Need Help on Modding

[BIGBANGNERD15]

Hey, I'm new to modding and I've been trying to retexture some models. My main problem is the Fallout Mod Manager. As I do not have Fallout 3 or New Vegas, It won't let me start it up, yet I need something like that so I can extract my Skyrim Models. Is there any other program can use that can help me with this, as I am not really a fan of the Fallout games and don't want to waste my money on buying it just to use the Fallout Mod Manager. 

[InsanitySorrow]

Use FO3 Archive Utility instead.

[BIGBANGNERD15]

yeah, Itried downloading that and it kept saying "cannot detect Fallout"

[Tamira]

I don't have Fallout either and it works fine

What did you do? Download it manually, unzip it to any folder (i. e. to a new folder on the desktop) and click on "FO3Archive" then you can choose the bsa you want to extract.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Tamira

[BIGBANGNERD15]

right, I've managed to find the BSA browser and that's allowing me to open it up, but I don't know how to find Skyrim on it. 

[Tamira]

Well, the install folder usually should be:
Steam\Steamapps\common\Skyrim\Data\

and in the Data folder choose the meshes.bsa or the textures.bsa and choose or create a folder where to extract these.

[BIGBANGNERD15]

i've got it all working and i've extracted the files, but the gimp.dds plug in isn't working

[fierymarigold]

I use paint.net for dds files as I can never get the gimp dds plugin to work right.  It either won't open files, or it adds odd colors, noise...something to them.  Paint.net is free and can be found here:  http://www.getpaint.net/

 

I save the dds files as .png in Paint.net, load them in gimp, do my editing and export from gimp as a .png.  Load up the edited .png in Paint.net and save as a dds file.

Edited June 19, 2013 by fierymarigold

[1shoedpunk]

A nice tool I've found useful, at least for browsing, is the the NVidia DDS Thumbnail viewer. I've heard people say that it doesn't work with Windows 7, but I've had very few issues with it.