SSE How to Re-Texture Oldrim Mod

[DanielKelly1978]

I have an Oldrim mod that I’ve ported to SE. Looks and works fine except the custom textures are... not great (visible pixilation, especially in high-contrast areas).

 

The vanilla ones of course look fine because these are pulling from Skyrim SE.

 

What’s the best way to go about retexturing nifs? Can I just open the texture file in the Gimp, upsample it from 512 px square (current size) to say, 2048 px square, replace the texture with a new one made at the new higher resolution, or will it no longer map correctly to the nif?

 

The items in question are just static items.

 

Thanks!

Edited October 3, 2020 by DanielKelly1978

[Algabar]

I have an Oldrim mod that I’ve ported to SE. Looks and works fine except the custom textures are... not great (visible pixilation, especially in high-contrast areas).

 

The vanilla ones of course look fine because these are pulling from Skyrim SE.

 

What’s the best way to go about retexturing nifs? Can I just open the texture file in the Gimp, upsample it from 512 px square (current size) to say, 2048 px square, replace the texture with a new one made at the new higher resolution, or will it no longer map correctly to the nif?

 

The items in question are just static items.

 

Thanks!

Upscaling existing textures is usually just a waste of disk space and VRAM. You'd just turn a bad small texture into a bad large texture... If by "upsampling" you mean "choose a larger image size and then create a new texture from better material", that's perfectly fine.

 

The UV layout ("which part of the texture goes where on the object") is usually done in a 3D modeling program. Once that is done, the "mapping" of a mesh file is set. Changing an existing UV layout or "remapping" a texture is possible, but it's a task that requires some knowledge and the right software (OFC Blender is free....).

 

To make things not too complicated, I'd suggest working with the existing layout for now. As long as the new textures stick to it, there shouldn't be any problems. And OFC you can create and/or "remaster" textures in GIMP, using all of its features and tools.

 

Just keep in mind that you need to save the finished textures in .dds format. There's a .dds plugin for GIMP. A quick web search should find it.

Here's an overview of Skyrim texture formats. It may be helpful.

 

 

Of course, learning how to make a "good" texture is a longer process. But it's also a lot of fun... Good luck!