This is my first retuxture. And I am a bit confused by the variation in the tutorials at the CS Wiki.

The details:

• Copied the ICPalaceRoom02 base object to a new base object in the CS.
  
• Unpacked icpalaceroom02.nif with BSACommander, copied and renamed it.
  
• Using Nifscope, made a list of all the textures associated with this file, unpacked, copied and renamed them.
  
• Edited a texture and replaced old texture with new one in Nifscope.
  
• I saw that this did not look like it should and double checked, and I could have sworn that I saved as prescribed by http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Retexturing_Made_Easy (More on this later)
  
• ...anyway it looked good in NifScope.
  
• Edited 8 more textures. One appeared to not actually be used. All the while, I was copying the original normal maps and naming them to match [MYTEXTURENAME]_n.dds.
  
• Hours later after I was satisfied with the final look my version of the nif. I decided to have a look at it in the CS and then go see it through my characters eyes. Pointed my new Static Architecture object at the nif and...
  
• Doh! All textures are black!
  
• Looked for more tutorials and information that could lead me to the cause.
  
• http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Retex_Troubleshooting says "Black Surfaces (Missing normal map or no alpha channel in nomal map)"
  
• Checked. All textures DO have normal maps. Only one normal map has an alpha channel. Considering what the alpha channel does and the fact that these are just copies of vanilla normal maps. Do they need alpha channels to work for me? If so, how do I fix this?
  
• I tried following the instructions of http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Retex_Guide and http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Normal_Maps_Basics
  
• Now I can't seem to save a texture properly anymore. I simply tried to save the one I already edited to a new name and the color is all wrong when viewed in Nifscope.

I know this is a lot all at once, but I tried to do my homework first and the issue eludes me. I had the beginnings of a evil looking Imperial interior set and now... :banghead: :shakehead: :facepalm:

I'm having the same problem with a few objects. Sometimes they might suddenly become "visible" (in the sense that the object is no longer black), but I've learned to live with it As long as they show up nicely in the game, it's enough for me.

I fixed it. I guess I wasn't using the generate mip maps option. :facepalm:

For future reference, if it was a case of missing _n.dds files, the game would just crash.