Removing Armor Pieces From Mods

[agamer]

I have some large armor mods that I use only a couple outfits from each. The rest of the armor that I will never use clutters up my game and sometimes crashes it.

 

Is there a way to remove armor from a mod that will never be used for the sake of stabilizing the game?

 

I am somewhat comfortable with CK and opening zip files and sifting through folders. I am also very good at following directions.

 

 

[Oubliette]

It's a fairly simple matter. Though if you're only using one or two items it's probably easier to simply create a new plugin with the assets you want to keep and then remove the excess assets and the old plugin. Here's a useful tutorial series on adding custom armor to the game, feel free to skip forward to the most relevant section:

[agamer]

It's a fairly simple matter. Though if you're only using one or two items it's probably easier to simply create a new plugin with the assets you want to keep and then remove the excess assets and the old plugin. Here's a useful tutorial series on adding custom armor to the game, feel free to skip forward to the most relevant section:

 

I am interested in what you said regarding creating a new plugin with the assets I want to keep and removing everything else. How do you do that?

 

Editing to add I know how to create an empty plugin. I have a test plugin ready for use. I have watched some tutorials on how to add armor to a new plugin. I tried duplicating the armor and adding it to a new plugin but nothing shows up in game.

 

The armor i'm trying to extract from a mod in its original condition can be crafted at the forge. But in my plugin, the options to craft the armor aren't showing up. Basically, I don't see the armor anywhere in game.

 

Also, the meshes and textures are missing, even though I duplicated the items. Not sure what to try next.

 

Anyone have a step by step tutorial on how to do this specifically, please.

[jet4571]

Follow the firsrt part of this tutorial to get the armor into your mod: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/605633-linking-an-armor-mod-to-another-mod-without-esp-or-esm-master-tip-for-beginners/&do=findComment&comment=4826964

 

Once you have the armor in your mod expand the constructable objects tree and find the original armors 2 entries. Right click and duplicate the same as you did the armor addon and armor. Then edit the duplicate and on the top right side is a box called Created Object, find the duplicated armor entry and set the 2 constructables to point to that. One is for forging and the other is for tempering so you will need both of them for each armor piece.

 

I dont change the name of the armor pieces after duplicating to simplify this. When I go to change to the duplicated it will be the next choice down in the list. Example is the armor: AAStannisArmorDUPLICATE001 after being duplicated and the 2 constructable objects are: AARecipeArmorStannisCuirassDUPLICATE001 and AATemperArmorstannisCuirassDUPLICATE001. Recipe is for the forge and temper is for the workbench. The originals didnt have Duplicate001 in the name.

 

I have 1 single armor mod because I do this with every armor i decide to keep and I have downloaded and kept around 100 seperate armor mods. Also just so you know you will need to unpack parts from any bsa file they might be packed in otherwise they wont load and the CK can and will remove the filepath to the armor on you if you try to look at it in the CK.

 

You can also use Tes5edit to copy over everything directly into your plugin then delete the new master it creates. I prefer doing it manualy so i can adjust the crafting requirements to what I think is better as well as adjusting armor ratings. Either way is up to you as both methods work fine.

Edited January 25, 2014 by jet4571

[agamer]

 

Also just so you know you will need to unpack parts from any bsa file they might be packed in otherwise they wont load and the CK can and will remove the filepath to the armor on you if you try to look at it in the CK.

 

 

I've done everything you instructed so far and with a few mistakes and having to restart a few times, I think I got it finally. However, could you explain a little more of what you mean by needing to unpack parts from bsa files? What kind of parts should I be looking for to unpack? How will I know if there's something to unpack and where would I find this information?

[jet4571]

Unpack the whole BSA file into the Data folder. Once done open the armor mod up and right click edit the ArmorAddon. It will have filepaths listed for the .nif files. Only those .nif files are required. The ground model is in the Armor entry above where you link to the armor addon. You will need that as well.

 

After unpacking and you get the file name I usualy have a temp folder inside the folder the nif files and dds files came in. When my mod says to use torsoA_0.nif I exit out of that and drag and drop the _0 and _1 version of those into the empty folder. Once all my .niff files that are used are culled from the rest i simply delete the remaining .nif files open the other folder and cut and paste those back to the correct folder. Then delete the now empty folder you created to store them.

 

Textures on the otherhand are more tricky, It is best to open each .nif with nifskope and find what DDS files are used. Or you can simply leave them in the textures folder and pretend you didnt see a bunch of extra textures that are not used. Not recomended so get nifskope and look at any tutorial for instruction on setting up a new nif to correctly link the textures. You just need to see where to look in the mess Nifskope is and not actualy make any changes. It actualy goes quite fast oce you get used to it even though it sounds complicated.

 

*Edit, if you start consolidating armor mods and you have one mod that has .bsa file and a dozen different armors but you want only half of them you can use tes5edit to remove the unwanted armor, armoraddon, and 2 constructable object. then just leave the .bsa alone. Any other armor you want to keep that is seperate you use tes5edit or my system in the tutorial to add to the one you deleted armor from. Once you get all your armor you can then use wrybash to make it an esm file instead of an esp. that allows you to make a second mod for level lists so you can add any or all of those armors to Skyrim as a random item a vendor may have or a bandit is wearing.

 

Even more fun is doing the same as you did with armor for weapons and have a merged weapons mod. Make that an esm as well and add the weapons to the level list mod. Being an ESM file you can give those armors and weapons to specific NPC's to save yourself crafting materials when you play. I have close to a hundred NPC's specificaly using armor and weapons from mine and all are in the level luists without bash patches.

 

You cannot uload the consolidated mods without permission but you are free to make them for yourself and you will be glad you did.

Edited January 25, 2014 by jet4571

[agamer]

My head is spinning with all this information. I'm a noob at skyrim modding, I know. Though, not new to modding games and using utilities for minor/major tweaks, depending on the situation. But i'm finding out skyrim modding can get a little complicated to say the least. It's easy enough to load a mod in CK, such as a city mod and remove or add a tree or something like that.

 

But something like this...

 

I'll explain in further detail what i'm working on and from what I've read so far, you might be familiar with the mod i'm trying to work with.

 

Just mentioning this mod for visual sake, so to speak. I want a few item from the mod witcher 2 armor pack, but I don't want most of it because i'll never use it. And it has occasionally crashed the game when clicking on certain armor pieces.

 

In this mod there is a plugin and also loose mesh and texture files. I made a plugin from it as you instructed with only the armor I wanted which went fairly well. I disabled the witcher 2 mod and enabled my new mod. Went into game, everything I put in the mod was showing at the forge. Crafted a few items and all was well. Quit the game and uninstalled the original witcher 2 armor pack mod and left mine in, activated. Went back into game and all the armor was invisible. So I guess the problem is with meshes and textures related to the specific armor pieces. It's hard to decipher what's what when it comes to meshes and textures because all the files seemed to be named differently.

 

So how do I get the specific textures and meshes I need for the armor I want to keep without keeping a lot of other loose files in the data folder that will never serve any purpose other than bloat the data folder?

[agamer]

For the record, i'm such a neat freak organizer that after playing a newly installed vanilla Skyrim for over two months to figure out what mods I want and don't want. I reinstalled the game yesterday and have a totally new vanilla Skyrim game.

 

There are several armor pieces from many mods that I want and yes, want to consolidate the keepers into one merged mod and that's why it's important to learn how to do this. In the course of the last two months it was amazing to see how badly messed up the data folder and the skyrim game in general could get with installing/uninstalling mods. Not to mention the constant CTD's. Unless you know what your doing of course.

[jet4571]

You used NMM to uninstall the witcher Armor pack didnt you? NMM removed the meshes and textures. Manualy download it again and manualy install it but delete the .esp that came with it and cull the models and textures to just what you need. Do not let NMM uninstall the armor mods once you merged them or manualy add the meshes and textures back after NMM removed them.

 

As for what meshes and textures the armor and armor addon entries tell you what meshes are required. Ground/inventory meshes are listed in the Armor entry, what you see when wearing is listed in the Armor Addon.

 

opening the meshes up in Nifskope tells you what textures those models use. Any other textures and meshes that are not used and came with the mod can be deleted. This is safe to do and if you are in game and the boots you just crafted had the ground/inventory model but you put them on and there was no boots you will know that you missed the boots model. If any of them are not textured you will know you missed the texture.

 

And remember there is a _1 and _0 version of every armor model but the CK only has 1 listed so be sure to grab both of the meshes. If you miss one of the _0 or _1 meshes there will be a gap at the ankles for boots, a gap at the forearms for gloves, and a neck gap for the body. Helmets will not fit properly on the head. So thats three meshes needed. lavalettecuirassm_0.nif, lavalettecuirassm_1.nif, and the ground/inventory lavalettecuirassm_gnd.nif. for the ground/inventory model sometimes it is the _1 or _0 listed there because the mod maker didnt create a ground object but if the did it is usuealy noted as _go or _gnd.

 

In Nifskope open a mesh up and expand NiTriShape then expand BSLightingShaderProperty. click BSShaderTextureSet. In the bottom window expand Textures. That is the list of what textures the mesh uses. You only need to check one of the _0 and _1 meshes. they will use the same textures. But be sure to check the ground/inventory mesh as they sometimes use different textures. Once you found and have all the listed textures dont save with Nifskope, you can just close it or load the next mesh you need. Takes longer to gather the textures than it does to find them with Nifskope.

 

Any textures not included in the mod are vanilla textures like cubemaps. Don't worry about those.

 

*Edit,

You did say it worked when the original mod was installed so that said you successfully created the start of your merged armor mod. Just the uninstall of the original removed the meshes and textures on you. That wasnt anything to make you feel like you messed up on the new mod, that was just a simple mistake of uninstalling the assets you wanted afterwards. If they were in the game and working you were succesful, and congratulatuions. Once you get this set completed adding the next will be easier, and the one after that will be even easier and take so little time you will wonder why nobody else ever does it.

Edited January 26, 2014 by jet4571

[agamer]

jet4571, yes, I did install and uninstall the armor mod through nmm. The first time I lost my files. The second time I backed everything up before uninstalling, then reinstalled the backup files and it worked that time around.

 

Also, I'm glad you mentioned about gaps in armor and why that happens because I did notice there was a pair of gloves that left a gap on my female character but the same gloves left no gap on a male character. Maybe those gloves are for male race only? Or maybe I missed something?

 

There is another thing. I did try to put all the meshes in one folder I named the armory and did the same for the textures from this armor mod. Went into game and my follower who was wearing the custom armor had an invisible body. So I went back and took the files out of the folder I made and everything was back to normal.

 

What I did was go into data/meshes/myarmory/here added several folders from the armor mod. I did the same with textures. Again it didn't work.

 

But I would like to consolidate all the meshes and textures from armor that's extracted from other mods and keep them in one mesh folder and one texture folder for better organization. Or maybe there's another way of getting all the textures, meshes and necessary data merged into one mod. And in such a way that I can keep adding to the same mod.

 

Like I think you mentioned you have one armor mod made from many different armor pieces. Are all your meshes and textures in that one mod also or are they loose files like I have right now?