Animated Glow Textures

[area34]

I've got the texture to animate with no problem but I was wondering if it was possible to animate the glow texture instead of the base.

[Failed_Hero]

Yes please if this is possible I'd like to know if we can do this

[daglob]

I'd like to know too. I've been thinking of trying to do another version of Equinox: scope a mask from a TV mesh and then animate the skin to change from Human Torch-like to Iceman-like in waves like the character. It would be nice if the glow and reflection files changed too.

[Avalon]

I must have missed a meeting. How are you animating the base mesh again? I do have a vertex mesh he made that animates. He was looking to make an animated Marvel X-ray.

[area34]

I just know how you can animate the base textures. You can set up as many textures as you want and have them cycle. The problem though is I can't seem to figure out how to get the refl and glow textures to cycle. My glowing spinning disc doesn't look right since the glow effect only shows up once in the cycle.

[daglob]

There is a tutorial/thread about it someplace; I think Tommy did it when he did his Rorschak with the changing mask. I have it saved on my hard drive (somewhere....).

[area34]

I used the tutorial that is on the wiki. It allows me to cycle the nitexture but it doesn't effect glow/refl at all.

[GogglesPizanno]

I dont know for certain, but it sounds like this may be one of those instances where the limitation is the implementation by the game engine and not the file format (like bump mapping).

[White Knight]

Yeah, it looks like it is possible.  I created a quick test mesh, and it seems to work.  I've put my original instructions (from frworld wiki) below. 

Obviously you'll need to use different texture names (male_basic_refl01 or male_basic_glow01 instead of male_basic01).

One major difference is in the Block Details for NiFlipController.  "Texture Slot"  needs to be changed to the appropriate value (GLOSS_MAP or GLOW_MAP).

[Originaly Posted by White Knight]

n these instructions I'll be hypothetically changing male_basic into male_basic_animated.
Before making changes to any Nif, be sure to make a backup.

1. prepare tgas (for example male_basic01.tga, male_basic02.tga, etc.).

2. open character.nif in NifSkope.

3. locate the Nitexturingproperty for the object to receive the animated textures.

4. right click on Nitexturingproperty, then Block, then left click on insert, then F >, then left click on NiFlipController.
(NiFlipController will probably appear on the bottom line, that's okay for now. Note it's ID number, we'll need it for the next step)

5. in the Block Details for Nitexturingproperty change the value for Controller to the ID number of the NiFlipController.
(NiFlipController should jump up in the hierarchy to appear in the Nitexturingproperty branch)

6. change the Flags for the NiFlipController to active and cycle.

7. locate the main NiSourceTexture for the mesh (in this example it would be labeled male_basic.tga) change the name to the first texture of the animation (male_basic01.tga).
copy this NiSourceTexture and paste it underneath NiFlipController.

8. right click on NiFlipController, then Block, then left click on insert, then S >, then left click on NiSourceTexture.
the line that appears should be renamed to next texture in the animation sequence(male_basic02.tga).
repeat as may times as needed.

9. in the Block Details for NiFlipController;
for Frequency I've used a value of 1.
Start Time=0.
End Time doesn't seem to matter I've used from 0.1 to 1.
Target should be the ID number for the Nitexturingproperty we've been dealing with
Delta is the time between texture changes start with 0.5 and adjust accordingly. The higher the number the slower the animation.
Number of Sources is the number of tgas in the animation.
right click on Sources, then Array, then left click on Update. A number of additional Sources lines will now be available.
change the values of the Sources lines to match the ID numbers of your NiSourceTexture lines.

10. Save

Limitations still apply, objects with animated textures will only use skins from the standard folder.

[area34]

Okay. I'm dropping what I'm doing right now just so I can see if I can get this to work right. I'll report back later.

[area34]

My spinning disc works perfect now. The only problem I have now is that this really needs to be incorporated into my Holocaust WIP.