Hello there. Looks like this is the place of people messing around to geek out.
Back in the days (10 years ago) i was re-texturing a lot for NWN2. (Armors, Weapons, shields, placeables) My workflow was mainly Photoshop, text editor and later custom content community tools (mdb cloner), but most of the time without any 3D Editor. Now I try to understand the workflow for D:OS. I was reading partly the old reference from Norbyte, but would like to ask in my words HOWTO do this. (so maybe i get some answer, that is more easily understandable for me)
Description of NWN2 re-texturing workflow to understand where I come from:
There is
- a mesh file (.mdb for NWN)
- A diffuse map (main texture)
- a normal map (i was generating from greyscale heightmas a lot of normal maps with that NVIDIA plugin for PS with good results)
- a tint map (what is called MSK here. a texture where each channel (RGB) is one slot for tinting / coloring the model.
To bring it into the game (without overriding) you had to copy the mesh file and change inside this one via text editor (or "mdb cloner") the associated textures.
As far as I remember the game recognized the new content by a naming concention (like: F_HUMAN_CHAINMAIL_##)
MY QUESTIONS to understand the D:OS workflow:
- As far as i get it, D:OS handles the association of textures and mesh models via material editor (RIGHT?)
Here are my attempts with the material editor so far:
- How do I add a tintmap / MSK to a model which doesnt have one yet?
- How, once a got a new texture, i do include / pak it into a mod without overriding anything?
- I messed with some BM-Texture and although I couldn't see any Alpha channel included, i obviously messed with the alpha as some body parts were invisible
- How do i have to OPEN / SAVE the .dds in Photoshop (DXT1, DXT5, etc...)
I would like to do a tutorial / Howto but still lacking the understanding of an efficent clean workflow for D:OS. Any help. How to make easy retextures of the BM map and tint map to make a start
Any answers for my questions?
