How do you rename NIF files?

[JustCaroAnon]

I'm trying to make a custom clutter mod for myself. Problem is, the new models that I've downloaded are intended as replacers - not supplemental. I don't want them to replace the existing objects.

 

When I just renamed the .NIF file and tried to attach it to the object in the CK, it displayed a red triangle. I did some Googling, and found out that I'm supposed to change the file name in 'BSFadeNode' and possibly elsewhere (the one thread I found related to the issue was maddeningly vague; I swear Google is ignoring double quote marks in searches now). This didn't work.

 

I then thought 'well, I'll just put it in another folder inside /data/meshes/clutter'. Red triangle again. Couldn't find anything even remotely related in Google, so I gave up. I searched here and found 2 threads related to renaming or moving NIFs, but again no solution. 

 

What do I do? Surely there's a way to rename the NIFs or point the CK to another folder for them - I don't know about renaming, but there are definitely mods with meshes inside a custom folder, so that can be done.

[Andy14]

Red Triangle is 50% missing Mesh or 50% missing Texture in Nif. In your case, missing texture. I think..

[JustCaroAnon]

Red Triangle is 50% missing Mesh or 50% missing Texture in Nif. In your case, missing texture. I think..

 

I tried doing it again, and here's what happened.

 

Before renaming the file:

 

 

After renaming the file:

 

 

After changing the file path:

 

 

Changing the BsFadeNode string produces the same error - 'Marker_error:0' - and the alternate textures fields disappear, so I can't see any way to set textures. None of the 3 relevant pages I found on renaming NIF files mentioned textures, and I still have them in the directory that they were in from the original mods and resource packs. I haven't even looked at the textures yet, so they definitely still have their original names. 

 

EDIT: I did some Googling to find out about NIF texture paths, and there's nothing to indicate that textures *must* have the same name or directory structure as meshes. 

[Andy14]

My answer was not quite correct.

Missing mesh can also mean - corrupt Nif.

Missing texture can also mean - wrong Shader Type <> wrong Shader Flags.

 

If you copy the Nif with copy/paste and rename in custom_statuedibella.nif and then open CK, the model should actually be displayed correctly.

That does not work?

[JustCaroAnon]

 

My answer was not quite correct.

Missing mesh can also mean - corrupt Nif.

Missing texture can also mean - wrong Shader Type <> wrong Shader Flags.

 

If you copy the Nif with copy/paste and rename in custom_statuedibella.nif and then open CK, the model should actually be displayed correctly.

That does not work?

 

 Nope - doing that causes the red triangles error. But the original NIF works fine both in the CK and in-game. 

 

Changing the BsFaderNode string from the old file name to the new one is apparently supposed to fix that, but it doesn't. I'm going to look at the texture paths to see if maybe changing that string has affected texture paths; I can't find anywhere else in Nifskope that it's using the old filename string. 

 

I'm getting a lot of this from the Niftools wiki though, and it doesn't look like it's up to date. It's surprisingly difficult to get relevant results out of Google suddenly - I swear it's ignoring double quote marks. And I can't find any relevant tutorials either - or, Google's not showing them to me within the first couple of pages. (Most of what I'm finding is tutorials on how to make armors or weapons - which don't contain anything relevant to this issue.)