Strange Issue While Retexturing Duke's Guard Cuirass

[MufasaCasinos]

I've been experiencing a strange issue while trying to retexture the Duke's Guard Cuirass. I used Cupscale to upscale the textures to 4x using RealESGRAN and exporting as dds. I then used GIMP to modify the texture. I then replaced the texture in NifScope, using the relative path ('textures\xaq\arm\tx_a_silver_cuirass.dds'). In NifScope, the cuirass looks as intended. I copied all my meshes and textures into the same folder structure within Data Files. Using the Construction Set, I created the chest body part pointing to my new mesh and then created the cuirass Armor.

 

However, when I put it on an NPC, the mesh seems to revert to the silver armor mesh (as opposed to the Duke's Guard mesh) with the original textures. (The other two textures were showing my modified version with the correct mesh.) To experiment, I removed the textures from my working directory and opened the original Duke's Guard mesh in NifScope from Data Files\Meshes. I then replaced the breastplate texture and saved. Going back into the Construction Set, I placed the original Duke's Guard Cuirass on my modeling NPC only to find the mesh had changed to the plain silver cuirass. I changed the texture back to the original, and once again the breastplate was showing the Duke's Guard mesh.

 

I also tried recreating and completely removing the mipmaps. I tried using a texture of the original size and format (.bmp). Oddly, I also retextured the mesh from Alex's Better Fitted Female Armor (https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/50187) and got the same result. This makes me think there is somehow a linked file or some setting with the texture that is causing the issue. I searched through the various nodes in NifScope, thinking that the two meshes were somehow linked (similar to how creatures have two different nif files and a kf file). I found nothing, though when it comes to mesh editing, my knowledge is very limited.

 

I've retextured numerous creatures, armor, and weapons with upscaled textures without any issues, but I'm at a loss with this one. Any help would be appreciated.

 

EDIT:

How it looks in NifScope:

 

 

How it looks in the CS:

 

 

 

EDIT: I tried modifying the Templar breastplate as well, and the same issue occurs. It may be something to do with the silver breastplate nif; it just seems really odd.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by MufasaCasinos

[Turelek]

I've had strange issues between the CS and imperial armour as well. I am by no means knowledgeable, but have you tried adding your mesh and textures in as a new armour instead of replacing the Duke's Guard cuirass to see if it loads properly?

Hopefully this will all get sorted, this is a tricky issue in my experience.

[MufasaCasinos]

Thanks for the response! Yes, my initial attempt was copying the mesh and changing its name, location, and textures used. I only modified the original in its original location to see if I would have the same issue. I'm guessing the silver armor mesh is somehow linked, but how I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me.