Part 4 Surface Tension
Rendering.
For Nifskope to render textures it needs to know where to locate them.
Theres an auto detect button but I have my setup with these 3 folders.
C:/Program Files/Bethesda Softworks/Morrowind/Data Files
This is for texture paths that use a subfolder
C:/Program Files/Bethesda Softworks/Morrowind/Data Files/Textures
This is for texture paths that use the root texture folder
E:/Data Files/Textures
This is my Construction Set CD. Bethesda didn’t use subfolders.
Whether it’s a mod added mesh, stock mesh, or mesh using stock textures I see my textures.
Note:
If a texture of the same name is in the main texture folder it will override the one in the subfolder in game.
Also a texture of the same name with a .dds extension will override a .tga or .bmp in game
Retexturing.
When changing textures of a mesh you need to set the path correctly so no matter where someone has their game installed it will work for them.
If you have your texture in the main texture folder all you need in the texture source is the filename of the texture.
Example:
Texture.dds
If you wish to use a subfolder for your texture then you need to include the entire texture path.
Example:
Textures/subfolder/texture.dds
Morrowind has a 32 character limit for file paths, this includes the entire path, so try to keep your subfolder limited to 2 or 3 characters and your filenames short.
The types of textures MW can use are bmp(24bit), tga, and dds. And they must have a dimension of a power of 2. Examples of some but not all sizes would be 2x2 2x4 4x8 32x16 256x256 64x512 1024x512 etc.
Okay now lets go an retexture a mesh.
Theres 2 ways to go about this. You can edit the NiSource Texture block, or you can do the drag and drop method.
Drag and Drop Method.
In windows explorer Left click on the texture file you wish to use and hold it down, drag the mouse pointer to nifskope over the render window onto the part of the mesh you want retextured, the texture will show up on that part, when the correct part is retextured release the mouse button.
If the texture is located in a directory or subfolder that you have assigned in the render options the path gets set properly, otherwise it uses the entire file path.
For an example I’ll use the coin, again.
I open my windows explorer to where I have my texture
C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Morrowind\Data Files\Textures
I drag and drop as described above, and all looks good. But theres a problem, (besides the UV mapping and the low poly mesh.) Can you spot it?
Answer, the texture path is wrong. It shows textures\penny.bmp, which won’t work. Why did it do this? It’s the order of the texture folders in the render settings.
I select the lower folder and click the “Move Up” button, so it now looks like this.
Now I drag and drop again, and it works like it should.
Now lets try the same texture in a subfolder.
Well, now the file path is m/penny.nif, which is wrong. I need to set the texture folder order in the render setting the way it was. It should now look like this:
Drag and drop again and it now has the proper file path.
And now the manual, or “Niftexture” way of retexturing.
It helps to set the blocks to the list view.
Now take notice that each NiSourceTexture block has a pruple flower icon thingy next to the texture file name. You can double click and enter the file name and path over the string data, just like using NifTexture.
Or you can click the icon to browse for textures.
Note, it works the same whether you click in the block list window, or the block details window.