Can any fine people point me in the right direction? (Nifskope)

[CatsWithMachineGuns]

Hello there, thank you for taking the time to read my thread here. I'll get right to the point.

 

 

I'm attempting to make a mod for Fallout 76 that replaces the Scorched with Skeletons for use this Halloween.

 

I am aware that this is the Fallout 4 forums, but I figured this belongs here because this thread is ultimately about using the tools of the trade that are used for Fallout 4.

 

 

I have properly replaced the character meshes, but I wanted to go the extra mile to replace the gibbed/bloody mess'd pieces with appropriate skeleton parts. However, it seems that I have not been able to properly preserve the physics.

When I explode the Scorched-modded-into-skeletons the proper skeleton gib parts spawn, but they hover in the air and don't drop to the ground. Obviously this problem likely came about from when I was attempting to transfer over the skeleton parts from one Nifskope window into the Scorched gib model Nifskope window.

 

I've tried googling issues like this but to no success, as I can't seem to find anyone in the past who has described my exact little conundrum here since a lot of them deal with things other than chunks of dead enemies properly hitting the ground.

 

 

TL;DR - can I swap out parts of a .nif but just keep the original physics that were already there for the native mesh so it still has weight/gravity/collisions?

 

If so, would anyone be kind enough to plot out very hands-on, direct, and idiot-proof steps under the guise that they are talking to someone who has no real, functional experience with Nifskope?

 

If "yes" and "yes", then I'd be delighted to get this mod finished and have something to bring to the community this spooky season, thanks!

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by CatsWithMachineGuns

[DieFeM]

In the case of Fallout 4, the physics are applied through the collision, but that can not be created in Nifskope, you can copy the collision from one nif to another tho.

I'm surprised that by modding meshes in 76 they don't ban you. I say that because I could simply change a door mesh and get in to places where I'm not supposed to be able to reach, or many other things that would give me an advantage against other players. I though by now they would have some kind of check for this end in place before joining the server... smh

[CatsWithMachineGuns]

Thank you for the response! As far as I'm aware Bethesda's pretty hands-off with simple modding and the 76 community isn't exactly fond of cheater-esque mods.

 

But anyway, back on topic, how would one go about copying the collisions from one nif to another? Is it as simple as copying and pasting branches/nodes? I'm still quite unfamiliar with most of Nifskope's mysterious structuring. Or is Nifskope not used to achieve this at all? Are there any other tools I would need in order to accomplish this?

[DieFeM]

 

But anyway, back on topic, how would one go about copying the collisions from one nif to another? Is it as simple as copying and pasting branches/nodes?

 

You have two nifs open, "copy branch" in one and "paste branch" in the other, it pastes relative to the node in which you do right click, so make sure to right click on the right node.

 

I'm still quite unfamiliar with most of Nifskope's mysterious structuring. Or is Nifskope not used to achieve this at all?

 

For fallout 4, Nifskope can only be used to copy this kind of data, you can't create it.

 

Are there any other tools I would need in order to accomplish this?

 

Creating new collision or physics is only possible with the official bethesda's 3dsmax plugin which is supplied with the CK.

I don't think there's any tool for such end made by a third party for Fallout 76, I'm not in to 76's modding tho.

[RoNin1971]

When copying collisions, do not 'copy branch' the collision directly, that won't work. Either copy your mesh to the nif with the collision and or model you wish to replace (or just to use the colllsion) or copy (branch) the parent niNode. (Note: Not necessarily the root niNode, but often it is) and paste it within your nifs tree, by selecting the root niNode and then paste branch.

 

Note: The right clcik method to copy and paste, only works (for paste) on specific nodes. (like: NiNode and BSTriShape and similar), but you can't just paste a shader for example like that, on the right spot.

For that you need to go to the right property of the BSTriShape and paste it there. Otherwise it will be pasted at the end and you need to link it by ID number to that property of the BSTriShape.

 

The copy/paste branch wil not work at all for animations. (as it references a lot of nodes and shapes, outside the branch, the data will always be invalid for pasting)

Edited August 25, 2021 by RoNin1971

[RoNin1971]

 

 

For fallout 4, Nifskope can only be used to copy this kind of data, you can't create it.

 

 

 

A sad truth. I really hate it they made FO4 exclusively use havok, as opposed to Skyrim. It would be darn easy to create collisions with nifskope,

instead of nearly impossible. (well, totally impossible with nifskope, but 'at least' there is the official plugin for 3DS 2013.

 

I can't judge the original, as I have the SE version, but although these 2 games are 90% similar (engine wise), the nifs are build like opposites (probably on purpose)

ALL animations for SE are Havok. No 'gamebryo' to be found, where FO4 is a mix, with lots of gamebryo.

But NON of the collisions are havok, where FO4 uses havok only. *Note: SE was done after FO4 released)

 

Would have been nice if the creation engine allowed both methods. But that would probably have made these 2 games way to 'compatible' for some suits liking.

Edited August 25, 2021 by RoNin1971

[CatsWithMachineGuns]

Hey, I got it working thanks to you guys!

 

I didn't realize that I shouldn't have been pasting it into Scene Root, but instead each piece of skeleton should have been getting pasted into its corresponding NiNode (pelvis and chest to be precise), so after doing that it worked instantly on the first attempt. Many thanks!