- 3Using Texture Sets
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Fastest way to setup Skyrim back to vanilla I want to get rid of my mod files which are in my Skyrim folder, but there's too many of them and I don't want to search them all, so is there anyway to get Skyrim back to vanilla? Also reinstalling won't help.
- Download a plugin (.esp) and the. Copy the plugin and archive to your Steam steamapps common Fallout 4 Data folder. Enable the plugin from within Fallout 4 or with your choice of mod manager. The #1 Stealth mod on the Steam Workshop and the Skyrim Nexus, and has more than 1 million views on YouTube. Updated to be compatible with the.
Overview
If you’re like most modders, you probably dove right into things and cluttered up your data folder with mods. Or, maybe, you just want to reset Skyrim to Vanilla again and aren’t sure what files should be kept and which can be deleted.
This mini guide will show you how to use Texture Sets for Skyrim. They are a very useful tool for retexturing meshes (clothing, armours, weapons, bodies, etc) without having to duplicate the mesh files.
In this guide I am going to add a new recolour for an armour, but if you want to retexture another item (like a weapon), it works exactly the same.
Required tools
- Creation Kit: available on Steam (Menu option View -> Tools and then select Creation Kit)
Using Texture Sets
In Oblivion, when you wanted to release a retexture of an item (armour, weapon, etc), you had to make as many copies of the nif files as retextures you wanted to create, and then link the different textures to each of the copies.
Since Fallout 3, Bethesda introduced the use of Texture sets that allow to use only one nif file with different textures. The advantages of this system when retexturing a vanilla item are:
- you don't have to package the nif file of that item into your mod, only the texture (.dds) files, decreasing the size of your mod file and making it easier to package.
- for armours and clothing: as your retexture points to the vanilla mesh file, if somebody uses a body replacer automatically your retexture will be shown on the armour made for that body, so you don't have to bother packaging retextures for all the existing body types: your mod will work for everybody.
If you are retexturing a custom item, the advantage of using texture sets is that you only have to package the nif file once, decreasing the size of your mod file and making it easier to package.
Add a Texture Set
In this guide I am going to add a new recolour for an armour, but if you want to retexture another item (like a weapon), it works exactly the same.
In the original nif file I already linked a set of textures and created the Armour Addon and Armour objects as explained in the Creating an armour for Skyrim tutorial. But now I want to add a black version of the armour and here is where I am going to use the Texture sets.
To create a Texture set:
- In the Object window expand the menu Miscellaneous, select the TextureSet category and then choose any of the existing Texture sets.
- Double click on the selected Texture set and a window will pop-up like the one shown in picture Texture set. In this window:
- Change the Texture set ID to make a new set of textures.
- You can set up to 8 different types of textures in one Texture set. The most commonnly used are the Diffuse (colour) and the Normal map. To add or change one of the existing textures:
- Highlight the texture you want to change by clicking on it
- Press the Edit button: this will open an explorer window. Go to the folder where your texture file is, select it and then press the Open button. Now you'll see that your dds file is displayed on the preview window.
- Repeat the process for each of the texture files you want to add to this texture set.
- Once you are done, press the OK button, the CK will ask you if you want to create a new form: answer Yes.
Assign the Texture set to your item
Now we are going to assing the texture set we've just created to the item. As we want to create a new version of an existing armour, we follow these steps:
- Create a new Armour Addon by making a copy of the existing Armour Addon we want to retexture (see Add the armour to the game using the CK for reference on how to create Armour Addons).
- On the Armour Addonproperties window, press the Select button of the Bipped model that contains the mesh that you want to retexture. This will open a window like the one shown in picture Assign the Texture set to the armour. In this window:
- Select the node you want to retexture and right click on it and then select New from the pop-up menu.
- A window will appear showing all the available Texture sets. Choose the one you want to use and press the OK button.
- Now you'll see that, in the preview window, your armour has a new texture.
- If your mesh has more than one node, repeat the process as needed but take into account that you only have to assign texture sets for the nodes that you want to retexture. If you want to leave some of the nodes with the textures that the base mesh uses (like for example, the parts where the skin is shown), you don't need to add any texture set to those nodes as shown in picture Assign the Texture set to the armour.
- The last step is to create a new Armour object and placing it in the world (see Add the armour to the game using the CK for reference)
After doing all these you will have a new version of the original mesh, with a different texture, and both of them using the same nif file.
Cleaning the Official Master ESMs
This guide assumes usingTES5Edit v3.2on Skyrim Nexus,
Or SSEEdit v3.2 on Skyrim SE Nexus
Due to this guide being dual purpose ( For Skyrim and Skyrim SE ) for the rest of this guide I will refer to both tools as xEdit.
Screenshots of tools used may be one or the other, or older versions, which does not matter, the images are only to illustrate the method / options used. Before moving on to the Manual cleaning, something everyone should do prior to Manual Cleaning :
Why Clean the Master Files ?
Firstly because the masters have entries that are identical to the same records in Skyrim.esm or other DLC esms'. They exist because Bethesda may have looked at something in the CK and an unneeded entry was auto included in the plugin even though the item was not altered in any way. The Official Creation Kits are notoriously buggy and randomly create dirty / wild edits, often when the author of the plugin is completely unaware. Wherever that plugin is placed in your load order its records overwrite all the conflicting records from plugins loaded before it ( the rule of one ) resetting the settings back to the values contained in the Official Bethesda DLC. It won't cause crashes, it just changes the values of plugins loaded before it. Which can alter mods that you have for Weapon Damage, Armor, Lighting, Food Effects and so on. The masters are very early in your load order but there is potential for a mod to be made as a fake.esm, and placed among them, and so ITMs in a later loading master may cause problems for that mods esm. Chance is remote that a master will affect another master, and this procedure is best used on all of your mods plugins, but cleaning everything of ITMs ( Identical to Master records ) causes no harm, is more optimal giving the game less to process in your load order, and so it is best to get rid of these completely unnecessary dirty edits.
The Second reason is that Bethesda chose to delete some things that are in the Official DLC. Any mods loaded with references to deleted records from the Official Bethesda DLC will cause your game to crash. This problem particularly affects older mods ( especially mods that were made before newer official patches were released, with more deleted references the old mod did not anticipate - It will also become problematic for the Skyrim Special Edition community where old Original Skyrim mods are being converted to SSE, and Bethesda have deleted even more records from the plugins before they released the newer plugins for that version of the game ). xEdit can restore and properly assign values to these records that will disable them and still allow mods to access them. This is done using the 'Undelete and Disable References' option.
For further explanations of why it is still recommended to clean the games masters .. Read on from this post,
Zilav and Arthmoor, most valued technical and vastly experienced modding authors, weigh in on the subject.
The following mostly apply to mod authors, but worth knowing about for mod users too :
xEdit will also report when a mod has Deleted NavMeshes as part of the report from Automatic cleaning. Like deleted references, any mod that references a deleted NavMesh will cause Skyrim to Crash. Properly optimizing your mods NavMeshes and checking your mod for Deleted Vanilla NavMeshes ( which can also be caused by a CK wild edit even if you did not do it yourself ) is important. Mods altering the same cell and the same NavMeshes when your mod is not optimized will cause Skyrim to Crash. Poorly optimized NavMeshes with errors reported by the CK will make Skyrim unstable. Instabilities like fast travelling to a location and Skyrim crashes. Note the ones found to be deleted in the games masters, cannot be undeleted. To fix deleted Navmeshes in your mods, Arthmoor has provided a walkthrough in https://afkmods.iguanadons.net... 'Skyrim - Fixing Navmesh Deletion in TES5Edit'
Manually cleaning your mods is also important to remove wild edits. This is mostly down to the experience of Mod Authors to solve such problems, but there are a few noted later in this guide which are in the DLCs which everyone can easily Manually clean. Some mods can have accidental Wild Edits in them caused by the author looking at how Bethesda did something they wish their mod to do as well. These Wild Edits often prevent Skyrim from doing things like advancing quests, spawning NPCs, assigning dialogue to NPCs, preventing NPCs from patrol areas they are assigned to. They can also alter Vanilla Lighting and Triggers that the author wished to use. All of these things affect any plugin with conflicting records loaded before a mod with Wild Edits.
Mod authors - Learn to use xEdit, and ensure the only records in your mod plugins are what you would expect to be in there, its the most important tool the community can make use of when used properly.
Mod Users - Follow this guide...
Automatic cleaning of Bethesda's ESMs with xEdit
With the games Original esm's installed ( You can use Steam to Verify Integrity of Game files https://support.steampowered.c... to ensure you have good error free copies of the original master files ), and in accordance with the following wiki article http://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Skyrim_Dirty_Plugins_List
Load up xEdit.
1. Right click the plugin selection screen and select 'none'
2. Tick the relevant esm to edit, and click okay ( If you have not cleaned any of your Master files yet, the first one to tick will be Skyrims 'Update.esm' ), then click Okay
After each of the following actions, wait for a message in the message window that the previous operation has finished / Done :
3. Right click the plugin after you get the 'Background Loader : Finished' message,and choose 'Apply Filter for Cleaning'
Wait until Filtering is finished then ..
4. Right click the plugin and choose Remove Identical to Master Records
Wait until it finishes then ..
5. Right click the plugin and choose Undelete and Disable references
Wait until it finishes then ..
6. Close xEdit, and it should check with you that you wish to save the plugin ( this only happens if you have made any changes to the plugin to save, if it just closes .. Then you have not cleaned anything )
Rinse and repeat the Automatic cleaning ( steps 1 - 6 above ) for each of the master files. Working from first to load, to last, not including Skyrim.esm or any unofficial patches ( No point doing Skyrim.esm, and the unofficial patches are already done and should not be cleaned )
So clean in this order
Update.esm
Dawnguard.esm
Dawnguard.esm ( Yes it needs to be done twice )
Hearthfire.esm
Dragonborn.esm
Dawnguard.esm needs to be cleaned twice ( as of xEdit 3.1 onwards - After doing the automatic cleaning routine once on Dawnguard.esm, and saving it, load it up again in xEdit and you will be able to clean a further 6 ITMs ) :
Skyrim Original
Update.esm
Apply filter for cleaning
[Removing 'Identical to Master' records done] Processed Records: 1290, Removed Records: 96
[Undeleting and Disabling References done] Processed Records: 1194, Undeleted Records: 3
Dawnguard.esm ( First time around )
Apply filter for cleaning
[Removing 'Identical to Master' records done] Processed Records: 98027, Removed Records: 630
[Undeleting and Disabling References done] Processed Records: 97397, Undeleted Records: 82
Skyrim Vanilla Data Folder Download
Dawnguard.esm ( Second time around )
Apply filter for cleaning
[Removing 'Identical to Master' records done] Processed Records: 97396, Removed Records: 6
[Undeleting and Disabling References done] Processed Records: 97390, Undeleted Records: 0
Hearthfires.esm
Apply filter for cleaning
[Removing 'Identical to Master' records done] Processed Records: 17797, Removed Records: 184
[Undeleting and Disabling References done] Processed Records: 17613, Undeleted Records: 11
Dragonborn.esm
Apply filter for cleaning
[Removing 'Identical to Master' records done] Processed Records: 214386, Removed Records: 68
[Undeleting and Disabling References done] Processed Records: 214318, Undeleted Records: 8
Skyrim Special Edition
Update.esm
Apply filter for cleaning
[Removing 'Identical to Master' records done] Processed Records: 17216, Removed Records: 233
[Undeleting and Disabling References done] Processed Records: 16983, Undeleted Records: 91
Dawnguard.esm ( First time around )
Apply filter for cleaning
[Removing 'Identical to Master' records done] Processed Records: 98676, Removed Records: 628
[Undeleting and Disabling References done] Processed Records: 98048, Undeleted Records: 82
Dawnguard.esm ( Second time around )
Apply filter for cleaning
[Removing 'Identical to Master' records done] Processed Records: 98047, Removed Records: 6
[Undeleting and Disabling References done] Processed Records: 98041, Undeleted Records: 0
Skyrim Data Folder Location
Hearthfires.esm
Apply filter for cleaning
[Removing 'Identical to Master' records done] Processed Records: 17830, Removed Records: 178
[Undeleting and Disabling References done] Processed Records: 17652, Undeleted Records: 11
Dragonborn.esm
Apply filter for cleaning
[Removing 'Identical to Master' records done] Processed Records: 214498, Removed Records: 69
[Undeleting and Disabling References done] Processed Records: 214429, Undeleted Records: 8
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Dawnguard.esm needs manual cleaning aswell as automatic cleaning
After the automated cleaning is done, you can also now manually clean a few more Wild edits xEdit will not have touched ... Recently Arthmoor has brought to the attention of the community additional information regarding manual cleaning of Dawnguard.esm, which everyone needs to do for their own setup same as automatic cleaning ( because nobody can legally upload official master files anywhere, everyone needs to do their own )
First load up xEdit
When the plugin selection comes up, right click and select None Then put a tick in the box just for Dawnguard.esm, click Okay
After its finished loading, right click Dawnguard.esm and choose 'Filter for Cleaning'
1. For 'CELL 00016BCF: Remove XEZN subrecord referring to RiftenRatwayZone [ECZN:0009FBB9]. Otherwise it blocks the official fix in Update.esm.' .... Expand the records as in the following screenshot, and right click the indicated sub-record, and choose Remove
2. For 'CELL 0001FA4C: Wild edit. Remove this record. It's a testing cell.' .... Expand the records as in the following screenshot, and right click the indicated record, and choose Remove
3. For 'CELL 0006C3B6: Wild edit. Remove this record. It's a testing cell.' .... Expand the records as in the following screenshot, and right click the indicated record, and choose Remove
NOTE : This guide used to include cleaning instructions for 'CELL 00039F67: Wild edit. Remove this record. It's a testing cell' ( The WICourier edit ) - But since the new version of TES5Edit 3.1+ now cleans that as part of the automated cleaning ( which you should have done prior to manual cleaning ), you no longer need to clean it manually afterwards.
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CRCs of the various stages for comparison ( The following cleaned with xEdit 3.2 )
Skyrim Original
Update.esm Original - CRC = E5B67BDA MD5 = 2476E42699D4D9236DDD2EA8B31F612D
Update.esm Auto Clean - CRC = 18401373 MD5 = 27CF2C3E379BC853F4AC574BCEC7A0B9
Dawnguard.esm Original - CRC = BD72CCF3 MD5 = 5BD2F339925A5FB96F9F0DA7F96FD8CE
Dawnguard.esm Auto Clean First time - CRC = 6391C6DC MD5 = 0602D8450CC51F8C9EF8AB531B6EDAEB
Dawnguard.esm Auto Clean Second time - CRC = 94A47F31 MD5 = D3D38017BCDA07C1ABB1C343A9266634
Dawnguard.esm Auto plus Manual Clean - CRC = 50FB6A39 MD5 = 74561A2CF8644ACC8BE857E0705996D5
Hearthfire.esm Original - CRC = AF82CE6A MD5 = 71C3D20EA9F8510E29C36F2A426247C2
Hearthfire.esm Auto Clean - CRC = FBB4B8FA MD5 = E91E103C7F541C34F7CDD53AD68EDA3A
Dragonborn.esm Original - CRC = A9F83BFF MD5 = 37D8CBFFCB460011CE2BF3AABD007A2D
Dragonborn.esm Auto Clean - CRC = E0715431 MD5 = 7D78A3CA1E4D3700DB5D7F5DDAF5F7D2
Skyrim Special Edition
Update.esm Original - CRC = 8a234131 MD5 = A6E4D668C8E297960D3CBB78104CA8E3
Update.esm Auto Clean - CRC = fde85196 MD5 = E1D557E74F585FDA253DA613DD53FD08
Dawnguard.esm Original - CRC = 051fcdc8 MD5 = E124FE26F161A722D52CCD2BC4CD1FA5
Dawnguard.esm Auto Clean First time - CRC = 09ff5624 MD5 = 6119377530847F5FBBC758FEDDA8512A
Dawnguard.esm Auto Clean Second time - CRC = debdefee MD5 = 887FABC6396E285694A83F1DB407C209
Dawnguard.esm Auto plus Manual Clean - CRC = fa97d737 MD5 = C522A66C97596D3170EDB231A9B732E8
Hearthfire.esm Original - CRC = fbd3fb4c MD5 = C8D10DC5D674D63D4C8FAD04ACF3AFDC
Hearthfire.esm Auto Clean - CRC = 6b0a76a3 MD5 = EB8E4BD7EAE01A3A87E2343B95BD2782
Dragonborn.esm Original - CRC = c7e30215 MD5 = AFCEC0A936DBF4A3C0CDA2ACBD4813ED
Dragonborn.esm Auto Clean - CRC = ffe01cc5 MD5 = 5FB86435A02093A279D34DC305882519
( Note : If there is only one file inside a folder within a zip, 7zip shows that files CRC alongside the folder - I checked each plugins within the folders individually to be sure the Screenshot CRCs above are all correct, and of course they also match the online CRC checks )
Now that the Master files are cleaned, you can go through the rest of your Load Order using Automatic cleaning of ITMs and UDRs on all your mods plugins. The sequence of cleaning mods plugins should be after you have your Load Order correct, clean them with the last to load being the last to clean. Mod authors should have done them already, so most will probably not need cleaning. Also look out for any mod specific cleaning instructions in the mods description. For example the Unofficial Patches will not need any cleaning, they are already done, and the remaining ITMs in those plugins should be left alone because they do have a purpose .. ( its a very rare occasion when this is true ).
To check CRCs Drag and Drop resulting files here https://emn178.github.io/onlin...
To Check MD5 checksums Drag and Drop resulting files here http://onlinemd5.com/
The xEdit Work In Progress Development topic is at the following link