Fallout 3: Using Model and Texture resources Tutorial

Many mods could be greatly improved by the use of various modders resources out there but the main thing stopping people from using them is not understand the basics of importing models and textures in to their own mods safely. Those who try it often feel they made some mistake when a texture turns out to be missing in a resource. The fact is many resources you will find do contain problems that you will have to fix before you can use them, it is part of the task you must perform in order to safely import new models and textures in to your own mod.

NOTE: I consider this a small price to pay for being allowed to use some excellent resources and usually just make a report about them to the modder so they know an error exists. They usually appreciate friendly feedback like that. Nobody likes people venting their anger at them over problems like this and nobody would consider those doing it to be constructive or helpful, so stay polite and friendly.

In this tutorial I will explain the process using an easy example, a poster. I should warn you that whilst nothing here is hard, it is fiddly, time consuming and prone to errors, so lots of testing is needed to avoid problems.

Tools and files you will need.

First you need to download and install Nifscope, if your interested in making models from scratch in Blender or some other tool, you will need these files as well but we will not be covering that here.

Lets find some resources to import, well there is the Waysted Resource Pack made to hold my own resources that is available so I will use that. You will find the download links on my modding 4 fun websites fallout 3 mods links page.

That is all you will need for this tutorial.

Making our folders and files unique to our mod to stop conflicts.

This is where we do all the fiddly work that ensures our mod will never conflict with other mods.

First go to your Fallout 3 game folder and open up the data folder. We need to create a folder called meshes and another called textures in the Data folder if they do not already exist. Then we need to open up meshes and make a new folder but the name of this folder needs to be chosen wisely.

I will explain why now.

You see, the folder you use next determines where the files will appear in GECK, so if you used a static mesh and added it in a folder called BOB, then in Geck you would find it under Static/BOB. So load up geck, find the location in the Object window you want to place your files in and then create the same kind of directory structure you see there in your mesh folder. That way your mesh will appear at that location later.

If you do not understand, relax, I will explain it using examples below.

In this tutorial we are importing a poster from the Waysted Resource pack which is found in "Data\meshes\Architecture\urban\signage\Foundation" folder. We want to move it to a new folder for OurNewModsPosters but want it to appear in the same area of Geck where the other posters are. So we make the following folders first.

Architecture
urban
signage

Then make our mods own folder called "OurNewModsPosters", which is basically the name of the folder you think best describes your content.

Next we go to the Data\meshes\Architecture\urban\signage\Foundation folder and copy one of the posters there across to our new folder which should be at Data\meshes\Architecture\urban\signage\OurNewModsPosters unless you changed it. Select FDposterscifi01.nif and copy it across to your mods own folder. Once there, lets rename the file to MYposterscifi01.nif.

The Textures do not need to be that organized so lets keep this simple. Go in to the data/texture folder and create a new folder to hold your textures. This can be anything but I will assume its called OurNewModsTextures. You should actually organize your own texture folder better than this, but its a simply thing to do, you just need to use the new paths instead of the ones given in this tutorial thats all.

The path for that new texture folder should be Data/textures/OurNewModsTextures.

It is important you remember that because you will need to edit the NIF to use the new texture folder. Now go to your own MYposterscifi01.nif. and double click on it, it should open in NifScope. Next go to the View menu and make sure the following are ticked and nothing else.

Block list
Block details
Show Block List

Also each time you open Nifscope, before you save your NIF file, go to the File menu and make sure "Auto Sanitize before save" is NOT TICKED. Auto Sanitize causes Nifscope to remove parts of the mesh it believes are errors and this often ruins Fallout 3 Nif files you where working on, typically the mesh appears to cycle through several textures in the game in a very weird way. It would be a cool effect if you could name the textures to use but you cannot so its not cool at all.

Once you have done that, look under the LOAD button for Block List, on the list you will see NiHeader, BSFaderNode etc, further down you will find BSShaderTextureSet, select it and open it up. Now you can see Textures, open that up to see the textures listed. Remember how you found these textures because you will need to do this again later, these are the parts you edit the most so its a very important step to remember.

You can now see where the textures this NIF file uses are stored and what the file names are so go and find them on your hard drive (official beth textures will be in one of the BSA files if you have not extracted them first. To do that find a program like Fallout Mod Manage or something. I will not be covering that here in any detail but I will give you a tip about it.

E.G. it is these

textures\Architecture\urban\signage\Foundation\scifiposters01.dds
textures\Architecture\urban\signage\Foundation\scifiposters01_n.dds

So go to the textures\Architecture\urban\signage\Foundation\ folder and copy the scifiposters01.dds and its _n file across to your own Data/textures/OurNewModsTextures folder. The _n file is called scifiposters01_n.dds and provides vital information for the correct display of the main texture file. All Fallout 3 textures should have an _n file unless they are icons. So always look for the _n for any texture you use.

TIP Extracting files from BSA files.

I find it useful to extract all BSA files to a folder and keep the contents safe so I can access them anytime I need to. This folder is usually some place other than the fallout 3 game folder on a spare hard drive or work fold I create for my stuff. The Fallout 3 Mod manager actually has a BSA Unpacker function that will help you do this job quickly. Timeslip, the guy who made FOMM is one of those rare programming types that actually has the USER Friendly Programmers perk that most professionals lack. So you will have no problems using his tools.

Editing the Nif File.

If you closed Nifskope, double click on your Nif file again to open it. Make sure the Auto Sanitize is unticked as explained above and find every mention of BSShaderTextureSet, then open the Textures box and change the path from

textures\Architecture\urban\signage\Foundation\scifiposters01.dds
textures\Architecture\urban\signage\Foundation\scifiposters01_n.dds

to in all BSShaderTextureSet menus you see that use the texture you changed but read this whole section before doing anything, there are some important exceptions here you should know.

textures\OurNewModsTextures\scifiposters01.dds
textures\OurNewModsTextures\scifiposters01_n.dds

Then use the Save As Button to save your Nif file back over it self, e.g. save over the same Nif file you loaded to update it (with auto Sanitize turned off).

Important Exception Part !

Sometimes other textures will be listed like the GORE textures and they will not be in your folder. Unless you have edited those textures or are using new versions of the textures, always leave any entry you do not have a texture for alone. It probably is using the original texture in the Fallout 3 bsa file and providing you do not edit those BSShaderTextureSet entries, they will still work usually.

NOTE: Also when you do this and the texture turns out to be purple in the game, it usually means the resource pack forgot to pack that texture and basically means you need to find a replacement your self. Its a bug basically, report it to the mod maker, he should have the file somewhere.

Just so you can see what I mean, lets look at one of my own meshes, go to Data\meshes\Armor\Foundation\FDpowerarmorMk1 and click on FDpowerarmorcomplete.nif to open it in NifSkope. The first thing you will notice is this is much more complicated than our simple little poster. The truth is, it is not more complicated, it is exactly the same only there is more BSShaderTextureSet entries that need editing that is all and some are lines we do not have textures for and that is what I want to show you right now.

Scroll down to entry 30 in the FDpowerarmorcomplete.nif , it is a BSShaderTextureSet entry, open up the textures and you will see it needs the textures\gore\MeatCapGore01.dds texture which I have not included in my Waysted Resource Pack. I use the default texture to safe space. So when I updated the nif to use my new textures, I did not Edit those lines because I did not need too. I only needed to edit the lines for textures I had actually changed.

Adding your object to Geck.

The best way to add an item to Geck is to find a similar item and edit that, so lets do that.

We have a new poster so where would the posters be....hum.....do you remember what I said earlier about meshes and paths ?

Well we used the right path but made a new folder so the original posters will be somewhere around the same spot in Geck, so we just need to go to the Object window and find textures\Architecture\urban\signage. Then select one of the formIDs in the list on the right to edit.

So lets do that, lets choose "ArtDecoDupontCorner01Sign", the very first entry in the list.

First change the ID name to MyPoster or something, then click on edit to bring up the Model Data window, then click on EDIT again and browse to your own NIF file and select it. It should be in the Data\meshes\Architecture\urban\signage\OurNewModsPosters folder where you put it.

Once you have found it, OK all the windows to close them and say yes to the Create New FormID question and save you mod.

Now reload it in to GECK scroll down to textures\Architecture\urban\signage and you should see a new folder called OurNewModsPosters listed down there with your new poster in it. If you place it in a Cell, you should be able to see it. But be warned, sometimes a texture appears black in the editor which would indicate a missing _n file or purple which means the texture is missing completely.

And sometimes a black texture just means its not visible in GECK and you have to check it in the game to see if it works.

So watch out for those issues, they are pretty common and typical of the sort of things you will come across.

NOTE: Armour or items you can pickup or sell need Icons too which are usually already set up for existing items and since you have been told to edit an existing item and change the ID, you item will get that icon automatically. So I recommend just using those icons until you master this step. Then go back and find the icons by looking at the Icon Image path the objects edit and then go and get it, edit it in a paint package and then put your own icon back in the icon folder where you found the original one. Then reselect it so your new object edit window so it uses the new icon in the game. I am not sure if Fallout 3 requires the icon be at the original path but Oblivion prefered it to be so best keep the icon in the same spot as the original to avoid problems until you learn if it matters or not in Fallout 3.

Final Words

You have just taken one of my resources and successfully added it to your own mod, it will never conflict with my original or anybody elses version. You can edit the textures or meshes to suit your self from now on knowing it is safe and will not cause any other mod any problems.

This is the correct way to import meshes and textures for use in other mods if you are not making use of somebody elses ESM file.