Moon Texture Mods

[Gage]

I have noticed a lot of Moon Retexture mods out there, and i would like to make one myself. But i have no idea where to start.

Where is the texture kept? How can i change it? What would i need to do it?

Thanks!

[Truhvanor]

Where is the texture kept?

The texture is kept in the "Skyrim - textures.bsa" located in the data folder of the skyrim installation.
The filepath should look like this

• on a 64-bit Sys.

  <Drive>:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim\Data

• on a 32-bit Sys.

  <Drive>:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim\Data

How can i change it?

you can change it by placing a new texture whith the same name in the right subfolder of the data folder (probably have to create one)
Example:

Skyrim/data/textures/sky/

Note:

This process is called replacing and it works because loose files will be priorized by the game against packed/archived files. To get a replacer working correctly you have to recreate the filepath (like in the example above).

What would i need to do it?

Everything you need is on the internet for free:

• GIMP
  
• .dds plugin for gimp
  
• Fall out Mod Manager (FOMM)<- this is needed for looking or unpacking the .bsa files

I hope that helped but if you need more detailed information please let us/me know.

Have a beautyfull day
The-Truhvanor

[Gage]

Okay. I got Gimp and installed the .dds plugin. I cat open The texture .bsa file.

Like you said FOMM is needed to fix this. But how do i do it?

[Truhvanor]

FOMM brings the bsa browser with it. Just open the start menu (when on windows vista/7/8.1) and enter "bsa" in the searchbar, then you should find it.

1. When its open click on open
   
2. Navigate to your Skyrim/data folder
   
3. Select the Skyrim - textures.bsa
   
4. Now use the file tree at the left to navigate through the archive
   
5. If you want extract a single file you can do this by drag&drop

Have a nice day and dont hesitate to ask if you run into a deadend
The-Truhvanor

[Gage]

Okay thanks :)

Once i edit it, how do i get it back into the game as a plug in, and NOT replace the original moon when running vanilla?

(Sorry im a bit of an amature with anything beyond the creation kit lol)

[Truhvanor]

Publicado originalmente por Honest Soul:

Once i edit it, how do i get it back into the game as a plug in, and NOT replace the original moon when running vanilla?

Do you mean adding a new moon to the game or just to be able to switch it back to vanilla easily?

[Gage]

Change it back to vanilla easily. Like just have the option to dissable the mod in the data files menue.

[Truhvanor]

I only know one way to do this and for that you're going to need the Nexus Mod Manager (NMM), it's also free but you have to sign up at the nexus forums (highly recommended if you want access to the greatest skyrim mods)
Nexus Mod Manager[www.nexusmods.com]

Pack the folder structure with your texture into a zip/rar/7z archive.
The archives content should look like this:

data/textures/sky/<your-Texture>.dds

Then import this archive to the NMM by using the add mod by file feature.

Next delete your files in the skyrim folder (make a backup of course) and reinstall your files with the NMM. Now you are able to switch your textures by a double click on the mod in the NMM.

[Gage]

O_o Alright you lost me lol.

I have NMM but how do i pack the texture into a zip/rar/7z archive?

Im a bit new to this kind of stuff so any small detail will help.

[Truhvanor]

No problem, everybody was new to this someday

1. Create a archive in one of these types: .rar/.zip/.7z (they are all working perfectly with NMM) and give it a nice name
   
2. Now create a folder (on your desktop or somewhere else. it's only temporarily) named data.
   
3. in this folder make another one which is called textures and in this one the last folder sky*
   
4. Place your textures in the sky folder
   
5. Drag the data folder, which should contain everything from step 3&4, in the archive from step 1.
   
6. Now you should have the folder structur whit your textures in the archive
   
7. Open NMM and go to the Mods-Tab (I hope you allready set your NMM up...otherwise do it now)
   
8. Click on the add mod by file button (a puzzle piece with a green plus) and select your archive
   
9. Now you should have your mod in the NMM list. Then delete your textures from the skyrim folder**
   
10. Now you can enable or disable your mod by double-clicking on it in the NMM.

* Note:

I'm not completly sure about this folder name, anyways it should have the same name as the one which contains your textures.

** Note:

This is necesary because otherwise the NMM will allways back those files up and when you want to change it back to vanilla it ont work correctly.

Have a nice day
The-Truhvanor

PS: It's very late here and english isn't my natural language, so please excuse any mistakes

[Gage]

Allright ill try this out.

This is more or less something i am working on in spare time so im in no rush to complete this quickly. So if there are delays in my questions that is why lol

[Gage]

Is there any particular way the textures should be saved? Currently they are saved as "masser_full.xcf" and it says "GIMP immage" on the right

Will that do or should they be saved differently? If so how.

[Truhvanor]

it has to be saved in .dds (thats why you need the .dds plugin for GIMP) otherwise the game will not accept the textures or even crash.
Ah since you are going to use the NMM i highly recommend to update it asap!

[Gage]

Alright i figured so ;)
Ill Update NMM and continue throughout the steps.

[Gage]

Ok that is done. How do you recomend me going about deleting the originbal textures? Wouldnt me doing that remove the moon in vanilla as well?

[Truhvanor]

since the vanilla textures are saved in the textures.bsa they will stay in the game even when you delete them from the folders. Just dont make any changes directly in the bsa archive and everything should be fine