Hex editing .nif files
Here's an overview of how to use a hex editor to change a .nif file.
The hex editor used in the screenshots is frhed, which can be downloaded here.
Let's say that you want to retexture a vampire head.
You have a new texture for the face named YOUR_VAMP_TEXTURENAME.dds.
You have a new texture for the glowing eyes named YOUR_GLOWMAP_NAME_HERE.tga.
The new textures in the example are in the Morrowind\Data Files\Textures directory, with no subdirectory.
NOTE: You might run into problems with your new .nif if you use more characters than the original filename and path-- in the following example, we can overwrite BH\BH_FP_NO_M_vamp_01.dds with YOUR_VAMP_TEXTURENAME.dds, but not with your_directory\YOUR_VAMP_TEXTURENAME.dds, as we have a total of 21 characters to play with here.
For the glowing eyes, we have 22 characters for the original filename and path-- BH\BH_FP_NO_M_vamp_01g.tga allows us to use YOUR_GLOWMAP_NAME_HERE.tga.
I've not had any luck with using filenames longer than the combined filename and path referenced in the original .nif-- ending up with a mesh with no textures, or a mesh that crashes the CS. Your results may differ.
Start frhed.
From the Edit menu, select Toggle keyboard Insert/Overwrite mode. We'll be overwriting the original texture information with the new texture names.
From the File menu, select Open.
Scroll to the .nif you want to edit. For the example, we'll edit the vampire mesh BH_FP_No_m_vamp_H01.NIF from Better Heads.
It'll look like this. (Don't worry, we're only altering two things.)
Scroll down until you see NiTexturingProperty in the right hand column.
The original face texture is BH_FP_NO_M_vamp_01.dds, located in Morrowind\Data Files\Textures\BH.
The new face texture is named YOUR_VAMP_TEXTURENAME.dds, and it's located in the Morrowind\Data Files\Textures directory.
Click on the B right after Textures.
Type in YOUR_VAMP_TEXTURENAME.dds.
It should look like the following:
For vampire heads, there's also the matter of the .tga for the glowing eyes-- change the original
to this:
It should now look like this:
From the File menu, select Save As.
Enter a filename for your new .nif. Note that meshes belong in Morrowind\Data Files\Meshes-- save your new mesh to a subdirectory, if desired.
