VaiN created an excellent mesh for use in a jetpack mod, but it has a few issues that need sorting. I haven't been able to get it to display properly in game as it is, and don't know modeling well enough to determine the problem. I did notice one of the texture branches that doesn't seem to be used has two different textures assigned for the diffuse, and normal map. Other than that it needs collision added, and VaiN mentions that the harness has some clipping issues, and the textures for the labels isn't displaying the transparency properly. If anyone can offer help or advice it would be greatly appreciated. I have some concerns about the arms and handles too, as they seem to clip when the player has his arms at his side, and probably will clip with big guns also, but those are minor compared to getting it into the game.

The model can be downloaded here http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12553

Thanks for looking.

Edit: Seems he had uploaded the wrong version. The new version is now rigged properly to show up in game using the backpack slot.

Now that I have had a look at the problem with the texture in game I'll try to explain what's happening so maybe someone knows how to fix it. The texture seems to scroll side to side as you rotate, or move the free cam around it. I tried creating a new normal map but that didn't help at all. Also tried re-saving the texture but I get a warning about it being a volume map and the results in game are the same. I replaced the texture with another texture, just to see what would happen, and the new texture didn't scroll like the original and looked fine other than the fact that the texture mapping made it look strange. Anyone have any ideas I can try?

Nice looking model! I took a look at it and tried adjusting it to fix the positioning/clipping issue of the harness, but I don't quite understand why its rigged the way it is... still very new to all of this. Every part of it is bound to the scene root and the spine01 bone so the whole thing is locked to that bone, and I can't see how to move it without affecting everything else. I had it in game though as an armor addon and I didn't see any funky textures on it at all. In Blender I noticed the labels have some sort of reflective environment map on them, but it didn't look bad and I could hardly see it at all in the game. Yes, the clipping with arms at the side is pretty bad, but with that style I can't see any way around that. Sorry I'm too noob to really help.

Thanks for looking. The labels are supposed to have a transparency where they look torn up a bit. No idea why it doesn't work in game, but for me the whole custom texture displays wrong like I said above. Maybe you are not using HDR lighting in game? Can't think of any other reason it would look ok to you, but me and VaiN both have issues.

I thought the pipes for the handles could maybe be flattened a bit where the arms clip, like a pipe looks if you hammer it. The control handle also clips some on the left leg in sneak mode.

I'm not sure how the harness can be fixed not to clip. That I could remove from the mesh easily enough if a solution is not found.

Could still use some help with this model. The jetpack texture is the biggest thing holding me back at this point.

I run it on full ultra setting, everything maxed, and HDR....
Is this the way the texture is supposed to look?
http://webpages.charter.net/biscuit1/jetpack1.jpg
Labels have a bubbled environment map..looks like old paint kinda.
http://webpages.charter.net/biscuit1/jetpack2.jpg
The shadow map appears to be working just like it should.
http://webpages.charter.net/biscuit1/jetpack3.jpg
The reflective highlights are in line with other highlights when rotating around, and through all light conditions that I could see.

If that's not what you're seeing then the fix is easy...
Open the jetpack nif, expand 135 NiTriShape.. the one for the 3 tanks, then expand the BSShaderPPLightingProperty to show the BSShaderTextureSet. Expand the texture set on the bottom and replace the opthalmascope_n texture with the jetpack_n texture. If there's any other textures on the tanks besides the jetpack.dds and jetpack_n.dds, remove them.
Then click on 138 NiMaterialProperty, go to the bottom and drop the glossiness from 80 to 40, then save.

That is what is should look like, but the labels should have alpha transparency to look like they have holes (tore up looking). I edited that normal map already, but changed the gloss as you suggested and still I get this...

http://yfrog.com/5cscreenshot0tj

Then turn a bit and this...

http://yfrog.com/izscreenshot1mkj

Looks fine in nifskope though.

Ok, I see what you mean now. That first pic of yours looks like the 3 lower tanks and the exhaust pipes are picking up the ground texture behind you.. kind of hard to tell for sure though. If they are, and if they pick up and sort of scroll a different texture depending on what your standing on or what's behind you from your camera view.. I may know what's causing it. There's an old OpenGL bug that happens when you put two 32bit alpha textures in close proximity to each other, or layered on top of one another that causes the renderer to forget which one should be shown in front. The result can be objects in front taking on textures of other objects behind or near, flickering between the two, or the front object intermittantly blanking out to show the object behind. I've even seen in other games where ingame objects take on semi-transparent HUD textures. It's all dependant on the angle of the viewing camera (sort of like an environment map)... if you don't move the camera it'll either be one or the other, but it only changes when the view moves like when you move the mouse (in 1st person) or camera. Is that what you're seeing?

Here's why I think it might be that...
I took the liberty to clean up and refine the alpha part of the jetpack.dds, cut out the parts that were alpha'd but not used on parts of the mesh, and darked some of the dirt smudges so they can be seen a bit better in the wierd lighting of FO3.
but the transparency still isn't showing...
http://webpages.charter.net/biscuit1/jetpack5.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/biscuit1/jetpack6.jpg

Then it dawned on me.. the reason that might be is because all the lower decals are over tanks that use the very same texture with all the same alpha info. From what I've seen, that would certainly cause an OGL alpha bug if it were ever going to happen. It may also be that because of that rendering conflict there, that when the 32bit texture of the lower tanks passes in front of another alpha texture ingame (from your perspective) that it also brings that texture into the conflict.. and may explain why you had ground texture on the jetpack.
If my hunch is right, then the fix would be to duplicate the jetpack.dds, blank out all its alpha info, and save it as another name. Then pull the jetpack back into Blender and use the new texture for every part that was textured with the original one, except for the decal plates.. leave them textured with the original that has alpha info. Then reimport the svcker in Nifskope and save it out. That way you do not have two 32bit textures with alpha info right on top of each other, and I'm betting it'll fix your problem.

Here's my copy of the nif and the reworked jetpack.dds if you want to use them..
http://webpages.charter.net/biscuit1/Jetpack.zip

Thanks, yes that's what I'm seeing. As I rotate the texture changes, sometimes it's the ground, and other times it's the jetpack texture displayed out of position, like the belts on the tanks.

I'll see what I can do in blender. I'm not at all skilled with it, but with some poking around maybe I can get it to work.

Ok, then I'll almost guarantee it's because the jetpack.dds has transparency info and it's colliding with other alpha textures ingame.
The main texture bleeding issue should be able to be solved merely by blanking (100% white) the alpha map of the jetpack.dds.

Another better solution would be to layer and blend the labels with transparency over the tank texture in photoshop or gimp, then save it out permenantly like that as part of the base texture, and NOT have to use any alpha channel info in the final textures. That would require removing the little slab pieces that the labels are on in Blender, so that the underlying texture would show through... would also fix the corner of the triangle warning label sticking out slightly past the edge of the tank like it does.
I'm guessing that's why the cryolator texture on the top tank has it's label blended into the base texture.. probably because Bethesda saw this happening and did the same thing.
I should have some spare minutes to bang this out later on tonight if you'd rather wait and have me do it.. I like doing these kind of things, as long as Nifskope cooperates that is..

I can wait if you can do it. This model and texture is very hard for me to get a handle on. Maybe if we can get it sorted and post the mod it will spark some interest in fixing the clipping problems. Thanks for the help

Completely and utterly frustrated here... It took me all of a whole 2 minutes to prep and layer the texture ready to position all the decals, and a whopping 30 seconds to edit the tanks in Blender and remove those mesh pieces... and I've spent the last 7 bleeping hours trying to get a Blender export and import/save through nifskope that will even show in the geck, not have missing or mutated tanks, and/or not crash the geck dead in its tracks. I've started over on probably 20 different combinations of nif or obj, whole model or just the tank part, and all of them exported fine, most imported into nifskope without issue, and the geck won't have any of it. Even following Miax's tut won't work because nifscript gives you TriStrips not a TriShape, and in the geck the tanks look like a crushed bundle of normals. I really can't say loud enough how much I hate these picky, proprietary garbage formats.

I'm sorry man, hate to see you losing so much time over this. I'll understand if you just want to leave it, nothing should cause this much trouble for an object in a simple mod. It's a shame because it's a nice looking model.

Nah it's cool man, just venting a little. I want to learn the parts I don't know and solve this problem... because it's also holding up my own mesh projects as well. I've done dozens of mesh swaps in nifskope and it's really not that difficult, which is why I was suprised and frustrated by how nothing i tried that originated from blender would please the geck. It's probably like 1 obscure setting somewhere that I'm missing :rolleyes:

Well, I got the texture to display proper (not the transparency stuff just the right textures now) finally using the modified mesh you uploaded and the original texture. Using the Archive Invalidation utility seems to have fixed the issue I was having with the tanks. Now it looks like the screen caps you posted so that's better than what I was getting. Strange that the textures needed to be invalidated on a new model, but maybe because it has vanilla parts it is necessary, or is this just a difference between FO3 and Oblivion?

I was able to see now what you mean about the label sticking out. I hope you can sort it without too much more frustration. I know how it can be to keep doing work, then run the game to check things and they don't work. I always picture this when I get to that point :brokencomputer:

Ahh ok, I hadn't thought of invalidation, but that does kind of make sense seeing as he did use original pieces in building it. I never even considered it because I've had invalidation running since the first day I had FO3 installed so it's never been an issue. That's cool though.. another step in the right direction. So that fixes the flickering deal, and it's not an alpha issue, but that still leaves the labels. I did monkey with the mesh import some more and got the TriShape to display in the geck, but it's still a little garbled.. like the faces aren't aligned or something, but it's better than it was last night. None of the mesh functions in nifskope fix it, so it's gotta be a blender export setting that's doing it.

I haven't read all the thread but you can export TriShapes from Blender. Just deactivate the button "Stripify geometries" when exporting like in this picture:
http://videojuegos.clandlan.net/videojuegos/index.php/Imagen:Exportar_armadura.jpg

Hope this helps

You can usually get Transparency to work in your models by adding an NiAlphaProperty to the NiTriStrips block (in NifSkope) that you want to have transparency. Once you add the NiAlphaProperty underneath the NiTriStrips block, set the Flags value to 4845. That should do the trick, I learned this the hard way in developing Edge Trim for my main building, which needs the "stains/dirt" in the corners/edges to blend into the floor and walls to make them more natural looking.

Miax

Thanks for the info! The issue with the transparencies is the way the labels pieces are welded to the tank pods themselves, so applying any transparency info will also apply to the entire tanks as well.
I've finally figured out how to export obj files from Blender and import straight into the exact final NiTriShape I want it to replace, and it works... no copying datablocks from one nifskope and pasting into another nifskope. Doesn't even leave a stray datablock to remove afterwards.. it's a clean replace. It's all green flag now.