Kreshweed in Oblivion

[Razorwing]

Axen: The point of opacity maps in this case is to make it seem like a leaf is made up of thousands of polys when it might just be made up of one, by making part of the texture completely invisible. For that, one needs a color texture with really defined and clear edges, both to make it look good but also to be able to make a 'clean' cut with the alpha opacity maps.

I don't know how you mean when you say you don't think it's efficient; the method I use, and presumably everyone else who can set up these kinds of Oblivion textures, is the same exact method Bethesda used. And since they use the method all over the game I bet they chose the most efficient approach.

Translucency, ie partial opacity, is something I've yet had the need to experiment with. I always use 100% strength. Maybe if I bring in a beverage bottle I'll get into experimenting with it.

Lady Nerevar: Wish you'd told me, I could have mentioned how to do it in seven fast and easy steps.
[blockquote]1 Make the background of the color texture pitch black.
2 Save it as a bitmap or similar.
3 Fire up the freeware program Dxtbmp
4 "Alpha > Create Alpha Channel (Black)".
5 "Alpha > Apply alpha to image".
6 "File > Save as > DDS Texture".
7 Save it in the DDS DXT3 format.[/blockquote]
I'm not exaggerating when I say it doesn't have to take more than 20 seconds to do it, after the color map has been edited, and the textures work perfectly with Oblivion.

(then there's the matter of setting up the mapping in 3D Studio Max, if one wants to do that... here's an image just in case it can be of interest to anyone)

Greybeard: I got a copy of your "Flora Additions" pack in max format from you some months back, thanks.

So far they have been sitting in my scenes folder, because when I checked them out I got the impression that at least some of the meshes were from TES3 stock. Which of course was perfectly well, since it was a Morrowind mod, but not so much for an Oblivion mod. I haven't gotten an opportunity to ask you until now if you used TES3 meshes in that modpack or not. Was that the case?

Also, back when I got them from you, I didn't really know about either Morrowind Visual Pack or Vibrant Morrowind. Neither of those retexture packs interested me personally back when I was a Morrowind player, but they sure do now as an Oblivion modeller recreating TES3 stuff. Since you used stock TES3 textures on some of the plants in that pack, back then I just concluded my hands were tied and that I couldn't go forward with them at that time. It wouldn't be a problem now that I have access to MVP and VM, but I'm still cautious about some of them being TES3 meshes.

[Greybeard]

Yeah, you're right. Some meshes I made and some I just used the TES3 version and modified. It's been so long, I can't remember if I reworked the textures also or not. I know I did for the saltrice and the lily pad flowers are my own creation, but I'll have to plead a "senior moment" on the rest. - Grey

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by Greybeard
Yeah, you're right. Some meshes I made and some I just used the TES3 version and modified. It's been so long, I can't remember if I reworked the textures also or not. I know I did for the saltrice and the lily pad flowers are my own creation, but I'll have to plead a "senior moment" on the rest. - Grey

Aah, kk. I've actually been thinking, on and off, of bringing in a lilypad model into the mod. Since I noticed you had custom textures for the lilypads - Tx_Lily_GB1.dds - it should be fairly straightforward for me to create a models free of Bethesda's copyright to go with them. I'd share the copyright with you, naturally, and if you want to release it to the general community that'd be totally alright with me :yes: