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.

[GrantSP]

@DoubleYou is correct, you might accidentally delete the mod instead of de-activating it. Having it archived is a good way to restore it and provide peace-of-mind. However the listing of that mod in the 'left-hand' pane of MO is just a folder directly under "ModOrganizer\mods\" so you could just have it there and by either checking or unchecking it in MO's UI your game will have those textures.

 

It all comes down to how comfortable you are with using these tools. 7Zip and Windows Explorer are very basic but sometimes even basic tools give some users a scare. I simply offered a suggestion to remove one tool that I thought you might not feel comfortable with. Either/or, your choice.

[rothbardian]

Thanks for the clarifications. Since I haven't delved in MO yet, I just wanted to clarify: regardless of whether I zip the textures into an archive or not, does the archive or loose (non-zipped) texture directory (and accompanying subdirectories) both go in the same location, i.e. ModOrganizer\mods\?

[Greg]

The steps for the two alternative approaches are basically as follows.

 

To create a mod by compressing the files into a 7z or zip archive:

• Create a folder named textures somewhere other than the Skyrim folder or Mod Organizer's mods folder and drop the textures into the appropriate file structure in this textures folder (e.g. textures/whiterun/mydummyimage.dds)
• In Explorer, right click the textures folder and 7zip/Add to archive or Send To/Compress folder
• Rename the 7z or zip file to something "Awesome Texture Pack.tz" or "Awesome Texture Pack.zip". The name doesn't really matter provided it's something that is readily recongizable as the custom texture pack.
• In Mod Organizer, click Install Mod, select the 7z or zip file you created in the previous step and click OK.
• Mod Organizer creates a new mod with the same name of the 7z or zip file; e.g. "Awesome Texture Pack"

To create a mod directly in Mod Organizer without using a 7z or zip file:

• In Mod Organizer's mods folder, create a folder named something like "Awesome Texture Pack"
• In this "Awesom Texture Pack" folder, create a folder named textures and drop the textures into the appropriate fiile structure (e.g. Awesome Texture Pack/textures/whiterun/mydummyimage.dds)
• After you've placed all the textures into the appropriate file structure, go back into Mod Organizer and click Refresh, and you should see "Awesome Texture Pack" as the last mod in the left pane.

Note that both mechanisms yield exactly the same results and you can now check or uncheck "Awesome Texture Pack" to activate or deactivate it.

 

I usually create a 7z or zip archive and then store the archive file in a safe place in case I need to install it again in the future.

[GrantSP]

No. If you zip them the zip file will go in the "downloads" folder as though you got it from the web. MO will extract it and place the loose files in "mods" ready for use. Which is why I suggested what I did. Perhaps a good examination of MO wiki is in order, along with those videos mentioned earlier.

EDIT: Greg beat me to it and his answer is more thorough.

[rothbardian]

Thank you, Greg -- that was incredibly helpful!

[rothbardian]

I think I'll use the uncompressed method. So if I have 'Awesome texture pack' and 'Super texture pack' if there are any textures with the same file names, do MO prioritize (i.e. overwrite) the duplicates using whichever mod is listed on top or on bottom? In other words, if I want Awesome's duplicates to overwrite Super's, do I list Awesome above or below Super in the mod list? Thanks again!

[DoubleYou]

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Mod_Organizer#Priorities

[n0mad23]

MO loads from top to bottom, so whatever you have below will "win" in terms of the final load.

 

I did something somewhat similar in looking at Aurora replacement mods.  I found one that only replaced meshes, and another that just did textures.  I put the pieces together and zipped them up and then unzipped them into my MO mod list.  Best little experiment ever!  My auroras are awesome now!

[rothbardian]

Thanks for clarifying n0mad -- was a little unclear from the guide as it talked about "The higher the priority number, the higher priority is given to the mod."