Material Swap (aka I am filled with despair)

[herdustisverypretty]

I saw small questions are meant to go in the pinned thread, but I thought I'd make this separate as it's kind of complicated and confusing

 

So people have been pestering me to make a standalone version of this mod so that's what I'm trying to do. I used the original mod to duplicate the items. I followed this tutorial on material swaps, but I'm really confused. 

 

The original mod didn't come with any materials, just meshes and textures, so what am I meant to use as the original material when making the material swap? If I'm meant to use the vanilla straw pillow (which is what the mod items are based off), then I can't find it. According to the CK, the vanilla pillow's nif is in SetDressing/Mattress, but there isn't a pillow file in that location in materials, just the mattress bgsms, but no pillow (attached image).

 

I'm super confused. I did not realise linking a texture to a mesh would be so friggin impossible. Rah. Can someone please help?

[unused.warhead]

That's because any vanilla file won't be a loose file, it will be inside one of the games .ba2 files. In this case probably inside "Fallout4 - Materials.ba2".

 

I modded for Fallout 3/NV and Skyrim, haven't modded for Fallout 4 yet and I am not familiar with Fallout 4 CK so I can't help you with material swap, but my guess is that if you leave a path in your mod to where the material file should be, with the correct file name, the game will probably find it inside the ba2 file.

 

[ousnius]

You need to select the material (bgsm/bgem) file that is currently assigned in the NIF and is supposed to be swapped out (base material).

And after that you need to select the destination material file that you want it to use instead.

 

You don't need to edit or select any NIF file, which is the point of material swaps.

[herdustisverypretty]

That's because any vanilla file won't be a loose file, it will be inside one of the games .ba2 files. In this case probably inside "Fallout4 - Materials.ba2".

 

I modded for Fallout 3/NV and Skyrim, haven't modded for Fallout 4 yet and I am not familiar with Fallout 4 CK so I can't help you with material swap, but my guess is that if you leave a path in your mod to where the material file should be, with the correct file name, the game will probably find it inside the ba2 file.

 

Well the Creation Kit loaded everything that BAE found in the ba2, so I'm pretty sure that's not it. There's just nothing there, loose or not. 

You need to select the material (bgsm/bgem) file that is currently assigned in the NIF and is supposed to be swapped out (base material).

And after that you need to select the destination material file that you want it to use instead.

 

You don't need to edit or select any NIF file, which is the point of material swaps.

 

I already know this. But the mod did not come with any bgsms, and I can't find the vanilla bgsm file. It doesn't seem to exist, at least not where it should be. 

[Vitriks]

I already know this. But the mod did not come with any bgsms, and I can't find the vanilla bgsm file. It doesn't seem to exist, at least not where it should be. 

 

Then create bgsm file. Simply copy it from something else and edit texture path. Or open nif file in nifscope, check the path and then extract that .bgsm

file using BAE Edit.

Material swap work when you craft new item or modify item in workbench (Static and Dynamic). Noob way (i'm currently using) is to create separate object with specific color. Pro way is to add ability to modify single item and change color in workbench. For the first method you can use FO4Edit

[herdustisverypretty]

 

I already know this. But the mod did not come with any bgsms, and I can't find the vanilla bgsm file. It doesn't seem to exist, at least not where it should be. 

 

Then create bgsm file. Simply copy it from something else and edit texture path. Or open nif file in nifscope, check the path and then extract that .bgsm

file using BAE Edit.

Material swap work when you craft new item or modify item in workbench (Static and Dynamic). Noob way (i'm currently using) is to create separate object with specific color. Pro way is to add ability to modify single item and change color in workbench. For the first method you can use FO4Edit

 

 

Okay I'll try your suggestions. Thank you.