Tracking Down Missing Textures

[Nickd1291]

First off let me start off with this, I personally caused the issue in my screenshot by downsizing my textures via DDSopt.

Second, I have all original textures from all of my mods backed up, so replacing the corrupted/missing/affected textures can be done fairly easily.

 

The problem is tracking down the corrupted/missing/affected textures. In the screenshot, the texture appears on and in the imperial fort towers in Helgen for example. So my first thought was "hey I have a Spice of Life - Forts and aMidianBorn Imperial Forts, the texture issue should be there let's take a look."

 

So I check both and find nothing obviously broken as all color maps opened just fine in GIMP and looked no different. Then I thought "maybe it is a normal map?"  So I checked the normal maps and they look similar or equivalent to their originals.

 

My question for this post is, how do I track down these problem textures so that I can replace them with their originals or optionally a properly downsized texture. Any input is welcome, but mostly I want to know if there is a solid methodology I should use to track down the problem textures.

[dunc001]

This is a long winded process so buckle up!

You will need MfgConsole installed (SKSE plugin) and NifScope. In game you need to look at the purple item, open console (~) and with Mfg you should now have additional info in the console window. Place your cursor over the purple texture and click. It will then display the formID of the item in the bottom right along with the last esp to modify it. Load up TES5edit with that esp, enter the formID in the top left search box and click enter. This should take you to that record. Look down until you find the MODL which will give you the mesh path.

Next, back in Mod Organizer in the right hand pane click on the data tab and scroll down until you find the meshes folder. Navigate in until you locate the mesh you just identified in TES5Edit and take note of which mod is now providing the mesh.

Open that mesh in NifScope and click on each NiTriShape in the list until you identify the part of the mesh with the texture problem. Expand the NiTriShape in the list and click on NiTexturingProperty. And there, finally, you will find the texture path you need.

Now back into ModOrganizer, into the data tab again and this time down to the texture folder. Navigate in to the texture path you've just identified and take note of the mod providing the texture. And that's it, that's the one you need to fix.
 

 

BTW - If anyone has a quicker way of getting to the offending texture please feel free to override me. 

Edited August 11, 2016 by dunc001

[Nebulous112]

Purple textures like that means the texture is missing.

 

I would say the issue is likely due to a mistake following the instructions for Spice of Life Forts / Imperial Forts.

 

Specifically, this bit from Imperial Forts:

 

Optionals: amb forts exterior wall vanilla style 2k

Special Installation: Download the optional manually and install the *.dds files contained within to <Mod Organizer>/mods/Spice of Life - Forts/textures/SpiceOfLife/Forts/AmbFortsVanillaStyle/Imperial.

 

I'd double check that, first. Since the issue is a missing texture, all textures you look at will be fine...the trouble is you are missing some.

[Nickd1291]

So I did some things, replaced all of the Spice of Life Forts and aMidianborn Forts textures with their originals and the issue disappeared. Good, problem gone as expected.

 

However, I am more interested in a way to track down the specific texture(s) that was causing the issue and make more of a surgical fix than a blanketed fix as I am looking to downsize as many textures as possible.

 

Any advice in this area is much appreciated, or if you know of someone in the community you can refer me to who would know how to make those kinds of surgical fixes, that would also be much appreciated.

[Nickd1291]

I did end up tracking down the problem file, it was an alpha texture, Alpha.dds (located in Spice Of Life - Forts\textures\SpiceOfLife\Forts\Steveowashere), which is a 64x64 texture that DDSopt had converted to a 1x1 texture and Skyrim apparently was not okay with that.

 

Well anyway, any information on how to track down problem files like missing textures or meshes, please post or link it here for people who have issues like this.

[Nickd1291]

That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Thanks dunc001.

 

I will try it out if I come across anything.