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How exactly do you make a texture point to a mesh for an item?


Gigify

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How do I make a standalone item that uses a vanilla mesh use a different texture? Say I've created a new texture for an existing mesh that I want to use on an item that I've made as a standalone, so I don't want to replace the original texture.

 

I'm experimenting with new textures for my mod, to create new varieties for further customization. I've made a simple texture and I can not, after hours of looking through forums and whatever documentation I can find and checking the mods of others as reference and every single part of SkyEdit, find a way to point apply said specific texture for a that specific item. I have experimented with at least a dozen wild guesses, but always end up with the mesh using the same texture it does on the vanilla item.

 

I'm out of ideas and I finally caved and decided to post the question before heading to bed. How can I accomplish this?

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This I know, however, the construction kit isn't out, yet.

 

All I know is that I can find no references at all to the .dds files in SkyEdit, So is there another tool -- another way -- that I can make the .dds point to the .nif for these specific items?

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nifskope, is used to redirect the texture path for the mesh.

 

http://sourceforge.net/projects/niftools/files/nifskope/1.1.0/nifskope-1.1.0-rc5-i686-w32.7z/download

 

Is the latest version.

 

Then you can use skyedit to place it in game.

 

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes5Mod:SkyEdit

 

Good luck, and don't forget to rename the mesh when you save it in nifskope with the new texture path.

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http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc411/lrg1602/Skyrimage/Meh2.jpg

 

Same principal applies to weapons as well, just check the texture paths of the NiTriShape of the .nif and change them to point to your textures, It's best to create a subdirectory e.g. "data\textures\weapons\**my new weapon**" and put your modified textures in there ... Alternatively, I believe you can also change the path to various textures in Skyedit, but I have no idea how, as I've never used it.

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Okay, Perraine, thank you very much for the in depth which will be invaluable in the future and is exactly the information I needed, so kudos. However now I turn into the headless huntress. This is probably my fault but what could be the causes? I've double-checked all the paths in nifscope and skyedit and everything should be proper. I'm stepping back from it a bit, but I'll check yet again once I come back to it.

 

I really want to get this done since I think if I can figure this out it'll add something real special to my mod.

 

Also I have a problem with items I make not having inventory models, I was able to fix my last one in my mod due to a fluke, honestly.

Edited by Gigify
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What are you actually retexturing? When you say "headless huntress" what's actually happening?

 

As to your second problem with the inventory model ... Most meshes in game have an "itemname ground.nif or "itemname go.nif" file, that is generally the file used (obviously) when the object is on the 'ground' OR when it is shown in the inventory screen, in most (though not all) cases, it will use the male versions of the texture file (**itemname **m.dds) or in the"textures/armor/**name**/m" folder) particularly with things like boots and gloves because the female version of many of those meshes are just simply slightly smaller versions of the male version.

 

It takes a fair amount of disk space, but I generally like to extract ALL vanilla meshes and vanilla textures (using the FO3 BSA utility) to a separate drive/folder somewhere,that way you can quickly see what files are what (and what variations there are) but mostly so you also always have an unedited backup copy of any file your working on.

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I'm retexturing the Kovohrik dragon mask. In fact most of the textures are already done, I just need them to use the Kovohrik mesh.

 

What I mean when I say headless huntress is that equipping the item causes there to be no head. Her head just disappears.

As of right now, after tweaking a bit. I have the inventory item displaying, but it shows the default mask with the vanilla texture, and not the retextured one. When I equip it the item places correctly, finally, but where the new mesh should be is just purple blob, so obviously it isn't pointing to the new texture properly. I set the mesh path as meshes\gig\dragonpriestmasks\ and then branch between male and female for the mesh, the textures are under textures\gig\dragonpriestmasks\.

 

Edit: Is there really no way for me to just set the texture to reference the vanilla mesh? Do I actually need to make copies of the mesh file for each new mask?

 

Edit 2: Okay, I found the problem with the texture, so yes, I finally have it figured out. I wish I could kudos you 100 damn times.

http://static.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/images/6607-1-1327536699.png

 

Now my only issue is how do I direct it to use the new '_go' mesh that's pointed to the proper texture?

 

Edit 3: Nevermind I found the value is TESVSnip for that.

 

Perraine, I truly love you.

Edited by Gigify
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Glad to see you got it working :thumbsup:

 

Generally it's easier to simply rename your mesh exactly the same and then replace the default version (which is why there are so many "replacer" mods) ... To get the game to recognise a different mesh/texture name, you'll have to use "Skyedit" and edit the Skyrim.esm, to tell the game what the 'new' mesh is, where to find it, and what to do with it ... I'm sorry I don't have experience with Skyedit though, so we'll have to wait for an expert OR I believe their are several threads/tutorials in the forums explaining how to do this ...

 

oops ... Lol ... caught me replying ... Oh well ...

 

No problem ...

Edited by Perraine
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  On 1/26/2012 at 12:36 AM, Perraine said:

Glad to see you got it working :thumbsup:

 

Generally it's easier to simply rename your mesh exactly the same and then replace the default version (which is why there are so many "replacer" mods) ... To get the game to recognise a different mesh/texture name, you'll have to use "Skyedit" and edit the Skyrim.esm, to tell the game what the 'new' mesh is, where to find it, and what to do with it ... I'm sorry I don't have experience with Skyedit though, so we'll have to wait for an expert OR I believe their are several threads/tutorials in the forums explaining how to do this ...

 

oops ... Lol ... caught me replying ... Oh well ...

 

No problem ...

Haha, Now to do this about 10 more times. After finishing up a few more of the textures.

 

I'm thinking SkyEdit just doesn't have the variables available for editing that I need. After playing with TESVSnip and finding everything relevant to what I'm doing I think it'll be fairly easy to push the rest of the masks out once the texture work is done.

 

Once the CK is out I'm sure I'll be able to find a way to just direct the textures to the vanilla mesh though, which will be grand because the mod is gonna be so much larger than it needs to be because the 50 redundant .nif files I'll have to associate with it. :/

Edited by Gigify
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