@Ottemis
I wonder are there any resourcs you'd recommend on generating high resolution textures?
I have some custom textures for a custom mesh (Giving Ashley a modified Hazard armour) and I realize that the whole thing would look so much better with a high rez texture.
Thanks
survivor_686
Important part for HR texture work is finding decent quality stock or free images you can work with. I mostly just hit up google and/or deviantart. There's a bloke on deviant that has some interesting metal textures up for instance that are free for nonprofit use (drop him a line though showing what you're using them for), he's over here: http://wojtar-stock.deviantart.com/
Other then that I could give you some pointers but the rest just comes down to a time-sink and lots of trial and error:
- Try to avoid repeaters or noticeable mirror effects with metal scratches or cloth materials.
- Make sure your patterns are seamless on large surfaces AKA if you have to repeat a texture multiple times that has a pattern on it, make sure it lines up right.
- Put diffuse shading back when re-texturing materials, otherwise you run risk of your mesh looking very flat. Even with the specmap, normalmap and ingame lighting, the diffuse shading is there for a reason and often helps cover up texture stretching and wrapseams plus helps suggest depth.
- Group your layers per material, makes it easier to work with the specmap later.
- Finish your diffuse then build your specmap up from the layered project. Makes it easier to separate elements and manipulate their contrast/brightness per specmap channel.
Aside from that tools of the trade are optimally Photoshop due to it's versatility and a tablet (even if it's a small one).
The pen tool is utter sex in Photoshop, even if you have a tablet, use it. Alot. Learn to use layer masks for brightness/contrast/colour. Separate your shading from your material layers, it saves time. While you can do it with free software such as Gimp and with a mouse, you just won't have a toolset as powerful so that will affect the quality of your end product.
Size, don't overdo it, while full body armor looks best at 4096, not everything needs to be this big and even though we have the option to permanently replace assets doesn't mean it doesn't strain a system when you do so choose wisely. Always keep in mind that your one mod might not cause issues on it's own but if everyone would just upscale when unnecessary it starts to become an issue real fast.
ONe other tip, I highly recommend loading your mesh up in 3ds, or whatever poison you use and to load the DDS diffuse that you are working on. That way when you make changes to your texture and save it to DDS you can instantly see the effect of your changes in your 3D program rather than having to take it ingame and testing it out with texmod every time. As for the spec, I'd take that one ingame for sure but building the diffuse up outside is a lot better for your workflow.
@Ottemis
Thanks for the info. And here I though I had finally figured out texture modding. Once again, I take bake thinking that you guys had it easy.
I'm doing.. thinggsss. Not sure if EDI approves, maybe I've been staring at her ass for too long.
She is going to look a lot better after you're done with her, I think she'll approve 
I'm doing.. thinggsss. Not sure if EDI approves, maybe I've been staring at her ass for too long.
My God.. I cannot wait to see her ass this in motion...
No, you're a perfectionist, as so many artists are 
And I know that this is a phrase used too often already, but: "Dat Ass!"
Hello, Ottemis. Doing meshmods now? Do you mind working with FemShep? Like, is that possible to change one of her presets in ME3 so I can choose her Original default look from ME1 or 2? Has it been done? If not, could you and would you do this? I normally like her default ME3 appearance, but if I import the old default face, it looks...odd, at least. Nothing like in previous games. I'd love to do that myself, but sadly, I now nothing about modding.
Getting the ME1-ME2 default Jane into ME3 has an additional hurdle and that's because she isn't a unique model. Her head cannot be exported from the files because it was created using the base head and made into a preset (pretty much like a custom Shep.) But, since she is unique and doesn't have sliders, off the top of my head I have no idea how to access her morph data. It's like trying to get characters like Chakwas and Traynor out of the game (i.e. for xnalara etc) - no one really does it because the info is coded in there somewhere, and the ones that do are close approximations, not exact exports.
They changed the system in such a way that it was made extremely hard if not impossible to get old faces functional in the new system and still be recognizable.
I'd love to know the reasoning (and an understanding of the logic) behind so radically changing the face morph, to the point of making old faces unrecognizable, in the third game of a trilogy where you import your character from game to game, even if it improves facial animations. There had to be a way to accomplish the same thing without messing things up to this degree.
Sorry. Very old, very sore spot for me.
Oh don't worry, it is for me too. There are many things Bioware did that I don't grasp the logic on hah.
And you really don't wanna see my import drama, I have/had a literal truckload of custom femsheps, about half of them got the shaft for ME3 because I simply can't get them looking like themselves anymore and for some of the others I'm still perpetually tweaking. I have a very large chip on my shoulder in regards to the imports.
What I did is I got a good Femshep face in ME3 (and I will give them credit that it's easier to do in 3 that the previous two), and then took the code and ran it through one of those ME2 (since the code is the same in ME3) Facecode to ME1 slider position converters. The face looks OK in 1 & 2, and great in 3.
However, it still bugs me no end. It's just one of those things you DO NOT change in this kind of game.
Hmm stupidly the reason why we haven't ported DefJane over from ME2 to ME3 is probably the same reasons Bioware didn't (aside from them having ready access to the morphdata) and the same reason why imports were so screwed up. They changed the system in such a way that it was made extremely hard if not impossible to get old faces functional in the new system and still be recognizable.
They have said they under-estimated the impact the changes would have on the fanbase after the whiplash they got over the custom import debacle way back at the launch of ME3.
Personally, I think this and the ending are evidence that EA rushed this product out before it was ready (and the journal - lord that was a ******-poor journal).
They haven't put out modding tools, but I'm glad that they at least are letting excellent folks like you mod the thing so we can texture it and MEHEM it to a re-playable form. ;-)
And yes, I'm doing both this alternate one and the From Ashes that I posted before as the textures are almost the same part from colour and some other elements, in extention I'm also doing Eva Core's armor and mesh, as those share textures with the From Ashes armor. I'll be releasing them all in seperate Nexus projects though. Eva will be grouped with Kai Leng under enemies etc. This one will be released first, probably tomorrow seeing I found some other stuff to mess with, otherwise she'd have been released 2 hours ago lol. I'm horrible, really.
And yes.... dat ass. ;-)
Yaaay, the new Outfit looks gorgeous, will install her shortly
Awesome work Ottemis 
I'm in a really busy period with work atm so I won't be working on mods for about another week or so I'm afraid. Lots of all-nighters waiting for me but I'll be back in action before you know it =)
I'm in a really busy period with work atm so I won't be working on mods for about another week or so I'm afraid. Lots of all-nighters waiting for me but I'll be back in action before you know it =)
That's cool, looking forward to moar mod goodness but of course that takes a back seat to RL. 
Note on the 623 REV:
Be aware that DLC mesh .mods and basegame/DLC texture .mods (and quite possibly content mods) created between or working with REV592 and REV622 will no longer work on REV623, and .mods created prior to REV592 won't work on REVs beyond 592. This means the current SVN is not compatible with the latest SF. TPFs still work as before through TPF/DDS Tools. Also, be sure to back up your DLC after treescan as it's in unpacked state after so to vanilla compatible with your new tree you'll need a backup.
This means for me specifically that not all of my .mods are currently compatible with the latest SVN REV but I will be updating them asap and will offer double .mod support for both REVs inbetween 592 and 623 and REVs 623+ where applicable until the SF is updated. Will let you know which of my (Nexus) .mods are compatible:
- Maleshep From Ashes Mesh replacement Armor featured on the Nexus (compatible with REV 592-622, use autofix for above)
- EDI Alternate Black featured here and on the Nexus (compatible with REV 592-623+) <- Read note on files
- EDI Default featured here and on the Nexus (compatible with REV 592-623+)
- EDI AAP visor fix featured on the Nexus (compatible with REV 592-623+)
- Braided hairstyle featured on the Nexus (compatible with REV 592-623+)
- Iconbun hairstyle featured on the Nexus (compatible with REV 592-623+) <- Read note on files
Again texture .TPFs are inherently fine for REV 623+.
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Texture .mod incompatibility error:
For DLC mesh .mods you will see no error, though the debug window will show the following line per job it can't apply:
Error : Index was outside the bounds of the array.
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Adding entries to the first time setup guide now under troubleshoot on errors specific to running .mods created prior to this update.
More info here: http://me3explorer.f...-me3-t1162.html
End of service announcement
This means for me specifically that not all of my .mods are currently compatible with the latest SVN REV but I will be updating them asap and will offer double .mod support for both REVs inbetween 592 and 623 and REVs 623+ where applicable until the SF is updated.
Much appreciated.
I'd like to point out that the N7 of the Armax Arsenal Arena Armour normal map for the male body piece changes to the female when using TPF/DDS Tools.
I'd like to point out that the N7 of the Armax Arsenal Arena Armour normal map for the male body piece changes to the female when using TPF/DDS Tools.
I've noticed that as well back when I was installing the textures - I found the way around it was to install the male version of the armor's textures first, then install the female version.
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