As the title suggests, I need to know if changing textures of items requires NifSkope. I want to change textures for lots of things for a mod I'm working with, but I don't know how to. It's not like the GECK where it's installed into every item, and you can change textures with already existing textures. So, does it require NifSkope? If it doesn't, where can I find the option?

If the texture merely replaces original texture, you don't need any. Just one archive invalidation will be needed. However, if you want to make a retextured object while keeping original(like stand-alone red glass armor set), you will need to use NifSkope. (In fact, you can make retextured item for FO3 with NifSkope, but retexturing with GECK is kind of godsend, for you don't need to copy same meshes over and over..)

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2156 Easy tool to use.

I just downloaded that, doesn't it require Nif files? I don't have NifSkope and I can't exactly download it, which was the main issue.

This may help you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WuP7t4gteE&feature=related

You do know that NIfskope is a free program - http://niftools.org/

I can't download it, I already said. It's not the link, it's that I don't have much freedom on this computer, and downloading programs is not something I can really do.

Why can you download Texture Replacer but not Nifskope? Just wondering. Texture Replacer is a great tool for batch processing texture paths, like retexturing all cave tiles by changing 'textures\dungeons' to 'textures\MyMod' in the texture path of all the tiles for example. For changing single textures on lots of different meshes with different textures it is a pain to use though since it has a command line interface.

I'm not sure what you mean with 'doesn't it require nif files'. Of course you need the nif file you want to change, but other than that there is nothing you need for it to work.

But in the end if you want to do some serious retexturing and modding (in that regard) you will need Nifskope. If you are on your dad's computer (just a guess since I have no idea why else you wouldn't be allowed to download stuff - I hope you're not trying to mod at work) then ask him. Nifskope is not evil, thousands of people use it and there is no malware included.

Because NifSkope is a program, Texture Replacer shows up on my computer as a file instead of a program. I can download files.

I think I see where the confusion lies ..... Yes Texture Replacer needs the .nif files.

BUT - you dont need Nifscope to get Niffiles....you have them allready. You need to extract a .nif from the .BSA files in your Data directory.

For example, Get BSA Unpacker - Extract all the files from Meshes.bsa.

Find yourself the .nif of a house or something.

Stick the .nif of the house in your oblivion data/meshes/Mymod/ folder

Stick the custom textures you want to use in data/textures/mymod/

Open texture replacer and then find the house.nif file

it will show you every texture that is being used by that house model. For example "Floor - Data/textures/archetecture/floors/" etc

Click it, open the menu and change the path way to your new custom texture.

Close texture replacer then open the cs. click any object and rename it aaahouse and select your house.nif file as its nif file. DA DA!

If the issue is one of downloading as zip or rar or 7z instead of a self-extracting archive, I think those options are there for NifSkope. It's not unusual for firewalls to block any .exe files, but allow an archive that contains one.