SSE nifscope question

[ben446]

ok so ive been modding for a couple of months now. I now want to try and retexture the ebony armour to make it an ivory armour, but I don't want to lose the ebony armour in game. so basically it would be creating an ivory armour based on the ebony armour mesh. So the game will have ebony armour and ivory armour with the same meshes just different textures. I have no idea what I'm doing with nifscope, ive litrually just downloaded nifscope for the first time about 5 minutes ago. Ive had a little look for tutorials but they seem so wide of the mark for what I'm looking for, it leaves me wondering, is what I want to do even possible if it is does anyone know of a tutorial I can follow to achieve this. Thanks in advance

[thumbincubation]

https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Retexture_Tutorial

 

This is a bit old, and geared toward weapons, but it helped me out a lot in the beginning. What you'll need to remember is that armor has several different meshes, each of which will need to be changed.

 

In a nutshell, you'll want to extract all the ebony armor meshes to a new folder. To save yourself aggravation, right-click > rename, right down the list, to something unique. Move or copy that folder into your Skyrim Special Edition data folder, with its own unique name as well. It should go something like

 

c > program files (x86) > steam > steam apps > common > skyrim special edition > data > meshes > armor > IvoryArmor and then there's usually a separate M and F folder, inside, but not necessary. Just helps keep things a bit less crowded.)

 

You will want to put your custom textures into a skyrim special edition > data > textures > armor > Ivory Armor folder as well.

 

In your new custom mesh folder, open up each one and expand each BSTriShape until you get to the BSShaderTextureSet. From there, you can select your new textures, just like in the weapon tutorial. If you're only planning on changing color, you'll just need to change that first diffuse map in the top line. If you are going with something that is patterned, embossed, or more or less shiny, you'll need to change the normal map, below it, usually ending in _n.dds.

 

I don't know how you've done your textures, but GIMP has a .dds feature (downloaded separately) which will allow you to manipulate both diffuse and normal maps, and there are some tutorials listed here, and back in the original skyrim nexus forums, which will help you with that. If you haven't made them already, you might start with a simple color invert, which will create a photo negative effect. In GIMP, you just open the image, go to the "colors" tab, and hit the invert button. You'll need to file > export as, rather than just save, and export as a .dds. It will ask you for a compression format. I've never been really clear on which is the best, but for testing purposes, you can probably get away with dxt 3 or thereabouts, and make sure "generate mip maps" is checked. Give it a unique name.

[thumbincubation]

After you've got the meshes and new textures in their folders, and have assigned the new textures to the meshes, you'll be in creation kit. Easiest thing to do there is find the ebony armor. For each piece, helmet, cuirass, boots, gauntlets, shield, right-click and duplicate, then rename the duplicate.

 

Open each up, one at a time, and change the data you want changed. To the right of the armor form, there are two fields for world models. Usually only one is full, but sometimes both. Hit the edit button(s) and navigate to your custom mesh folder. Here you want the GO or GND models, what will appear in game on the ground or table, etc. If there is a female GO or GND model, do the same for the 2nd world model field.

 

Now, for the items that appear on the body, you should have at least 2 meshes each, a _1 and a _0 model. The 0 is small, the 1 is large. This is in the Armor Addon field, toward the bottom of the armor form.

There's an easy way and a safe way to do this. The easy way is to open up each AA, change what you want, rename it, and save it as a new form, then just delete the old form and add the new one.

The safe (recommended) way is to find the AA forms in the object window, right-click and duplicate, rename, then work in your duplicates to avoid accidentally changing the originals.

 

These will work basically the same way as the world model, except that you need to assign a normal body view and a 1st person body view for each. In each form, you'll want to assign the _1 mesh only. It will find the _0 if it needs it. So you'll do a cuirass mesh, then a 1st person cuirass mesh, for the male. The same procedure for the female model beneath it. Close and save your new AA, but this time not as a new form because you've already done that when you right-click> duped it.

 

Go back to the armor form itself, click "show all" on the Armor Addons field, and replace each Addon assigned to that particular piece of armor with your own. For cuirass or body armor, you should only have one AA. For helmets or gauntlets, you may have several, as each of the beast races may need a differently formed mesh. Not all match, in the sense of armor which requires a separate helm for Argonians, Orcs, and Khajiit, may not need separate gloves for all the same races. Best bet is just address what's already there in the vanilla game, replacing it with your version.

 

This is a tedious process, but it allows you to have the original ebony armor untouched, and your ivory armor existing next to it, rather than a simple replacer which would change all the ebony armor in the game.

 

If you are creating your own custom textures, though, there is nothing wrong with naming them identical to the vanilla ebony textures, then putting them in the appropriate file path, to create a replacer for ease of testing. Those are as simple as moving or deleting the particular folder and reverting to the vanilla textures still found inside the archive. Once you have the look you want, then start on the creation kit part. That will save you a lot of loading and closing CK, just to test whether your armor looks right.

[Deleted3897072User]

Hold on, there's no need to do all that. You can use the original nif unchanged and apply a different texture set to it when you make your AA in the CK. You don't have to create a duplicate nif, just to give it a different texture.

 

Make your modified texture DDS

In the CK make a Texture Set that references it

Edit the AA record to apply the new TS to the existing nif model

[thumbincubation]

Now you tell me. -_-

[ben446]

thank you both for your help. Ill take a look at the link. as I say ive never used nifscope so it will be a great help. Id tried looking for tutorials on nifscope and blender, but not much came up for skyrim. Ive only ever modded skyrim, so it would be easier to follow with something I have a basic understanding of, Ill have a look at the link because its somewhere to start. I'm hoping starting with a piece of armour or a weapon will be a good starting place then hopefully expand from their. I was thinking about a set of armour, but if the tutorial is on a weapon then I can do a weapon anyway. Its somewhere to start, on hopefully something minor so that I can get a foothold. Thank you both for your help