I would like to reiterate how important this is for the modding community. The ability to easily import our own game assets and animations is one of the most desirable features the modding community needs. I realize that the developers resources are limited and most likely they are only able to develop tools that work with the applications they use in house (whatever they are? 3DS MAX, Maya, etc?) but if there was ever a way they could provide support to tools that most of the community uses (Blender, GIMP) it would be a monumental moment for modders. None the less we are all very appreciative of the stuff Bethesda does provide for us. :hugs:

Yes Nifscope greatest tool that community done for modding resources of oblivion, but don't forget nifscripts for blender and OBSE for scripting.
I can remember thats time when no import export pugins was for oblivion, I remember thats was some problems with copyrights for Oblivion developers tools thats why community found other way to mode meshes, I use CivFanatics nif plugin for 3dMax thats was created for Civilization IV first time but then community create open source tools for us, thats was awesome step forward.

I really can't see how you can get any better than nifskope. It would be sweet to be able to change some model properties in the CS (namely assigning a texture and model separately, which would allow for more cost effective variation), but I wouldn't expect full on editing like nifskope provides.