Skyrim Armor conversion with high heels

prrpp · January 31, 2016

This is my first use of these programs. I am not artistic, and I know the quality is not up to the level where I would post it as a mod - plus I don't have permission... This post is for 2 reasons. First to let people know that YES you can convert a Skyrim mod with high heels into FO4, and to show how I did it.

Second is the hope that a modder will read it, correct my errors, and answer the slew of questions.

The order will be pics, then the workflow with details: Preparation, Convert the Texture(s), Create the Material File(s), Convert the nif(s), Prepare the nif(s), Create esp.

I hope do the spoiler / pic parts correctly...

Acknowledgements: I did not come up with ANY of this myself, and with the seemingly infinite sites and videos I looked at, I can't remember which had the good info. Except for the transparency part, that is from 2pac4eva7, & Cat_Woman1989 on Fallout 4 Nexusmods. His/her explanation is much better than mine, see http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6839/?

PIC 1

PIC 2

PIC 3

PROGRAMS USED:
Outfit Studio, Bodyslide, Nifscope Pre-Alpha 4, GIMP, Irfanview, and Materials Editor (can use GIMP for the Irfanview sections). Did not use Blender

PREPARING TO BEGIN:

Copy all desired Skyrim nifs and textures to a working directory
Create 3 new folders in FO4/Data with the same name; I made Data/Materials/prrpp, Data/Meshes/prrpp, and Data/Textures/prrpp
(you can use different naming)

CONVERTING SKYRIM TEXTURE TO FO4

Open the Skyrim diffuse map in Irfanview and check it's resolution; 512x512 or1024x1024
-keep it open

Open the original Skyrim nif in NifSkope Pre-Alpha 4
Left click 1 piece of the armor to select, then right click, Texture / Export Template at same resolution as the Skyrim diffuse map you have open in Irfanview

Do this for all pieces of armor - if you have 3 pieces in the nif, you'll get 3 UV maps

?? Is there any way to get a UV map from a FO4 mesh in Nifskope ?

Open a UV mesh in GIMP, in the tools menu click Windows/Dockable Tools/Layers
Open any other UV mesh in GIMP - I had 3 open
Make sure they're all the same resolution 1024x1024 or 512x512

Pick one UV mesh in GIMP to be the primary, and copy paste the others to it.
Edit/Copy in one GIMP window, Edit/Paste in the other,
In the Layers Toolbar, you'll now see "Floating Selection" above your layer.

Right click it, select Anchor Layer.

- this works if the patterns don't overlap. If they do, don't copy/paste. Instead, do this entire procedure for each piece of armor in the nif. Later, in Nifskope you can specify which diffuse map goes with each piece of the armor.

???? Is there any way to take 2 square UV maps and create a new UV map out of it? Is a rectangle allowed?

In the Layer toolbar, Select Mode: Multiply

???? does this do anything??

Create new layer, Layer Fill Type Transparency, OK
Highlight the new layer

In Irfanview:
Check the diffuse vs the UV mesh in GIMP. If there are patterns which are not in the UV map, open diffuse in GIMP instead, and delete the pattern that doesn't belong by using Tools/Selection Tool/Free Select, define the area you want to delete, then in the enclosed area right click, Edit/ Replace by FG color, which in my case was black.

Now you're in Irfanview or GIMP, but either way:
Select All if only part is selected
Edit/Copy the diffuse, Edit/Paste on the new GIMP layer, Anchor the floating section you did earlier
Right Click/Delete the initial layer - the UV map
Export as DXT5, minimaps
Put in your FO4 textures folder, rename it
Copy paste the original Skyrim normal map to same folder, rename it

INSTEAD OF CONVERTING SKYRIM MESH:
TO COLOR A PIECE WITH A SINGLE COLOR/PATTERN

Open the image of the desired pattern/color in GIMP
Select desired pattern/color, Edit/Copy

Open window with the top layer highlighted
Open Tools / paint tools / clone
Open "Toolbox - Tool Options" window from windows / dockable dialogs
Select brush size, select Source Pattern, click on the default pattern shown
Select List View at the bottom of the pop-up, and scroll to the top, where

you'll see your copied color/pattern listed as "Clipboard". Select it.
Over the Image you want to edit, you'll see the brush as a circle. PLace it as

desired, left clickand hold to 'paint' the desired area.

CREATING THE MATERIALS FILE

Programs Used: Material Editor

Open an existing materials file
General Tab - click the box for Alpha Test, and set Alpha Test Reference to 127
- this allows transparency
Materials tab - Diffuse texture - type in path to diffuse file, entire path after "Textures"
-Normal texture - same for the normal map
- example: "prrpp\XenoChest.dds" and "prrpp\XenoChest_n.dds"

NOTE: MUST use caps if in the path/filename, and use / NOT \

Make one materials file for each paired diffuse texture and normal map. In my example I had one nif with 3 pieces, but was able to combine the 3 UV maps into one, ending up with 1 diffuse and 1 normal; So only 1 materials file.

To make the item shiny, under the Material tab, check the box for Specular Lighting. Then click on the box for Specular Color, and change the color, which then affects level of shine. White is shiny, black is not, and grey is in the middle.

??? What do the other Material file options do? I only found limited info on Alpha and Specular.

CONVERTING THE NIF

PART 1
Open the original skyrim nif in NifSkope Pre-Alpha 4

Left click a piece of armor, then File / Export / Export OBJ
NOTE: my nif had 3 separate pieces of armor, so I exported 3x, labeling them as ArmorPt1, ArmorPt2, ArmorPt3
Delete the .mtl files it generates, you don't need them

PART 2
Open Bodyslide
at bottom right, open Outfit Studio
File / New Project
Use a template: Convert: Skyrim CBBE to FO4 CBBE (even though the armor was UNPB)
select Next
Load from OBJ file, select the obj you exported from Nifskope above in part 1
select Finish
Now, load the other objs if you have more than 1 like I did:
File / Load Outfit / Load from OBJ, browse to the file, select, OK

In upper right window, left click the name of the armor - it should then be highlighted in a blue or white box, and "CBBE" should not be highlighted. In my example, I have "CBBE", then "ArmorPt1", "ArmorPt2", "ArmorPt3" each with an icon to the left of it
Highlight the 3 armor pieces but not the CBBE shape, using CTRL and the left mouse button

Right click on the 3 "armor"s, move shape, change Z to -1200, OK
Right click on "armor", scale shape, set to .1, OK

The armor should be visible, probably without textures, near the body.
Hold down the right mouse button to rotate the body
Use small adjustments of move/scale shape to get as close to the body as possible and minimize clipping. Don't try for perfection. On mine I just did move z -1.. Move each armor piece separately..

Right click Armor (all 3 highlighted, or however many you have), Copy Bone Weights
With Armor still highlighted, on the main menu below "Outfit Studio", click Slider / Conform to Sliders
On the bottom right window, there should be a slider labeled SkyrimCBBEtoFO4CBBE.

Slide it to 100

On the main menu, select Slider / Set Base Shape
Select File / Load Reference / Use a Template / CBBE Body - OK
Reselect all armors
Select Slider / Conform to Sliders, making sure all armor(s) are still highlighted

With this next step, you have to select one piece of armor at a time - you can't do all of them at once.

Just under the main menu, select the 5th icon from the left - that will give you a brush to increase the mesh of the Armor. The 6th icon will reduce the mesh.

To fit feet inside boots, you may want to highlight "CBBE" in the upper right window, then the icon tool will apply to the body - and use the Reduce Mesh tool to reduce the size of the feet/lower legs, you won't see them anyway. The "Move vertices over a plane.." tool, the 7th from the left also works well for this.

Use these tools to move the mesh close to the body without clipping. It's easiest for me to reduce the armor mesh enough to get some clipping, then move it out until it no longer clips.

Use the icons just left of the names in the upper right window to show/hide the body/armor, or show it's mesh.

When done, select Slider / Load Slider Preset, and see if it clips with your desired bodyshape.

Save the project - note the location and names of the files and folders.

Restart Bodyslide, and select your new armor under Outfit/Body, and select your desired preset. Then Build it.

Go to the Fallout folder, find the new nif you just built in Bodyslide and open it in Nifskope.

HIGH HEEL WORKAROUND:

In the nif conversion process, when I converted the boots in OutfitStudio, I moved the foot entirely within the calf, using the "Move vertices over a plane.." tool, the 7th from the left. Then when I converted the armor, at the end I deleted the body from the nif. The result is that if you wear only the armor without the boots, you have a transparent body. The problem that resulted is that the armor converted to a specific slider set clipped heavily when the boots were also equipped; and yes, the boots were converted to the same slider set. What I ended up doing is opening the Boots project, keeping the body but deleting the boots, adding the armor and starting over. This worked.

PREPARE THE NIF
Point to the materials file, and allow transparency

In Nifskope, click on each piece of armor, then in the upper left window click on BSLightingShaderProperty, and in the bottom window edit the Name to point to the materials file you made earlier.

Save.

In my example, I had 3 pieces of armor, but only 1 diffuse, and 1 materials file.

So under each BSLightingShaderProperty, I copy/pasted the same path

Edit the nif to allow transparency - this has to be done in addition to checking the Alpha box in the Materials file
Open the nif in Nifskope
Right click on one piece of the armor. It will highlight yellow, on in the left window, the BSSubIndexTriShape will be highlighted blue.

Right click on the BSSubIndexTriShape, select Block / Insert / NiA... / NiAlphaProperty.
This will add a NiAlphaProperty, but in the wrong spot, so we have to move it.

It will be at the bottom of the list, scroll down if you have to, and note the number just left of the name NiAlphaProperty .
Scroll back up and left click the BSSubIndexTriShape.
Now look in the 3d window, Block Details. About 1/2 way down you'll see BS Properties.

Click the chevron to the left of it to expand, and you'll see 2 lines that also say BS Properties.
The second one has to the right None.
Double click there and type in the number you noted for NiAlphaProperty.

Now click on NiAlphaProperty, and in the Block Details window change Flags to 4844, and Threshold to 128
Repeat for each armor piece in the nif
Save the nif

MAKING AN ESP TO PUT ITEM IN GAME

Download http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2737/?, notice the program is called TES5Edit. You must rename TSEdit.exe to FO4Edit.exe, otherwise it'll point to skyrim

OPEN PROGRAM

Load any esps that might change the same item - when everything is loaded, the left window shows yellow for items that are affected/changed by loaded esps.

CREATE THE ARMOR ADD ON PORTION OF THE ESP

Note on the paths and filenames, I'm writing what I used. Use what you desire, I just don't want to write "As desired" each time....

Expand Fallout4.esm, expand Armor Addon, click on EditorID at the top to sort alphabetically

Scroll to AAClothesGreaserJacket, right click, Copy as New Record Into - this uses the AA Greaser Jacket as pre-filled in form that you'll edit as desired, and it will be placed into a new esp that you'll name.

Window pop-up: Please change the Editor ID - I used AAXenociteChest
2nd Window pop-up: Which files do you want to a... - select to create your esp, then name it
3d Window pop-up - telling you that Fallout4.esm is a master, so you can't use your esp without also loading Fallout4.esm. YES.

Click the "-" next to Fallout4.esm and you should see your new esp in bold in the left window
Expand your esp, find the armor you just added, and click on it. You'll edit the window on the right as follows:

EditorID AAXenociteArmor

Male World Model / Model Filename - Clothes\Cait\BandolierM.nif

??? does this do anything if I only use my armor on a female? Do I need a male model??

Female world model - prrpp\XenoChest.nif
If blank, right click the empty box, Add. Then you'll get a line for Model Filename, put the directory path there - link to nif prrpp\XenoChest.nif

??? Unknowns - I have no idea on this

CTRL S to save

CREATE THE ARMOR PORTION OF THE ESP:

Expand Fallout4.esm, expand Armor, click on EditorID at the top to sort alphabetically
Scroll to ClothesGreaserJacket, right click, Copy as New Record Into - this uses the Greaser Jacket as pre-filled in form that you'll edit as desired, and it will be placed into a new esp that you'll name.

Window pop-up: Please change the Editor ID - I used XenociteChest
2nd Window pop-up: Which files do you want to a... - select your esp
3d Window pop-up - telling you that Fallout4.esm is a master, so you can't use your esp without also loading Fallout4.esm. YES.

Click the "-" next to Fallout4.esm and you should see your new esp in bold.
Expand your esp, find the armor you just added, and click on it. You'll edit the window on the right as follows:

EDID Editor ID - XenociteChest

Full Name - Xenocite Chest

EITM Object effect - I added AGI/PER, 002483da - only need to copy/paste the #
To find others, expand Fallout4.esm, scroll down and expand Object Effect, scroll down to EditorID of EnchClothingXXXX, left click the one you want, and in the right window double click the value for FormID. In the pop up window, highlight it, copy. Then back in your esp, paste it.

Male World Model - Clothes\Cait\BandolierGO.nif

??? does this do anything if I only use my armor on a female? Do I need a male model??

Female World Model- link to nif prrpp\XenoChest.nif
If blank, right click the empty box, Add. Then you'll get a line for Model Filename, put the directory path there - link to nif prrpp\XenoChest.nif

??? Do I really need to specify the world models if it's specified in the Armor Addon section??

??? What does BOD2 Biped Body Template do, and what settings should it have for armor pieces, boots, gloves?

Armature - copy/paste the Armor Add-on Form ID

Weight - to desired
DR - set to desired

??? DAMA Resistances - I have no idea on this
??? Unknowns - I have no idea on this either. Ballistic Weave is mod_armor_Railroad_ClothingArmor1 "Ballistic Weave" [OMOD:0020DE3F], but I don't know how to add it if it isn't there. Same with the other mods you can do at the crafting station.

ADDITIONAL PIECES OF ARMOR

Next I did the Armor Addon and Armor for the boots, using Leather Left Leg as the template to edit.

AA Armor Addon - copy new from leather left leg
EditorID AAXenociteBoots
Female world model - prrpp\XenoBoots.nif

Armor - copy new from from leather left leg
EDID Editor ID : ArmorXenociteBoots
Full Name - Xenocite Boots
EITM Object effect - added AGI/PER, 002483da - only need to copy/paste the #
Male World Model - Clothes\Cait\BandolierM.nif
Female World Model - link to nif prrpp\XenoBoots.nif

Weight - to desired
DR - set to desired
Armature - copy from AA Armor Addon above

CTR S to save

It would be nice to have a shared file with this type info that can be edited by others, but I'm not sure that's possible on LL.

reeeeeeee123 · February 2, 2016

oh

Jarka Ruus · February 2, 2016

Very interesting, do high heels work as intended (meaning that they increase your character height) or do they simply make the ankles shorter? If the former is true it might mean that fo4 supports heels out of the box (which would make sense since some of the vanilla outfits have heels in the first place).

All right, I managed to correctly import a piece of clothing from skyrim to FO4. I was struggling having the game showing the textures, but you don't really need to edit them, the only part that would need a conversion is the specular map, so it's better disabling the specular option in the material file.

Also while creating the .esp, since you're using another armor as a template you should check that the armature entry under the Armor section of your custom esp is pointing to the right Armor Addon and not the old one. For example, if you used the Greaser outfit you would need to change "AAClothesGreaserJacket" to whatever name you assigned to your Armor Addon; failing to do so will result in the template armor model/textures (in this case the Greaser Jacket) loading instead of your custom one even if under the model entry you pointed to the right path.

Here's a more detailed tutorial on how to create a custom armor esp:

SlapMeSilly · February 5, 2016

Makes the ankles shorter. Basically you cut off the foot that clips through.

Jarka Ruus · February 5, 2016

Interesting, I thought it would just sink into the ground. Guess I'll have to try for myself. What I'm doing is zapping the feet and replacing them with skyrim ones already posed for heels, so the body is definitely taller, hence why I assumed it would sink. I wonder how vanilla dresses with heels work.

Edit: I can confirm that they work as intended, meaning that your character is taller but the shoes clip through the ground. Basically we need a plugin like hdthh to automatically adjust pc/npc height on the fly. Well, no surprise there, looking at vanilla outfits heels, they use a normal body and delete the sole of the feet so that it doesn't clip through the shoes, it's essentially a dirty fix.

SlapMeSilly · February 5, 2016

Actually if you do that without moving the body up (which will cause other issues), then yes the feet will sink into the floor. The way I normally do it, is take the high heel shoe, lineup the bottom of the shoe with the foot, then mask out and zap the foot off. Body height stays the same and you lose the few inches of height. Unless you got some crazy stilettos or platforms you usually don't notice the different proportions.

Jarka Ruus · February 5, 2016

You mean like these--->http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/2214-luxury-collection-for-cbbe-hdt-bodyslide/

I found out the hard way. Btw, what kind of issues are caused by moving the body up?

SlapMeSilly · February 5, 2016

The bones aren't moved, so the weight painting on the model causes it to do weird things. Sometimes it'll be fine, more often though it will cause the animations to be really strange. Kinda wobbly for one that I tried. Everything was swaying almost like the whole body was cloth physics weighted.

Possible thing to try is move/resize model, then repaint the weights. The copy bone weights won't work quite right since it's vicinity relationship based. But trial and error is needed.

Then again it's totally possible I have no clue what I'm talking about.

Jarka Ruus · February 5, 2016

Are you talking about outfit studio or nifskope? In nifskope I tried moving bones around and it did change placement, though the skeleton layout is confusing, the nodes seems to be floating above the body so I kinda stopped before messing up too badly. I still have a few ideas that I'd like to try before I give up and wait for an equivalent to HDThh/NiOverride High Heels.

SlapMeSilly · February 5, 2016

I honestly have no clue how you'd actually go about doing the bone repositioning to make it work. So I'm going to stop taling about it before I say something wrong and stupid.

Jarka Ruus · February 5, 2016

Neither do I, actually at this stage it's probably impossible or impractical, though I don't mind wasting some time on it.

prrpp · February 27, 2016

Sorry been offline a long time. I had a big mistake on the textures portion. The Skyrim textures can be used as is. No modification is needed. Of course, colors don't always show up correctly for me, because I don't know how to do any effects like environmental or glow maps. I could have skipped that long process I listed....

Here's a good example, the Dark Vampire Knight by Newmiller. I used black / red, the original textures look wrong, not sure what's wrong. I can't get hold of Newmiller to ask about sharing, anyone know how to get hold of him?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/11r6pesyvm2jj0a/newmiller.jpg?dl=0

SlapMeSilly · February 28, 2016

Yowza that red looks funny.

re contacting newmiller:

I've been working on the vampire cuirass myself. I had to just leave a message on the comment tab of the mod to get newmiller's attention, though the mod page is hidden right now.

re the funky colors:

If you're using Emittance. Don't. It basically makes the entire mesh it's applied on turn into a light bulb of the color of the emittance. If you want a glow, you'll need to make a glow map file, basically painting a texture with white as the glow, and black as the non glow. Then add it as the glow map parameter and check the glow map box in material editor.

If you can pm or post the mod files so I can duplicate what you have I might be able to figure out what's wrong. In the meantime I would guess you're using emittance, not using environment mapping, and using specular when you shouldn't be.

For the specular, you really should have a spec map file. Otherwise if you use the cube maps and turn on the environment mapping you'll get an angle reflection effect similar to that of a weaker specular. The original cube files will also cause it to change color when viewed at certain angles.

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