Material Swap for armor

[kitcat81]

Guys, help me please, I want to make a few retextured clothes but I would prefer to do it by material swap . Is there a way to assign another bgsm file to them? Usually I open an item, press edit and chose custom Material Swap.This allows me to chose any custom BGSM file. But armors and clothes do not have that "custom" option though I can see that some vanilla armors use meterial swaps. Is there a way to add a custom material swap to an armor part or clothes?

Edited January 10, 2017 by kitcat81

[Deleted15964729User]

Err, re-read your post again (tired). Create a new material swap that is vaild for what you want switch.

 

If you want you could also add different material swaps as object templates. Way to tired to explain properly I notice, take a look here for some more clarity:

 

http://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Using_Material_Swaps_in_Fallout_4

[kitcat81]

Err, re-read your post again (tired). Create a new material swap that is vaild for what you want switch.

 

If you want you could also add different material swaps as object templates. Way to tired to explain properly I notice, take a look here for some more clarity:

 

http://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Using_Material_Swaps_in_Fallout_4

Thank you very much! If I understood correctly I need to create a material swap and then I will be able to chose it. Just did not expect something like this, the CK creates MSwaps automatically for most items but for some unknown reason it does not allow it with clothes and armors. I will try to do this.

[damanding]

The CK allows for material swaps of objects that have more than one material available like pre and post war materials. But as you figured out, you need to have a material that will work with it already. You can't just assign the material of say the Vault suit to Kellogg's armor because the meshes for those items look nothing alike and the textures that the material file references are designed to wrap the mesh in a specific way. So if you wanted to make Kellog's armor have a texture similar to the Vault suit, you have to actually modify the textures referenced by the Kellogg's armor material files. Once you have the materials you want to swap to, if you plan to have the item be standalone it's easier to just change the material path to point to the new material in Nifskope. I have on occasion had the CK forget Custom Swaps I made using the CK, but if you change the material in Nifskope it stays. If I misunderstood something and ended up telling you stuff you already know I apologize. I'm hitting the after lunch brain slump. :D

[kitcat81]

The CK allows for material swaps of objects that have more than one material available like pre and post war materials. But as you figured out, you need to have a material that will work with it already. You can't just assign the material of say the Vault suit to Kellogg's armor because the meshes for those items look nothing alike and the textures that the material file references are designed to wrap the mesh in a specific way. So if you wanted to make Kellog's armor have a texture similar to the Vault suit, you have to actually modify the textures referenced by the Kellogg's armor material files. Once you have the materials you want to swap to, if you plan to have the item be standalone it's easier to just change the material path to point to the new material in Nifskope. I have on occasion had the CK forget Custom Swaps I made using the CK, but if you change the material in Nifskope it stays. If I misunderstood something and ended up telling you stuff you already know I apologize. I'm hitting the after lunch brain slump. :D

Great thanks, Damanding! I know some things but it`s always good to know more. This is right the thing that I find weird , you can easily assign some armor texture to ...let`s say a jukebox (though the meshes look nothing alike and it can look pretty ugly), but you can do it in 1 click. But you can`t play with any armor the same way . This is a very nice option just for testing and checking if the texture looks good on the model. I don`t plan a standalone item yet and it`s not an armor mod.I`m just learning to create textures for 3d objects and I wanted to add a few simple things like recoloured bandanas or hats for my shoot range mod as a prize to mark winner settlers :). I`ll look maybe I can use something else for it , but I`ll try to create some armor retexture just in the name of learning... The thing is that each armor has 3 meshes...Adding another 20 meshes was not planned for my mod. I was hoping I can add only bgsm files.

[damanding]

If you're wanting to recolor or retexture things, it's actually the texture you adjust, not the material file. If you use Material Editor to look at the material file you'll see that it references three texture files, the diffuse, normal, and specular. The naming convention adds a _d, _n, _s to the end of the file name to differentiate. The diffuse in particular is what really makes an item look the way it does. I know less about the normal and specular, but the normal affects the bumpiness basically of the item. For example I was looking at re-texturing the bowling pin the other night to give it a pre-war texture and the vanilla pin has a lot of gouges in the wood. Those gouges are determined by the normal. You'll want to get the DDS plugin for Photoshop or Gimp (whichever you use) and take a look at the diffuse files to see how the textures look. It'll help you also get a feel for how the texture wraps around the mesh. Take all of this knowledge with a grain of salt though because I'm just learning this stuff myself. :D

[kitcat81]

If you're wanting to recolor or retexture things, it's actually the texture you adjust, not the material file. If you use Material Editor to look at the material file you'll see that it references three texture files, the diffuse, normal, and specular. The naming convention adds a _d, _n, _s to the end of the file name to differentiate. The diffuse in particular is what really makes an item look the way it does. I know less about the normal and specular, but the normal affects the bumpiness basically of the item. For example I was looking at re-texturing the bowling pin the other night to give it a pre-war texture and the vanilla pin has a lot of gouges in the wood. Those gouges are determined by the normal. You'll want to get the DDS plugin for Photoshop or Gimp (whichever you use) and take a look at the diffuse files to see how the textures look. It'll help you also get a feel for how the texture wraps around the mesh. Take all of this knowledge with a grain of salt though because I'm just learning this stuff myself. :D

Thank you again :) I only wanted to add a diffuse map for armor , but to create a material swap I need to create a new bgsm file anyway..At least it worked this way for other things. Already have all possible and impossible plugins but working with armor files seems different. Things don`t work the same as with other kinds of objects in the CK. I have a copy of some armor mesh and tried to change the hat position on the head a little bit , for my changes never showd up in game.

[Deleted15964729User]

If you click my profile I have a "modpage" for small mods and tips called modding factory or something like that. You can find two template plugins that just changes textures. They are outdated but for your purposes still perhaps useful.

[kitcat81]

If you click my profile I have a "modpage" for small mods and tips called modding factory or something like that. You can find two template plugins that just changes textures. They are outdated but for your purposes still perhaps useful.

I`m sorry, I somehow missed the message.

Thank you very much, I`ll look at it. The way with adding a valid material swap that you have suggested before works just fine. I used FO4Edit for it. Copied some existing bandana that already has a template tab with a material swap and changed the swap to mine. Could not find how to do it in the CK....I don`t see the template tab there at all. Anyway, thanks again for your help.