Current Blender/Nif workflow for Skyrim?

[XunAmarox]

Could somebody point me towards the current workflow for the whole import/export process for Skyrim with Blender nowadays?

 

And if it's available, the process for BodySlide compatibility as well.

 

This is the last process I know of: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3790

 

But um... It's been since January and I'm sure (god I HOPE) the workflow is different (easier!) nowadays after nearly a year of fan dev time, and heck... BodySlide didn't even exist back then.

 

I mean it may be as simple as the new Nifskope working just fine and the Blender NIF Tools actually importing and exporting without jumping through hoops now, but I'd just like to y'know, avoid needlessly pulling my hair out in frustration and confusion when I don't have to.

 

I have a few things on my plate I plan to do (and am capable of doing), soooo... IF someone could point me to that, that'd be really helpful.

[tattooedillusions]

Wow still nothing? You would think that someone would've figured something out with this by now. I too use that tutorial that you uploaded and was a huge help so thank you and thank you 2Pac if you read this. I was having problems with importing for a while getting an error and nothing but a flat looking mesh then I found that I had to change the dismemberment data to something like BIP_LEFTARM or whatever NV uses. Then I realized I had an outdated nifscripts and PyFFI lol. Needless to say that fixed that problem.

 

I decided to try the newest version of nifskope a couple days ago too. So much easier now than the one that came with the tutorial. Before when you had to add a node to a branch it put it outside that branch so you had to change the number. The newest version puts them right where they're supposed to go. Copy a branch from one nif to another, no longer a problem. Add alpha to a branch, no longer a problem. Anyway thank you again for the awesome tutorial and hopefully someone can figure out a better way to import without having to jump through fire to get there.

[gerra6]

Could somebody point me towards the current workflow for the whole import/export process for Skyrim with Blender nowadays?

 

And if it's available' date=' the process for BodySlide compatibility as well.

 

This is the last process I know of: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3790

 

But um... It's been since January and I'm sure (god I HOPE) the workflow is different (easier!) nowadays after nearly a year of fan dev time, and heck... BodySlide didn't even [i']exist[/i] back then.

 

I mean it may be as simple as the new Nifskope working just fine and the Blender NIF Tools actually importing and exporting without jumping through hoops now, but I'd just like to y'know, avoid needlessly pulling my hair out in frustration and confusion when I don't have to.

 

I have a few things on my plate I plan to do (and am capable of doing), soooo... IF someone could point me to that, that'd be really helpful.

 

Part of the issue is that the nifscripts for Blender 2.5+ are still under development. Once that is complete (and it is taking a long time to stomp the bugs), Neomonkeus plans on adding Skyrim support. I've joined that project (under my primary handle) and let me tell you...it's a huge amount of work.

 

Now, as a temporary stopgap measure, I could probably write a Blender script that will handle some of the manual tasks that need to be done prior to export. That won't help much for the pre or post export NifSkope editing, of course.

 

For Nifskope, well, I usually just write autohotkey scripts to automate tasks. Unfortunately, those can be a bit tempermental. I'll see what I can come up with.

[Caliente]

I've been -><- this close to writing my own skyrim .nif import/export plugin for blender 2.6 for quite a while. The delay in getting an updated version from the nifscript people is painful. I don't really blame the authors that much - it is a lot of work. I tried modifying the 2.49 scripts, but they're very difficult to work with (partly due to me not knowing python as well as I should). The biggest problem for them, I think, is they have to support every game that uses netimmerse (and a number of data types I never run into with body/armor models). I should probably revisit their forums sometime and see if I can offer any assistance...

 

Anyway, to answer the original question; the process hasn't really changed. In the world of armor and body models, the blender portion of the process really boils down to generating vertex normals (smooth shade), and assigning a material that allows you to specify UV-coordinate mapping. Once you've done it a few (hundred) times, it's only a few clicks.

 

Outside blender is where most of the tedious stuff occurs, where you have to manipulate the nif files so they work with the 2.49 scripts. This part, however, I've taken care of. Within the most recent versions of my Bodyslide package, I also include a little-known tool called NifCleaner. It's usage is a little unusual (you drag a .nif file onto the exe in windows explorer for the best results).

If you drag a skyrim nif onto the nifcleaner.exe file, you can hit a "To Blender" button which will save a blend_.nif in the same directory as your original nif, which will import directly to blender.

If you drag a fallout3 (blender 2.49 nif script export) nif to the nifcleaner.exe, it lets you assign materials to each mesh part and then save a skyrim compatible nif file. There's also a handy 'Test' button that will save an outfit to the femalebody_0 and femalebody_1 skyrim location so you can quickly test the model in Skrim (with a naked female, obviously). The caveat is that you need to set up ahead of time the included shaderlibrary.nif file with the material shaders you want to use.

 

The latest nifcleaner is found with the bodyslide included in my CBBE 3.2 download on the nexus. (Updated textures if you haven't heard yet )

 

I wrote a bodyslide tutorial that's available on my Nexus mod page ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2666/ ) in the optional downloads area. It covers converting a skyrim armor to a bodyslide outfit. It skips a lot of the details on editing and tries to focus on the workflow. There is a section on importing and exporting with blender, but I think that info isn't much different from the tutorial already posted above.

 

Incidentally, I apologize deeply to the folks here for not keeping downloads of my mods up-to-date... I've found that I don't have enough time to work on the mods and keep up with the community like I should

[Terra Nova]

I hope you stick around for a long time.

[lgskyrimlg]

This appears to be an insanely tedious process. I'm nearly brand new to both modeling and modding, and when it comes to all these different file formats and converting between them all, I'm ready to pull my hair out. I understand the conceptual side of things, but when it comes to converting between seemingly hundreds of formats, and juggling fifteen different programs, my logical thinking tells me "There has got to be an easier way to do this". I modeled an armor around _0.nif, and followed this tutorial. However, nothing works, and in the Creation Kit, when I try to make a new armor, the mesh is invisible. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, and nifscope confuses me so much I almost feel like it isn't worth learning. Can any of you glorious modelers give me advice as to getting my armor from Blender 2.64 into skyrim? I'd like to be able to make armor mods, but not get severe depression in the process XD

[Caliente]

Terra Nova: thanks

 

lgsyrimlg: Once you get it working and do it a couple times, you'll discover that the process is really quite simple. It is very confusing until that point, and even worse it's hard to explain well.

First, as you're no doubt aware, you can't get a mesh directly from blender 2.64 into skyrim. As we mentioned above, the scripts for exporting the nif files only work for 2.49, the ancient version of blender.

If you want to work in 2.64, it's possible, but you need to transfer the mesh and object from the 2.64 blender file to a 2.49 one -- use the file->append from library feature to do that.

Since you mention that you got an armor ready for import into the CK, I imagine you got past the blender export question.

 

Before trying to mess with the CK, I suggest dropping your mesh directly into skyrim -- replace one of the existing armors or the naked body with your mesh_0 and mesh_1 file. Simply rename your .nifs to match the model you're replacing and it should show up. Export just one size and copy it for both the 0 and 1 size in your first tests.

 

Mesh invisibility, in my experience, tends to be because you assigned the wrong body partition ID in nifskope. It is a pain, but make sure you've carefully followed that portion of the tutorial.

 

Also, you may want to give my NifCleaner a try -- it greatly simplifies the process of cleaning up a mesh that was exported by blender.

 

Failing all of that, you could try posting your non-functional mesh here and I could try and see if I can spot any problems.

[lgskyrimlg]

I'm very sorry to say that your NifCleaner was giving me errors for some reason. Anyways, I've spent pretty much the entire day twidling around in blender with weight painting and vertex groups. Still have one hell of an invisibility cloak though...

http://i.imgur.com/O2cIU.jpg[/img]

The fact that it doesn't crash when equipping the armor in game is heartening though, and I can almost feel it. I'm probably missing some silly little number here or there. Anyways, I attached the .nif, as well as my .blend file. Any help anybody can give would be super amazing, this is getting tedious! Thanks

 

.nif--

.blend--

[Vioxsis]

Like Caliente said your BSD was set wrong

 

 

 

 

You need to do this for the body as well.

 

You also should replace the BSLightingShaderProperty on the body.

 

 

You will also need to redo the weights

[Caliente]

I grabbed your blend file, exported it, and put it through NifCleaner... no errors on my end. What error did you get? (The image you posted is broken, btw)

 

One thing I did do was assign a new material to the body mesh and tell it to use UV mapping. If you don't do that, the NiTriShapeData in the exported nif file will not contain any UV coordinates, and thus textures won't appear (I'm not sure if that makes the body invisible or not, but it might). Your nif file does have UV coordinates, but they're all set to 0, so you'll need to re-export with a UV material assigned to the body mesh.

[lgskyrimlg]

thank you ALL for the help. Sorry this took so long (stuff came up in real life, because real life does that). But with many clipping errors, the armor is in game. Thanks again