turning textures into a mod

[rothbardian]

This has probably been answered 1,000 times but I don't how to search for it, so apologies in advance.

If I have a bunch of individual textures, and I want to activate them in Skyrim so they replace the defaults ones, how do I turn them into a single mod (if that's the right word), so that I can activate or deactivate them in one shot rather than manually replacing a bunch of default textures and then having to replace them again with the original defaults if/when I want to revert? Thanks.

[DoubleYou]

If you're using Mod Organizer, all you have to do is hide and unhide them (I assume you know how to set up the file paths).

[rothbardian]

Sorry, I don't -- you mean file paths for where the default textures are located which will be overwritten? Is setting up the file paths covered in the STEP guide? I've just been doing background reading but plan to use MO when I attempt to implement the STEP install.

[DoubleYou]

Sorry, I don't -- you mean file paths for where the default textures are located which will be overwritten? Is setting up the file paths covered in the STEP guide? I've just been doing background reading but plan to use MO when I attempt to implement the STEP install.

Yes, that means overwriting the file paths of the default textures.

 

No, that is not covered in any guide here.

 

Basically you just put the texture at the same filepath as the original (e.g., textures/whiterun/mydummyimage.dds) and the game will use it instead of the original.

[rothbardian]

Thanks DoubleYou, I think I'm almost there. To clarify, I use an alternate filepath in order to use an alternate texture instead of physically overwriting the default texture? For example if the game has textures/whiterun/stone.dds and I have a new stone.dds I want to substitute, rather than overwriting the default texture, I somehow in MO link an alternate filepath to my new stone.dds, like mySkyrimtextures/whiterun/stone.dds?

[DoubleYou]

The filepath must be exactly the same. If you intend to overwrite textures/whiterun/stone.dds, your filepath for you mod must be textures/whiterun/stone.dds.

 

Create a folder named textures. Inside it create the whiterun folder. Inside it place your stone.dds. Now zip it into an archive with an archive program (or you can right-click the textures folder, go to the Send to menu, and click  send to a compressed zip folder). Load the zip into MO and it will install it as any other mod. Just toggle the checkmark to activate or deactivate it. Or if using multiple files, you can open the Filetree for the mod and hide files at will.

[rothbardian]

Ah, ok, thank you for explaining. So as long as I mirror Skyrim's texture directory/subdirectory structure, I can sub in as many textures as I'd like, and then just zip my custom texture directory and I'm good to go?

Btw, what zip settings in 7zip should I use, i.e. compression level, compression method, etc.? Default settings ok?)

Thanks again!

[Greg]

I use the default settings and it works fine.

[DoubleYou]

I'm using the latest 7-zip beta 15.06. I recommend just right-clicking the textures folder, hover over 7-zip, and select "Add to textures.7z"

[rothbardian]

Didn't know Skyrim can use 7z -- thanks! I assume when you load Skyrim it decompresses this stuff all into memory? If that's the case whatever decompresses fastest would seem to be the best choice (assuming conserving hard drive space is not a concern).

[DoubleYou]

Uh... no. It doesn't use 7z. Or zip for that matter. I take it you are new to modding. I was just having you zip it up so it will be easy to install in Mod Organizer or whatever mod manager you are using.

[rothbardian]

Yes, I'm newbrific. :) If MO uses the zip file but not Skyrim, at what stage do the files get unzipped so that they can be accessed by the game?

[DoubleYou]

When MO installs the mod, it unzips the files.

[GrantSP]

... which means you could skip the 'zipping' process and place your textures folder in MO's 'mods' folder and avoid the need for compression methods and the like. All those steps are for are to facilitate transport over the Internet.

[rothbardian]

Grant, if I had a collection of custom textures, is the benefit of the zip approach that I could activate or deactivate the entire collection with one click? (The zip goes in MO's 'mods' folder too, right?)

[DoubleYou]

The benefit is you can install and uninstall your mod at leisure. Grant's way is that you could mimic the MO installation process by creating a folder My Awesome Texture Mod inside the mods folder and place your textures directory and such in there. I'm just afraid you might accidentally delete your work that way.