Difference between revisions of "Reskinning Rudiments"

This tutorial is now substantially out of date in light of newer versions of TR. I leave it remains here only on the basis that it may contain some info omitted elsewhere which some readers may find helpful.

This tutorial gives an alternative approach to reskinning objects in Oblivion from that provided in [[Retex Guide]]. Whilst I do not seek to criticise that tutorial in any sense I would warn nooBs somewhat against using Nifskope for simple retexturing. Whilst it has an obvious appeal to the point'n'click generation Nifskope is actually an extremely powerful tool capable (and indeed primarily designed) for altering the Nif file data itself.  

At this stage I am dealing only with what I would call simple objects (i.e. those consisting of only one nif - not characters and most creatures which are comprised of multiple nifs called by an underlying skeleton.nif). More complicated objects will be dealt with in the forthcoming Reskinning Rudiments 2.

On top of the Nif you have the textures. These are stored in DDS format. There are  

Each Nif has a standard DDS (the "colour map") and also an _n.dds. The latter stands for normal and refers to "normal mapping" see below. The n_dds also has an alpha channel which controls the way light interacts with the suface.

  Some Nifs also have a _g.dds which is a "gloss map" (these are  

This governs the suface property of the Nif; all the lumps, bumps, scratches and scars.

First of all you will need to gain access to the nifs and dds files. To do this you need to use either [[BSA Commander]] or Ghostwheel's commandline BSA unpacker tool. Links to the latter and an excellent guide to it's use can be found here - [[BSA Unpacker Tutorial]]. I would however differ from the author on his final point. Take the BSA folder which contains all your unpacked meshes and textures and store it somewhere other than your Oblivion\Data folder - this helps to avoid later unfortunate confusion.

The next stage is to make the Nif file reference your texture as opposed to its default. The easiest way to do this is with JOG's tool: Texture Replacer (TR), available from here - [[NIF Retexturing]]

At this point your nif is essentially reskinned. However, there are no instances of it in the game yet. Open the CS. Select the original item (eg. items > armour > thief > cuirass). In the edit window click the nif button and navigate to your reskinned nif in the Oblivion\Data\meshes folder. - if your doing an object which refers to it (such as armour) repeat this for the _gnd. nif. But note that you don't have to reskin the _gnd.nif with TR!

Rename your object. When you close the window it will ask if you want to create a new form ID, say yes. Now in the items > armour menu find your new object and drag and drop it into a cell. Make it one near to where you will start the game so you can see it asap.

Now, you have a model in game the texture of which will be set to whatever is in your Oblivion\Data\textures folder with the same file name as you set in TR. Now you actually need to edit the texture. How you do this will depend on the software you have access to. If you only have something very simple use DDS Converter 2 (available  here - [http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/file/DDS_Converter;29412]) and switch from DDS into jpeg. If you have Photoshop or Paintshop you can use the NVidia plugin to open the DDS file directly (plugin available here - [http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html]).

Knowing how to repaint the texture really is just a question of trial and error. Again I'll hopefully get a chance to put up another tutorial describing techniques. You may find it helpful to use NifSkope at this stage, this will put up a 3d model of your mesh the texture of which will change every time you save the changes in your drawing application (although only if you're working directly on the dds file). NifSkope is freely available here - [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=149157&package_id=170735].

How you save the changes to your texture will again depend on which way you opened it. If you're using the NVidia plugins they can save out directly in DDS. Make sure to have generate mipmaps ticked and use DXT5 (interpolated alpha) format or DXT3. Usually DXT3 will suffice, but for more intricate normal maps DXT5 may be preferable. If you're using jpeg or psd save in that format and use DDS Converter to switch back to DDS, replacing the original file.

[[Retexturing Made Easy]]

 

[[Normal Maps Basics]]

 

[[NifSkope Alchemy]]

 

[[Retex_Troubleshooting|Retex Troubleshooting]]

 

[[Command Prompt Basics]]