Best way to make a basic retexture?

[DayglowDrifter]

So I am trying to take a vanilla creature and basically make an albino version of it, just like the Albino Radscorpions in FO3. The creature I am thinking of is the Mantis and I have made it as far as opening up and editing .dds files in GIMP but I've kinda hit a wall as to where to go next.

It looks like basic color changes are pretty common on the Nexus as far as "creature mods" go so I was curious if anyone here had any insight as to the the most efficient way to go about this.

I would honestly be perfectly content to use a scorpion instead and just import the FO3 Albino Radscorpion texture into the game but from what I recall that would be in violation of some of the copyright stuff in the Nexus TOS and I obviously don't want to do anything like that.

Edited January 31, 2023 by DayglowDrifter

[sullyvanj93]

So you have the new files that you've created, you just need to plug them into place so the game picks it up?

 

All you'll need to do is figure out which folder the original texture is in, and then map out that tree in your NV data folder, placing your texture right where the original would be. You can find this exact placement with the bsa browser you used to get the original texture in the first place.

[DayglowDrifter]

Sorry for the confusion, I'm more or less asking if there's an easy way for me to create those new files using tools on GIMP or something of that nature.

[sullyvanj93]

If you're just wanting to change the texture, you'll just need to take the vanilla files and alter them to your liking. I usually just use photoshop (or a similar program) for this. It's pretty easy to change what you're wanting and then override like above. You might need an additional plugin to read the dds, but it makes it pretty simple.

[madmongo]

GIMP is the most popular texture tool for modding FNV, mostly because Photoshop costs money and GIMP doesn't.

 

You'll need the DDS plugin for GIMP.

 

Paint.Net (which is not the MS Paint that comes with Windows) also works, and is also a free download. Older versions required a DDS plugin but I believe that newer versions have DDS support built in and don't require an extra plugin. GIMP is more powerful but is more difficult for new users. Paint.Net isn't quite as powerful but is much more intuitive and easier for new users to figure out. Paint.Net also doesn't handle normal maps very well. GIMP is better if you are doing normal maps.

 

To create an albino scorpion, extract the regular scorpion texture from the game's BSA files. There is a radscorpion.dds file in the Textures BSA. That is the file that you want to extract. There is also a radscorpion_n.dds file. That is the normal map. You don't need to modify the normal map to make an albino scorpion.

 

Rename the radscorpion.dds file to something like albinoradscorpion.dds (or whatever else you want to call it). Open that file up in your handy dandy dds editor (GIMP, Paint.Net, Photoshop, etc). You can probably get fairly decent results by converting the image to black and white and then playing around with the brightness and contrast to lighten it up. Save your file somewhere in the Textures folder. You don't have to save it in textures\creatures\radscorpion\ but it does have to be somewhere in the textures folder. You could put it in \textures\albinoscorpion or whatever you want.

 

Now you need to make a new radscorpion that uses your new albino texture. Open up the meshes BSA file and extract radscorpion.nif. Rename it albinoradscorpion.nif or whatever you want, but you do have to give it a new name, otherwise the game will overwrite all existing radscorpions with your new nif and you don't want that. You also do need to keep your new nif in meshes\creatures\radscorpion otherwise your new nif won't be able to use all of the existing radscorpion animations.

 

Open up your albinoradscorpion.nif with NifSkope. If you look at the block list there are three trishapes inside this nif. Two of them are meatcaps, which are used for dismemberment. You aren't modifying any dismemberment so you don't want to touch those. The other trishape is called scorpion. That's the one you want to modify. Click on the > on the left to open up the trishape, then click on the > next to BSShaderPPLightingProperty to open that up. Click on BSShaderTextureSet to select that. Now go down to the block details and click on the > next to textures to open it up. You should see 6 slots for textures, and only the first two are used. The first one is your texture, and the second one is the normal map. Double click on the first one and change textures\creatures\radscorpion\Radscorpion.dds to textures\creatures\radscorpion\AlbninoRadscorpion.dds or whatever you called it. If you did not place the texture in \textures\creatures\radscorpion you can browse to it and select it. Just make sure that you get rid of everything before textures in the file path.

 

Save your nif. You have now created an albino radscorpion nif and texture, but they aren't in the game anywhere yet.

 

Open up the GECK and do the normal stuff for creating a new mod, or open the existing mod that you want to add this to.

 

Select Creatures. You will note that there is a CrRadscorpion1Small and a CrRadscorpion2Large. They use the same nif, but have different scales and other attributes on their STATS tab. If you are making a large albino radscorpino, make sure you change the ID from CrRadscorpion2Large to CrAlbinoRadscorpion2Large or whatever you want to make the new ID, and save it to create the new creature. I always do this first so that I don't accidentally overwrite the existing creature. Open your new creature and go to the Model List tab. If you have done everything right, your albinoradscorpion.nif should be in the list. Uncheck radscorpion.nif and check the box for your new albinoradscorpion.nif. Click on Preview Full to make sure that everything looks ok. Repeat all of this for the smaller radscorpion if you want to make a smaller albino one as well.

 

Now place your creatures somewhere and enable your mod.

 

Have fun!