[LE] Replacing Texture/Meshes for one item only - Enderal

[WolfeSpeider]

So I have been playing Enderal: Forgotten Stories since it dropped on steam to experience the DLC and I love it save one unique sword I found that has a basic, bland model as opposed to a unique one. I've been trying to find a way through the Creation Kit, or any methods, to change the model of this one unique sword in particular to a model (mod) I had downloaded for replacing the model for a vanilla skyrim sword, specifically Red Eagle's sword. I am not experienced with Creation Kit any way, nor do I consider myself a modder, but I've been stuck on just this one particular issue for some time now, and I'm still unsure as how to even start.

 

I tried messing around with Creation Kit for a bit, and I believe to go about doing it I have to edit Enderal's esm (Master file), however my Skyrim installation is in a different hard drive than where I have installed Enderal. Would this be a part of the problem?

 

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[thumbincubation]

The easiest way to do this would be to take the meshes and textures from the Skyrim mod and rename them to match the meshes and textures from the sword in Enderal, then place them into the Enderal data folder in the same file path, so they overwrite Enderal's "vanilla" sword. You will need to use Nifskope to reassign the newly-named textures to the newly-named mesh. Otherwise, your new Enderal Sword mesh will be looking for Skyrim textures that it can't reach.

 

How this is done will differ, depending on whether the Skyrim mod in question has loose files or uses a .bsa. If loose, you can simply copy/paste them into the correct Enderal folder. If in a .bsa, you'll need some kind of archive extractor (I use BSA Browser, but there are others.) and extract them into a temporary folder, from which you can easily copy/paste them into what you need.

 

This retexture tutorial will help you to figure out where and how to assign the new textures in Nifskope. It covers some creation kit as well, but if you are renaming the meshes and textures and putting them into the Enderal file path, you won't need to use CK as you're just creating a replacer. https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Retexture_Tutorial

 

With the caveat that I've never played Enderal, I'll try to simulate a file path for you.

 

Skyrim mod you wish to use:

 

c > program files (x86) > steam > steam apps > common > skyrim > data > meshes > whatevermodname > weapons > redeaglesword.nif (may be different, depending on how author set up file path)

 

Copy that and move it to wherever the corresponding weapon mesh would go for Enderal. Maybe

 

...enderal > data > meshes > weapons > lameuniquesword01.nif

 

or, if it's in a DLC, it may be something like

 

...enderal > data > meshes > dlc01 > weapons > lameuniquesword01.nif

 

Unfortunately, I have no way to know how the Enderal authors set up their DLC archives, but I believe you can get the basic idea of it by surfing through Skyrim's DLC archives, and then it's just a matter of finding out what name Enderal authors gave to theirs. If all else fails, you may need to use your .bsa tool to open Enderal's archive(s), to get the appropriate file path and names.

 

Once you do, rename the Skyrim mesh to match the Enderal mesh. This is what the game will be looking for, so it must have the exact same file name and be in exactly the same file path, or the game won't be able to find it.) For clarification, meshes in a loose folder override meshes of the same name and file path in an archive. For example meshes\armor\elven\m\boots_1.nif is the file path the game uses to find the larger of the male elven boots, even though that mesh is contained within an archive. If you put a different boot mesh in the loose files, with the same name and the same file path, the game will use the different ones instead but they're both in an identical file path.

 

Use Nifskope to open the new mesh, as in the tutorial, and look for how many / which textures you need. Extract them the same way, except from data > textures > etc., instead of meshes. Paste them into the textures folder for Enderal, the same way. Here, you have some leeway. The game looks for the mesh, the mesh looks for the textures. You could put them in a three stooges folder and name them 1, B, and Green, and as long as you've assigned them to the mesh properly, they'll show up, but for continuity, you are better off naming them at least similarly to the mesh itself.

 

In the end, what you should have is a loose file replacer, where Enderal looks for LameUniqueSword01 and, finding it in loose files, accepts it as the correct sword, unaware that it's actually a Skyrim mod sword in disguise. The benefit here is that you don't need to worry about the creation kit, and if you ever decide to change back, you can simply delete those loose meshes and textures, and the game will find LameUniqueSword01 in the archive instead.

 

If you run into any confusion, you might download a mesh/texture replacer from Skyrim and just take a look at how the folders are set up, so as to see the basic premise of replacers. Hope it helps.

[WolfeSpeider]

. Edited May 8, 2019 by WolfeSpeider

[WolfeSpeider]

The easiest way to do this would be to take the meshes and textures from the Skyrim mod and rename them to match the meshes and textures from the sword in Enderal, then place them into the Enderal data folder in the same file path, so they overwrite Enderal's "vanilla" sword. You will need to use Nifskope to reassign the newly-named textures to the newly-named mesh. Otherwise, your new Enderal Sword mesh will be looking for Skyrim textures that it can't reach.

 

How this is done will differ, depending on whether the Skyrim mod in question has loose files or uses a .bsa. If loose, you can simply copy/paste them into the correct Enderal folder. If in a .bsa, you'll need some kind of archive extractor (I use BSA Browser, but there are others.) and extract them into a temporary folder, from which you can easily copy/paste them into what you need.

 

This retexture tutorial will help you to figure out where and how to assign the new textures in Nifskope. It covers some creation kit as well, but if you are renaming the meshes and textures and putting them into the Enderal file path, you won't need to use CK as you're just creating a replacer. https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Retexture_Tutorial

 

With the caveat that I've never played Enderal, I'll try to simulate a file path for you.

 

Skyrim mod you wish to use:

 

c > program files (x86) > steam > steam apps > common > skyrim > data > meshes > whatevermodname > weapons > redeaglesword.nif (may be different, depending on how author set up file path)

 

Copy that and move it to wherever the corresponding weapon mesh would go for Enderal. Maybe

 

...enderal > data > meshes > weapons > lameuniquesword01.nif

 

or, if it's in a DLC, it may be something like

 

...enderal > data > meshes > dlc01 > weapons > lameuniquesword01.nif

 

Unfortunately, I have no way to know how the Enderal authors set up their DLC archives, but I believe you can get the basic idea of it by surfing through Skyrim's DLC archives, and then it's just a matter of finding out what name Enderal authors gave to theirs. If all else fails, you may need to use your .bsa tool to open Enderal's archive(s), to get the appropriate file path and names.

 

Once you do, rename the Skyrim mesh to match the Enderal mesh. This is what the game will be looking for, so it must have the exact same file name and be in exactly the same file path, or the game won't be able to find it.) For clarification, meshes in a loose folder override meshes of the same name and file path in an archive. For example meshes\armor\elven\m\boots_1.nif is the file path the game uses to find the larger of the male elven boots, even though that mesh is contained within an archive. If you put a different boot mesh in the loose files, with the same name and the same file path, the game will use the different ones instead but they're both in an identical file path.

 

Use Nifskope to open the new mesh, as in the tutorial, and look for how many / which textures you need. Extract them the same way, except from data > textures > etc., instead of meshes. Paste them into the textures folder for Enderal, the same way. Here, you have some leeway. The game looks for the mesh, the mesh looks for the textures. You could put them in a three stooges folder and name them 1, B, and Green, and as long as you've assigned them to the mesh properly, they'll show up, but for continuity, you are better off naming them at least similarly to the mesh itself.

 

In the end, what you should have is a loose file replacer, where Enderal looks for LameUniqueSword01 and, finding it in loose files, accepts it as the correct sword, unaware that it's actually a Skyrim mod sword in disguise. The benefit here is that you don't need to worry about the creation kit, and if you ever decide to change back, you can simply delete those loose meshes and textures, and the game will find LameUniqueSword01 in the archive instead.

 

If you run into any confusion, you might download a mesh/texture replacer from Skyrim and just take a look at how the folders are set up, so as to see the basic premise of replacers. Hope it helps.

This is excellent information, thank you for replying. Enderal does use .bsa for their meshes but I do have the BSA Browser. My concern is that replacing the model for this one sword would do so for all of the swords in-game that use the same model (as the model used for this weapon is the same model used for the very first type of swords found in the game, that are also used by various undead enemies in the game). Would this process that you have outlined account for just replacing the model of this one specific item as opposed to just replacing the models? Trying to search for the sword's name under meshes was unsuccessful, I was only able to find the model that is used as opposed to the sword's ID or name underneath the meshes within Enderal's BSA meshes.

[thumbincubation]

Ah, ok. I was thinking unique sword in terms of unique mesh. If that is the case, you would need to do some Creation Kit work after all. Do the same mesh and texture extraction, copy and paste, etc., but instead give them unique names. Then you would need to go into the CK and open the Enderal DLC in question as a master. Find the sword in question and use the edit functions in the "art and sound" tab, to point the weapon to your new meshes. In this way, only that unique sword will change, and the other basic swords will continue to use the Enderal mesh. Here is a tutorial to get you up and running with CK, and another that focuses on customizing weapons and armor. It will help you find the weapon form and point it toward your mesh.

 

https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Category:Getting_Started

 

https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=File:Tutorial-Customizing-2.jpg

 

To answer your question, and again with my apologies, yes. If you had created the replacer, it would have changed every sword that used it.

[WolfeSpeider]

Ah, ok. I was thinking unique sword in terms of unique mesh. If that is the case, you would need to do some Creation Kit work after all. Do the same mesh and texture extraction, copy and paste, etc., but instead give them unique names. Then you would need to go into the CK and open the Enderal DLC in question as a master. Find the sword in question and use the edit functions in the "art and sound" tab, to point the weapon to your new meshes. In this way, only that unique sword will change, and the other basic swords will continue to use the Enderal mesh. Here is a tutorial to get you up and running with CK, and another that focuses on customizing weapons and armor. It will help you find the weapon form and point it toward your mesh.

 

https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Category:Getting_Started

 

https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=File:Tutorial-Customizing-2.jpg

 

To answer your question, and again with my apologies, yes. If you had created the replacer, it would have changed every sword that used it.

No worries, I appreciate the help, I'm beginning to understand this a lot better. Currently I'm having an issue with locating the master file/plugin for Enderal itself, which I think has to do with Enderal being installed in a separate location than where Skyrim was initially installed; I had attempted to copy the .esm for Enderal and paste in the same location as the other plugins that did show up, and after doing so Enderal DID appear in the menu for selecting plugins, however when I attempted to make it the active plugin in order to go through and start editing as you say, I received errors and CK immediately crashed. Is there a way to load in plugins directly through CK, or do the necessary plugins and files for the plugins HAVE to be in the same location?

[ShimoOkami]

I don't think you can edit an .esm directly in the CK. You can make an .esp for your change by loading Enderal.esm in the CK but not making anything the active file. CK should promt you to name your new .esp when saving