Converting Armors to Skyrim (the Blender-way)

[Ryu]

To begin with, lately I noticed that quite a lot of people are asking for conversions from other games (mostly Fallout 3 / Fallout: New Vegas or Oblivion) to Skyrim. Unfortunately, there is too much work for the small amount of cloth modders (including my humble self ) to suffice the growing demand. Therefore, I decided to write a step-by-step tutorial for converting armors to Skyrim .

 

'Ok, but there are guides like that already...', one might say.

One of those guides I used as a basis for my tutorial:

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Skyrim._Part_1#Create_the_0.nif_armour_mesh

 

However, following that particular tutorial to the letter did not allow me to convert armors/clothing successfully. I've spent hours getting my first piece of clothing to at least appear in-game, not to mention looking good . Troubleshooting my own efforts I've finally managed to get a hold of converting armors easily...

 

Why in the Adult Mods section? For a number of reasons:

1. A lot of people visit this particular section. Mainly because it holds the 'What mod is this?' thread.

2. People looking for armor/clothing conversions usually want skimpy, sexy stuff, preferably with huge cup sizes .

 

On with the tutorial though...

 

1. Requirements:

1. Blender 2.49 (NOT the newest!) and basic knowledge of how to navigate the program.

2. NIfScripts for Blender (sure uncle Google can help you find those )

3. NifSkope

4. Construction Kit

 

2. Preparing Skyrim .nif files:

1. Open up NifSkope.

2. Go to Load (top left corner under File) and load your mesh .nif.

3. In Block Details (NOT Block List!) open the NiHeader tree.

4. Change the User Version and User Version 2 values (12->11 and 83->34, respectively).

5. Save and Load the .nif. This step is necessary as it will allow NifSkope to change the .nif version.

6. Delete the BSLightingShaderProperty elements from the Block List.

Because Blender is unable to process them, we have to delete those elements before loading the .nif in Blender.

 

3. Importing stuff into Blender:

1. Open up Blender (sort of obvious xD).

2. Press A twice - once to deselect the current object in the middle, second time to select everything.

3. Press Del to delete all of the objects in the scene. By default Blender produces a cube and some other elements, which you can utilize to start a new project, but we don't need those.

4. Go to File (top left corner) -> Import -> Netimmerse/Gamebryo (.nif, .kf, .egm files). If you haven't installed the Nifscripts for Blender successfully, you won't be able to see this option.

5a. Import the selected mesh .nif from any game you want. If you want to import a Skyrim mesh, that requires additional steps in NifSkope - see point 2.

5b. Alternatively, the mesh can be imported as an .obj file the same a .nif file is imported.

 

4. Preparing the meshes for work:

1. Right-click the skeleton (parallel bolts) and press Del to delete it. Do that even if you're going to use exactly the same skeleton later on!

2. Select the mesh you're going to work on and go into Edit Mode. The default mode is Object Mode. You select the mode displayed from the bottom dropdown menu next to the Object menu.

3. In Edit Mode select the whole mesh. The easiest way is to simple press A continuously until the whole mesh is highlighted.

4. Open the grid-like dropdown menu in the bottom left corner and go to the Buttons Windows. Alternatively, you'll have the Buttons Window in the set of bottom panels by default.

5. In the Buttons Window you'll have 2 sets of panels next to the word Panels (bottom of the screen). In the left set look for the one looking like a square (the Editing panel) or press F9.

6. In the Editing panel look for Vertex Groups. By default you'll have something there. This is the information about how the mesh has been weighted and rigged to the previous skeleton (the one we deleted). Press the Delete button until you have nothing there.

Optional:

7. If in the Editing Panel you have no materials (0 Mat 0, right of the Vertex Groups), press New.

8. Go to the Shading Panel (F5, left set of panels, button looks like a red ball) and under Texture click Add New.

9. Go to Map Input (right of Texture) and click UV. This will set the UV map as the basis for mapping texture onto your mesh.

10. Go to Texture buttons (F6) and from the Texture Type dropdown menu select Image.

11. In the new Image panel that popped up press Load and then select any .dds file you have on your hard drive. This is NOT going to be the final texture for your mesh, just a temporary one for Blender.

 

4. Loading your Skyrim body:

1. Complete point 2. Preparing Skyrim .nif files and Optional from point 4. Preparing the meshes for work. The latter is especially important as it is extremely easy to overlook.

2. Remove the skeleton (as before) of the newly imported body.

3. Do NOT remove the vertex weights in the Editing panel (F9) under Vertex Groups.

 

5. Adjusting the meshes to the new body:

1. Use as many attempt, tools, etc. as you feel are required to reshape your mesh so that it fits to the imported body. While doing so remember:

- NEVER delete/alter the UV map of the imported body as you will not be able to restore it.

- You can delete vertices, but you cannot add vertices as they will not be covered by the existing UV map

- If you insist on preparing a different mesh for both the body_0.nif (weight 0%) and body_1.nif (weight 100%), the vertex count MUST remain exactly the same

 

6. Weighting the new mesh:

1. The easiest way to add weights to your modified mesh (NOT the body!) is to copy the weights from the body. Select your mesh and the body (weight template) and go into Object (bottom panel in the 3D View) -> Scripts -> Bone Weight Copy. As Quality select 3 (more than 3 might crash the game later on). This will take some time, but will give you a good weighting of your mesh.

1a. Alternatively, you can try using another Skyrim clothing mesh as the weight template, but then when importing the skeleton, you'll have to use that skeleton, NOT the one of the body you imported. The number of weights must be the same as the number of bones in the skeleton.

1b. You can try weight painting the mesh yourself, but I strongly not recommend that if you're a beginner.

 

7. Importing and testing a new skeleton:

1. In Object Mode, press A several times until you've selected your mesh and your body mesh of choice.

2. Go into File->Import->Netimmerse/Gamebryo.

3. After you've selected a .nif file, a new panel will appear.

4. In the new panel click on Import Skeleton Only + Parent Selected. This process is called rigging. Since you've selected a number of meshes, the newly imported skeleton will be tied to those meshes. Remember that the imported skeleton has to come from exactly the same body.nif that was imported before and it has to be prepared according to point 2. Preparing Skyrim .nif files.

5. Right-click select your skeleton and go into Pose Mode (bottom panel in 3D View, same dropdown menu as Edit Mode and Object Mode).

6. Try to move the bones of your skeleton to see how is your mesh reacting. This way you'll be able to notice a bit of clipping and almost all of the stretching of your mesh.

7. If you notice that your mesh is being stretched weirdly, you have to move the stretched vertices as close to the body as possible to avoid clipping. Next, go back to point 4. Preparing the meshes for work and delete the Vertex Groups. Lastly, do point 6. Weighting the new mesh.

 

8. Exporting the model:

1. Press A in Object Mode until your mesh, the body mesh and skeleton are all selected.

2. Go into File->Export->NetImmerse/Gamebryo. A new panel will appear.

3. In the new panel make sure that:

- Export Geometry Only is selected

- Force DDS Extension is selected

- Smoothen Inter-Objects Seams is selected

- Export Skin Partition is selected

- Combine Materials to Increase Performance is selected

- Fallout 3 is selected

- Wood, Solid (Collision Options) and None (Weapon Body Location) are selected

- Default Type, Z Buffer, Empty, Unknown 31 and Export Dismember Body Parts (Shader Options) are selected

4. After selecting all of the above click Ok. This will export our clothing.nif as a Fallout 3 .nif.

 

9. Preparing the .nif files for Skyrim:

1. Open up NifSkope and Load your newly exported .nif (as in point 2. Preparing Skyrim .nif files).

2. In Block Details open up the NiHeader.

3. Change User Version and User Version 2 values (11->12 and 34->83, respectively).

4. Save and Load the .nif. This will revert the .nif file type to the Skyrim-compatible one.

5. Upon loading in Block List select the 0 NiNode Scene Root.

6. After selecting in Block Details go all the way down to Num Children and Children.

7a. Click on the value 1 next to Num Children and change it to 0. Then right-click on Children and select Array->Update. This will remove all of the children of 0 NiNode from its tree in the Block Details.

7b. Open the Children tree and click on 1. Delete that and press Enter. None should appear instead of 1. This will untie your mesh from the Scene Root.

8. Delete all of the unnecessary elements that are no longer tied to your tree in Block Details.

9. Select a NiTriShape from the Block Details.

10. In Block List go all the way down to Properties and open that tree. It's empty and shouldn't be. We need a BSLightingShaderProperty!

11. Open up another Skyrim .nif in a separate instance of NifSkope and find a BSLightingShaderProperty of any NiTriShape (Block Details).

12. Right-click the BSLightingShaderProperty.

13. Go into Block-> Copy Branch.

14. In your .nif opened in NifSkope right-click any NiTriShape (Block Details).

15. Go into Block-> Paste Branch.

16. The newly pasted BSLightingShaderProperty will appear at the bottom, tied to your tree (Block Details).

17. Do step 10., but this time click one of the None. Now input the number that's in front of your BSLightingShaderProperty at the bottom of your tree. This will tie the property to your NiTriShape.

18. Open the BSLightingShaderProperty tree in Block Details and select BSShaderTextureSet.

19. In Block List make sure that Num Textures is 9.

20. Open the Textures tree (Block List) and clicking on the right of the purple flowers, clean all of the slots.

21. In the 2nd slot input the root of your regular .dds texture and in the 3rd slot the root of your normal map _n.dds texture. Both should look like this:

textures\clothes\tactical wears\nft13.dds

textures\clothes\tactical wears\nft13_n.dds

22. In Block List, in the NiTriShape tree you were working on, find the DismemberSkinInstance. Select it.

23. In the Block Detail open up the Partitions Tree completely. You should see Part Flag and Body Part.

24. Next to Body Part there should be BP_TORSO or BP_. This is the Partition default to Fallout games, but not usable for Skyrim. Click BP_TORSO and change it to basically any value you want:

32 - Body (chestplates, cuirasses)

37 - Feet (boots)

34 - Forearms (gloves)

etc.

It doesn't matter what value you choose as Skyrim can utilize a huge number of slots that the game doesn't normally use, like slots 45, 46, 52). The important thing is that you remember that number and that all DismemberSkinInstances in the .nif file have the same number.

25. Repeat steps 9-24 for all of the NiTriShape of your .nif file.

When copying the BSLightingShaderProperty of your body, use the Skyrim .nif file of the body you wanted to use in the end. It should contain the right BSLightingShaderProperty together with the BSShaderTextureSet you want to have.

 

10. Construction Kit - creating the .esp and container:

1. Open up CK and in File->Data... select only the Skyrim.esm and Update.esm master files.

2. When the masters are loaded, go to File->Save and name your .esp.

3. In Cell View choose your World Space and in EditorID select your Cell. I'm personally using WhiterunWorld (World Space) and WhiterunOrigin (Editor ID).

4. Create your container. The simplest way is to find a functional barrel/chest/create in the cell and duplicate it. The duplicate will be your mod's container.

5. Move your container to the location you want in the Render Window (you first have to load the Cell by double-clicking it!).

6. In the right EditorID panel right-click your container and click Edit-> Edit Base.

7. To the ObjectID you will move your created armors.

 

10. Construction Kit - creating your armor and armor addons:

1. In the Object Window under Items find Armor and ArmorAddon.

2. Click on ArmorAddon and open up any armor you want by double clicking it. This will be the basis for your new armor.

3. Next to ID put the name under which the CK is to recognize your armor.

4. Under Male and Female you'll see Biped Model. Click Select and find the _1.nif file of your armor model. Depending on the gender of your character you can use Male and Female or only one of those. If you leave the Biped Model under one of the sexes empty, a person of that sex wearing your armor will become 'invisible' or other errors will occur.

5. Under Biped Object select the slot(s) you want your armor to use. Those have to be exactly the same slots you used in the DismemberSkinPartition in NifSkope!

6. When you're done click Ok and Yes when CK asks you if you want to create a new object.

7. Now open Armor under Items in the Object Window and open an armor template of choice.

8. Again, enter a new ID (top) and select the right slots under Biped Object (same as before).

9. Under Models you'll see an entry. Right-click it and press Delete.

Next right-click the empty space under Models and click New.

10. In the new Select Form menu that appeared find your ArmorAddon and select it.

11. When you're done click Ok and Yes when CK asks you to create a new item.

12. Now with your Container and Object Window opened, take and drag the Armor from the Object Window to the Object ID in your Container.

13. Click Ok in all of the opened windows and save your .esp.

14. DONE! You've successfully completed the tutorial and added a new armor into the game! Well done!

 

11. Q & A:

Here I'll put the questions and issues you've come up with along my answers so that new people won't have to go through the whole thread to solve their problems . Personally, I found the FAQ of the original tutorial on the TES Wiki to be rather insufficient. None of the answers helped me at all ;].

[tattooedillusions]

6. Weighting the new mesh:

1. The easiest way to add weights to your modified mesh (NOT the body!) is to copy the weights from the body. Select your mesh and the body (weight template) and go into Object (bottom panel in the 3D View) -> Scripts -> Bone Weight Copy. As Quality select 3 (more than 3 might crash the game later on). This will take some time' date=' but will give you a good weighting of your mesh.[/quote']

 

This is awesome news because I was under the impression by that same tutorial that you linked to that using the bone weight copy script was a huge no because of messing up the vertex count or something like that. I haven't read it in a while but that was one thing that stuck out for me. Could be wrong and might've misread it though but thanks for clearing that up.