NifSkope Texture Question

[The Matrix Prime]

While browsing through Nexus I happened to stumbled open a mod created by "zoni84" called ADEC Sexy Nun Robe. (Can be found here http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/35391//?) Now I use Megalov's excellent CBBE-ML Body 1.0 (TBBP) but I thought: "Hey, I'll download this and see if its compatible." So I did. As you can see from the pictures, the robe comes in three variations:

 

A: Orange Bodyglove with blue robe

B: Orange Bodyglove without blue robe

C: blue robe without Orange Bodyglove

 

A and B work just fine, but the ass is messed up on C, two blurred patches on the side of each cheek. So the robes that did not use skin textures (but the Orange Bodyglove instead) worked just fine, but the robe without the Orange Bodyglove (which used the skin texture) did not. "Ahh, well," I thought, "2 out of 3 isn't bad."

 

Then I had a brilliant idea . . .

 

Why not copy the ADEC female body textures and place them into their own folder (called femaleADEC for convenience) and then go into NifSkope and tell the textures to link to that folder instead of the default one? That way I could keep my current body - but the ADEC outfit would use the correct textures! I've had some experience with doing this back in Oblivion. Some author would created an armor and then create two different textures for it, asking you to choose one or the other. However me, being me, thought: why not have both?! I discovered it was very easy (although time consuming) to copy the armor meshes and then link the copies to textures in different folders. So I thought this would roughly be the same. It seemed like it should work, after all the orange "skin" wasn't messed up at all - so this should be the same as that.

 

So I download the ADEC body and copied its textures and put them in their own folder (femaleADEC) next the the female folder in the textures/actors/character folder. Then I opened up the mesh in NifSkope and clicked on the ass, which brought up the correct tab, I opened it up until I reached the textures and relinked the textures to the new folder instead of the default folder. Just a matter of changing /female/ to /femaleADEC/. Then I saved the mesh.

 

And it worked! Both in the NifSkope and the Creation Kit the C robe showed up without any smears. In fact it kept working right up until I actually load up the game and put the outfit on. Two smears along the ass. Its just messed up in the game. NifSkope and the Creation Kit continue to show it with the new correct textures, but whenever I load up the game, it switches it back to the default body textures. I've tried everything I could think of. In the Creation Kit I went to the TextureSet tab and created a skin using textures from the femaleADEC folder and then told the rode to overwrite the default textures with this texture set; the Creation Kit shows it working, but when I load the game, its right back to the default skin texture. I even eased the links to the textures in the mesh with NifSkope, essentially telling it not to load any textures AT ALL and then load up the game just to see what would happen - and it STILL uses the default body textures!

 

So my question is this: How does the Mesh tell itself which skin textures to use? Every armor mesh I've ever modded uses NifSkope to tell it where to find the textures and which ones to use. Why are skin textures different? Is this a Skyrim thing? If its not NifSkope that controls this but some other program and if so, which one(s)? And why doesn't any of the things that I've tried work? I have SKSE and SkyU, do they somehow overide this? I looked through the threads here, but I couldn't find one that dealt with this specific issue in this way.

 

Thanks to anyone who tackles this issue!

[b3lisario]

It seems that the textures of the skin meshes (which use shaders of type "Skin tint") set in the nif files are overwritten by the game engine.

 

You need the CK to achieve that. More info in this thread: http://www.loverslab.com/topic/16768-change-skin-texture-of-unpb-armors/

[The Matrix Prime]

Thank you so much! I missed that thread somehow. I had actually done everything but step 3 in that last picture. The differences between the Construction Set and the Creation Kit, eh? Just added that last bit to my esp and it appears to be working like a charm!

 

Now I'll be able to convert some more armor from the Toosil body. (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/34069/? and http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/35523//?) Not too many DLC armor has been converted to a larger healthier chest size and I really like some of the armor done for this body type (but not quite as much as I like Megalov's body, obiviously haha). I will have to create an esp for them, which is mildly annoying since I already so many, but I can live with that.

 

Thanks again!

[The Matrix Prime]

Does this not apply for default armor in the game? I tried these steps for the replacer armors found here http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/35523//?, created by the same author as the ADEC Sexy Nun Robe, however something is still overwriting the skin textures. The Nun Robe still works and I'm using the exact same skin textures from the exact same alternate folder (femaleADEC), yet the ass still has the two same smears. Since the armor is done by the same person for the same body type, it seems like it should be working.

 

I created a new skin TextureSet and in the ArmorAddon linked the Skin Texture to the new TextureSet. After that didn't work I even linked in the TextureSet in the Model Data itself and also even used NifSkope to link the mesh itself to the skin textures to the new folder. Still no change.

 

The one I'm currently messing around with the most is the Ancient Falmer Armor and at first I thought it might be a DLC issue, but I checked Dwarven Armor (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/34069//? same author same body) and it has all the exact same issues and none of the stuff I've tried have fixed it either.

 

Does the default armor have an overwriting wanna-be-master file? Have I forgotten something? Missed a step?

[b3lisario]

It should on vanilla armors too.

 

Issues I can think of:

- you have not activated the esp file in your mod manager

- there is another mod after yours that overwrite your changes (put your mod on the bottom)

- or you are failing to get the exact piece of armor that you've modified in CK. You can get dwarwen cuirass via console with "player.additem 1394d 1"

[The Matrix Prime]

You were right with number one, I'd forgotten to activate the esp files! Such an obivious thing that I didn't even think about it. I'm soe use to default armor replacers not needing an esp files that I forgot to turn mine on! All seems to be working correctly now, thanks!