NIF vs Texture Set

[duinnin]

Hey guys, is there any performance difference between creating individual NIFs versus using Texture Sets for retextured content?

 

I would think Texture Sets would be much less of a strain and the way to go since the game would only need to load one NIF and the various textures assigned to it, whereas with the NIF route the game must process multiple NIFs plus the textures. That could be a lot of RAM space filled up with duplicate NIFs needing to be loaded.

 

Bethesda didn't use either process consistently. Barkeeper, chef and farm clothes, for example, use Texture Sets, but monk, necromancer and warlock use NIFs despite being the same mesh.

 

Modders seem to favor the NIF process. This actually came to mind because of the Book Cover mod's large file size which creates individual NIFs for each book instead of using Texture Sets because I discovered the mod actually only uses like a dozen or so different meshes.

 

Of course, I should point out that a NIF is required is for the female 1st person armor mesh as the Creation Kit won't save Texture Set information for some reason. I can use TES5Edit to add it in, but opening and saving the ESP in the CK clears it all out again.

[IsharaMeradin]

Where possible I would use Texture sets. But as you pointed out there are some locations that just don't use the texture sets appropriately or at all. Be prepared to use separate nif files if for some reason the texture sets do not function as they should.

[BrettM]

I like the texture set option myself. I think the processor overhead of the texture swaps is a good tradeoff for the memory overhead of multiple copies of the same nif.

[dragonslayer2k12]

Body replacer mods that have converted clothing come to mind like cbbe and the clothing replacer meshes for it. I will use texture sets where I can with any updates to my mods to they will be more compatible with body replacer mods. First thing that comes to mind is farm gloves because cbbe clothes replacer changes those to fit the hands for cbbe body. Farm gloves and anything else with some of the body mesh sticking out are what need to use texture sets in mods instead of nif files for this kind of compatibility.

[Fistandilius]

How do you create a texture set? I have copied .nif files before and used a different texture to create a new item, but I've never been able to figure out how to get a .nif to just swap textures. I think the guard shields and armors do this, but I have never been able to figure out how it was done.

[IsharaMeradin]

How do you create a texture set? I have copied .nif files before and used a different texture to create a new item, but I've never been able to figure out how to get a .nif to just swap textures. I think the guard shields and armors do this, but I have never been able to figure out how it was done.

In the Creation Kit go to the Misc section and locate the TextureSet subcategory. Find an existing texture set for a similar object (this is so you know which DDS files go to which entry) either duplicate it or replicate it. Either way assign the textures that you want to use on your object. Ok to save the form. Then on your object form where you actually assign the nif file, if you double click a particular node you can then assign a texture set to that node.

[Fistandilius]

 

How do you create a texture set? I have copied .nif files before and used a different texture to create a new item, but I've never been able to figure out how to get a .nif to just swap textures. I think the guard shields and armors do this, but I have never been able to figure out how it was done.

In the Creation Kit go to the Misc section and locate the TextureSet subcategory. Find an existing texture set for a similar object (this is so you know which DDS files go to which entry) either duplicate it or replicate it. Either way assign the textures that you want to use on your object. Ok to save the form. Then on your object form where you actually assign the nif file, if you double click a particular node you can then assign a texture set to that node.

 

Thanks for the quick response. I'll check into this.

[Fistandilius]

Nevermind, I solved it.

Edited October 12, 2013 by Fistandilius