I need help replacing imperial armor

[JohnConquest12]

I want to replace most of the imperial armor in the game with crusader armor from this mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/26983?tab=description

 

I can't find much on the web on how to do it. I managed to change the meshes when I replaced the heavy imperial cuirass with a crusader armor, but the textures come out a glossy purple color! And i'm not sure how I'm supposed to add the textures because the mod contains multiple and I don't know where to put them!

[thumbincubation]

How did you change the meshes? The easiest way I can think of is to rename the mod's relevant meshes to be identical to the vanilla Imperial meshes you wish to change, then put the modded meshes into your data folder, following the exact same file path as the vanilla imperial meshes would. data > meshes > armor > imperial > m (or f, etc). Put the mod's textures folder into your data with the mod author's original file path. Then the game will find your modded meshes, when it looks for imperial armor meshes and, since the author has already assigned his/her textures to the modded meshes, it will follow that path and use them. Otherwise, you would have to go back and use nifskope, open each mesh, expand the trees, and reassign all the textures to follow a new file path.

[JohnConquest12]

Yeah I changed the meshes by renaming the crusader armor to ciurassheavy_1.nif and so on and replacing imperial armor to those meshes. I already had the mod installed but it didn't follow the path and the textures still ended up looking purple. I mean the mod comes with different textures so I'm guessing it can't figure out which one to use.

Edited September 16, 2018 by JohnConquest12

[Deleted21550714User]

you need the textures for crusaders mod somewhere in data folder, then open newly named ciurassheavy_1.nif in nifskope and change the texture paths for the nif to the location where you place crusaders textures.

 

 

i didnt review link, but it should get u in right direction

[thumbincubation]

If you didn't modify the mesh's texture path, you should be able to just put the mod's textures right into data, and the mesh will know where to find them. Make sure you're following the right file path.

 

For example, if you've selected Data > meshes > armor > Knights Templar > CoatOfPlates_Outfit_1.nif

 

renamed it cuirassheavy_1, and moved it to

 

Data > meshes > armor > imperial > m > cuirassheavy_1

 

the game should use the coat of plates mesh when it needs the Imperial heavy cuirass,

but because the mesh contains the texture path, the game should still look for the textures in the mod's own texture files, rather than the normal imperial files.

 

In this case, the armor seems to use textures from multiple different folders, though, so you'll have to be sure you install all the mod's textures into their individual file path. For instance, CoatOfPlates_Outfit_1.nif uses

 

textures\credo\non faction\armour\coat of plates\coatofplates_cuirass_d.dds

 

for the diffuse map, but uses *edit* On the chest plate. I didn't expand all the other NiTriShapes, to see if they use the same or different textures.

 

textures\credo\non faction\armour\dark coat of plates\darkcoatofplates_cuirass_n.dds

 

for the normal map, the difference being subfolder coat of plates vs subfolder dark coat of plates. I suspect, after glancing at some of the mesh components, you'll have several different subfolders in your textures, from which the various pieces of armor will share some common textures.

 

If you follow a guide, like the one linked above, you can create your own file paths, but that is often more labor intensive than it turns out to be worth. I'd suggest re-extracting the mod to a separate folder, open the meshes and textures in one window, then open your data folder meshes and textures in a separate window, and compare them side by side.

 

If you're on Windows 10, you should be able to press the windows key and a right or left arrow key, and snap one window to the corresponding half of the screen. Then click on the upper bar of the other screen and it should snap to the open half, allowing you an easier comparison.

Edited September 16, 2018 by thumbincubation

[JohnConquest12]

Thanks guys I'll try the methods listed above and see what happens

[JohnConquest12]

you need the textures for crusaders mod somewhere in data folder, then open newly named ciurassheavy_1.nif in nifskope and change the texture paths for the nif to the location where you place crusaders textures.

 

 

i didnt review link, but it should get u in right direction

I did what jessegtg suggested and the textures show up now. The only problem I have is that the chest armor textures looks glossy instead of being cloth.

[thumbincubation]

That sounds like a missing or bad normal map. On the chest armor mesh, directly under the line where the diffuse map is assigned, make sure there is another one with the _n suffix.

[JohnConquest12]

 

you need the textures for crusaders mod somewhere in data folder, then open newly named ciurassheavy_1.nif in nifskope and change the texture paths for the nif to the location where you place crusaders textures.

 

 

i didnt review link, but it should get u in right direction

I did what jessegtg suggested and the textures show up now. The only problem I have is that the chest armor textures looks glossy instead of being cloth.

 

Ok looks like that fixed it but now I have yet another problem! When I changed the imperial light helmet mesh(helmetlight.nif) with a modded mesh imperial soldiers now have bald spots on their heads!

Edited October 5, 2018 by JohnConquest12

[thumbincubation]

The meshes and the settings in the helmet form, in creation kit, have to kind of jive, in order to have it work properly. What I usually end up doing is opening (in your case, the imperial helmet) the original helmet form, and the associated armor addon. Then I open the form and armor addon of a vanilla helmet that has similar coverage to the modded one, and I go through and set the body parts affected to match the vanilla helm. That doesn't always work, depending on what the mesh creator has set, but it has better than 50% success. If that doesn't work, I end up having to google up one of the body part guides (I really need to start saving them) and try to figure out which settings in creation kit are going to work best with the body parts in the mesh.