Custom textures.

[Bandwidthbob]

Hi there,

 

I'm attempting my 2nd mod, but I'm very new at all of this. I'd like to build a level, but I'd like to use some custom textures. For example, I'd like to use the steel framework, but replace the red colour with a metal/steel/grey colour of some sort. I don't want to replace all the red colours in game, so I'm assuming I'd need to create unique IDs for the objects, and assign a new custom texture to that object, so they're unique to my mod only, and don't change other vanilla objects.

 

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[chucksteel]

1. Make your custom texture
2. Make a custom material (unpack the vanilla materials and find the original, use the materials editor to create your new version.)
3. Start building your level
4. place some of the framework you want to change
5. open the form and give it a unique ID "MyModFormName"
6. Find the model and click edit
7. Don't change the model but set it to "Custom Material Swap"
8. Choose your new material
9. Rinse and repeat until you have all the needed parts with your new textures.

Make sure to create a new custom form or setting the custom material will still change the texture for the entire game.

[radiumskull]

As an alternative, you can create Material Swaps with your new material, and use the menu in the map object's Extras tab, instead of creating new unique objects. You'll have to set each object's Material Swap in the map, but that also ensures that it doesn't affect any other objects.

Edited August 15, 2016 by radiumskull

[Bandwidthbob]

@chucksteel -- Thank you. I just tried using B.A.E to find the texture, but had no luck (went through textures1 - 9). Perhaps I'm missing something. It's the first 2 steps I'm going to need to master. I've created some Unique IDs and used Material Swaps in my first mod, so will need to figure out the other stuff now. Appreciate your help.

 

@radiumskull -- same again. Great advice, now I just need to figure out how to make the custom textures :)

[radiumskull]

 

@radiumskull -- same again. Great advice, now I just need to figure out how to make the custom textures :smile:

 

No problem, and that part is easy. Go find the Diffuse texture map of the object you want to recolor, pull it out and mess with it in Photoshop or Gimp till you get what you want. Then you need a new DDS saved from that, and a BGSM file for the material settings.

 

What you're trying to do is really pretty easy, if you know what all the different files do.

[Bandwidthbob]

 

 

@radiumskull -- same again. Great advice, now I just need to figure out how to make the custom textures :smile:

 

No problem, and that part is easy. Go find the Diffuse texture map of the object you want to recolor, pull it out and mess with it in Photoshop or Gimp till you get what you want. Then you need a new DDS saved from that, and a BGSM file for the material settings.

 

What you're trying to do is really pretty easy, if you know what all the different files do.

 

I'm trying to create a new texture for "BldConcSmWallPillar01" (for starters, to learn). Obviously with Material Swap, the actual texture can be different, but I can't seem to find the default texture for this object, because it's flagged as "NONE" when I check it. Once I know what that is, I guess I can try and extract it.

 

After that (assuming I can figure it out), saving the new _d.dds should be easy enough, so how do I get the BGSM file? Also, do I repack this file into the textures, or leave it as a loose file? I'd need to then choose it using Material Swap in the CK I guess, so not sure of the directory structure.

 

Thanks for the help.

[chucksteel]

1. Open the mesh with Nifscope you can then look up what material swap you need to find. Once you have the material you can open it with the material editor and find the file path for the original texture.) (( You will need to use Bethesda Archive extractor or Archive2 to unpack all of the texture .ba2's because you still won't know which vanilla .ba2 it's packed in.))

You can place your texture anywhere in the textures folder you want but I suggest using a mod specific file structure. (Example: Textures/MyMod/BuildingParts/MyNewTexture.dds. I do also suggest trying to make the file structure inside of your MyMod folder the same as vanilla which makes it easy to find again if you forget because you can look up the vanilla texture again and say "Yes! it's just in the MyMods folder under Blah Blah Blah!")

Do not try to pack your new textures into a vanilla .ba2, the Ckit will create an archive for you when/if you upload it to Bethesda.net or if your not intending to upload it there you can also just have it pack an archive for you. (Make sure you don't have any other loose files in your data folder when you have the Ckit pack the archive or it may unintentionally pack them too.)

[Bandwidthbob]

 

1. Open the mesh with Nifscope you can then look up what material swap you need to find. Once you have the material you can open it with the material editor and find the file path for the original texture.) (( You will need to use Bethesda Archive extractor or Archive2 to unpack all of the texture .ba2's because you still won't know which vanilla .ba2 it's packed in.))
2. You can place your texture anywhere in the textures folder you want but I suggest using a mod specific file structure. (Example: Textures/MyMod/BuildingParts/MyNewTexture.dds. I do also suggest trying to make the file structure inside of your MyMod folder the same as vanilla which makes it easy to find again if you forget because you can look up the vanilla texture again and say "Yes! it's just in the MyMods folder under Blah Blah Blah!")
3. Do not try to pack your new textures into a vanilla .ba2, the Ckit will create an archive for you when/if you upload it to Bethesda.net or if your not intending to upload it there you can also just have it pack an archive for you. (Make sure you don't have any other loose files in your data folder when you have the Ckit pack the archive or it may unintentionally pack them too.)

 

Thanks.

 

I'm going to sound really stupid here, but I'm really new to all of this.

 

1. I grabbed Nifskope, but not sure how to access what I want. I know the pillar I want to work with, but what exactly does Nifskope open -- is it the .dds file, or something else?

2. I've got Bethesda Archive Extractor, and it seems simple enough to use, except I'm not sure how to find what I need in it.

3. If I place the new texture in the vanilla textures folder, does that mean it'll be available when I try to use Material Swap?

4. If I don't pack the new texture into an archive, but it's in my mod level, will it break if I upload the mod alone, without the additional texture (if that makes sense)?

 

Appreciate the help, thank you! :)

 

[chucksteel]

1. Nifscope opens the meshes (.nif 3d files)

Best thing to do is to unpack all of the Textures .ba2's, Meshes .ba2 and materials .ba2 but don't unpack them into your game unpack them to a new folder on your desktop I call mine "FO4 Assets Folder"

Yes it needs to be in Data/Textures/Whatever for it to be available by the game and Ckit.

Yes it will show as a missing texture to anyone who tries to use the mod without the texture included with the mod. You can distribute loose textures on the Nexus but not on Beth.net. It is best to learn how to pack the textures into an archive, it's really not hard.

[Bandwidthbob]

 

1. Nifscope opens the meshes (.nif 3d files)
2. Best thing to do is to unpack all of the Textures .ba2's, Meshes .ba2 and materials .ba2 but don't unpack them into your game unpack them to a new folder on your desktop I call mine "FO4 Assets Folder"
3. Yes it needs to be in Data/Textures/Whatever for it to be available by the game and Ckit.
4. Yes it will show as a missing texture to anyone who tries to use the mod without the texture included with the mod. You can distribute loose textures on the Nexus but not on Beth.net. It is best to learn how to pack the textures into an archive, it's really not hard.

 

 

Do I need to use Nifskope, or can I use GIMP or PS for the graphics?

Is a mesh something different to a texture, or is it just a different term used?

 

I'll learn how to pack them once I learn how to create them.