NWN Miscellanea, curios and stuffs!

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               

 

 

Ladies and Gents, I am back, for I know you've missed me so! Beloved opening poster of highly popular and useful posts like Say no to Light, Again with the Grass and... uh... many, many more I won't mention due to lack of space.

 

So... thing is I have some questions and requests and whatnot, but they are so small, I thought a post for each of them seemed unwarranted. Enough with the explanations. Let's jump right to it:

 

1. I seem to recall there was a way to activate/de-activate the "grid" on the in-game mini-map. I may be recalling a dream of some kind, given I couldn't find a hint of such through search, but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask the community about it. Perhaps it is as I remember and one could do it. If so, it would benefit many, I think.

 

2. Speaking of the mini-map... Is there a way to make the thing's default state zoomed out? See, the map is just too big in larger areas, and it takes up a lot of real estate, so having it start zoomed out as a default could be nice.

 

3. Speaking of zooming out... Is there a way to alter the zooming/perspective defaults for the game? Say, instead of starting completely zoomed out and with an overhead camera, start with a "third person action RPG" kind of camera setting? By this I mean the overhead camera behavior but from a lower and zoomed-in point of view, ala Dragon Age Origins or Skyrim. I can set it myself, but every time one reloads or restarts, you must set it manually.

 

4. Speaking of camera settings... Is it possible to do the same by default when a conversation is started? I mean, as a .ini config or override or whatever, rather than per-module script implementation.

 

5. Finally, Say no to the Glitter! Is it possible to hack a hack like the one you guys graciously shared regarding the atrocious "flare" effect of light sources, but this time affecting goldie glitter? See, back when I first mentioned this in a topic, the issue was flares would go through walls, and the very same thing happens with the glitter effect in gold and coin placeables. I'm thinking a similar solution may be possible.

 

Those dem pickles. Thanks for any insight you may have on these issues, and may the Gods smile on you!

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[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               

With regards to number 3 - When I play it isn't set at fully zoomed out when you start. You have to do that manually if that is your preference. Being a mildly paranoid puss, I like to see as far as I can.

 

TR

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               

Well, that would make it even more useful, wouldn't it? If we could set our defaults for distance and perspective automatically via .ini or some sort of override, you could be the eye in the sky!

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[Legacy_Jedijax]

               

A couple of things I hope someone would be gracious enough to help me with...

 

Does anyone know a way to make aura effects invisible? I don't like the surrounding dots in creatures, so I'm hoping a simple hack (like a blank texture or something) can remedy it.

 

Also, can anyone point me at a tutorial or something on how to adjust textures in a model? I once tried this whole UVMAP stuff that Lord of Wormz was so kind to explain to me, but it was so complicated and so long ago, I don't even remember where to find the thing.

 

Thanks in advance.

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[Legacy_T0r0]

               

TBH... Until recently..I kindof cheated, shortcutted, finagled my way thru texturing. Everything I've done in my expansion up until the update I'll release soon, I did without ever knowing how to uvw_unwrap.  Honest truth !!  

So don't let that stop you..

To answer your question,,, u tube videos !!             over and over and over again ..........

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               

Unfortunately this keeps eluding me. I watched and read tutorials, and it is never addressed. The only thing I want is to move a damn texture over a model! To set it right, so it fits and is not smeared. The whole UVW Mapping stuff messes EVERYTHING every time I open the modifying menu. The Gizmo is useless to me, because things already are FUBARed before I even make any modifications.

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[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               

Phew! Not just me then! 

 

TR

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_T0r0]

               

Well depends on the model.. Are we talking about a simple object or something complex ? Post a pic of it, upload the files and lets see if we can walk thru it together. Fair warning, I'm a novice at best ( if it's like a character model, it's beyond me) but I'm sure others will chime in. 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               

Using the UVW Unwrap Tool isn't that hard once you have some basic caveats down...

 

1. Use polygon mode and select faces that fit together logically. Try to avoid faces that turn perpendicular to others or flow around curves so far that the texture will become distorted when the mapping is applied.

 

2. Once you have the faces select click on the Quick Planar Map button. This tool scales the map down to an approximation of how much surface area on the texture the selected polygons (faces) occupy.

 

3. Use the scale tool to adjust the size of the faces over the texture. What you basically want is a texture map that looks like a scaled down version of the model section you have selected. The smaller the scaled map, the more blurred the texture will appear.

 

Using the unwrap tool is really an exercise in hit or miss. I learned by trial and error and a LOT of help from people like Estelindis and _Six. Start with simple things like boxes and wooden beams and work your way up from there. It takes a lot of time and patience to get it right. Even now my maps are, according to _Six "painful," as I have this tendency to lump all the different polygons onto the same portion of the texture.

 

Also, I use 512x512 textures almost exclusively. Very seldom do I use textures that are larger or smaller. Feel free to open up some of the newer models in Q - especially the buildings - you'll see some straight forward mapping in those.

 

Lastly, I have NEVER used that "gizmo" toggle you're talking about. For new object I always use the UVW Map modifier to apply the basic map (usually a box, plane, or cylinder - box gets used more often than not), then follow with the UVW Unwrap modifier. 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               

OH MY GOD... thank you guys for pitching in. I expected something as easy as moving/rescaling/rotating models, the same basic options and functions as those only for a texture, but Paul's description looks more like rocket science. I will try it out step by step and see where it goes. Really, thank you so much for the detailed instructions. And Toro, it is a body part, a simple pelvis texture... which makes it all the more infuriating!

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[Legacy_CaveGnome]

               I am painfully learning texturing with Gmax/3DSMax. In no way i pretend to be an expert. For now, I don't use the more elegant Pstemarie way of doing things (unfolding maps) but I generally can obtain passable results with basic "flat" textures maps adjusted using the gizmo. Moving the gizmo (click it) in X, Y, Z you can select the texture part you want to placate on your object. Think of it like a sort of window you can move in front of your texture. Something that helps when you move the gizmo is having raccordable textures (loop at the edges, the right side touch the left one and the texture top the bottom). The Gimp possess a "make raccordable function" if needed. One important part of the process is wise selecting the texture dimension. The auto sizing is not always what you want and some experimentation helps. With raccordable Tex you can use texture dimensions bigger or smaller than the mesh you need to paint. Using square dimensions for " box" texturing helps a lot (you just put the same numbers in the x, y, z box). Hope this text blurb makes sense, my brain is approaching snail mode fast. Time to get some sleep...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               

 

OH MY GOD... thank you guys for pitching in. I expected something as easy as moving/rescaling/rotating models, the same basic options and functions as those only for a texture, but Paul's description looks more like rocket science. I will try it out step by step and see where it goes. Really, thank you so much for the detailed instructions. And Toro, it is a body part, a simple pelvis texture... which makes it all the more infuriating!

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Body parts - pelvis and chest especially, IMO, are the most complex to texture because of the way the texture folds around the object. Generally speaking, what BioWare did with their body parts is to divide the object into two pieces - front and back. Then they selected one half of the object and using the Unwrap Tool, applied a quick planar map, and adjusted the compressed t-verts of the outer edge so they weren't so packed in next to the other t-verts. Lastly, they selected half the t-verts, inverted them and then dragged them so that they overlapped the other-half, and finally dragged the map into position over whichever half of the texture they were working on.

 

That is a rough idea of how a pelvis gets mapped.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               

Cave Gnome: Yes, the idea of the Gizmo is nice and all, but the issue is even before you use it, once you select the UVW Mapping menu by any means, the texture immediately gets messed up. It realigns into some abomination you can't adjust by way of the gizmo. It stretches the image, sets all values weird, it just... ruins it. I don't get why it does that.

 

Pstemarie: Precisely. I figured this was an issue mainly in body parts and maybe creatures. I haven't tried your instructions yet due to lack of time, but I will as soon as I can get away from work and chores and... well, real life. Thank you so much.

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[Legacy_CaveGnome]

               Jedijax, gizmo moving is what you do last. I will try to describe roughly how I proceed: click mesh to texture. transform to editable poly. select "full mesh" mode (the last icon in the selector where you can choose to edit in vertex, lines, polys,...). click your mesh another time. your mesh turns full red. open your texture selector (thingy with textured spheres collection). click the chequered cube in the thingy. now, grab the desired texture on one of the spheres, with the mouse. drag and drop to your mesh. now go to the modifiers rollover list. select "uvw map". The uvw map parameter windows opens. select one texturing mode, for ex. if you try texturing a flat plank, choose planar. if your mesh is a box or something more complex choose " box". now you can see your texture on the mesh, but it can be awful because the auto dimension is not always adapted. you can try various things to ungarble your texture. first, click the X, Y boxes and enter 100 in each (this an exemple you will have to find the correct values experimenting). if you use "box" texturing, enter 100 in the Z box too. if the texture looks not right, you can try modifying the texture axis (click x or y, by default the texture uses z).  at this stage, you should have something barely useable. now you can move the gizmo if needed... to do that, click gizmo (rollover) after selecting "move" in the top toolbar. now, just grabbing the gizmo little cube on your work view you can move it to adjust texture position. once you are done, don't forget to reselect your mesh and exit edit mode. I assumed you already know how to load textures in the texture selector. Don't forget, there are a lot of video tutorials on this subject at the new vault.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               

Thank you for the instructions, but you see, that's in the tutorials I've watched. The thing is, none of it should be an issue because the texture I am trying to fit is already set almost right on the model. It just needs a few modifications, but just as I press anything UVW map, it instantly gets smeared, stretched, and simply messed up. It's not like I'm applying the texture from scratch. It is already set semi-correctly to the model. The issue has always been how simply opening the UVW map options messes it all up. It's ridiculous that the whole thing gets messed up when it was mostly set right to begin with, and the "trial by error" modifications are insane! There's too many variables to take into account, which is what ultimately leads me to ragequit. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for your help, but I've spent hours on end on this single thing at least thrice over the years, and it keeps being unnecessarily complicated. There has to be an easier way!

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