LE Custom Texture/Mesh (load racemenu textures via text files)

[ZeroLevels]

Keep in mind that I have very little understanding of the depths and power of modding Skyrim, with or without the use of extended scripts and whatnot, so this idea may be totally bust. Sometimes I just wish to create a custom shade of an eye without overwriting an old one, but no mod I know of implements it well, or is an overwrite.

 

Basically, the idea would be to load textures for certain things, such as eyes, and load meshes for others, such as hair, each as a new option in the RaceMenu. So long as you provide the meshes and textures in the proper formats in the appropriate data folders, the game would be told to load them through the usage of some sort of text file. You would provide the text file with the file paths, and for each new filepath, the game would load that as a texture so long as a proper texture file is provided at the specified path.

 

The paths would be relative to the data folder and determine what is being added. For instance, if using a basic .txt file the mod would determine that you're adding a new eye texture by the following path:

textures\actors\character\eyes\ThisIsAnEyeballTexture.dds

 

The above example could be used universally for any of the races. Perhaps they could be divided up for race specific use through subfolders or other means. Subfolders would only be good for single race usage though, as you'd have to copy the texture multiple times otherwise. The following path would be an example of this, used for Khajiit only:

textures\actors\character\eyes\khajiit\ThisIsAnotherEyeballTexture.dds

 

Though, it would probably be more practical to use something more advanced, like an XML file. You could then specify more easily what texture you're loading and for what type of thing. Maybe even extend it to work with other things, such as dirt or warpaint. For now, I'll stick with eye examples. Specifying races would be exclusive, which means not specifying a race at all would mean the texture is universal through all races.

 

The below example would load an eye texture from textures\actors\character\eyes, and would apply for the Nord, Redguard, and Imperial races, and another eye texture made just for the elves:
Custom Textures.xml

<textures>

<eyes>

<filepath type="string">thatCoolAnimeEyeISawOnce.dds</filename>

<races>

<race>nord</race>

<race>redguard</race>

<race>imperial</race>

<races>

</eyes>

<eyes>

<filepath type="string">HumanEyesForElves.dds</filename>

<races>

<race>altmer</race>

<race>bosmer</race>

<race>dunmer</race>

<races>

</eyes>

</textures>

 

I feel that this could be a decently recieved mod, as it would be fairly easy for people to make known their custom eyes and such. Problematically, though, it would rely on each individual to do things correctly, unless errors can be caught. Another problem with it could be that you might see a flood of single eye textures coming in as "mods", which could be annoying. Ultimately, though, it'd be a heck of a thing to have. Tell me what you think and whether or not you know it's possible. If it's not, please go easy on me. :smile:

Edited June 11, 2014 by ZeroLevels

[IsharaMeradin]

There is this: SetNthTexturePath added by SKSE to the TextureSet script

In theory, it would allow you to script a texture change so that the current model would appear differently. That means that a mod like RaceMenu could provide a new blank eye entry form and allow the player to select from a designated list of textures (i.e. as the slider position is changed, the eye color updates to the new texture).

 

The drawback is that you cannot simply add new textures to a folder. The script has to be made aware of the file paths for each individual texture file.