Having a bit of trouble...

[Shiftshaper]

Okay so i'm not that savvy on modding yet and I could really use some help with this. I'm trying to get a mod to work and to do that I have to replace the original textures and meshes with new ones. Sounds simple enough right? Problem is, I can only open the textures and meshes maps with FOMM, and I can only seem to extract files with that program, so I can't replace the files to get the mod to work.

 

I'm sure there is a painfully easy way to bypass this, but I cant figure it out. Any help would be greatly appriciated.

[mechine]

Nubs to ya!

 

Double nubs to me!

 

 

 

Say man you ever poop an then when your done kind of say to your self "man that was poopy"

 

 

 

 

Anyway, what are you going on about? I've never heard this language.

What planet are you from? You have to speak noob in here.

Do they speak noob on your planet.

 

 

I'm only kidding. You should see what they say to me.

 

hahahaha, now they don't even respond to my problems.

 

 

 

 

Okay so, I guess that's a more advanced use for FOMM

 

 

but you could mean that you can only unpack the vanilla texture an mesh

using the FOMM BSA unpacker.

 

 

 

Pretty much all the mods follow the same file order as the bethesda BSA large file archives

 

Once you add in a poop ton worth of mods you end up with a Data file

 

that has the meshes,textures,sounds, BSA files

 

then the other files, which look like files, which is the file directory I think anyway

 

 

LIke Data\meshes\weapons\1handpistol\10mmpistol.nif

 

Or Data\textures\weapons\1handpistol\10mmpistol.dds

 

 

 

I'm just taking a guess, but maybe the mod in question replaces the vanilla texture an mesh

 

All you really have to do is have the invalidation toggled in FOMM, and I think you only have to toggle it once

It's like archive invalidation invalidated, Which is great.

 

Provided you have that, pretty much you just follow the path of the mod zip/rar

 

 

I do all the mod installs the manual way

 

Open the zip/rar

 

 

It has a Data file, then maybe a .esp file

 

the .esp is what was created with the GECK

 

The data folder or file, is the raw stuff like mesh, sound, texture

 

 

so all you really do is open the the zip/rar, and then open the data folder

 

it has Meshes and Texture folders in it

 

 

Open the fallout 3 data file, look for the folders that are meshes an textures

 

You have to add those parts in with your first few poop loads of mods

 

 

so I see that I already have a meshes an textures folder in my fallout 3 data

 

so I go back to the zip/rar click on meshes, it opens and says armor

 

I go back to the fallout 3 data folder an open the meshes folder

 

Hey there is one named armor in there, Back to the zip/rar

 

click armor it opens up and says something like Vaultsuit

 

Back in the fallout data folder it doesn't have a vaultsuit folder

 

so I know it won't overwrite anything, and I drag an drop it in

 

 

If there was a vaultsuit folder I would then open that an look at the name of the texture in there

 

Then decide if I wanted to replace it, or even use this mod, maybe you can pick the best texture

 

and since they have the same name you can use both mods, but maybe not,

 

 

 

 

Also the mod you might have that might just retexture a vannilla item

 

by vanilla we mean the plain version from bethesda by the way

 

In that case it may not even need a .esp unless the creator placed it in the world

 

or made a edit to that items stats or made it buyable at a vendor or on loot lists

 

 

If it's just a file with a mesh an texture, then all you do is drag an drop thost last files

 

You have to have the file directory in place for it though

 

 

Like if your texture an mesh are vaultsuit

 

You need to follow the path listed inside the zip/rar

 

we do that when we upload it so you know where to put it

 

 

This is just a guess at what it would be if it was a vaultsuit

 

even though I don't have vaultsuit in my data file because it's in the BSA file

 

archive invalidation will use the new one you place in the data file rather than use the old version

 

so you don't really have to extract it from the BSA and then replace it

 

 

So just place vaultsuit.dds in data\textures\armor\vaultsuit\vaultsuit.dds

 

or vaultsuit.nif in data/textures\armor\vaultsuit\vaultsuit.nif

 

Not like that, like what ever the file directory is inside that mod you downloaded

 

after you place it in there even though it doesn't actually replace anything

 

with archive invalidation toggled or applyed, the game engine knows to use the most current version

 

 

say you have 6325 meshes all named 10mmpistol.nif all in different files, you download one more

 

then the system is going to use it because it goes by the date or time, I.E. how new it is,

 

it's only going to use the newest version.

 

 

 

 

 

You can also use nifscope or GECK to make multi versions of the same thing

by putting your own file in there somewhere

 

 

Like Data\meshes\weapons\Yourfile\yourpoop.nif

 

You have to change the names though, because otherwise archive invalidation will use which ever is the newest

 

Also if you go the paintnet way to retexture so you don't have to convert, it's better to save the file on the desktop

then rename it after you save.

 

 

This is all really new stuff, so the problem isn't you

 

it's the outdated read me you read probably

 

some of the old stuff, which is only like 6 months ago

 

talks about stuff we don't use or do anymore

 

besides read me's being hard to follow in the first place

 

I feel your pain, but fear not, it gets more easy.