Start modding.

[grimlook]

Hi to everyone!!! . Im not sure if this is the right place to ask this.if is not. Please tell me.

Well I wanna start to create mods, costumes, weapons, or whatever.(for oblivion) I have several ideas to what create. So iam excited to begin.

But... I don't know a thing about modding. Please if you could post here what programs I need to create the textures, meshes, and all that.

Also I want to know if I can do it with my actual pc(its hard for me to buy another one)

Athlon2 x4

4gb Ram ddr3

Seagate 500gb 7800rpm

Nvidia Geforce 605

Thanks for taking the time!

[erc1971]

As a beginning modder myself you are in a good place.  The people here are great and are willing to help.  I started with no knowledge and have released several DMRA clothing conversions and have learned enough to work on a personal project as well.

 

I would suggest starting with specific questions and asking how to do X.

 

For starters, a few things you will need:

 

The Oblivion Construction Set (http://www.elderscrolls.com/oblivion/downloads/) - get version 1.2.404

 

The Oblivion Construction Set Extender (http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/36370/?) - follow the full install instructions on this one - and your anti-virus will give a false positive, don't worry about it.

 

Some basic tutorials on the CS can be found here (http://cs.elderscrolls.com/Main_Page) - I personally learned how to create rooms and populate them using this tool.

 

Blender and Nifskope are 2 other tools you will want to get your hands on as well - I am just learning them myself, so others can give you pointers on them.

 

Eric

[grimlook]

As a beginning modder myself you are in a good place.  The people here are great and are willing to help.  I started with no knowledge and have released several DMRA clothing conversions and have learned enough to work on a personal project as well.

 

I would suggest starting with specific questions and asking how to do X.

 

For starters, a few things you will need:

 

The Oblivion Construction Set (http://www.elderscrolls.com/oblivion/downloads/) - get version 1.2.404

 

The Oblivion Construction Set Extender (http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/36370/?) - follow the full install instructions on this one - and your anti-virus will give a false positive, don't worry about it.

 

Some basic tutorials on the CS can be found here (http://cs.elderscrolls.com/Main_Page) - I personally learned how to create rooms and populate them using this tool.

 

Blender and Nifskope are 2 other tools you will want to get your hands on as well - I am just learning them myself, so others can give you pointers on them.

 

Eric

Ahh thank you. I will star with that.

And what about my pc?? Its okay?? Or i should have more?

[Symon]

Your PC is more than adequate.

I mod oblivion of a far lower spec machine.

[Myst42]

1.- Choose your trade

2.- Gather your tools

3.- Learn your tools

4.- Mod

 

Depends on what's gonna be your specialty.

On a large scale there are 3 major classes:

- Costume/Weapon designers

- Animators

- Scripters/Quest Makers

 

Though you can know a bit of everything, requirements can vary a lot.

Being a designer requires only basic knowledge of the CS to create items and make them work in game

But it requires a lot of Blender (Modeling) and also Photoshop or Gimp usage (Texturing). Also Nifskope to treat game models after Blender exports

There's no easy way to learn all this stuff in 1 day

 

Animators require to know also about Blender and Nifskope, but they mod on the animation sphere of Blender and they require more knowledge about Scripts and the CS

 

Finally, scripters/quest makers are the ones who know coding to work with scripts in the CS and have discovered all the secrets of how the CS works

 

Scripting and Quests are a mystery to me, I'm a designer of stuff.

 

"Hello, I wanna be a modder" sounds complicated. (unless you actually know modeling and texturing from before). The world ahead of you is so vast and complicated as the real world

But as others, myself included have done before... baby steps.

Best approach is to take a simple project, the easiest one you can think of and start working from there.

First modding work I ever made was manually converting outfits for different body types... now we have Gerra6's conversion tool. But is as good a place to start as any.

 

[varenne]

Besides the above which is all sound advice, check out the Modders Resources in the general forum section. You'll find many answers to your current and no doubt future questions.

 

I would suggest focusing on just one of those three major classes identified by elalquimista above. Each in itself is a full-time endeavor. 

[grimlook]

i wish to star with the first class.

It's hard yes. But I'm ok with that. It's not impossible.

I hope that soon I could be able to share my mods with all of you.

Very thanks to all for your advices!!!

[morgananinuala]

Start with retexturing, and copy/pastingb in Nifskope.

[grimlook]

Sorry. amm. Ninfskope it's for models to??

[fejeena]

Yes NifSkope is for meshes/nif.

 

You can use it to fix nif files, change texture pathes or create animated objects.

 

Fix Nifs: e.g.  some modders use full texture pathes like C:\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\textures\....  and all people who have not installed their game exactly there have no texture in game ( that nif has no texture).. A Textures pathes in a Nif must start with textures\  (e.g. textures\armor\steel\ and the texture Name )

 

Change textures path: If you mod a castle and you want guards with own armors you can use the town guards armors. Create new Folders in meshes\armor and texture\armor and make copies of the town guards armor nif and textures and put them in your new Folders. Now you can recolor the texture or add your Castle Emblem ( texture programs that can handle dds files are Photoshop, Gimp and Paintnet(PaintDotNet)  )

Then change the textures path of your armor nif to the new  texture Folder.

 

create animated objects: many possibilities. A static nif with "moving" texture ( like river or waterfall nif ).  Or rotating objects. Or Doors,  switches,  Levers,...Rotor blades of a helicopter.

 

And you can scale and deform nif files. 

You can add, remove or change collision ( A table or wall without  collision you can pass through ).

Change collision: In Oblivion wineyard buckets are static objects. If you want to grab and move it, it is not not enough to create a new bucket in the CS as "misc" item and use the original bucket nif , because the original bucket nif has a static collision. So you must change the collisions data in the nif from static to clutter.

 

So now I have confused you enough. Happy modding.

[morgananinuala]

You can also copy and paste different meshes in nifskope, amd deform those meshes.

 

Why, with just nifskope and a few Obelelisk of Order meshes, I just hacked and mashed together a crystal chair in nifskope that looks like nothing in game. You can alter the material properties to get that shiny glass armor effect, or make it look slick and glossy, etc.

 

It's a surprsingly flexible tool.

[grimlook]

Whoo. Thats amazing. I can create a new game with that hehe.

I am downloading everything you have said. My connection Its very slow. So Iets wait. I can't wait to begin!!

[Jack of All Trades]

I'm pretty sure you'll also need Blender

[grimlook]

I don't know. Why don't start for basics. It's useless download all this things and I will not learn all in one day.

[kingkong]

you need to start somewhere     first  you need to extract files from bsa ( obmm )       - get nifskope to be able to open files.nif  from meshes      - and gimp  to open files.dds  from textures  .   get familiar with those things   than decide  if you want to make models or animations  ( potable blender (all in on) )      for CS  you will slowly get used to as you have no chois .

 

for scripts see at last  as it is hard to get informations if you are not familiar with c++  coding  it is hard to get the coda scripts working correctly without vocabulary.

[morgananinuala]

Basic scripting is easy enough. Simple spell effects, apply this shader, knock that noc into the air, etc...

[varenne]

You can nowadays mostly avoid Blender if all you're doing is reworking existing meshes. gerra6's tools provided that option. Fixing broken or bad meshes, yeah sometimes you have no choice but to use Blender, i.e., clipping, polygons out of place or not welded correctly, etc. 

 

I doubt this member needs to learn anything right now dealing with scripts even basic scripting, as they have decided to focus on Costume/Weapon design.

[grimlook]

Hi guys. Finaly i could install all the programs and read some tutorials, and spend a lot of time reading guides and all that. 

But i got a problem. I dont know how import Netimmerse files to blender. I need it for star moding (thats what i read) 

So what can i do? :c

[varenne]

File | Import | Netimmerse

 

 

 

 

 

And for Blender/Oblivion stuff you'd be better off reviewing posts in the Modders Resources forum, IMO.

[grimlook]

File | Import | Netimmerse

 

 

Blender-1.jpg

 

 

 

And for Blender/Oblivion stuff you'd be better off reviewing posts in the Modders Resources forum, IMO.

Got it. Thank you again!