Creation Kit Help: Exporting Creation Kit Models

[LunisSpellweaver]

Hey, guys!

 

I'm having trouble exporting a Dragon Model to a 3D Modeling Program (Blender) to edit it for a custom follower. However, I've hit a snag.

Not that I have problems with exporting (mainly because I have little clue how), but with the Creation Kit itself. Every time I boot up the Creation Kit, none of the game data seems to load with it (meaning the object view is completely empty), and everything else doesn't seem to load in properly, either. For example, I can only boot up the player object (but it is empty because I haven't started a game, yet), but everything else either doesn't exist or I haven't encountered any of them yet (but, that would also be wrong because I did load the world with a Skyrim save, i.e. going part-way through the Helgen sequence). Otherwise, I'm stuck.

 

For this, I ask two things.

• First, what happened to the game files? The game is modded to hell, but this shouldn't be an issue...
• Second, how do you export a model from the Creation Kit? I've attempted it with the Sims 3 (which I am also having problems with, but I'm getting some help on the Mod the Sims forum, link here), but I have never exported anything from the creation kit.

Now, the mod I have in mind for exporting a dragon is called Ohm the Devout, which I need help with for scripting and voice work. The thread can be found here, but if anyone wants to volunteer, please send me a message!

[IsharaMeradin]

First of all, I think you need to understand how the Creation Kit works. For that I'll direct you to the CK wiki. Go through the tutorials and learn the basics.

 

To be a bit more specific, the reason you do not see any game data is because you have to first load the game data into the Creation Kit before you can work with it. It does not automatically load as it does with the game. This allows you to specify what you want to work with without having unnecessary data getting in the way.

 

Secondly, you do not export meshes from the Creation Kit. You extract them from the BSA files located in your Data folder. Once extracted you can then work with the desired files. There are several tools available for this purpose. I use BSAopt. If you do extract the BSA files, do not do it in the Data folder. Instead extract them to a clean folder preferably outside of the game folder. This is so that the extracted files do not accidentally overwrite any of your loose mod files that may already be installed.

[LunisSpellweaver]

Alright, I exported the BSA files, but I can't import to Blender, which can't load BSA files. What next?

[IsharaMeradin]

You have to get the NIF files from inside the BSA. This is why I said, "You extract them from the BSA files "

[LunisSpellweaver]

You needed to create a BSA file to store the NIF files for some odd reason. Is there something else that I need to do?

 

Also, I'm not entirely sure how the NIF plugin for Blender works. I use the latest version (which is 2.71 as of now), so I am not sure the directions are up to date.

[IsharaMeradin]

I'm not sure if you understand....

 

The game's meshes (NIF files) are stored inside of the Skyrim - Meshes.bsa. To gain access to them you must use a third party utility that is capable of extracting files from the BSA.

 

You do not have to create a BSA to store them. You can when you are ready to distribute your mod, if your mod also contains an ESP file (plugin).

 

As far as importing into Blender. I do not work with Blender but I can link you to some information.

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Installation_of_Blender

As I understand it, the version of Blender you have does not work with the NifScripts necessary to import NIF files from NifSkope into Blender. You may need to use an older version to receive the import, send it to the modern Blender, do your work, send it back to the older Blender then export to NifSkope. But that is just a guess.

[LunisSpellweaver]

Now there is the case of extracting the individual files. Apparently the tutorial you provided is slightly out of date (it uses Oblivion as a necessity), and there doesn't seem to be a point to use BSAopt, then I can't find how to extract the individual .nif files (including which ones to extract, as you might have guessed). So... I'm lost...

[IsharaMeradin]

Instead of extracting just the files you need, extract the entire contents to a clean directory that is not part of the game. That way you'll have them on hand whenever you need them.

 

To determine which files you need, you load the game data in the Creation Kit and locate the forms/records associated with the object you want to work with and make a note of the NIF file and its directory structure that has been assigned to that form.

 

Google can be your friend. The following are just a few hits with the search term below.

Extract NIF from BSA tutorial

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Skyrim_BSA_Extraction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz8Ol_Ccyqw

http://www.ladymoiraine.com/forum/index.php?topic=6131.0 <-- this one is mostly about importing and exporting between Skyrim and Blender. You will note it uses the same program versions of Blender and the necessary NifScripts as mentioned in the text tutorial I linked to you in the last post.

 

Just because something is "older" doesn't mean it is incorrect and should be dismissed.

[LunisSpellweaver]

I finally got around to getting the .nif file I need for one of my mods, but now I am really stuck. The screenshot below details how far I was able to get, and, possibly, as far as I could go with the resources I have.

 

 

 

[Deleted1016523User]

Gonna do this myself - gonna take APOCRYPHA objects from Dragonborn and replace the texture with STEEL. Hope I can do it correctly... might need help though.