Retex Troubleshooting

Wrong Texture-Name

When the game can't find the texture, your retextured model is completely pink.

When this occurs, the obvious first step is to check again if the file really exists, and if the name of your texture and the texture-entry in the .NIF file are identical.

There are two things that can be missed easily, though:

• Make sure that the texture in the NIF begins with "textures\" not "\textures\" Oblivion internally adds "Oblivion\data\" and a leading Backslash would result in the illegal filename "Oblivion\data\\textures\texture.dds"

• Always use the backslash ("\") not the slash ("/"). While Morrowind didn't care which one you used, Oblivion does, and it only accepts the "\".

Clipping Problems

If you've retextured clothing type items (especially for heads) you may get clipping problems, wherby parts of the head show through the helmet.

The clipping problem occurs because of the face sliders which mean that features can be in different positions for different characters. The solution is the .egm file, which applies the facegen data to the mesh.

If you're encountering clipping problems then, chances are you either didn't copy over the relevant .egm file into the same folder as the .nif; or you haven't named the .egm with the same name as the .nif

Missing Normal Map

A quite common problem with retexturing is the disappearance of bodyparts, especially when you use an retextured armor. This is caused by a missing normal map. For some reason the game seems to mix up an object's axes when the normal map is missing.

• Retextured static object without a normal map suddenly flip around one axis when you turn them on another axis in the Render Window.

• Retextured Armor seems to have invisible bodyparts, this is the same symptom, the game tries to turn them around one axis and they flip over on the other, out of the player's view.

• You can see it very nice when retexturing amulets: When you equip a retextured amulet that has no normal map, the amulet is displayed on your back in the inventory screen. When you turn your character around, the amulet moves to the opposite direction.

How to solve the problem:

Every texture needs a normal map, a file with the texture-name and an "_n" appended. This file can be found in the same folder as the original textures, and most of the time you just need to copy/rename it.

There is another thing you need to keep in mind, though: The game is designed to have similar textures (like shop signs) share one normal map. To realize this, the normal map's filename is determined by the texture's filename simply by truncating it at the position of the first underscore ("_") and appending "_n.dds".

So either avoid using the underscore in filenames (and paths) or make sure your normal map is named correctly:

Textures\Mymod\NewArmor\myGreatCuirass.dds

Textures\Mymod\NewArmor\myGreatCuirass_n.dds

Textures\Mymod\NewArmor\myGreat_Cuirass.dds

Textures\Mymod\NewArmor\myGreat_n.dds

Textures\Mymod\NewArmor\my_Great_Cuirass.dds

Textures\Mymod\NewArmor\my_n.dds

Textures\Mymod\New_Armor\my_Great_Cuirass.dds

Textures\Mymod\New_n.dds

Textures\My_mod\New_Armor\my_Great_Cuirass.dds

Textures\My_n.dds