About texture replacer mods

[ozipin]

Ok, so there are some texture replacement mods that I want to install (like one that changes the texture of the Chinese Stealth Armour - just the texture, not the mesh). Do I just drag and drop the new textures into NV's 'data' folder, or does it not work like that? If not, how do I install such a mod?

[Bullfrog]

You either use your preferred mod manager or if you prefer to install manually, you drop them into the data folder. It depends on the folder structure of the mod, but if it has a "textures" folder, this belongs in the data directory.

[Risewild]

Just a warning: It's not recommended to install mods manually anymore. That practice was used in the dark ages of Bethesda games modding because there was no better alternative.

Installing mods manually into the game's Data folder has the risk of breaking the game in a way where you will have to uninstall the entire game and delete any remaining files not removed by the uninstall. It also has the big problem of conflicting mod files overwriting each other without any control, making it impossible to fix unless you install the mods again in a different order (or even worse, having to manually decide file by file which to overwrite).

Using a good mod manager makes it easy and simple to fix any mod conflict, makes the game directories clean and has the added benefit of not having to uninstall and reinstall the game and mods if something goes wrong.