Finding texture paths in nifskope, please help

[Murielkai]

1. I made a few mods for Skyrim where I changed the texture paths in nif files and I am trying to do that again with a fallout 4 mod, namely the jetpack_f nif from Nanosuit 6.2 by Vasstek. When I open the file in nifskope I cannot find the particular texture path I am looking for (Data\textures\Vasstek\Nanosuit\Jetpack\jetpack_d). So the file I need to change is "jetpack_d" but all I am seeing is references to a file named "jetpack.bgsm". I don't even know what a .bgsm file is, lol.

 

2. Secondly, unlike some Skyrim mods that have only a textures and meshes folder, I noticed Fallout 4 (at least this particular mod) has a "materials" folder also. What is the materials folder for?

 

3) Bonus question: So if I were to try to make a standalone jetpack mod using Vasstek assets, what would I need to transfer out of Vassteks "Nanosuit" folders and into custom folders to make it work?

 

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

 

Edited September 28, 2016 by Murielkai

[Deleted15964729User]

The texture path in the nifs are irrelevant. The material-files points the nif to the textures instead, and will trumph any textures defined in the nif itself.

 

As seen in your screenshot the path to the different materials (some models uses parts of multiple materials and thus textures) is listed under BSLightingShaderProperty. In you example you will find the material-file in ..\Fallout 4\Data\Materials\Vasstek\Nanosuit\Jetpack.bgsm.

 

To edit the material-file you can use: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3635/?

Or the editor included in the CK (personally prefer Osunius nifty app).

 

One of the benefits of material files is that you can do material swaps (MSWP) to vanilla models using vanilla textures and thus make quite big changes without having to create a bunch of huge files (however you need an esp to tell the engine about said mswp).

 

For more information check out: http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Using_Material_Swaps_in_Fallout_4

 

EDIT: Depending what you mean by making your own version (textures only?) you don't need to edit the nif at all. Simply make a mswp, a new cobj, armo and arma.

 

This can all be achieved in FO4Edit, Material Editor and whatever program you want to edit the texture(s) with. I'd recommend Paint.net as it supports the DDS-format nativly and is free. For more advanced features GIMP or PS with DDS plugins is required. If you want create new normal and specular maps you may have to use either GIMP (with DDS-plugin) or PS (with the Intel DDS Plugin).

 

While you can create perfectly reasonable normal maps in Paint.net I'm not sure it supports saving the files in optimal compression for FO4. If you want to use it you can find it here:

 

Download and install Paint.NET http://www.getpaint.net/download.html

Portable version available here: http://www.thumbapps...-portable.html)

 

 

And here are some useful links in regard to making textures and some options of what tools you can use, courtesy of Stuyk:

 

http://www.stuyk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=27

 

http://www.stuyk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3

[Murielkai]

Thanks for the reply, this is what I suspected and needed to know for sure. I have PS with the Nvidia DDS plugin. I haven't read too much into making texture's, is the Nvidia plugin not capable of making specular maps? When I saved the textures with the Nvidia plugin it asked me if I wanted to create new maps or use the old ones, I selected create new but I am not sure how to create specular maps or what they are used for. I will do some more reading.

 

Edit: Found the intel dds file here on nexus, gonna read up on it. Thanks again!

Edited September 28, 2016 by Murielkai

[Deleted15964729User]

Hey again.

 

If you check the last two links you will see what preset to use for what maps and why Nvidia is less useful than the Intel plugin. Also the links to each app/plugin. Nvidia will still work, but Intel supports better compression.

 

The question you got when saving was probably about generating new mipmaps or use the old? I never used the Nvidia plugin but when using the Intel one always pick autogenerate mipmaps, so I'd wager you choose correctly.

 

Specular maps control roughness and "chromeness" of the model. It uses only Red (metal/chromeness) and Green (roughness), the blue channel is not used. If you use the Intel plugin you can use the Normal Map preset for specular maps as well as it saves only those two channels and thus is more optimal than other options. For a better explanation check: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3611/?