Adding weapon textures to the game

[MrLamar]

Hey all.

 

I would like to know how i can add the textures that i have edited into the game. I want to experiment with texturing, but i have no idea how it will look in game if i can't even put it in the game!

 

Thanks!

[MrLamar]

sorry for doing this, but :

 

bump

[Moraelin]

Well, if you ONLY replace textures, but leave the mesh otherwise alone, and assuming you're making a new weapon i.e., not making a replacer, you're in luck. You can do it all through the GECK and don't need to duplicate the mesh either. It goes kinda like this:

 

1. Define a new texture. (Or two, or three, depending on how many parts of the gun you've retextured. I.e., how many textures you replaced.) Note that these are actually texture SETS, so each of them can have a diffuse map, a normal map, a bump map, a shine effect, etc, in just one entry.

 

Actually, best forget about the "new" part as such. Duplicate the existing mesh entry you're trying to change, and change path to the textures you actually changed. E.g., if you only changed the diffuse map, leave the normal map as it is.

 

Ok, how we do it, is load your mod (or just FalloutNV.esm, if you start a new mod), look in the tree under Miscelaneous -> Texture Sets. For guns invariably you'll have a 1stPerson entry or two. These are normally used for the high-def textures when the gun is equipped on the main character. I usually use the same hi-def set for both first person and normal, but that's not mandatory. But at any rate, these are the textures we want to dupe and edit.

 

E.g., if you wanted to retexture the 9mm SMG, you'd look at changing the 1stPerson9mmSMGtexture and possibly the 1stPerson9mmSMGdrumtexture. But I said we were making a non-replacer, so y'd double click it and change its editor ID to something else -- for example 1stPerson9mmModdedSMGtexture -- and hit OK. The GECK will ask if you want to make a copy, say "Yes". Now you have a copy of the texture set, with the new name. Double-click it again and change whatever textures you want changed, in that small table. Hit OK again.

 

Now if you actually want to have different textures on the player char than otherwise (e.g., the textures on companions and lying around being lower res to have mercy on the graphics card) you'd duplicate it again, under a different name -- e.g., 3rdPerson9mmModdedSMGtexture -- and basically do all that editing one more time for this entry too.

 

2. Now weapons also have a 1stPerson MESH, which can be actually a more detailed mesh, but by default it's the same with the 1stPerson textures applied. Basically Bethesda uses it as a way to apply alternate textures to the same mesh. These are under World Objects -> Static.

 

So in my example, you'd look for 1stPerson9mmSMG in the logical place in the tree under World Objects -> Static. Then duplicate it like above. (Double-click, change Editor Id, Ok, Yes.) Get used to that gig, you'll be doing it again in a jiffy.

 

Then edit the copy and notice that there is an Edit button next to the mesh name. You'll have to click it, although you're not actually changing the mesh. This opens a dialog where you can actually change the path to the mesh (useful when you start doing meshes too), and a table with parts of the gun and textures applied to them. WIth right-click on each row, replace those with the texture you just defined at step #1.

 

If you also changed the drum, modded variants, etc, you do the same for those too, obviously.

 

3. Now it's time to make the actual new gun. You probably guessed, we're going to duplicate it, once you found it under Weapons. You probably know how by now. Now open the cloned one and edit its name, price, damage, etc. Go to the Art And Sound page.

 

Now objects can have several meshes. E.g., for armors you'd have male model, female model, model when lying around on the table. Guns have only two: equipped model and model lying around, but for most only the first one is used for both. It has an Edit button next to the path. Hitting it opens the familiar dialog where you can assign your new textures.

 

If the gun does have a world model too, you'll have to do the same again for it.

 

Don't forget to assign the first person model you just defined in step #2. If you also retextured and defined modded models (e.g., SMG with drum) at step #2, go to the Mod Info page and assign those too.

 

4. Now you have a good looking boomstick but can't actually get it in the game, which is a bit of a bummer.

 

The easiest way is to just give it to some vendor to sell. Then you can just go buy it in the game.

 

So you'll have to define a container, or duplicate an existing one. (You didn't think you were done duping, did you?;)) Edit it, delete its existing contents from that list, drag and drop your gun into that list. That means: with the container window still open, find your gun in the tree again and drag and drop that row into the box's list. If it doesn't seem to work, try again. Give the container a name you can recognize.

 

Now open the map of the shop you want to give it to. Drag and drop the row defining your new crate anywhere into that map. Now you could position it nicely and all, but a cheaper trick is to just edit it and set its Y (vertical position) to something so low, it's effectively buried. As a sideffect (good or bad) this also means the player can't get to the crate and steal your new gun, he'll have to fork over the bottlecaps. Set the crate ownership to the shopkeeper NPC.

 

Save.

 

That's it. That's all. You can now buy your new retextured gun at that shop.

 

Well, there are other interesting things you could do now, like give it to certain NPCs or add it to levelled lists and all, but you'll figure those out when/if you need them.

[MrLamar]

Thanks for the response. However, i ran into a problem.

 

Im trying to change the texture of the silenced 22 pistol. So what i did was:

 

1. I went into GECK and loaded my mod data zzzTestMod.esp

2. In the Object window i went to Miscellaneous>Texture Set

3. I made a copy of the texture set 1stPersonSilenced22Texture by renaming the ID of the object zzz1stPersonSilenced22Texture

4. I double-clicked the duplicate Texture Set to open the Texture Set window and selected the Diffuse map weapons\1handpistol\1stpersonsilenced22 (That's actually the file NAME, not the file PATH)

5. With that selected, i clicked on the EDIT button next to where it says "texture" under the list of maps and files

6. It brings me to a file browser window, so i navigate to where my .dds file is located (C:\Users\Pops\Desktop\Fallout Modding\Mods\Extracted\Textures and Meshes\textures\weapons\1handpistol) and double click on my .dds file (zzz1stpersonsilenced22texture)

 

After that, i get a "file error" message that says "Invalid Directory"

 

What is it that i'm doing wrong? Is it because the .dds is in a custom file path/folder?

 

Thanks for your help

[Deleted4709949User]

yes, also that's a problem with nif files when you load them in geck and they aren't in the data folder of the gmae u are importing the weapon to it will have invalid directory