I've been trying to apply new textures to a handfull of objects (vault gear door, vault sliding door, pistol, etc.) the problem is that none of them work properly in game. They show up fine in the geck, but tested in game they pick up nearby textures rather than the correct ones. All I've really done is modified the original textures through gimp and built a new texture set around it, nothing I thought as being very complicated. No idea what's gone wrong, and I've had little luck finding info about it on the forums... Any help is appreciated as this has become quite frustrating.

When making a new texture set, you have to assign the .dds files to the texture set along with any other .dds files like the normal map (_n.dds) and the like. Then you need to create a new object in the geck to apply the texture set to. Once you have made a copy of your object, click on the 'model' button and right click in each empty slot and select 'new' then find your texture set. Some models need the texture set applied to several model slots to look right.

Indeed, I've done all that, and the objects look just fine in the geck. However there is some problem with it working in the game itself. In the geck the textures show the new set with no problem, but when in game the items mirror textures from the surrounding area (ground, walls, character clothing, etc,)

This is usually attributed to the textures not being in the correct \data\textures\ in your game folder.
It could also be that you did not make the textures correctly, perhaps not including 4 mip maps to the texture or not saving in a valid DXT format.
It could also be that the missing normal map is causing you problems.

As far as I know the textures are in the right spot, now with the normal maps I usually just use the original normal map since I don't really do anything massive to the texture (usually just color changes, sometimes cleaning up a few spots, in the case of the sliding door, I only moved some bits of texture around and smoothed it all out to remeove the 101 from it, but I digress). The mip maps are a bit unfamiliar to me, not sure about the number, but I do choose the DXT5 for compression and generate mip maps options when saving with gimp. I may need to look up some things on the mip maps I suppose.

What you describe is the same process I go through. I choose the compression and check to generate mip maps and GIMP makes my .dds file. I also use the original normal maps in my texture sets. But as WillieSea said, having those odd textures from nearby objects usually reasults from the textures not being found for some reason. Are you absolutely sure your new .dds files are under your \Data\Texture folder somewhere?

As far as I can tell (and I've rechecked a few times since the original post to be sure) the files are in the correct location. It did just occur to me that I got an error message when I saved the file the first time, on retrying the error reads: DDS: It appears your image may be a volume map,
but not all layers are the same size, thus a volume map cannot be written. I can't help but think this may be my problem... Now to figure out how to fix that.

I get that error in GIMP all the time and it doesn't seem to have any adverse effect. maybe you could post some screenies of your texture sets (with file and path names) and your geck object with the model page open (the one where you assign the texture sets).

Will do, working on that now.

Erh, bit sad, but how do I go about uploading said images? Knew I was a bit forum-rusty, but this is a shaming moment...

You create a photobucket account and upload them there. Then you link to those images here.
for example:
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l237/WillieSea/SolarScorcher/SolarScorcher103.jpg

Many thanks for that. Here they are (Hopefully) http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac139/Kapzeus/DoorTesSetAsgn2.png, http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac139/Kapzeus/DoorTesSetAsgn.png, http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac139/Kapzeus/IncorrectDoorTexture.jpg... With any hope these provide some help, in helping myself, I suppose...

From your first image, you have only applied the texture set to slot #2. I believe you need to apply the texture set to slots 0-9 (all of them).

http://s779.photobucket.com/albums/yy80/HupOranje/ObjectwTS.jpg

My GIMP/Blender tutorial goes over Texture Sets at a basic level if you still can't get it to work right. I lay it out in a step-wise procedure that will cover the basics and get you going if your still stuck.

Luck!

Miax

I'm now completely lost. I've gone back over the texture sets, the door was really the only one I did a partial replace on since it was only the one part of the door that needed replaced. Tried it with all of the parts replaced (minus the areas that govern the control panel, different set I guess since it just blacks the panel out and slaps random texture mess on the wire) and got the same result. I've actually gone over Miaximus' guides several times before (quite fine work, btw) and though most helpful, my problems still persist... I haven't thought to ask, but have there been any similar issues linked to Windows 7? Beyond that I'm completely stumped...

The reason your getting this error is your trying to convert a layered file. I do my editing with photoshop and, only covert to dds with gimp But, when I forget to flatten a file I get that error. I'm no pro with gimp but there must be some way to flatten the image. Sometimes the textures don't work properly until I go back an flatten the originals and, convert to dds again.

I would try going back and making sure your edited file only has one layer.

Hope this helps.

Oh, ya. I always flatten my images. If you have a layered image, you can easily flatten it in Gimp by right clicking in the layer window and choosing 'merge layers'. Then a merge window will pop-up. I always just take the default settings and hit merge. That creates a single layer which I then save. I hope this is your problem, cause I am stumped myself if not.

I have concluded that I am somehow cursed as far as customizing textures is concerned... Everything I've tried has failed to remedy the situation. So rather than burn up any more time ( mine, as well as the fine individuals who have tried so diligently to aid me) I think I'll stick with using the regular textures. Many thanks for trying to help though, seems it was just a lost cause.

Why on Earth would you do that?
There are plugins for Photoshop for you to save your texture in DDS format.

I'm a Mac guy, I own the apple version of photoshop unfortunately the DDS plugin doesn't work with it. There for, I'm forced to use GIMP to do my conversions. I only run windows for Gaming and Modding because my industry is 99% mac based.


I've also noticed that (at least in photoshop,} If I'm working on a texture and part of the image goes beyond the document border you'll need to use the crop tool to cut off what is not meant to be seen. If you don't the texture will not sit in the appropriate place on the nif. the game still seems to see what is beyond the edge.

Well, I'm not willing to give up on you just yet...

Just out of curiosity, did you make your own folder for your textures? Like I made a folder called:

\Data\Textures\pkleiss\UCMod

and I put all my custom textures for my UC mod into that folder. It keeps them well organized and separate from the vanilla ones. I am wondering if you put your .dds files into a vanilla folder and/or possibly named them the same as a vanilla file. This might cause some kind of mix up as the game might be picking a texture from the BSA instead of your own.

I feel so bad actually, that I would be willing to use TeamViewer and Skype to remotely control your PC and show you how I make texture sets. I use XP though, so if your problem is windows 7 based, I would have very little idea how to remedy it. But if its just some technique that you're missing, I'm sure we could resolve it.

Lots of people sucessfully retexture using W7.

I would be willing to bet the issue is the texture is not in the actual 'games' data/textures folder.
This can be tricky if you are not sure where you installed the game. You also have to have created the 'textures' folder since it does not exist, and it must be spelled correctly to work.

You can point to any texture on your computer, but it will only be 'found' if its in the correct game folder.



None of this is an issue on the PC version of Photoshop. I have layers beyond the border all the time, and the DDS plugin crops it automatically to the viewable area, flattens the layers and creates the mipmaps without a problem.

I Believe you and, it's good to know the PC version of photoshop works as expected But, does GIMP? If you look at the in game screen Kapzeus posted it looks like the texture is shifted Left. When I first started doing my own retextures I spent hours making Pinup posters, I didn't bother cropping them because what is not seen doesn't exist in my world. The game had other ideas. I had to go back and, crop all my textures to the document borders, GIMP may be doing the same. I don't use GIMP myself (Much, I find it cumbersome and backwards compared to Photoshop.)

Just trying to think "outside of the box", and be helpful. Working on duel platforms has made me learn some creative solutions that straight PC people wouldn't ever have to bother with.

I'm going to do a little test and see If I can recreate the issue with an oversized texture. I'll post my results.

I'd recommend you view the exported .dds in http://www.irfanview.com to make sure it looks as you expect it to.

Well I did some tests and I was able to screw things up in many ways. My oversized textures almost duplicated Kapzeus's issue but, they showed the same way in GECK. I'm still a little baffled on his (her,) mistake.

This has gotten me very curious so, I'll keep playing around to see if I can sort out the issue.