I've tried everything I know but I'm still coming up short.

I've followed instructions from several places, including one at the CreationKit.com (http://www.creationkit.com/Retexture_Tutorial) by using NIFScop but I'm just messing things up.

What I want to do should be fairly straight-forward. Take an existing shape and retexture it using a texture from within Skyrim.

It's a basic hexagonal pilar that is found in Azura's Star as the pathway and things. I want to create some that are stone....so I can create something like this: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mmBw3uzPnJI/TVCcyQk96FI/AAAAAAAB5v4/hETxSCnckhI/s1600/most_beautiful_caves_37.jpg

Can someone give me a hand with this?

It's the last room I want to create for my mod.

Help will be appreciated and credited.

TIA!

I can help you out. Was in the process of finding a place to upload a tutorial on simple reskinning as it is, just have to find a suitable place to post it.

What is the name of the existing .nif that you want to retexture? What's the name of the in-game texture you want to use?

Thanks for responding chicken

The asset I want to change to stone are the crystals from Azura's stone. Not the rocky ones but those that are hexagonal pillars.

The biggest problem is that I think they use a cube map and other things that are way beyond my current knowledge on how to manipulate...or even delete.

The pieces are:

AzuraFloorHex01 through 12
AzuraLargeCrystal01 through 7


Pretty much all of the textures under STATIC/Dungeons/AzurasStar except the animated ones.

If I can be shown what to I can do it myself, or if you want to do it that's fine too

Thanks again!

You want 19 reskinned pillars? o.o

Tell you what, I just uploaded my tutorial over at the Nexus over here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=13347

It'll take about an hour before anyone can download it, but hopefully it'll help you some. What you want to do is actually easier than what the tutorial covers, which is creating an entirely custom skin.

If you are still having trouble, then just shoot me a message and I'll create a tut that more specifically deals with what you want.

Thanks Chicken

I know it should be easy. It's just the knowledge on what to do that I need.

If I knew how I would create a 3D image of hexagonal pillars, which would be even better. But those pillars in the Star look pretty good to retexture for what I need.

I'll check out your video in a little while

Thanks!

Oh, it is easy. But like you when I first started out the problem was that the existing tutorials always seemed to be missing that one piece of info that would make sense. Sometimes I ended up having to do the exact opposite that a tutorial suggested in order to get something to work. So, figure it was time to write my own.

Well, if there is enough of a demand I could write up another tutorial in how to get custom models in the game, I guess. I seem to be on a roll.

OK...

i've spent what seems to be hours trying to figure this out.

Even with your (great) instructions on adding textures I am still confounded. Maybe it's Alzheimer's setting in on my 50 years

It seems the parts I want to change have other characteristics that your instructions don't cover.

What I ended up with is a part that had the texture, but resized way down to the point to where it looks nothing like what I intended plus there's some form of weird mapping going on that makes the part look like it's glass.

I was thinking of taking the photo of the real thing and copy the actual color, using the tear-dropper, and creating something new that way. But I am at a loss at what size to make it. I've tried everything from very large to very small and nothing comes out right. Especially with that weird specular light map, or whatever it's called.

All I want is to replace existing model with either a new texture of some other gray texture. But all this is so beyond me that I feel rather lame.

Brief question here: If I take an existing skeleton, and start modifying it in Skope/Blender whatever, when I shorten/elongate/change the skeleton size in any way, will the animation data in the vanilla game still be able to "make it work" so long as there is a somewhat sensible skeleton?

Basically I'm wondering how hard it would be to make an honest to god Pikachu.

I tired something similar to that.

I shrank down some Bandits by scaling them down in CK.

I got the dwarfish look I wanted but using certain IdleMarkers the characters would return to the natural size, like say when leaning on a wall, then when that time elapsed they would shrink down to the size I wanted them to be.

So, it is possible to resize characters, but just stay away from idlemarkers where they have to do something that requires it's own animation, lying down is another animation that doesn't work.

Of course you could tweak the animations to compensate for the size difference if you know how to delve that far into it.

You can find the dwarven Bandits in my mod if you jump into the greenish water and swim into a tight tunnel:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=12147

I hope that helps in some way

Could you post a picture of what happened? That could help. But basicly, applying an existing texture to an existing mesh for which it was not intended can cause some troubles. The UV mapping on one mesh is usually totally different then on other mesh and the size of the texture can have an impact as well. I would suggest making a new texture rather then using an existing one based on the original intended for the mesh you are changing.

Thanks again for your help chicken....I've already put you in the credits for my release last night

What size should the image be when creating the new texture?

Since the part is hexagonal, do I have to create an image for each side?

Texture size is determined by an object's UV Map, something that can only be altered if you have a program like 3ds Max. Simply enlargening a texture wont change much besides the risk of making things look funny and grainy. Consider textures more like a map.

The average texture size is 512 by 512 and, for larger objects, 1024 by 1024.

All object shaders, glossiness, and so on is in the BSLightingShaderProperty, that's why even with a new texture, especially in the case of those Azura pillars, you'll still get blue glowing edges and shininess. Under that branch, change Specular Power - Glossiness to 1.25 (any lower and you'll get error messages) and change the Specular Color to black, which can be done by just double clicking on the color bar and typing 0 into R G B. Next thing to do is to uncheck the SLS1_Specular box under Shader Flags 1. Because those Azura pillars are divided into three parts, you'll have to do this in every BSLightingShaderProperty.

The Azura pillars also use additional maps for extra effects, which if all you want a more typical rock-like texture will cause problems. Under BSShaderTextureSet, double click and delete textures\cubemaps\QuickSky_e.dds and textures\White.dds

Honestly, it seems like you'd be better off just creating and importing your own entirely custom pillar, especially if the texture you want to use doesn't align with the default UV map borders. If you have 3ds Max, then I can teach you, but if you are planning on using Blender you're a bit on your own, I'm not very familiar with that program.

I'm still trying to get this Chicken.

One problem I'm having is that my copy of Gimp 2 doesn't have the layer palet showing. I've been all around trying to figure out how to get those layers deleted. Where do I find how to get that window?

Thanks again for your help!

Edit:

I got it...the option was under the Windows link at the top

OK...

I thought I was going along great...but I ended up with this:

[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/retextured1.jpg[/img]


And this:

[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/retextured2.jpg[/img]

I also got an error when I changed to the new nif. Something about a spcular map missing or something.

One thing though....the new texture is there, just hidden behind other stuff.

I used this image for the texture: http://www.vistaremodeling.com/files/forms/img_files_vr/volgablue.jpg and resized it to 512 x 512.

EDIT:


When starting CK it says the new texture is missing an environment map.

I gave it another go at it and it looks like I got a little closer, but it's partly transparent and still has the blue-green look:

[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/retextured3.jpg[/img]


EDIT:

Also, It doesn't have collision as I can walk through it....and when I do I get CTD with no warnings

I went ahead and put together a 'clean' pillar for you, since trying to edit the existing one was causing so many problems. With this you can stack as many as you want next to each other and swap out the textures for something else if you want.

What it looks like in-game: http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd141/SachioD/ScreenShot279.jpg

Download Link: http://www.yousendit.com/download/M3BrYlJabWdEa1hFdzhUQw?cid=tx-02002207340200000000&s=19102

Dang Chicken...that was unexpected!

Honestly, I really appreciate it!

You've taught me a lot about this. It's something I've been wanting to do for years but never gave the effort to learn, even though I am an artisan that works in real-world 3d (I'll send you a PM).

I put together a bunch of these pillars and they look great. They do need some tweaking though. They are shiny and the texture is not what I anticipated. I want them to be as close to that picture as I can (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mmBw3uzPnJI/TVCcyQk96FI/AAAAAAAB5v4/hETxSCnckhI/s1600/most_beautiful_caves_37.jpg).

Also. When I walk on them I float a few feet above them and the game crashes to the desktop.

Here's two screens. The first is how they look under the approx lights that I'll be using and the second show the player floating:

[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/antrepilars.jpg[/img]



[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/antrepillarfloating.jpg[/img]

I'm wondering....

Is the shinyness because of the SLSF1_Shader (er....specular) is set?


EDIT

I guess it was:

[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/antrepillarnoshine.jpg[/img]

Ok

I retextured the pillars to those of the volcanic rocks.

Somehow the pillars are really bright compared to the stones behind them which I copied the texture from.

How would I make the pillar more closely resemble the rock?

Thanks again!

Here's a screen:

[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/pillartest.jpg[/img]

I thought I would show you the outcome so far with the chamber.

These are very preliminary but I think they'll show you where I'm going with this:


[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/hexroom1.jpg[/img]

Second view:

[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/hexroom2.jpg[/img]


Thanks again for your help!

Note to self: Don't send anything to anyone when half-asleep. Addendum: Make sure to test things out in more than 1st person perspective while in-game.

I wasn't able to duplicate the CTDing. By chance are you using a saved game to test your stuff out? It could be a dirty save. What I do is just immediately coc my way to the location of the new object from the title screen. If you are doing the same thing I am doing and still have that problem, then I am officially baffled.

Luckily the floating several feet above the pillar just requires an easy fix. Load the pillar in Nifskope. Right click on the image of the pillar, then go to Transform --> Edit. Increase the Translation Z value by 68. Should be fine now, will have to reposition the pillars though.

You still having problems with it appearing too shiny? Going by those last screens it looked fine to me.

I do really, really like where you're going in those screens.

I've finally gotten the whole mod finalized...thanks to you!

Those pillars look real good man. Thank you for doing that for me

I had to trial and error the translation. The working number was 59.75 so the player would actually stand on the pillars.

One thing I have to do before I can release the mod however.

The sound of walking on the pillars is wood. How do I change the sound to a walking on stone sound?

As for the CTD...it was Firefox with about 65 tabs running.... lol

I went to about 95% used memory and boom....crash! heheh

I'll post the final screen in a few minutes....I think you'll like it

Thanks again!

Hey, no problem. Just wish I could have been the guy that was able to solve the problem in a single post. This turned into a bit of a learning process for me as well. >.>

What might help with the noise is that in the CK, you change the Navmesh Generation Import Option to Ground. You can find that option by just doubleclicking on whatever Editor ID you assigned the pillar mesh to. Just tested this out myself and it seemed to fix the sound.

Here's the final room (except the walking sounds on the piilars).

[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/pillar_room_final1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/pillar_room_final2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.pcgamingnetwork.com/tmp/skyrim/pillar_room_final3.jpg[/img]

I think it's a totally unique room, just like some of the others

I love it!

I can't seem to find that import option in the CK...Is it during Navmeshing mode?