NiuHaka Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 I've noticed that some armors and weapons use texture transparencies to make parts of the armor appear to be shiny or glowing. Is there a way to apply this affect to the head models of the characters? I am extremely interested in making a head model that uses one of these affects. I would love to make a head with glowing cybernetic parts or shiny metallic parts or glossy lips or even glowing eyes. I will lose interest if the process is too complicated but I would be interested in working with other people to create these. The fact that i haven't seen it done yet tells me it can't be done or that its too complicated but i see glowing droid eyes etc. in the game all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rtas Vadum Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Something like this? Though it doesn't show very well in that shot, in a module such as the Korriban tombs, or another other "dark" place in the game, you'll see the eyes if the effect is done right. Granted, it won't glow like the Ebon Hawk's Engines in the videos, but it will be a noticeable effect. Its the same process that you'd use to add a metallic shine to a texture, only in this case, you'll want to use "CM_Bright" instead of "CM_Baremetal". Which means you'll need to make the eyes on an alpha layer, something I find easiest in GIMP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiuHaka Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 Its the same process that you'd use to add a metallic shine to a texture, only in this case, you'll want to use "CM_Bright" instead of "CM_Baremetal". Which means you'll need to make the eyes on an alpha layer, something I find easiest in GIMP. HAH! This is it. I am very good with the texture end of things. It's what I do for a living. But I have no idea what CM_Bright or CM_Baremetal means. I have no idea how to do the nuts and bolts of modding for this game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rtas Vadum Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 HAH! This is it. I am very good with the texture end of things. It's what I do for a living. But I have no idea what CM_Bright or CM_Baremetal means. I have no idea how to do the nuts and bolts of modding for this game. Well, in a way, I'm just as clueless as you are. At least when it comes to how these effects work on the model. But "CM_Baremetal" and "CM_Bright" are textures the game comes with, that are used for underlay effects, in the sense that they go on the model under its main texture, and since the main texture would have a section that is either fully or slightly transparent, the under-laid texture shows through. And those are specified in a .txi file, separate from the texture. Though the first part of setting effect up is adding the alpha(transparency) to the layer, in this case, selecting the eyes in the texture, deleting the eyes on the original layer, and then pasting the copied eyes to a new layer. Gimp( a similar program to photoshop, only its free), its easier on alpha layers, at least for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiuHaka Posted November 18, 2009 Author Share Posted November 18, 2009 A quick question before I stop being lazy and start searching. If i use these, uh, CM_Bright things, is it just as easy for other players to just drop something into their override folder like using custom textures to get them to work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canderis Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 What you need is a TXI file. It is a simple notpad file just saved with a different extension. What you would want to do it put this in it: envmaptexture CM_Bright You save the text doc with the extension .txi and drop it into the override with the texture. Don't forget the alpha channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiuHaka Posted November 18, 2009 Author Share Posted November 18, 2009 wait, i'm confused. I'm sure I missed something even though I read through your instructions several times. That doesn't seem like enough information to type into the txi file. How would it know what head/texture to apply the CM_Bright to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canderis Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 You name the TXI the same as the texture. Thats all thats needed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiuHaka Posted November 18, 2009 Author Share Posted November 18, 2009 That's all?... *wipes tears from eyes* I love you people. You are the greatest thing that ever happened to me. *Vanishes into a cloud of ninja smoke* (EDIT) Oh wait! do I need to make a txi file for each darkside transition texture? (RE-EDIT) Actually my wife and child are the greatest things that ever happened to me. HAH! *Vanishes into a cloud of ninja smoke again* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canderis Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rtas Vadum Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 Yes Not exactly. For the head in the picture, I only used one txi file(named pfhc03.txi), and it gives the glowing eye effect to all of the textures for the pfhc03 model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiuHaka Posted November 18, 2009 Author Share Posted November 18, 2009 Thank's guys. you really are an awesome and helpful crew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Darkus Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 I have question here too: Where can I find txi files? 'Cause I'm working on some armored robes and I already made the alpha for them but off course now you just see what's behind the character instead of a metallic shine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiuHaka Posted November 18, 2009 Author Share Posted November 18, 2009 I have question here too: Where can I find txi files? 'Cause I'm working on some armored robes and I already made the alpha for them but off course now you just see what's behind the character instead of a metallic shine... Just create one using notepad. It works brilliantly. (EDIT) Nope I was wrong. It didn't work. *Slaps self on forehead* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Darkus Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 notepad? I use german windows, is it something like wordpad or editor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canderis Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 Download notepad++ http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiuHaka Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 Something like this? What mod is this anyways? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rtas Vadum Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 What mod is this anyways? Its something of mine, I haven't released it yet. Its supposed to be part of a reskin pack for K1,(as in a pack that reskins most of the party members, along with some of the Republic affiliates, Sith Officers, Dark Jedi, some of the player heads[mostly female ones], etc). Trouble is, though I have alot of reskins done, the few remaining ones I don't know what to do with(such as Jolee). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiuHaka Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 Awesome! I can't wait to see this mod. It looks to be something quite special and reskins of this magnitude seem to be something that a lot of people are interested in. I've had a few requests of this nature but I just don't have the patience for something so grand. I hope you do finish this. So, anyways i recently got home from work and I got back to working on this glowing eyes thing. I thought I had it working but I was just looking at one of the brighter eyed textures that I was working on. Don't I feel silly for getting so excited that it worked. The .txi file didn't work at all. The name of the texture i'm working on is PMHA03.tga and the name of the text file is PMHA03.txi and the entry in the txi file is "envmaptexture CM_Bright" but all I get is transparent eyes, not glowing ones. Am I missing a step here that others may have assumed i've already taken? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Darkus Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Just create one using notepad. It works brilliantly. didn't work... background is still showing through... *edit* forget it I'm a dumbass! Forgot the envmaptexture... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiuHaka Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 (EDIT) Okay I figured it out. when you save as you have to make sure to set Save As Type to All. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriggerGod Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 I have question here too: Where can I find txi files? 'Cause I'm working on some armored robes and I already made the alpha for them but off course now you just see what's behind the character instead of a metallic shine... AFAIK, you can't just open a tree and find the .txi files like you can find the .tpc files, or the .uti files. When you look at the texture using KTool's image viewer, there should be a little white text box in the lower left corner. That is your .txi file. You can just copy that to notepad (or other notepad-like program) and make your own txi. Thats what I did when I was testing a lightning texture, and a saber blade texture, I copied the txi info for a lightsaber blade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Darkus Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 I've tried it out but it still doesn't work for me. Doesn't matter if I choose all files at the save as section it still is transparent in game I'll post some screens here maybe I'm just a dumbass and forgot something.... Here's the photoshop layers with the alpha (do I have to save the alpha as a single file?) and here's the notepad file should be right I guess after putting all this in my override folder the alpha layered parts are still transparent... HELP!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quanon Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Hmmm, I believe in the Appearance.2DA file, it gets listed what the standard effect needs to be on a bodymodel. Perhaps your TXI file gets overriden by the .2DA. I can't remember the details of it all though, but I experienced this kind of stuff with another model. Have a screenshot of what I mean: So I opened appearance.2da, scrolled a good part to the right. There's this column named Envmap, which list what CM_Effect a model gets. IIRC DEFAULT= Transparent. This isn't from the Revan model though. Just to show what it looks like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriggerGod Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 One of the problems I had when I first used Alpha Channels was why there was no shine. I'm sure that my problem was that I tried saving my texture file with my alpha channel active (open, visible, whatever you wish to call it). Try turning your channel off, then saving it. Hmmm, I believe in the Appearance.2DA file, it gets listed what the standard effect needs to be on a bodymodel. Perhaps your TXI file gets overriden by the .2DA. I can't remember the details of it all though, but I experienced this kind of stuff with another model. Have a screenshot of what I mean: So I opened appearance.2da, scrolled a good part to the right. There's this column named Envmap, which list what CM_Effect a model gets. IIRC DEFAULT= Transparent. This isn't from the Revan model though. Just to show what it looks like. Actually, thats not entirely correct. If you change a model's envmap in appearance.2da, everything it wears will have that effect, if it has an alpha channel. I'm fairly sure that if you put CM_Baremetal in, say Atton's appearance line, his hair (which has some degree of transparency) will turn out awfully shiny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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