Modifying textures, how do?

[CyborgRox]

If I had a dime for every time I've failed to find a simple texture mod for a specific item...

Seriously, there's so much in the game that I wish were just a bit darker, had less saturation, or don't like the colour of.

 

So, I want to learn how to do that myself. Can't be that hard, can it? I already know the basics of photoshop, so all I need is instructions on finding the texture files, and properly editing them and implementing their changes with the Creation Kit.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[CyborgRox]

Cmon guys, really? ANY help, regarding FINDING IMAGES IN MY SKYRIM FILES, would be appreciated.

 

Is that REALLY such an uncommon thing to know about? Or is this Forum just dead?

[Surilindur]

It might actually be extremely common knowledge I think, which could be one reason why people have not replied, and why there is a ton of texture mods for the game. Also your question looks like you need a tutorial and nobody probably has the time to write one, especially when a Google search could have brought you to a proper retexturing tutorial pretty fast. I think. For example at TES Alliance there is this section: http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/forum/118-graphic-artistry . And if you have used texture mods, you probably know what they consist of, and how they work in general, so it should not be rocket science.

 

The TES Alliance tutorials should help you get started and through the project. To condense it, maybe the overall process could be something like this, for example (I am not an expert, I have only done some small scale texture tweaks for myself, so remember to simultaneously consume the obligatory grain of salt :tongue: ):

• using either the Creation Kit or TES5Edit, find the path to the mesh of the item you are looking for
• extract the mesh from inside the proper bsa using a tool such as BSAopt (here: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/247 - for example the 2.0.0 beta, 16 Dec 2012 one works well)
• open the mesh in NifSkope (here: https://github.com/jonwd7/nifskope/releases)
• find out which textures the mesh uses: navigate hierarchy tree to NiTriShape -> BSLightingShaderProperty -> BSShaderTextureSet, then see the listview at the bottom of NifSkope window for the texture paths
• extract the texture(s) you want from the proper bsa using BSAopt
• import the dds to your image editor, modify it, then export back to dds (mind possible transparency when selecting compression, remember mipmaps and all that)
• make sure the path (relative to data folder) is the same as the one of the texture inside the bsa archive
• done

Of course there might be other things to keep in mind, too. For example that works to replace the texture itself, and sometimes multiple meshes can use the same texture. You can use NifSkope to change the texture paths to something else for the mesh you want (and put the textures into that other path), in case other meshes use the same texture and you do not want to affect those - but remember that whatever paths you set in NifSkope, you should always strip the start, so that they are relative to data folder and not absolute paths. I have no idea how Photoshop handles dds import/export, but there is a dds plugin available for Gimp if you use that (here: https://code.google.com/archive/p/gimp-dds). Maybe the Creation Kit has something to help you with textures, too. I have not really looked into it much.

 

Hopefully that helps a little. :thumbsup:

Edited July 2, 2016 by Contrathetix

[CyborgRox]

It might actually be extremely common knowledge I think, which could be one reason why people have not replied, and why there is a ton of texture mods for the game. Also your question looks like you need a tutorial and nobody probably has the time to write one, especially when a Google search could have brought you to a proper retexturing tutorial pretty fast. I think. For example at TES Alliance there is this section: http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/forum/118-graphic-artistry . And if you have used texture mods, you probably know what they consist of, and how they work in general, so it should not be rocket science.

 

The TES Alliance tutorials should help you get started and through the project. To condense it, maybe the overall process could be something like this, for example (I am not an expert, I have only done some small scale texture tweaks for myself, so remember to simultaneously consume the obligatory grain of salt :tongue: ):

• using either the Creation Kit or TES5Edit, find the path to the mesh of the item you are looking for
• extract the mesh from inside the proper bsa using a tool such as BSAopt (here: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/247 - for example the 2.0.0 beta, 16 Dec 2012 one works well)
• open the mesh in NifSkope (here: https://github.com/jonwd7/nifskope/releases)
• find out which textures the mesh uses: navigate hierarchy tree to NiTriShape -> BSLightingShaderProperty -> BSShaderTextureSet, then see the listview at the bottom of NifSkope window for the texture paths
• extract the texture(s) you want from the proper bsa using BSAopt
• import the dds to your image editor, modify it, then export back to dds (mind possible transparency when selecting compression, remember mipmaps and all that)
• make sure the path (relative to data folder) is the same as the one of the texture inside the bsa archive
• done

Of course there might be other things to keep in mind, too. For example that works to replace the texture itself, and sometimes multiple meshes can use the same texture. You can use NifSkope to change the texture paths to something else for the mesh you want (and put the textures into that other path), in case other meshes use the same texture and you do not want to affect those - but remember that whatever paths you set in NifSkope, you should always strip the start, so that they are relative to data folder and not absolute paths. I have no idea how Photoshop handles dds import/export, but there is a dds plugin available for Gimp if you use that (here: https://code.google.com/archive/p/gimp-dds). Maybe the Creation Kit has something to help you with textures, too. I have not really looked into it much.

 

Hopefully that helps a little. :thumbsup:

 

Alright, so I finally got around to looking into this, because I really wanted a re-texture of something that lacked it.

I downloaded this "B.A.E." program, very simple and great for scooping out texture files. Then I edited the textures with a downloaded DDS plugin for my Photoshop, simply made it darker, but then I hit a dead-end. I strugged for hours trying to wrap my head around complex ways to insert the texture onto the mesh, through the Creation Kit, "NifSkope" and all that.

 

Then I got a massive facepalm when I realized something. ALL I have to do is RENAME the texture file to the one I want replaced, and place it in the appropriate directory in the Data folder! No Creation Kit, no NifSkope, and if I already have a texture file, no Photoshop or BAE either! It's that simple!

 

Gaaah, why didn't anyone tell me this instead!? I struggled so long for nothing ;-;

[Surilindur]

Great to hear you got it all sorted out! :D

 

 

Gaaah, why didn't anyone tell me this instead!? I struggled so long for nothing ;-;

 

 

Actually, I did tell it at the bottom of the list that you also quoted:

 

• using either the Creation Kit or TES5Edit, find the path to the mesh of the item you are looking for
• extract the mesh from inside the proper bsa using a tool such as BSAopt (here: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/247 - for example the 2.0.0 beta, 16 Dec 2012 one works well)
• open the mesh in NifSkope (here: https://github.com/jonwd7/nifskope/releases)
• find out which textures the mesh uses: navigate hierarchy tree to NiTriShape -> BSLightingShaderProperty -> BSShaderTextureSet, then see the listview at the bottom of NifSkope window for the texture paths
• extract the texture(s) you want from the proper bsa using BSAopt
• import the dds to your image editor, modify it, then export back to dds (mind possible transparency when selecting compression, remember mipmaps and all that)
• make sure the path (relative to data folder) is the same as the one of the texture inside the bsa archive
• done

 

The "make sure the path (relative to data folder) is the same as the one of the texture inside the bsa archive" line of it. The base game textures are all packed in bsa archives, and to replace a texture, a loose file (as in, one not packed in an archive) with the same path (relative to data folder) is needed (with archive invalidation, but most mod managers already have it all automated). Well. Maybe it was not too clearly expressed on my part. :blush:

 

Anyway, great to hear you finally cracked it. Who knows, mabe you will be excited enough to make some extensive retextures for sharing, too? :thumbsup:

Edited November 24, 2016 by Contrathetix