStone02_COTDAyleid_n.dds. It would be ShrineStone02_n.dds in this case. underscores are special flags hardcoded in. the first underscore has to be followed by the letter N or G if it is going to be a normal or glow map.

you use the underscore to differentiate between different diffuse maps using the same normal map. bethesda does this by going texture.dds, texture_a.dds, and the shared normal map will be texture_n.dds.

of course you can use anything after the underscore, ie texture_blue.dds, texture_blahblahblah.dds. but you can run into an issue if you use something like texture_green.dds or texture_night.dds. as that might confuse the game into trying to render it as a glow map or normal map.

I haven't noticed any issues with using data\meshes\starwars\ then have sub-directories for weapons, armor, character, etc. and the same with textures\starwars\. this keeps all of my assets under a completely new folder and never mixes my stuff into the games main files, makes keeping track of everything a lot easier. Which could get very spiderwebby otherwise.

A white specular map- usually caused by saving the normal map as a dxt5, but without adding a specular map to the alpha channel- will reflect like a blinding mirror in game. bling!

a missing normal map, will either ctd or render no light reflection, making it look really dull or just featureless black, depending on your hardware and what type of object it is.

That was the issue. Thank you!

This is how it looks now:
Meshes\COTD\Dungeons\COTDShrineAltar01.nif
Textures\COTD\Dungeons\COTDShrineStone01.dds
Textures\COTD\Dungeons\COTDShrineStone01_n.dds
Textures\COTD\Dungeons\COTDShrineStone01_rf.dds

Works perfectly.