Why are we making so many texture replacers for weapons instead of skins?

[DracoInvictus1]

Skins are a thing for weapons in Starfield, so why are modders all making texture replacers instead of making a skin for that weapon? That way users can swap them in and out just by using the weapon workbench.

Is making a skin harder?

do modders not know about skins?

There are some really cool designs out there, and I'd love to be able to choose them all.

[FokkeTale]

From conversations I've seen on the Starfield Modding Discord and through the mods available here on the Nexus, it doesn't look like anyone has figured out how to add new skins to the 'Skins' section of the weapons or space suit workbench yet. There's a lot of possibilities awaiting the release of the Creation Kit or other third party tools. For reference, Fallout 4 was released on November 10th of 2015. And the initial open beta for its Creation Kit was April 26th, 2016. The stated launch date for the Starfield Creation Kit is 2024. So, depending on third party possibilities, it'll be awhile before we start seeing non-replacer mods of this variety.