Guest Workshop: Using Resources in Your Own Mod - By: WillieSea

[WillieSea]

Using Resources

So, you want to make your own mod and you want to include resources from other mods or from a 'resource mod'.

Smarty says: Its best to start by making folders in your games DATA folder. There are several reasons for doing this instead of using the original resource folders.

1. This will make it easy to locate all the objects you used when you package up your mod for release.
2. It makes it easy for players to install or uninstall your mod.
3. If the resource maker creates updates, you could potentially overwrite those updates with an older version if somebody installs your mod after installing the resource pack.
4. If more than one mod uses those resources and the player uses OBMM to uninstall one of them, it will remove the resources and they will no longer be available in your mod causing errors.

 

1. Create your mod folders

In your game folder you will create your 'mod folders'.

a. The first folder to create will be in your MESHES folder:
\Oblivion\Data\Meshes\myUserName

Then in that folder, you will create a folder for every different mod you make:
myFirstModName
mySecondModName
etc..

Your final folders will look something like this:
\Oblivion\Data\Meshes\myUserName\myFirstModName


For example, I have 16 released mods for Oblivion. All my mods will be in the 'WillieSea' folder.

\Oblivion\Data\Meshes\WillieSea\AncientTowers
\Oblivion\Data\Meshes\WillieSea\ClocksOfCyrodiil
\Oblivion\Data\Meshes\WillieSea\MadHouse


b. Now create the same folders in your TEXTURES folder.
\Oblivion\Data\Textures\WillieSea\AncientTowers
\Oblivion\Data\Textures\WillieSea\ClocksOfCyrodiil
\Oblivion\Data\Textures\WillieSea\MadHouse


c. Depending on what you are doing in your mod, you may also want to create ICON folders, SOUND folders, etc..
* Icons:
\Oblivion\Data\Textures\menus\icons\myUserName\myModName
* Sounds:
\Oblivion\Data\sound\fx\myUserName\myModName

2. Copy the resource files

Uncompress the resource and copy the files to the appropriate folders you created in step 1
One of the best uncompression tools is 7-Zip which you can find here: Download 7-Zip

This tool will allow you to uncompress almost every type of compress file out there.

a. Move the MESHES to your own mesh folder. Meshes will consist of NIF files.
b. Move the TEXTURES to your own textures folder. Textures will consist of DDS files.

3. Reassign mesh texture paths

You must now point the NIF meshes files to your new texture folder.

You can find the latest version of Nifskope here: Link to Nifskope download page

You then load the NIF into Nifskope.

First time Nifskope use
1. On the toolbar, click >Render >Settings
2. Click the 'Auto Detect Game Paths' button.
Nifskope will not automatically look in your game folders for textures. This will also keep it from storing the full path to the textures which you DO NOT want.

Now that you have the NIF loaded into Nifskope, you can find and change the texture paths in the NIF mesh.



This is an object viewed in Nifskope. The 'purple flower' always points to the textures used. If its a vanilla texture, then its okay to point to those folders since everybody who has the game installed will have those textures.

To change the texture, you can click the purple flower to open up the 'browse' window and assign your new texture to that slot.



If you do not see the 'Block Details' section, press F4.


But if you have a unique textue, you need to point to it in your game folder.
As you can see below, I have pointed the NIF to pull in my own texture. You will do the same thing for each 'texture slot' in the mesh, pointing to the correct texture.

4. Adding the item to your mod

You can now continue on with the great tutorial by InsanitySorrow for adding new resources to your own mod.
Check out this tutorial here: Adding Resources to your mod by IS

[_echo]

Hopefully this will help clarify an oh so common problem with peoples mod files...

[WillieSea]

Please let me know if you are stuck on any of the points or something is not clear. With your help, I can make this tutorial usefull for everybody.

[Cydonian_Knight]

Thank you for posting this WillieSea, very clear and helpful. I was just wondering how to easily change the texture path of resources the other day. Thanks for sharing this with us

[Cheeka]

I'm really not sure if I'm doing this right, and InsanitySorry's turorial does not really cover adding furniture and the like, so like I said I'm still clueless.

[DarkRider]

It's basically the same process right up to adding the object in the CS. Once you have your folders set up, your meshes and textures in those folders, and your texture paths changed in NifSkope you can cue up the CS.

What you want to do is click on the category in the Object Window that matches the object you are adding (ie furniture for a new chair, weapons for a new sword, statics for a new static etc)

Once the category loads in the list pane, RightClick>New in the list pane.

The edit box that opens is different for some objects. For example with statics, you will just give the object an ID and and point the NIF slot to the model in your meshes folder to assign the model.

For furniture, weapons, clothes, etc there are a few more boxes to fill in. Don't over think this, it's really common sense in nature. Always start with giving the object an Editor ID that is unique. I recommend beginning with aa to make the objects list at the top of every list followed by your initials to avoid mod conflicts. I have created these Resource Flash Cards to walk you through the specifics of some common objects you can add in the CS:

Static:

Clothes:

MiscItems:

Containers:

Books:

Furniture:

If you have specific questions related to what you are doing and what isn't working, just let me know.

[Cheeka]

Thank you I will try this, I did manage to do a room divider earlier but I must say I really don't undestand Nifskope at all and I have no idea how to delete an item and start again, I find it very confusing.

[DarkRider]

If you make a mistake in NifSkope, just don't save and reload the model to start again, there is no deleting. To delete something from your mod, just clean it out using the TES4 Gecko tool we used in Lesson #4, you can ignore/delete objects as easily as cells.

The whole purpose of using NifSkope for resources is just to direct the mesh to the textures it needs. This is necessary because your folder structure for your mod is different than any other mod, and most certainly different than the resource's folder structure. So you need to SHOW the model where you put its textures in your data folder. This directing is called a texture path, like showing the model the road to reach its textures. You just click the purple flower and direct it to the texture in your data folder than save and overwrite the model to set the new path in stone. Don't over think it, you are just showing the model the textures, simple simple.

You may find Section 05 and Section 06 of this tutorialuseful for mastering this texture path skill in NifSkope.

If you do encounter specific issues, don't be afraid to ask for clarification on something.

[Cheeka]

yeah I did that I even uninstalled it but it was still there when I re-instaled it. I ended up doing a system restore because even using Revo advanced mod it still was there I'm kinda afraid to install it again 'cause I'm sure its still gonna be there.

[Cheeka]

I think I'm getting the hang of it now, Thank you

[DarkRider]

Brilliant!