Models and textures

[Hammerhorde 4]

Hello, I just found the site and had a few questions on some visual modding that some of you may be able to help me with. I use some parts of the exalted warrior set for the seraphim and am trying to collect that set. I have seen that a breastplate from the heavens set is the same model but has the silver texture and is very shiny. I also found a set of shoulders that are the same model as the EW set and that are shiny and silver.

 

Now looking through the graphics/texture folders I see variant textures in silver for that armor set. I would like to swap out the stock EW set textures for the more shiny silver ones. That way the set is silver instead of a dark blue color. I know I can just rename the variant textures to the stock names and repack them. But, my main concern is that the silver items are very reflective/shiny looking ingame while the EW set is really more of a matte finish. I know the N_dds or normal maps can control the level of shine on models but for some reason when I try to open the normal maps in gimp thay throw an error. I can veiw and edit the regular textures fine but those normals arent recognized as a regular dds file in gimp. Are the norma; map files indeed the ones in this game that are controlling the shine on the model? I know when I did stuff for oblivion the models them selves had modifiers in them to make it more or less reflective. Since I do not have a nifskope type tool to view the models I wanted to know if just changing the textures will give me the shiny models.

 

If anyone has done anything like this before please give me some input. it would be appreciated.

[Hammerhorde 4]

Actually I just found a walkthrough on how to do the retex. I have redone the textures so they are the silver for the set instead of blue but the models don`t shine like I expected they wouldn`t. I know different color variant parts drop ingame. I know the silver ones I have seen and have are shiny and reflective looking. I looked through the model folder for the hero sets but I only see 1 model per body part and no variants of them. How is the game recognizing which models to add shine too and which to not? I was initially going to find the shiny models and replace the set models with them, but I`ll be dammed if I can find the shiny ones, if there are any at all. I saw a screenshot of the virtue armor set in the CM and that looks like its the reflective finish on it. I wonder if those were set item models or different ones. If anyone has any ideas I`d like to hear them.

[chattius 2,531]

Welcome to Darkmatters Hammerhorde.

I moved your article into the modding section and hope someone can answer your question.

[Dragon Brother 619]

From memory its the alpha channel of one of the textures you want to edit....I think that <filename>_sg.dds is the correct one. White alpha channel glows/makes it shiny I think, black makes it dull and not reflect light.

[Hammerhorde 4]

From memory its the alpha channel of one of the textures you want to edit....I think that <filename>_sg.dds is the correct one. White alpha channel glows/makes it shiny I think, black makes it dull and not reflect light.

 

 

I took the variant textures which appear shiny on their models and just renamed them to the names of the stock set item textures. I renamed all 3 of each, the dds, ndds and sg files. The armor ingame is flat matte looking just the regular set is. I thought the textures may have brought the shine up since I cannot open the normal maps for some reason in gimp with the current dds plugin.

[Dragon Brother 619]

Hmm...I'n not sure then, if the correct textures aren't displaying it then I don't know. Is it the silver skin here that you are trying to get on you exalted warrior set items?

 

As to the n.dds, I think they will only open with photoshop and the correct plugin or something...

[Hammerhorde 4]

Hmm...I'n not sure then, if the correct textures aren't displaying it then I don't know. Is it the silver skin here that you are trying to get on you exalted warrior set items?

 

As to the n.dds, I think they will only open with photoshop and the correct plugin or something...

 

Yes those are the textures I used. I have seen shiny armor parts that were not set items but used the set item model. I am using the silver textures just not having the shine and thats strange.

 

Ok good news! I got them shiny. I was looking through the itemtype file hoping I could find something. I found the entries for the different color sets and I just copied and pasted the entries to the set armor. So the game thinks that when I`m wearing the exatled set its supposed to have the shiny silver textures. I actually changed the sword and shield model too.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Hammerhorde

[Dragon Brother 619]

Glad to here you got it sorted. I hope you made a backup in case you ever want to reset back to default.

[Hammerhorde 4]

Glad to here you got it sorted. I hope you made a backup in case you ever want to reset back to default.

 

 

Yes I made a backup of the itemtype file. I also like that virtue set in the skin pictures. Too bad it`s only for the CM mod and not regular sacred2.

[Dragon Brother 619]

I think the skin for that might be in the game files, the CM team just made them droppable and added the set bonuses and stuff.

[Hammerhorde 4]

I think the skin for that might be in the game files, the CM team just made them droppable and added the set bonuses and stuff.

 

 

I browsed through the textures in the angeldust set folder and didn`t see any textures that matched those.

I will take a look again through a few other places to see if they were hidden and not in the same folders the regular set textures are in. Would be awsome if I could find them.

[Hammerhorde 4]

Ok I looked through all the set textures and don`t see anything that matches those. There are only 4 variant texture sets for that armor set in my archives. Is this a set an ice and blood set or was it from fallen angel?

If anyone knows what the texture names are that would really help in narrowing down the search.

[LazyTomcat 0]

Ok I looked through all the set textures and don`t see anything that matches those. There are only 4 variant texture sets for that armor set in my archives. Is this a set an ice and blood set or was it from fallen angel?

If anyone knows what the texture names are that would really help in narrowing down the search.

 

The textures of the Virtues Set are made for the CM-Patch. They are not part of the game.

[Hammerhorde 4]

Ok I looked through all the set textures and don`t see anything that matches those. There are only 4 variant texture sets for that armor set in my archives. Is this a set an ice and blood set or was it from fallen angel?

If anyone knows what the texture names are that would really help in narrowing down the search.

 

The textures of the Virtues Set are made for the CM-Patch. They are not part of the game.

 

 

Haha, well that explains why I can`t find them. Maybe perhaps we can get a seperate file for the textures as a resource.

Edited May 21, 2011 by Hammerhorde

[LazyTomcat 0]

That would not help you a lot. The textures are only one part. For a armor like the Virtues Set you have to edit the textures, the itemtype and the surface. Then you must create new textures with the same format like the _n.dds (Gimp does not seem to be able to handle this 32 bit dds format) and, if you want to use it in multiplayer, you need a new shader. This shader have to be integrated to the game.

It is not that easy, and I think I'm not a real help with my poor english. :/

A small hint:

It is not perfect because alternative skin colors would not work correctly and some skin areas will shine to. But with a little modification inside the surface you can make the armor shine.

Search for your armor inside the surface. Then search for the line that begins with "shader". Change all after the "=" to "obj_d_s_b_mtl". That's all.

Do not forget to make a copy of your original surface.

For the strength of the shine you have to edit the specular map (_sg.dds).

[Hammerhorde 4]

That would not help you a lot. The textures are only one part. For a armor like the Virtues Set you have to edit the textures, the itemtype and the surface. Then you must create new textures with the same format like the _n.dds (Gimp does not seem to be able to handle this 32 bit dds format) and, if you want to use it in multiplayer, you need a new shader. This shader have to be integrated to the game.

It is not that easy, and I think I'm not a real help with my poor english. :/

A small hint:

It is not perfect because alternative skin colors would not work correctly and some skin areas will shine to. But with a little modification inside the surface you can make the armor shine.

Search for your armor inside the surface. Then search for the line that begins with "shader". Change all after the "=" to "obj_d_s_b_mtl". That's all.

Do not forget to make a copy of your original surface.

For the strength of the shine you have to edit the specular map (_sg.dds).

 

I had intended on using the textures as a replacer for one of the varinants that are allready inplace. The armor itself allready has the shine effect to it. I would just be directing the game to apply different textures so it would come out looking the same as the other set I did. Just to play it safe I would use the regular virtue textures and could use the sg and n textures from variant 2 since those are setup for the shiny armor allready. Looking at the sg texture for var2 or any others it looks the same with no differences that I can tell. Now judging from what you told me the regular exalted set could have been made shiny just by editing the shader file. I went into the itemtype file and copied the specs for the var2 set and plasted it inplace of the stock ones and it worked great. So I guess you can do it that way too, both ways work. I didn`t know that controlled the amount of reflection that is applied to the models. Thanks for the info about the shader file, I didn`t know about it until you just told me.

 

I actually downloaded the cm mod to try and get the textures from that but since it`s a setup program I didn`t want to mess up my Sacred 2 install. If you have the mod installed would you be ok with pulling those textures out and uploading them?

[LazyTomcat 0]

Certainly I can give you the textures. Finally I have made them.

Click here

[Hammerhorde 4]

Certainly I can give you the textures. Finally I have made them.

Click here

 

 

Hey thanks alot for those. I`ll let you know how it turns out!