transparent textures : III

» Sat Dec 10, 2011 12:14 am

So, from fooling around with Westly's and the other Oblivion Style Hairs, I've found that the texture itself makes the hair, the hair is only a mesh surrounding the head. I then realized it was done via transparent textures. Can someone explain to me how to make certain parts/whole textures transparent?

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:34 pm

You need to add alpha channel to a texture. How to do that will depend on a graphic program you're using.

In GIMP, easiest way is to make a backround of color not used in the texture itself, and then "change color to alpha", ant thed save as a file tupe supporting alphas, widely used is .dds with DXT5 compression.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 1:05 pm

I have Photoshop CS5. So, I just need to learn to create alpha "colors"?

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 3:33 pm

I don't have Photoshop, but if you Google something like "Photoshop alpha channel" you should get general idea how to do that.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 11:55 pm

I have Photoshop CS5. So, I just need to learn to create alpha "colors"?

Check out the tab where you have color channels listed, on the botom there should be an icon named "create new channel"
this should create alpha channel, it work like: white=not transparent, black=transparent

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 4:49 pm

So, if I want it completly transparent, I use complete black?

» Sat Dec 10, 2011 12:34 am

So, if I want it completly transparent, I use complete black?

Yup, and remember to add alpha property to the model in nifskope

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 9:27 pm

How do I add alpha property?

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:01 pm

How do I add alpha property?

Right click on your TriShape then Node->Attach Property->NiAlphaProperty

» Sat Dec 10, 2011 12:17 am

Awesome. Thanks for the help! I'm trying to make a weapon that looks like it's actually seen use, like it's rugged

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:06 pm

Right-click on an object you want to assing this texture (you can do that either in the 3D view or in Block List), then select Node > Attach Property and select NiAlphaProperty.

Edit: Ninja'd

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:03 pm

Thanks to both of you

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 5:30 pm

also in photoshop when any thing left transparent will be alpha channeled when you save it as a dds or tga.

» Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:06 am

So I don't need to make an alphachannel, I can simply "erase" the part's I don't want seen so they have the checkerboard texture, and that's alpha?

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 2:01 pm

yea, you can also adjust the layer transparency and it will also work i have done that for messing with magic effects. I'll look and see if i can find the tutorial it that i learned it from. when i find it I'll PM it to you at GHF.

Edit

well here is one by Mr. Dave it's at the http://grotto.moddersrealm.com/index.php?topic=646.msg13460#msg13460 not the one i learned from but i did learn a thing or two from Mr. Dave's textures

» Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:27 am

Awesome! I've good with using the transparecy slider and etc, so thanks a bunch!!! I'll read this tut. Thanks!

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 10:21 pm

Awesome. Thanks for the help! I'm trying to make a weapon that looks like it's actually seen use, like it's rugged

you should look at some of http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=User.EntriesListing&id=181679 stuff he would duplicate a TriShape and use a mostly transparent texture to add detail. he did go a little crazy on his armor in that i can't run much of his stuff on my PC but it's cool and i have dumbed them down a bit for personal use

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 11:42 pm

I've used his armors before, they like to make my FPS get really really... small. ;D But I didn't realize that's how he did that. Awesome

:celebration:

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 10:51 pm

in most of them every TriShape is doubled and has Bump and texture maps it turns my game in to a slide show.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 2:01 pm

Heh, I could still play mine, but it was just annoyingly slow. So I figured it wasn't worth it and took them off.

» Sat Dec 10, 2011 3:52 am

on a weapon if you only doubled a few TriShapes it shouldn't be that bad though it would depend on the poly count of the doubled TriShape.

» Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:00 am

On these transparent textures, do they end up completely transparent, meaning, invisible?

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 10:28 pm

That would depend on how transparent you make them. If you set it to 100% then it would be invisible. 50%0 or so would be half-visible.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:24 pm

That would depend on how transparent you make them. If you set it to 100% then it would be invisible. 50%0 or so would be half-visible.

Hmm. I'll have to look into this. Might be a good way to make some ghosts.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 11:35 pm

Hmm. I'll have to look into this. Might be a good way to make some ghosts.

you can also adjust the alpha of the mesh it's self to make it transparent you could look at the AncestorGhost.NIF the NiMaterialProperty has the alpha set to .45 so it's translucent,