Deleted150604User Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 Hi, I've been wondering just what is up with some material swaps or meshes I've been messing around with. I'm working on a mod of armor based on the Stalker series of games, and it's gone far better than I would have expected aside from one issue I've had since the start. Now I have made material swaps before and done so successfully, but this time it's had varied success. I'm using a modified Red Rocket jumpsuit and the raider hood/mask combo for reference. The swaps initially only showed in the CK, on the world object model for my armor. After further revisions they work just fine on some vanilla meshes. I made duplicate .nifs and re-did all of the material swaps for everything that did not work, but the actual ground objects for these armors display with the .nif's base material only. This only affects the pieces made off of the jumpsuit, and the raider pieces all remapped easily. Now, I assume I missed something. I'm pretty bad with instructions sometimes. Is there something I likely missed here? The raider pieces worked fine right off the bat, and had no material swaps by default. I have made material swaps for the greaser/rad-cats jacket before just fine, and it's also a vanilla mesh with swaps. So why is this jumpsuit different? Is there something I should ensure is or is not set? (The armors in the CK. All match and use the appropriate material swap.) (Armors ingame. Only the raider hoods and respirators use the proper swaps.) (Working fine on the equipped armor. No issues on this end.) I would appreciate any input or help. Thanks. Let me know if I can assist by uploading any relevant material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perraine Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 My first guess would be an error in the "from / too" fields when you're creating the material swaps. I'd check to see what "base" material file is designated in each of the of the .nifs, then go through and see what other material swaps might be affecting that material file. Bugthesda made some real weird choices with some of the naming conventions, material paths and meshes, so there is no consistency whatsoever, it's just a long, long process of elimination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeathMotif Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 Sounds like a pathing problem to me. Double check the paths of both your textures and materials to see that they are correct. One (or both)of them is probably wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted150604User Posted March 9, 2018 Author Share Posted March 9, 2018 (edited) I have, though. To clarify everything works aside from the world models. Those are the only things that aren't swapping. The material swaps and materials referenced by the models are the same across worn and world models however, do not display correctly on the world models ingame. I have even made sure that copies of the meshes are directed to my textures in nifskope. On Player: Outside inventory: Edited March 9, 2018 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perraine Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 Is there anything listed under "Textureset" under the BSLightShadeProperty in the .nif's? I've noticed with a couple of the vanilla outfits, that the game doesn't actually use Material Files, (and none are written/shown) in the .nif's, but instead must use the old fashioned (i.e. Skyrim) method of using the full file paths/names in the .nif. So it could be the item you are modifying is one of those, so Material Swaps won't work. Sie note: Deleting those line (if they exist) will also show immediately if your Material Files and/or paths are all correct. because while Nifskope will read from the Textureset if the Material file is invalid, the game won't, so if they are invalid in some way, the mesh will instantly turn white in Nifskope. Then it's a matter of tracking down the cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted150604User Posted March 9, 2018 Author Share Posted March 9, 2018 (edited) Is there anything listed under "Textureset" under the BSLightShadeProperty in the .nif's? I've noticed with a couple of the vanilla outfits, that the game doesn't actually use Material Files, (and none are written/shown) in the .nif's, but instead must use the old fashioned (i.e. Skyrim) method of using the full file paths/names in the .nif. So it could be the item you are modifying is one of those, so Material Swaps won't work. Sie note: Deleting those line (if they exist) will also show immediately if your Material Files and/or paths are all correct. because while Nifskope will read from the Textureset if the Material file is invalid, the game won't, so if they are invalid in some way, the mesh will instantly turn white in Nifskope. Then it's a matter of tracking down the cause.That doesn't appear to be it. Not only does one of the meshes I successfully material swapped have a textureset, but the world models did not swap either with the change you mentioned, or another I tried. Namely, pasting and modification of the nif material info from one file to the other. The armored version, with two trishapes did however temporarily work though strangely I hadn't done the alteration to both trishapes, only one. Both parts were swapped correctly at that point.I am getting incredibly confused. I feel like I can't even be sure that I'm following the directions correctly at this point. Bethesda game modding is frustratingly arbitrary at times. I have like one more idea before I just recreate the somehow functional one, and reuse it for the unarmored world model. Possibly with a cheap alpha-mask remap for the armor. Wasteful but at this point I'm kind of desperate to move off of this one issue. EDIT: Seems as though I can't even get it to work that way. EDIT 2: The plot thickens! I was getting a cheap version of just two variants ready to upload here, and it works for it. I think somehow I was using the texture swap menu wrong? The only difference this time was specifically right clicking to create a plain new swap. I suppose maybe they're wildcard by default? I'll report back if I can repair the main mod this way. EDIT 3: As if this weren't confusing enough, there's a new wrinkle. The inspect menu in the pipboy displays the right material. Literally only the world models at this point display the incorrect material. This makes no sense. Edited March 9, 2018 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted150604User Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 (edited) So... I guess you could call this solved? I think the only lesson I was able to glean to help anyone was: "make a proof plugin first to see if your mod concept works, and then make the real one. alternatively, make it right the first time as though the mod will explode and kill you somehow just working on it." Like really feel the pressure and stress every detail. Sorry not to have any better but I feel like I might as well resort to similar methods as 1980's NES loading rituals. Edited March 10, 2018 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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