Blender question

[Bashis]

so i've been working with blender, and finally got down converting armors, but once you get the model how you want it the tutorial states, "import your skeleton and export the file like normal", i don't know what "like normal" is since i haven't done it yet. is it basicly telling me to import whatever skeleton.nif im currently using in game, like just copy it out of the data folder, then file-export the clothes with the skeleton in it? or is there a specific skelly and process for exporting a converted armor?

[BOS1387]

the easiest way to do this

i am assuming that you have at least a little knowledge of blender, you also need Nifskope for armor to complete the nif once you get it exported.

import a set of armor into blender then deselect the armor by hitting the A key, right click on the square box on the bottem then delete it.

Next look for the spiky things sticking out of the armor, thats the armature right click those and delete it ,fix the armor how you want.

then import a body that you use in game, you will need it for the armature the meat caps and body meat and such. Delete the body mesh if you dont need

to use it. then very important you need to parent the armor you made to the armature. you need to do this for each seperate piece of armor in the nif

select it then hold down the shift button and click on any piece of the armature. then put you curser in the middle of the screen and hit the space bar

and select OBJECT then PARENT then MAKE PARENT then ARMATURE then NAME GROUPS. do this for every seperate piece in the nif

once it is all parented to the armature hit then A key to highlite the whole piece of armor then go to file export , export nif and so on make sure youe export settings are correct after you select the name and destination of the out going nif.

once its done wrighting the nif to your destination open it with nif scope

check the box to the right and make sure the nif looks correct you should only have one SCENE ROOT if you have more then one find the SCENE ROOT that contains the info for your armor make sure all the pieces of the armor are in that one scene root if they are then select the other scene roots and delete them once you do that you will still have 2 scene roots in the box, a 0 Node scene root and another number scene root that has your armor info in it.

click on the scene root that has the armor info in it so that it is highlighted, now look to the bottom box in nifskope you should see something like

SCENE ROOT .00 ,right click on it and select EDIT STRING INDEX take out the .00 so that it just says SCENE ROOT click OK  now go to the other box

and delete the 0 Node Scene root using REMOVE not REMOVE BRANCH your armor should now be the only scene root in the nif

Now you can also secect the textureing paths for the nif or just do it in GECK but to make the skin look correct you need to select the body in nifskope,

in the box on the side you will see a highlighted area. Click on the arrow to open it up you will see on top a line that has a number and BSShaderPPLightingProperty highlight that and go to the bottom box and look for SHADER _DEFAULT double click that until a drop down box appears

change it to SHADER _SKIN now ith the line under that double click the line and scroll through the drop down bow and click on the box for

SF_FaceGen . Now save the nif and put it where you want it in your data folder once you open it in GECK the body texture should be the same as your choosen game body texture and the armor should shade properly with the body tone of the NPC.

 

Hope this helps

[Bashis]

ugh, i thought once i converted armors to a different body the hard part was over, this is gonna be a pain to do for a lot of equip.

[BOS1387]

Actuly it sounds like alot of work but it really isnt youll get used to it pretty fast

[RitualClarity]

Too bad there wasn't a script that did this.

[Bashis]

meh, its a moot point now anyways, turns out the armor i was trying so hard to convert was already in the cw clothes pack, the one i myself am hosting,

already converted to a type 3 body............i feel so stupid.

[RitualClarity]

You have so so many armors in your collection it is bound to happen. Well look at the bright side now you now how to do it if you do happen to come across the one armor that you don't have in your collection that you want to port over. ..

[Myst42]

Dunno if there's any major difference between working with Blender for Oblivion or Fallout but...

 

Uhhh the Blender part...as simple as it gets

In Blender you work in this case with two types of structures: meshes and armatures (skeletons, which are the pink sticks)

A mesh needs to be attached to a skeleton to work in game, the skeleton needs to be named "Scene Root"

 

If you are converting an armor to another body type, Im assuming that armor already works in game and you are just tweaking its shape right?

If the armor used to be playable, it means its already "rigged" or has bonewheights, which means your mesh's vertexes are assigned to different bones of the previous skeleton

You can see if its rigged in "Weight Paint Mode" where the model turns blue and vertexes attached to a certain bone are shown in warmer tones, it means they are controlled by that bone.

 

So all that remains is exporting your meshes attached to a skeleton that works with it

If there are no pink sticks in your blender file, there is no skeleton and you need to import one

- Import is as nif from any nif file containing it select option "Import Skeleton Only"

- Select all your meshes and select the skeleton last so it is yout "active object", hit Ctrl-P and a pop up asks "Make parent to"

- Select "Armature" and if its rigged, like I assumed, "Dont create groups"

A modifier appears on the bottom part for your meshes

- Just export all as nif, select your game and "Export Geometry Only" so it gets exported without bones you are not using for the armor

 

If your armor is NOT rigged or "boneweighted" for a skeleton, then you have bigger problems and need to either copy bone weight from another outsider mesh or paint it yourself...

 

Like I said dunno if there are any major differences, but this works for Oblivion...

Also, even if you did fount an alternate solution, it saves work, but the learning from things like this is priceless