What resources do I need

[dom27]

Hey everyone, I'm working on my very first Oblivion mod (a quest involving a strange amulet and some pissed off trolls). Anyway I have the bare bones planned out and have started fiddling with CS but what sort of resources should I use for things like custom textures and effects ( I'm thinking like a troll summon spell cos it's different from the usuall amulet of awesome reward) Even better if they have tutorials :) if you want any more details about my needs or the mod itself plz ask

 

thanks

[The_Vyper]

Hey everyone, I'm working on my very first Oblivion mod (a quest involving a strange amulet and some pissed off trolls). Anyway I have the bare bones planned out and have started fiddling with CS but what sort of resources should I use for things like custom textures and effects ( I'm thinking like a troll summon spell cos it's different from the usuall amulet of awesome reward) Even better if they have tutorials :) if you want any more details about my needs or the mod itself plz ask

 

thanks

To create a custom Summon spell, you'll need to use a script effect. This tutorial is the one I use for all of my custom summons. As for amulets, there are several resources available to modders. Just do a search through TES Nexus (you'll get about eight pages of results for "Amulet"). You can also retexture existing amulets using free programs like Paint.net or GIMP (although GIMP requires an additional plugin to edit .dds files). If you do add additional meshes and textures, you can use TES4Files to bundle them together with your mod. It makes things a lot easier. If you want to go the extra mile, you can use OBMM to create an OMOD after you gather everything together with TES4Files.

[dom27]

Thanks Vyper, does paint.net let you reskin NPCs and monsters too?

[The_Vyper]

Thanks Vyper, does paint.net let you reskin NPCs and monsters too?

Paint.net lets you edit any .dds file you have unpacked from the Textures BSA. In order to apply a new texture (instead of just replacing the old one), you'll need NifSkope. (I should have mentioned that in my previous post. Bad Vyper, no soup for you!) Just make sure you include a NormalMap for your new textures. A NormalMap basically tells the game how to apply a texture to a mesh. If you look through your textures, you'll see that most of them have a texture name and then another texture with the same name, but with _n added to it. For example, the Black Robe has a texture called RobeMCBlack.dds and another texture called RobeMCBlack_n.dds. The _n is the NormalMap texture. If you just change the main texture of a mesh, you can copy the NormalMap and rename it you your new texture. The NormalMap must have the same name as the texture, though (just with _n on the end). If it doesn't, or you don't include a NormalMap for your new texture, all kinds of weirdness can occur: clothing can appear invisible (yes, I know "appear invisible" seems to be a contradiction, just bear with me :laugh: ), it can make whatever portion of the body it covers invisible (here's an example of that), and it can also appear to stretch way into the distance. So whatever you do, don't forget the NormalMap. :thumbsup: