3DS Max/Skyrim armor creating _1 from _0 mesh

[Kind9]

My first attempt at making armor for Skyrim is not going so well. I got the _0 mesh and _1 mesh working in game but if I set the weight slider to anything but min or max I get alot of distortion in the mesh. The mesh is just a skin tight pants which I made quick and dirty just to see how things work, therefore I use the skin wrap modifier so I don't have to manually adjust weights.

 

These are the exact steps I took:

 

Create _0 mesh

- Import _0 body and _0 feet with skeleton

- Create pants with box and symmetry

- Collapse to editable mesh

- Unwrap UV

- Add skin wrap, convert to skin

- Add BSDismember

- Export to pants_0.nif

 

Create _1 mesh

- Delete _0 body and feet, keeping skeleton

- Import _1 body and feet

- Use conform, push/pull, relax tools to reshape _0 mesh to fit _1 body (use original normals on)

- Add skin wrap, select _1 body, convert to skin

- Add BSDismember

- Export to pants_1.nif

 

 

In Nifskope both meshes have the same number of vertices. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong but I've done this several times with the same results. I would very much appreciate any help I can get with this. If you need more info or screenshots let me know.

[canderes]

Put 0 in the weld box at export and make sure that you have the same polygon selection in bsdismember. I had different polygons selected on one export and it caused my verts to explode everywhere.

[Kind9]

I did this but it didn't make a difference. 

[Kind9]

...

collapse to mesh, weld the mesh with the setting 0.1 or 0.001

add smoot, add skinwrap, convert to skin, add bsdismember, set slot

 

Are you talking about the body or my mesh? Either way I don't see what the difference is between that and what I already did. There are no vertices in my mesh that can be welded.

 

Anyway I did import my mesh, collapse the stack(with smooth, skin, bsdismember) to editable mesh and re-add those things. The geometry of my mesh became triangulated. In nifskope it looks fine. In game the mesh is black and the distortion is much worse(face normals and update tangent space did nothing).

[Kind9]

Those are the settings I use.

 

I noticed that in game some points of my mesh go into the body. In max these same areas give me problems. For example using the conform tool those points refuse to conform and go straight through the target surface, so I have to move them manually. Is there a correlation there I wonder?

 

I'm sure all of my import, export, and modifier settings are correct and as I say the _0 and _1 meshes work fine by themselves.

[Kind9]

Here's what it looks like in game. The one on the right is with the weight slider next to max.

[dashipper]

I avoid doing a skin wrap on BOTH _0 and _1 like the plague. For me that results in exploded verts.  I think it has to do with the order the verts are weighted being different in the two different skin wraps, but I could be wrong (I could make a very good argument on how that could be a problem, but I won't since it might end up being a very good argument that is completely wrong). 

 

In the body meshes I use, the weights are esentially the same on the _0 and _1 meshes, so I tend to just scale one of them up or down and reexport.  This does get me intro trouble with breasts from time to time if it's something skin-tight, but not always.  I just found the forum post below that looks like it could be informative - there are definitely some things in it that I am going to try the next time I work on something that needs a better method of weight scaling than what I use.  There looks to be a lot of good information from multiple people beyond Cherry's initial post and it's only 12 pages.

 

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/534407-modding-armor-for-chsbhc-bbp-tutorial-for-3ds-max/

 

 

In game the mesh is black and the distortion is much worse(face normals and update tangent space did nothing).

 

Can you elaborate on this?  Is it this way with the _0 and _1 meshes or just something inbetween?

[Kind9]

_0 and _1 are fine but are black, anything between causes some points to jump way out of the body. I'll have a look at that link and try without skin wrap.

[dashipper]

_0 and _1 are fine but are black, anything between causes some points to jump way out of the body. I'll have a look at that link and try without skin wrap.

Backup your mesh and then:

 

In nifskope:

Under BSLightingShaderProperty:

If it's not already, try setting your UV Scale to x = 1, y = 1

Emissive Multiple = 1

Emissive color = black (Or if you double click on the colored bar set r = 0, g = 0, b = 0)

and your Texture Clamp Mode = Wrap_S_Wrap_T

Also, if there is one, delete the NiMaterialProperty attached to the NiTriShape.

 

If that doesn't work, try copying the BSLightingShaderProperty from a .nif that you know works as it's supposed to and paste it into your mesh's .nif.. ideally another armor so you shouldn't have to change the shader type or the shader flags.  Delete the BSLightingShaderProperty from your mesh before copying one from another mesh.  Once you have copied one over, be sure to link the BSLightingShaderProperty to the BS Properties of your mesh's NiTriShape and change your texture paths to the textures for your armor.

[Kind9]

I forgot to mention that the vertex count was different in those two meshes. I always copy the BSLightingShaderProperty from working meshes. Also I'm not sure how relevant this is but in the construction kit when I go to select the biped model for the armor addon I get an error about BSLightingShaderProperty("Line: 806"), though the mesh still displays correctly.

 

Do you suppose an Edit Poly modifier would change the ordering of vertices in my mesh? After exporting the _0 mesh I've just been adding an EditPoly modifier to make the _1 mesh before collapsing the stack and adding the other modifiers and exporting. I know it isn't changing the vertex count but I'm told that vertex ordering is just as important.

 

By the way, how important is the body part I select for the BSDismemberSkin modifier? I've been selecting the skyrim main body.

[Vioxsis]

Yes, an edit poly modifier will reset vertex order, and it is important to have the same vertex order on the _0 _1 nif.

 

 

[dashipper]

I don't know what BSLIghtingShaderProperty construction kit errors tell you.  I get them every now in then when I explore mods.  From other forums it looks like it could be caused by a couple things but who knows if they'll apply to your mesh.  If it were me and the error wasn't causing actual problems in the CK, I would (and do) ignore it.

 

Other forms suggest:

Having the SLSF2_Vertex_Colors flag checked might cause this issue or having the environment map scale set to 0. 

Or the ENB d3dx.dll might cause the issue but this might only apply to viewing npcs in the ck: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/836080-ck-error-shadersbslightingshaderpropertycpp

 

As for the dismemberment thing, you should set it to whatever body part you're going to use in the CK.  If they're not set to the same thing, I think the mesh might become invisible in game.

 

 

 

 

 

[Kind9]

It was the edit poly modifier all along. Looking good now. Thanks alot guys!