Coloring Objects

[Ayanro]

Are there any programs out there I can take pre-existing objects in the game and just color them over?

[Khet]

Well, I'll assume since you don't know the answer to that question I'm going to give you a quick list of all the programs you'll need.

 

BSACommander - used to extract Textures and Meshes from the Oblivion BSA files. If you want to completely replace all items in the game with your texture (say, change ALL the glass shortswords to pink, instead of green glass) then you won't need to extract the meshes. However, if you want to take an existing texture, change it up a bit, and THEN make it a seperate item (say you only want ONE pink glass shortsword in the game) then you will have to extract both texture and meshes. Link

 

Texture Replacer - Allows you to make new items by replacing their textures with ones you've made. (So you don't have to make your own meshes for each items too, great for making a new painting, retexturing swords and armor, stuff like that) Link

 

Finally, a program that can edit .DDS files. There's a plugin for download for Photoshop if you have that which will let you edit and save .DDS files (the Oblivion texture file type), GIMP (which is free) may or may not come with .DDS editing, and I don't know if there's a plugin for it that'll let you do it. Pretty much any image editing program better than MSPaint can edit the .DDS files.

 

 

For a bit more detail information on programs that you can use, or how to extract your textures/meshes and THEN get them back in game for use, check out This page on the Oblivion Contruction set Wiki.

 

Hope some of this information helps you! Goodluck in your modding adventures. And don't get too addicted to it. I'm on my 39th hour of no sleeping because I've been working on my mod, trying to get it finished for an Alpha release. :biggrin:

 

 

Edit: If you've any more questions in terms of texturing or even some on modding you can always feel free to shoot me a PM and I'll get back to you with the best answer I can, but as always these forums are filled with great people who are amazing at the CS (I don't even feel comfortable claiming basic knowledge, still can't figure out quests) that are always more than willing to help.

[BossDweebe]

Yep the Gimp has dds and _ndds plugins available.

I don't have a link though. I may have found it through the WIKI

tutorials. Check the WIKI tutorials out anyway. They are very useful.

 

I use OBMM to extract texture files.

Another way to practice retexturingis to use The Gimp to play with

the textures from another mod, but you have to have those dds and _ndds plugins.

 

Also be sure to get Nif Scope. It's a must for viewing your texture.

It does other coo stuff as well.

 

Re-texturing can be relatively easy after you learn how The Gimp works.

[Ayanro]

Thanks for the input. I hope I can figure this all out, as I'm very green when it comes to computer programming.

[Khet]

Heh, pretty much what Sickle said. The only kind of programming used in CS is scripting, which is actually generally easy to learn but you'll find yourself looking things up on the wiki a lot to find out command names and such.

 

 

Nif skope is a great tool too, like was mentioned before, because it'll wrap your texture around a mesh (say of a sword) so you can view it without having to make the item in the CS, drop it in the world, blah blah blah. A lot quicker.

 

What I would recommend doing the first time or so (just so you learn how to retexture something) is find something easy to do like a tapestry or something (There's a nice lowerclass tapestry that is just a brown cloth) make a design on it, recolor that if you want (desaturate in photoshop, then use colorize!) and then use the texture replace to replace the texture, JUST so you know how it's done. (Word of warning, when you're making a new retexture make a COPY of the texture you want to edit (Both the TextureName.DDS and the TextureName_n.dds and replace the COPIED files, otherwise you'll change every item in the game of the one you edited!)

 

After you get an idea on how to do that then pick something a bit more complicated like an iron sword texture and start working your way up. Since you're a beginner at this there is absolutely no reason for you to jump in the deep end and start doing a complete retexture on the daedric armor right from the start. Work your way up, get an idea how things work, and you'll not only build on your knowledge of HOW to replace textures/make your own items but you'll also learn how to use your program of choice better and get better at the texturing process itself.

 

 

Without making this post too much longer, and it's probably not something you want to hear (unless you know your program inside and out and are good at this kind of thing) take it slow, start with the simple stuff first, then work your way up to the harder stuff. You're making a mod, not a game so you don't have a deadline to reach and it will give you invaluable experience that can literally make, or break, your mod if you make your own swords, or armor, or even your own tapestries.

[Ayanro]

Yeah, I have Nif skope and Gimp, and I am slowly but surely starting to figure things out.

 

I wish there was a program where I could just take a 3D object and paint over it like the Sims Creator...