Regarding Bethesda's Mod Tools

[Arthur89]

So we all know about the soon to be released Mod Tools provided by Bethesda, but what do they actually do?

 

I know very little about the process of mods, I'd love to change textures and things but I have no idea how to do that currently, but will the upcoming mod tools allow me to easily create/edit things in Skyrim?

[Mansh00ter]

Traditionally, Bethesda's modding tools are very powerful, allowing you to change almost every variable in the game, as well as scripts governing game behavior, import and plug in new assets (sounds, models, textures etc.) and so on. So it's a fair bet that the upcoming Creation Set will allow you to mod things you mentioned.

[GileadMaerlyn]

You don't need (and can't use) Bethesda mod tool to edit textures.

 

What you need is the following :

 

- FOMM to extract the texture from the BSA.

- GIMP or Photoshop to edit the texture

- A .dds plugin for the above in order to open/save the texture.

[Roltak]

Like it was said, you can edit Textures and Models without the use of the Creation Kit, but it might still be useful, for example if you want to add multiple variations of a single item, like recolored versions of the standard leather armor or a special version of the Glass Armor with super powers or stuff like that, you need the Creation Kit.

[Ghogiel]

Since MW it has been pretty much a extensive 'level' or 'world' editor.

 

It comes with several bells and whistles, height map editor, pretty much everything besides asset create in self contained on the editor, sound and art files are created in external packages like photoshop, logic, max etc,