Editing an Item's nif files or meshes only

[LordChimera]

For example; you have a longsword and via Nifskope you changed its appearance into an axe. How will the change affect its dds file and the item itself in-game? Edited May 25, 2020 by LordChimera

[DrakeTheDragon]

Its DDS file will be untouched, and in game you'll be swinging a longsword around that's looking like an axe.

The only changes having a "functional" effect in game will have to be made in the CS in a plugin or master file. All you do outside will only change some visuals... appearance, if you like.

 

In weapons you can change some attribute defining part of their type in the NIF, but without also changing the attribute defining the other part in the CS things will only look weird as a result.

Like a 1-hand sword being worn on your back but materializing out of thin air from next to your hip, as the NIF defines where the sheathed weapon is mounted on your body, but the CS defines which unsheathe animation will play.

 

And sometimes the wrong type of item defined in the NIF will just not work at all, if it does not match the type defined in the CS. For example you can't just use a quiver NIF as a new shield, so it's held in your off-hand, without the NIF for the quiver also being changed accordingly.

[LordChimera]

Its DDS file will be untouched, and in game you'll be swinging a longsword around that's looking like an axe.

The only changes having a "functional" effect in game will have to be made in the CS in a plugin or master file. All you do outside will only change some visuals... appearance, if you like.

 

In weapons you can change some attribute defining part of their type in the NIF, but without also changing the attribute defining the other part in the CS things will only look weird as a result.

Like a 1-hand sword being worn on your back but materializing out of thin air from next to your hip, as the NIF defines where the sheathed weapon is mounted on your body, but the CS defines which unsheathe animation will play.

 

And sometimes the wrong type of item defined in the NIF will just not work at all, if it does not match the type defined in the CS. For example you can't just use a quiver NIF as a new shield, so it's held in your off-hand, without the NIF for the quiver also being changed accordingly.

How about more complex meshes like a multi-piece armor set? Let's say I take a Steel Armor set and change all of its appearance to another armor like Madness?

[DrakeTheDragon]

Then you would have a steel-looking madness armor.

 

But I'm starting to think the degree of changes is becoming too much for what can actually be done with NifSkope alone and will require use of an actual modeling app like Blender or 3DS Max or the like.

 

You technically can edit meshes to the same granularity as with a real modeling app in NifSkope, but the complexity will quickly reach levels of programming in Assembler or worse.

There's no handy tools like selecting vertices and moving them around or scaling them. Instead you'll have to edit their coordinates in a list of coordinates by hand.

There's also no simple selecting of 3 vertices and adding a polygon spanning all 3. Instead you'll have to add another set of 3 vertex indices to the list of vertices of the mesh and then make all arrays and counts update accordingly.

Etc. etc.

 

And when you already go into a modeling app for the task, then changing textures or adapting texture maps is also a whole different game.

 

What exactly is it you're up to or trying to achieve anyways? Maybe going at things from the other direction will lead faster to the goal.

[M48A5]

Changing the shape of an item will also change how it will appear in game. The textures won't be properly mapped to match the shape of the change.

[LordChimera]

What exactly is it you're up to or trying to achieve anyways? Maybe going at things from the other direction will lead faster to the goal.

Doing some practice making edited armor and getting used to using Nifskope.

[DrakeTheDragon]

Ah, okay, that's why the questions come in that order. Then all is well. :sweat:

[Estevan14]

Well, I'm relatively new to modding, but I learned that each mesh has it own texture. Last year I spent a lot of time modifying some meshes in fo3 and I was puzzled with the textures, but now modding oblivion I know that even if you replace the steel armor nif file with the iron armor nif file (or bringing the iron armor mesh into the steel armor nif file, and flagging the steel armor mesh as invisible), for example, the armor will not look like steel, cuz the textures and the meshes aren't linked by something like construction set, every dds file is linked to a mesh (note that I said it is attached to the mesh, not to the nif file), so the iron armor will still look like iron cuz the link between the iron armor mesh and the dds file isnt within the game, it is attached to the iron armor mesh. If you want to change the texture you can place a different texture in the folder that contains the texture you want to replace, rename it with the name of that dds file after deleting the old and tadaa, you will have changed the texture. But beware that this can cause several problems in the look of your armor. This is reccomended for changing something like the staff textures. There is a staff with green lines and one with cyan lines. If you want to make the green lines staff become a cyan lines staff, considering that the only difference between the two texture is the line color, and the staff meshes are similar, you can do it. You can also change the texture in nifskope or blender, instead of replacing the dds Edited May 28, 2020 by Estevan14

[LordChimera]

Well, I'm relatively new to modding, but I learned that each mesh has it own texture. Last year I spent a lot of time modifying some meshes in fo3 and I was puzzled with the textures, but now modding oblivion I know that even if you replace the steel armor nif file with the iron armor nif file (or bringing the iron armor mesh into the steel armor nif file, and flagging the steel armor mesh as invisible), for example, the armor will not look like steel, cuz the textures and the meshes aren't linked by something like construction set, every dds file is linked to a mesh (note that I said it is attached to the mesh, not to the nif file), so the iron armor will still look like iron cuz the link between the iron armor mesh and the dds file isnt within the game, it is attached to the iron armor mesh. If you want to change the texture you can place a different texture in the folder that contains the texture you want to replace, rename it with the name of that dds file after deleting the old and tadaa, you will have changed the texture. But beware that this can cause several problems in the look of your armor. This is reccomended for changing something like the staff textures. There is a staff with green lines and one with cyan lines. If you want to make the green lines staff become a cyan lines staff, considering that the only difference between the two texture is the line color, and the staff meshes are similar, you can do it. You can also change the texture in nifskope or blender, instead of replacing the dds

My apologies if this post is late, but do you know how to make new textures for custom armor or to be more specific mashed up armor? I know that the lack of textures causes the armor to go pink.