Post by Ezzy on Nov 4, 2019 8:24:36 GMT
This is the simplest, fastest and most basic way of making a new custom clothing recolour in Fallout 4, so is a good first step in learning for beginners. This method also works with accessories and workshop objects.
First, you need the Bethesda Archive Extractor from Nexus: www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/78/? . MAKE SURE YOU ALSO DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL MICROSOFT VC++ 2015 REDIST as instructed on BAE's download window (link: www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53587 ), or else BAE won't work. Install the VC++ redistributable first, and then install BAE.
You also need Photoshop or a similar graphics editor which can work with DDS files. If you're familiar with making recolours for The Sims 3 or 4 and you used Photoshop to make them, you'll be familiar with the DDS plugins supplied by nVidia for Photoshop - if not, download them here: developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop , and then add them to your plugins folder in Photoshop. (Unfortunately I don't know about other graphics programs, can only advise re Photoshop.)
Once you have BAE working, start it up and choose Open File from its File menu. Browse to where your Fallout 4\Data folder is in your Windows directory, which will look like the below file structure:
Figure 1
You will see several archive files called Fallout4 - Textures[x].ba2, each with a number [x]. Unfortunately, figuring out which texture archive to open in order to find the item you want to recolour, is pretty hit and miss. In our case, we want Textures3.ba2, because that's where the texture we'll be using for this tutorial, the T-Shirt and Slacks outfit, is located.
So open Fallout4 - Textures3.ba2 with BAE. Then click 'Select None', or else you will be extracting the entire contents of the .ba2 file instead of just the one texture that you want. As shown below, expand the Textures folder, then the Clothes folder, and then the TshirtSlacks folder. Within that folder, select the texture file that ends with _d.dds. You can leave the other two that end with _n and _s - they are the normal map and the specular, which you won't usually need and don't need for this tutorial.
Figure 2
Click the Extract button at the bottom of the BAE screen, browse to your Fallout 4\Data folder as shown in Figure 1, and click Select Folder. BAE will extract the texture file and the folder structure it was enclosed in.
Now take a look at your Fallout4\Data folder structure in Windows again. This time, you can see a new set of folders: Fallout4\Data\Textures\Clothes\TshirtSlacks, as below. BAE created those new folders under Textures\Clothes\TshirtSlacks when you extracted your texture file.
Figure 3
Open the TshirtSlacksPrewar_d.dds file you extracted, using Photoshop. As you can see, it doesn't look too different from working with a Sims outfit texture. Layer your new textures over the outfit to your heart's content, and when you're happy with your creation, save it as a .psd file, as an interim version. This is because as you may or may not know, dds files suffer from a lot of compression artefacting and if you re-save a dds file more than once, you'll start getting noticeable pixellation. PSD files don't have that problem, so you can re-save them as often as you want. So, in case you're not happy with how the texture looks in-game and want to come back and make changes, you can edit the psd file rather than the dds file.
Figure 4
As you can see in Figure 4 above, when I saved the interim .psd file I gave it a more 'meaningful' name. However, when you save it as the final dds file, you must give it its original default name - otherwise, it won't become a default replacement texture and the game won't recognise it at all.
When you have your final version that you're happy with, save it as a dds file (if you've added any extra layers to it, flatten it first). (Remember to change the file name back to the original default .dds name before saving.) Save it in DXT1 RGB 4pp No Alpha format, as shown below.
Figure 5
Copy this .dds file over the original dds file in the Windows file folder structure (as seen in Figure 3 above), and your new texture will now serve as the default replacement for the original texture. Fire up your game, buy or console-up the T-Shirt and Slacks outfit, and check to make sure it's working.
(Thanks to Rafael for the very colourful texture used in this tutorial!)
If you want to share your new creation, then zip your new texture along with its folder structure (Textures\Clothes\TShirtSlacks) into a .zip file (I recommend 7Zip if you don't have it already: www.7-zip.org/download.html ). Players can then either install it with Nexus Mod Manager or copy it over manually.
Hope that worked for you - please post if you have any questions!
First, you need the Bethesda Archive Extractor from Nexus: www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/78/? . MAKE SURE YOU ALSO DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL MICROSOFT VC++ 2015 REDIST as instructed on BAE's download window (link: www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53587 ), or else BAE won't work. Install the VC++ redistributable first, and then install BAE.
You also need Photoshop or a similar graphics editor which can work with DDS files. If you're familiar with making recolours for The Sims 3 or 4 and you used Photoshop to make them, you'll be familiar with the DDS plugins supplied by nVidia for Photoshop - if not, download them here: developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop , and then add them to your plugins folder in Photoshop. (Unfortunately I don't know about other graphics programs, can only advise re Photoshop.)
Once you have BAE working, start it up and choose Open File from its File menu. Browse to where your Fallout 4\Data folder is in your Windows directory, which will look like the below file structure:
Figure 1
You will see several archive files called Fallout4 - Textures[x].ba2, each with a number [x]. Unfortunately, figuring out which texture archive to open in order to find the item you want to recolour, is pretty hit and miss. In our case, we want Textures3.ba2, because that's where the texture we'll be using for this tutorial, the T-Shirt and Slacks outfit, is located.
So open Fallout4 - Textures3.ba2 with BAE. Then click 'Select None', or else you will be extracting the entire contents of the .ba2 file instead of just the one texture that you want. As shown below, expand the Textures folder, then the Clothes folder, and then the TshirtSlacks folder. Within that folder, select the texture file that ends with _d.dds. You can leave the other two that end with _n and _s - they are the normal map and the specular, which you won't usually need and don't need for this tutorial.
Figure 2
Click the Extract button at the bottom of the BAE screen, browse to your Fallout 4\Data folder as shown in Figure 1, and click Select Folder. BAE will extract the texture file and the folder structure it was enclosed in.
Now take a look at your Fallout4\Data folder structure in Windows again. This time, you can see a new set of folders: Fallout4\Data\Textures\Clothes\TshirtSlacks, as below. BAE created those new folders under Textures\Clothes\TshirtSlacks when you extracted your texture file.
Figure 3
Open the TshirtSlacksPrewar_d.dds file you extracted, using Photoshop. As you can see, it doesn't look too different from working with a Sims outfit texture. Layer your new textures over the outfit to your heart's content, and when you're happy with your creation, save it as a .psd file, as an interim version. This is because as you may or may not know, dds files suffer from a lot of compression artefacting and if you re-save a dds file more than once, you'll start getting noticeable pixellation. PSD files don't have that problem, so you can re-save them as often as you want. So, in case you're not happy with how the texture looks in-game and want to come back and make changes, you can edit the psd file rather than the dds file.
Figure 4
As you can see in Figure 4 above, when I saved the interim .psd file I gave it a more 'meaningful' name. However, when you save it as the final dds file, you must give it its original default name - otherwise, it won't become a default replacement texture and the game won't recognise it at all.
When you have your final version that you're happy with, save it as a dds file (if you've added any extra layers to it, flatten it first). (Remember to change the file name back to the original default .dds name before saving.) Save it in DXT1 RGB 4pp No Alpha format, as shown below.
Figure 5
Copy this .dds file over the original dds file in the Windows file folder structure (as seen in Figure 3 above), and your new texture will now serve as the default replacement for the original texture. Fire up your game, buy or console-up the T-Shirt and Slacks outfit, and check to make sure it's working.
(Thanks to Rafael for the very colourful texture used in this tutorial!)
If you want to share your new creation, then zip your new texture along with its folder structure (Textures\Clothes\TShirtSlacks) into a .zip file (I recommend 7Zip if you don't have it already: www.7-zip.org/download.html ). Players can then either install it with Nexus Mod Manager or copy it over manually.
Hope that worked for you - please post if you have any questions!
