SSE I have a silly Nifskope question

[BillstrNexus]

For those of you who know how to retexture with Nifskope I require assistance. I feel that this is a dumb question but I am absolutely clueless of how to proceed. How do I load .nif files into Nifskope? It was never explained to me and i cannot figure out how to get them in. Does anyboody with Nifskope experience know? Thank you for taking the time to read this.

[Pixelhate]

Double clic on the nif file or select the file, Rclick, open with NifSkope. (needs file association)

[M48A5]

You don't retexture with NifSkope. NifSkope is used to manipulate .nif files. Texture files are .dds files and require a program like 3DS MAX (costs a lot of money unless you are a student), GIMP or Paint.net. GIMP requires a .dds plugin to be installed. I don't use Paint.net.

 

You can change the path to the .dds file with NifSkope. I suggest you study one of the tutorials available before diving into .nif manipulation. Nifskope basic editing tutorial GOOGLE for more.

[BillstrNexus]

My issue is that I don't know where any nif files are located, that was my question, is there a certain folder you find them in?

[SeraphimKensai]

The base nifs used by the vanilla game are compressed and stored as part of the BSA files. You'll need to use a BSA Extractor to extract the loose files from them. The game loads loose files over BSAs as a matter of priority.

[Madrias]

My issue is that I don't know where any nif files are located, that was my question, is there a certain folder you find them in?

You'll need a tool to open .BSA files. I know it's a bit out of date, but I keep the Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM) around for that purpose. Here's the link: https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/36901

 

As I said, I use it because one of the tools it has inside it is a BSA extractor. With that, you can open up the Meshes archive for Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Skyrim (these are all the ones I've tried, at least, so I don't know if it works on any others), where you can extract their contents to a separate folder for experimentation. Never extract the BSA directly into your Data folder, you'll end up with loose files everywhere and it can cause mod conflicts.

 

Once you've extracted an archive, you'll be faced with a massive collection of folders and .nif files hiding in them. Open one of those up and you'll be able to tinker a bit. I recommend weapons for learning, it's something easy to do, lets you mash bits of meshes together (Fallout New Vegas is great for having a lot of weapons that have multi-part meshes. Sometimes I spend more time making new guns for my FNV playthrough than I actually spend playing it...) and get a feel for the controls.

 

Armors and clothing on the other hand, I have no clue how to deal with. I'd like to say that I know the basics of how to use NifSkope, but I feel I've barely scratched the surface.

[thumbincubation]

BSA Browser is nice for this task, works well, user friendly. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1756

 

Once you have that installed, the .nifs can be found in the data folder, inside the two meshes .bsas. The "usual" way to those is

 

 

c > program files (x86) > steam > steamapps > common > skyrim special edition > data > Skyrim - Meshes0.bsa and Skyrim - Meshes1.bsa

 

As Exhale mentioned, right-click > open with > and find your BSA Browser, make sure the "always" box is checked. From then on, double click any .bsa and it will open with BSA Browser.

 

Install nifskope, find the individual mesh(es) you extracted with BSA Browser, right-click > open with nifskope, etc.