In need of modding tutorials.

[jatneosen]

Hey there. So, over a year of lurking around, downloading mods, messing around with the CS, and general stuff like that, a thought suddenly struck me. Why not begin to mod myself?

 

 

So I started my epic quest of modding, and after 4 hours, I'm at a dead end. I couldn't find any tutorials suiting my needs.

 

Here's the problem, I found loads of good tutorials and stuff, just not good for me. It seems they all expect me to know everything from before.

 

The main problem here, is actually getting the programs themselves to actually work. GIMP installed fine, nifskope did, blender, and so on. But I need all these additional plugins, .dds plugins and so on, WHERE THE BLOODY HELL DO I PUT THEM!? XD

It doesn't explain how to do this stuff in any of the download sites, or the tutorials. And just to answer the questing you're probably sitting with, yes, my brain has the capacity of a loaf of bread when it comes to stuff like this.

 

Another problem was the TES4BSA. All the linked download sites came up with a 404, so I eventually ended up just googling it, and when I finally found a working download, the whole thing is just messed up. I extract it to my desktop, click the thing, it pops up, then closes again real fast. Again, I have no idea where I actually put this thing in order to make it work.

 

So I end up downloading a BSA commander, which I believe is the same thing. It seems to work, but I have no idea what to actually do with it.

 

The tutorial I'm looking through, tells me I need TES4BSA, are they the same?

If so, then good, cause the other thing sure as hell didn't work.

 

Now, the .dds plugin and the normal map plugin for GIMP. I'm just a giant question mark at that point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I guess that's the problems I'm facing. If anyone could explain to me how to, or link me some good tutorials, it'dbe awesome.

I also want a tutorial on how to create new meshes, instead of just altering oblivion meshes.

 

Just so everyone knows, I'll be using GIMP, nifskope and blender. Don't know how much that counts.

 

Thanks in advance =).

[Pronam]

Descriptions and readme's do wonders:

Gimp

 

I would go for BSA-Commander or OBMM, they are newer...

BSA Commander

BSA Commander allows you to extract .BSA files. So that means you can alter things like Meshes and Textures.

When you open it up, load the BSA you need (located in your data-folder), then you can choose to select all files..meaning to extract them all, or just a few you need using the buttons on the right. The default is all .

Then you can use Unpack to extract them, It'll tell how much you've selected and how much will be extracted and you're able to change the destination. The standard folder created is just fine. It's wise to keep it separated from your folders in the Data folder to avoid the confusion. I've placed BSA-Commander in my oblivion directory. (Oblivion\bsacmd\)

 

Creating new meshes is a different and (to my opinion) more difficult thing. You would need a program like 3dsmax or the free blender / Modeling Tutorials.

 

 

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Who, 2000 posts!

 

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You're right bben:

 

It's a good idea to start of with the beginners tutorial.

Almost everyone starts of by creating there own first house following the house tutorial, where the previous tutorial is put to practice.

When you've been trough that one, take a look at the Textures-portal and its tutorials to start of with retexturing.

[bben46]

All of those programs are great, but first you must have the Construction set and know how to use it. Without the CS, you cannot put anything into the game. You can make the most fabulous object yet in Gimp, bit without knowing how to use the CS, it will be forever outside of the game.

 

First, learn the CS. Then pick one other program - such as Gimp and learn it, learn how to put a gimp object into the game using the CS. Then pick another program, such as Nifskope. etc. trying to learn and use a dozen different programs at once will take longer than learning them one at a time.

 

But everything in Oblivion modding starts and ends with the CS.

[jatneosen]

I've been using the CS for over a year now, and have become quite good at it, I've made countless new dungeons castles houses and so on, so that won't be a problem.

 

I finally managed to get the programs installed now, and I've been doing some retexturing, it's pretty damn frustrating, but I assume it will get easier as I go.

 

Now for new meshes, what program do I have to use in order to make new meshes? And I don't mean altering existing meshes, I mean completely new meshes, made from scratch. Also, a good tutorial for it would be awesome, tried to google it, but didn't find anything satisfying.

 

Thanks for the replies

[Pronam]

I gave two links. One to the Modeling tutorials and one to blender, which includes the free programs used for modeling.

meshes are models

[jatneosen]

Ah, thank you so much, didn't realize they where links.

[Pronam]

Yeah, sorry .. I use them too much :).. Anything brighter than the normal font is always worth hovering over.