Artsick

In response to post #68796476. I had no idea CSB was a thing, thanks for mentioning it! :O

In response to post #68781866. I believe it's this? I might be wrong though, I haven't been paying much attention.

I'm not sure, I don't own the game yet. File structures may be a little different and there might be an extra step needed in NifSkope for some things but AFAIK, it should be fine as long as you follow common sense. The Creation Kit probably operates the same but I don't get into the CK much if at all in this. I favour TES5Edit over the CK any day. Although, there's a xEdit version for Fallout 4, right?

The following was posted to Reddit and Loverslab. For this reason, if you notice any formatting errors, please don't hesitate to let me know. Sorry if this breaks any rules. TLDR; I've noticed the trend of people wanting to get into modding but not really knowing where to start so I made this in an attempt to show some people that there is mod potential everywhere and you don't need a huge know-how on programs or a ton of money for PS and 3DSMax or even the CK to create something worth using. Therefore a lot of this might be useless knowledge to some and useful knowledge to others. I also wanted this thread to evolve into a place where people post ideas for mods or links to modder's resources so that others can join in. Some more information at the bottom of the post. Oh and if you do read this, let me know if I messed up any terminology or if I've accidentally guided a bunch of people to really messing up their game lol. --- Hey, I just really felt the need to quickly make this post on a whim. I've been itching to tell people lately that modding Skyrim isn't as difficult as it looks and that there is potential EVERYWHERE. I won't be touching on things that require too much knowledge (as I don't even know half the stuff I talk about, tbh) for the sake of simplicity. None of this ZBrush, 3DSMax, scripting stuff. Just small edits that make a big difference. So I'm just gonna run over a few things that I thought might help out some people hoping to get started on "something small" to start themselves off. I'm really hoping this topic starts a bit of a discussion on mod ideas or becomes a place where people share resources or something like that. I think a space like that in time where the Skyrim community is really split up would be valuable. Not sure how formatting'll turn out but wish me luck. Programs To Get Familiar With I'll go into more detail on each of these in other sections but it's a good idea to get accustomed to using these programs which will happen over time. NifSkope; Even if you aren't porting meshes too and from Blender or 3DSMax, NifSkope is still an essential tool for working with meshes and textures The Creation Kit; self-explanatory, go download it. TES5Edit; If the Creation Kit had a lite version, this'd be it. Fantastic for quick small or big edits and if you know how to use the Creation Kit to a certain degree, the learning curve should be a breeze. Also a good idea to have this link bookmarked when using it. Photoshop or GIMP Messing With Textures An easy start. Texture work takes very little prior knowledge to get into and has an incredible effect on how an item looks in-game. All you'll need to get started is an image editing program that allows work with .dds files. The most preferred program would be Photoshop, without a doubt but a lot of people avoid piracy or cost by using GIMP, which is basically the same but a lot less user friendly imo. In order for both GIMP and PS to work with .dds files, you'll need to install their respective dds plugins which you can find on Google somewhere because I'm not doing an install tutorial on that. Another program you can use is paint.NET which is a lot more lightweight and easy to use but lacks a lot more of the versatility of the other two programs. It also supports .dds files out-of-the-box so there's that. I like to use it for quick edits or small colour changes. Once you have your program the only other thing you really need to know is how to export your file with the proper compression which really depends on the file you're editing. AFAIK, you'll want to export diffuse maps with DXT5 compression and generate mipmaps and export normal maps at 8888 ARGB or similar to avoid compression. Again, I'm not an expert and it really depends on the file you're editing. Now for some terminology. Diffuse maps are those sweet textures that you'll pay the most attention to in-game. They're the colours and hold most of the detail. Normal maps are not to be underestimated. They kinda work with detailing meshes through light and shadow. A good example can be seen here on what they can do. There are also specular maps and whatnot but you probably won't mess with those often. UV maps aren't really seen at all. They're just the reason why when you open a texture file it looks all weird. It's the flattened wrap and editing the UV map is where NifSkope comes in really handy - more mesh-related than texture-related. AND NOW BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHANGING TEXTURES! Do you know what the Resplendent Armour, Sithis Armour and Grandmaster Ursine Armour mods all have in common? If you guessed cool HDT skirts, you're a beautiful person. These three armours are a fantastic example of just how much textures can change a mod. Something some people might not know about them is that the HDT skirt they all use? They're all the exact same mesh. Same length, same size for both sexes, everything. It looks like this without all the textures. Not only should this give you a great idea of how manipulative textures can be, but it should also trigger a really simple idea for a mod! How about something as simple as customising the skirt a little by editing the textures? I did this small edit in paint.NET. It's just a small colour change and a few texture replacements and it makes a world of difference. I've painted made the sleeves brown, darkened the stripes on the pants, lengthened the skirt and removed the annoying front flap. And the point here is that anyone can do this! It's super simple. I didn't replace any meshes, everything here was strictly texture work. Another thing most people won't know (and thank-you to mechface2012 on the Nexus for pointing this out to me) but the Resplendent Armour has another texture trick up it's sleeve. The chestplate on the armour uses almost the same UV map as the Ebony male armour from the vanilla game. The only difference being a small section at the back that is both easily covered and easily fixed in NifSkope. With this in mind, it lets you completely change the armour up and make something entirely new! Here's an example of the armour being replaced with aMidianBorn Ebony textures, gold and silver variants, respectively. I believe the best example to show how a texture can completely change a mesh is to turn your attention to all the outfits by Deserter X. There's a table that's shown in almost every mod description of theirs that shows the mesh each outfit is based off of. Don't forget normal maps! Remember earlier when I said normal maps shouldn't be underestimated? These things are great for changing details you can't with diffuse maps. The most common thing I've seen is how the normals from SG Textures affect the face of a character. If you're using SG Textures and are getting annoyed at all your characters looking the same, try this out. Here I've switched out the normal maps for the ones that come with Real Women of Skyrim. The difference is night and day. I'm not saying you should use this combination but try mix-and-matching from time to time. The only thing I'd recommend is that you don't mix-and-match normal maps with other normal maps or diffuse maps with diffuse maps. This way you'll avoid seams around the neck, wrists and ankles. A lot of you might know about Maxine, the relatively new zombie follower. I've put together this picture to illustrate just what's happening under her skin. You'll notice that her scar on her lip isn't painted on the diffuse map at all. It's just a simple change to the face's normal map that gives the impression of a deep scar/cut on her lip. I realise that I've neglected to mention how these techniques could be used on items other than people or outfits but I feel as though I've given you enough that it might spark some ideas. If not, here's one more thing that might help. This is something cool you can do with hairstyles. Ultimately it depends on the UV map of the hairstyle and I got lucky with this one but it's a good idea. I know a lot of us strive for making our characters as unique as possible. It's a blessing and a curse. Messing With Meshes Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with this. I don't know blender or 3DSMax (I've yet to try and learn Bodyslide so if this thread takes off, I might update it with some of that), as I've stated earlier and so any mesh edits I've done have been through NifSkope. There are very limited things you can do with meshes in NifSkope but there's enough that I can make a small category on it. Take the following with a grain of salt and keep backups. That should go without saying. First, I'll begin with something I noticed while putting together the Messing With Textures section. If you'll turn your attention back to this image, you'll notice on the two edited versions of the armour, the characters are wearing small shields. This wasn't intentional, it just seems we had kinda the same idea for our characters. Here's another view of the one from my game. It's slightly thinner and longer than mechface2012's version. This shield was made using a fairly old Bucklers mod's meshes. Here's what that one looks like in-game for reference. As you can see, it's come a long way, but the only edits I made to it were done through NifSkope. If you get a mesh like this one and go to the NiTriShapeData, or by right-clicking the mesh in the render window (or even in the Block Details pane), you can go to Transform>Edit. From here you can change the scale/rotation or position of a mesh within a certain range. For my customised buckler, I've changed the X coordinate to -10, Z to 0.5, rotated the mesh 90 degrees, changed the pitch by 8 and scaled it down by 0.7 (All this info can be seen in the Block Details pane from the previous picture, bottom left) . The pitch was changed so that the shield lined up parallel to my character's arm in-game. You can also use Transform>Scale Vertices to play around with the mesh a little which I ended up doing to make my shield noticeably thinner and longer than the original. As you can expect, it's not always as simple as this. Sometimes a mesh won't change until you select Transform>Apply which can end with a really unexpected result so you should always keep backups around. This also get a lot more complicated when bones and weighting are introduced. For now, I'd suggest to stick with small edits. You can also do some fun things with these settings though. Here's a tutorial by Elianora which will probably explain its potential a little better. The keyword here in the title is static. Dynamic objects get a lot more complicated. Another thing you can do with meshes in NifSkope is change texture paths. This is something you'll probably end up doing a lot of if you decide to make a follower or armour or any new object. Texture paths can be found under the NiTriShape/Strip>BSLightingShaderProperty>BSShaderTextureSet (here). A lot of texture information can be found under the BSLightingShaderProperty as well, which is good to keep in mind. I'm not sure of everything that can be done under it but here's a few things. Shader flags can be used to enable the use of cubemaps on meshes. A cubemap is essentially an image the game uses to simulate the mesh reflecting the objects around it. In the case with the ebony buckler, the cubemap is most notably the strange orange tint on the shield. To enable the use of cubemaps, enable Environment_Mapping under Shader Flags 1 and set a cubemap thorugh the BSShaderTextureSet (usually the 5th and 6th slots). You can also change the glossiness/specularity of a mesh through the BSLightingShaderProperty. Often used to make bodies oily or something but it's entirely up to the user. There's a lot more under that property to experiment with so go crazy. You might discover something new. Oh and another property to look out for is the NiAlphaProperty. With it, you can edit the textures to be transparent and it will make certain parts of the mesh invisible in-game. The HDT skirt mesh from the Messing With Textures section is a good example of this in action. You can add this property to a mesh by right-clicking the NiTriShape/Strip and going to Block>Insert>NiA...>NiAlphaProperty. The new property will then have to be linked to the NiTriShape which can be done by selecting the NiTriShape/Strip, going into the Block Details pane and linking the Alpha Property by double-clicking the field and entering the number displayed to the left of the new NiAlphaProperty. Resources: BSLightingShaderProperty Basics, thanks to kboom Simple Mods With The Creation Kit and TES5Edit Okay this subject is super broad. The world is your oyster here. When I say simple mod, I mean anything simple. You don't need to be a genius to learn how to use these. I'd recommend following a few tutorials online for learning the Creation Kit first. Try things like making a follower or a house mod. Perhaps a new worldspace? Once work in the Creation Kit becomes less of a mystery to you, TES5Edit should be a breeze. I can't recommend it enough, either. In TES5Edit you can make super quick and easy edits to some mods you already have or make entirely new mods. As I said near the beginning, it's like the lite version of the Creation Kit but way more stable and has a few alternative uses (which I'm yet to make use of). One of my favourite things to do with it is to edit mods that already exist. Take the Grandmaster Ursine Armour from earlier. I'm currently doing a playthrough and I wanted that outfit for end-game use, but the stats of the armour are less than great (which happens with a lot of mods out there). In TES5Edit you can change armour ratings easily by finding the armour (not the armour addon), scrolling to the armour rating and changing it manually. That's it. And the same goes for almost any field you can see in under any FormID. Simple changes, simple mods. Fixing spelling mistakes in mods is a common thing I find myself doing. I'm not going to get into deep detail on it since it's basically the Creation Kit with a different UI but here's a list of things I've done through TES5Edit: Fixed hundreds of grammatical errors in mods I use frequently Alter mod-added conversations that break my game's lore (an example being mods that reference my character escaping Helgen - Do people still choose that start?) Change armour ratings, weight ratings, biped slots, names and texture sets of multiple outfits Set the unused bed in the Temple of Kynareth to one the Player is allowed to sleep on for roleplaying (in conjuction with Go to Bed) Made a summon crow spell by removing unwanted stuff from Shadow Merchant Removed the Demonica as a master from DEM Charmer Horns as well as renaming the horns to fit better into my game The list goes on... Using Others Mods For Resources (Let me know if you want something linked here) This next section goes without saying that you should always check the permissions of any assets you use in your mods if you plan to release them to the public. The next thing should also go without saying: DON'T BE INTIMIDATED BY NSFW MODS There is plenty of potential for mods hidden behind NSFW walls. Don't be a prude. Don't be afraid of them. This goes out to all you strict ones. I made a post recently as an example to show just what can be done with NSFW mods. This mod I made in some... 10 minutes uses SlaveTats and has assets from EstrusforSkyrim. Two NSFW mods used to create something SFW that can be used for screenshots and story telling. A quick note about SlaveTats; this mod's a bit of a must-have for me. It's essentially RaceMenu overlays with less colouring options but it's a lot easier to create your own SlaveTats packs since no scripting is involved besides a little .json file. I use it for scars, bruises, dirt, blood and other overlays (basically anything you'd use RaceMenu for). Can't recommend it enough. NSFW options are optional save for a few example files that come with the mod. Another NSFW mod worthy of checking out is the Amputator Framework. A lot more intimidating but... hey, look I'll just leave this picture here and you can see why I think this is worth checking out (PIRATE PLAYTHROUGH). The mod sits in your game and does nothing until you activate it and then it's entirely reversible. Anyway, I wanted to make this section to place links to mods that I think have a lot of unused/underestimated potential. I'll probably add more as the thread gets older or if anyone suggests some. Clockwork: Most people know about this quest mod but I bet a lot of people didn't know that the mod author is allowing modders to use the assets from the mod freely within guideline (as most mod authors do but still, it means a lot from a mod as extravagant as this one). Necromancy - Undead FX: This is one that's only recently come to my attention but I was intending finding a way to isolate the disintegration effect so it could be used on the player in a unique situation. I already did some tests a few weeks ago. BI Phenotypes: This one had to be here. We all know about it but there's resources (.psd's) that you can download to place the textures over better textures. There's also potential for a SlaveTats/RaceMenu plugin here. Here's an example BI Phenotypes, all injuries on Real Women of Skyrim Textures (SFW). There's also the lesser known savage resources which weren't made into a standalone texture. [Here's an example of those on the face (the white paint). Combination Vanilla Outfit: This one isn't much of a secret either. On one hand you have a lot of potential for mashups and on the other, the mod comes with a UNP Briarheart body. Creepy Zombies: Tons of assets to make your character a zombie if you're into that thing. Here's a character I made using some of it's assets about a year-and-a-half ago. NSFW Previously mentioned: Resplendent Armour, Sithis Armour and Grandmaster Ursine Armour, Maxine Zombie Follower, SlaveTats, Amputator Framework. Last Notes I'm just putting this here to remind people what this thread is for/about. I hope that people can take some of this information and use it to create their own little experiments. I also hope that some people will be willing to post links to mods that they think have potential for being used in another mod. If you have an idea for a mod, you might want to post that too. If you find anything wrong/out of place or just completely incorrect, don't hesitate to call me out on it. I'll post this on other forums as well. Oh, and if you got this far... thanks, that means lot. :smile: