How to Material Swap in creation Kit when the material list is blank?

[vielas1]

I have done this with a few weapons in the past, just for personal use, but when I want to swap the desert camo on this mod, it was blank. Is there a way for an armature to swap the material?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zorkaz]

You can't. You need to edit the original .nif and set up a material path there

[greekrage]

If you dont see a material swap file in the options...in most cases it doesnt have one hence as mentioned above you have to set up textures manually in the nif file .

 

If the nif doesnt have a path to a material file under the BStrishape then you open it further down to see the texture paths under "BSshaderTextureset"..

 

Slot 1= diffuse

Slot 2= Normal

 

and i think slot 8 is the Specular map

 

Here is a link explaining how to use textures in nifskope...

https://atlanticcorp.forumotion.com/t46-nifskope-properties-tutorial-text

Edited October 8, 2022 by greekrage

[RoNin1971]

See above, unless you have just one variant.

Swapping out the texture, completely replacing the original, is an option too. Happens to be the easiest as well, as you just need to put your texture in the right path under Fallout 4's .\Data folder to replace it. (& set the game to load 'loose files')

[vielas1]

I ran into a bit of a "conversion" issue when trying to use RoNin1971s method. I can download the ba2 files and alter them to the textures I want, but I cannot figure out how to replace the texture. Do I need to re convent the file back to a ba2 and then replace them?

[RoNin1971]

I ran into a bit of a "conversion" issue when trying to use RoNin1971s method. I can download the ba2 files and alter them to the textures I want, but I cannot figure out how to replace the texture. Do I need to re convent the file back to a ba2 and then replace them?

It has to have the same path & filename as the one you wish to replace.

 

So, if inside the .ba2 it says "Textures\MyTextures\example_d.dds"

 

You need a (Fallout 4\Data\)Textures\MyTextures\example_d.dds to replace it in the game. Nothing else needs to be done.

Except for the ini edit to tell fallout to load these (newer) files.

These files will be last to load, so they will always 'be on top'

 

edit:

for the loose files, make sure you have the following inside your fallout4.ini (or fallout4Custom.ini)

[Archive]
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
sResourceDataDirsFinal=

 

Edited October 10, 2022 by RoNin1971

[greekrage]

I ran into a bit of a "conversion" issue when trying to use RoNin1971s method. I can download the ba2 files and alter them to the textures I want, but I cannot figure out how to replace the texture. Do I need to re convent the file back to a ba2 and then replace them?

Ba2 archives are just compressed folders/files (like zip,rar etc. )....

The problem is that BA2 archives alone wont load into the game unless called upon by a plugin,master etc..

So you either have to make a dummy esp to associate that Ba2 archive (like a mod) or Replace the extracted textures in question with the modified and re-compress into the Original Ba2

In the case of re-compressing the archive depending on the method and which tool you use ...The paths wont be what the game needs to "see" the files...

Example: If you have extracted the files into a random location on your PC the archiver will use that path that wont be compatible...

Personally i use a little trick.... because i have Textures,Meshes and Material folders extracted and used by other mods in the Data folder.

I simply rename those folders (temperarely) to Textures.bak etc... etc... and create The folders i need like a new Textures folder where only my modded files are for example .

This way when i use the archive tool to make my archive and point to MY textures they will have the exact file paths the game needs...

Ofc all the above is if you dont have a plugin to load that Ba2 youre making...

Edited October 11, 2022 by greekrage

[RaidersClamoring]

I don't know anything about this stuff but I guess I had misguided expectations about these functions, and they don't actually let you swap materials freely from within scripts:

https://www.creationkit.com/fallout4/index.php?title=MatSwap_Script

 

https://www.creationkit.com/fallout4/index.php?title=ApplyMaterialSwap_-_ObjectReference

 

Or do they, to some extent?

[DieFeM]

They do work, but the catch is that, at least on the references that I've used it, doesn't keep the swap data, as soon as you travel far away or relaod the game, the material swap gets back to the original.

I did this mod as a proof of concept, but I never published it due to this problem:

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by DieFeM

[greekrage]

They do work, but the catch is that, at least on the references that I've used it, doesn't keep the swap data, as soon as you travel far away or relaod the game, the material swap gets back to the original.

I did this mod as a proof of concept, but I never published it due to this problem:

 

THis is similar to the issue i ran into with my wallinton mod where simple material swaps would not work after i generated precombined data and all i would see in game were the vanilla default materials...

For that mod i had to make whole buildings that i had swapped materials on walls,floors etc... Into gigantic scols and that actually worked when generating precombines...

In my latest mod that im working on im doing it the hard way but with zero issues...

This means... Taking the nifs and making new material files with my textures ,applying them to the nif in nifskope and saving as a custom nif... In CK i then take the part i want to use and duplicate it and swap the nif with the custom version. (basically making a new object with a new form id)...

Imagine for a location im doing atm...i have over 1600 new nifs that are new objects and many texture variations of many of those objects.... This way i dont depend on material swaps but instead have a nif with each variation and ZERO issues.. aside from the file size which will be bigger...

Just outta curiosity ...disable precombines and see if they keep the swaps after leaving and going back...

Edited October 18, 2022 by greekrage