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Combining Meshes Problems Resolved


ArdentFlame

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For the past few days I've had lots of trouble combining meshes in NifSkope. I've ran into numerous problems that several others have, including vertex color issues, keeping meshes aligned, and many other things. :wallbash:

 

One issue that I've seen dozens of other people ask about online but never find an answer to is getting the newly combined mesh to show up properly in-game. The mesh will look fine in NifSkope, and even in the CK, but when you load it up in-game the parts that you added to the base mesh are missing. Well, I've finally found the answer that no one else seems to have.

 

Anyways, I'll give an all inclusive tutorial as to how to combine meshes, even though there are dozens of others on the internet, I hope this one can help shed some more light. Remember to save often. It would be best to have multiple saves in case you mess up. There's no undo in NifSkope.

 

 

 

1- Open the .nif file that you wish to modify in NifSkope

 

2- Open another window and open the .nif file that you'd like to copy things from to the 1 .nif file

 

3- Change the name of the master NiNodes of both .nif files to match each other. For example, name them both "IronArmorBase"

 

4- Add any skeleton pieces to .nif1 that may not already be in .nif2. To do this, look for the other NiNodes under the master NiNode. If there are any in .nif2 that aren't in .nif1, then Right Click > Block > Copy Branch. Go to .nif1 and on the master node hit Right Click > Block > Paste Branch.

 

5- Once .nif1 has all the required skeleton pieces, copy and paste all the mesh pieces (usually labeled as NiTriStrips) to the master NiNode in .nif1 the same way as in step 4.

 

6- When you've got all the desired mesh pieces together in .nif1 you need to assign the textures, if they aren't already assigned. There are multiple ways to do this. One is to go to Render > Settings > Auto Detect Game Paths and make sure Skyrim is selected. Another is to individually click on a mesh piece and manually select the individual textures by doing NiTriStrips > BSLightingShaderProperty > BSShaderTextureSet then go to the Block Details below (if Block Details are not displayed hit F3) and open the Textures tab. There will be several textures listed. On them, Right Click > Texture > Choose and find the appropriate textures.

 

7- The mesh should look good in the picture, but it still needs a bit of work. Find one of the original mesh pieces of .nif1 and go to NiTriStrips > BSDismemberSkinInstance. At the bottom of the Block Details go to Partitions > Partitions > Body Part. Remember what it says or simply copy the text listed.

 

8- Go to the added mesh pieces from .nif2 and make sure that the Body Part data is the same as the original mesh pieces from .nif1. If they aren't it's totally normal. Simply type in or paste the correct Body Part data so that all of the NiTriStrips have the exact same Body Part data text.

 

9- Go to Spells > Batch > Update All Tangent Spaces

 

10- Go to Spells > Optimize > Remove Bogus Nodes

 

11- Go to File > Auto Sanitize Before Save

 

12- The file is now complete and ready to be added to the CK and subsequently Skyrim itself. Save and you're mesh is ready!

 

 

 

If anyone has any comments or suggestions to change my tutorial it will be greatly appreciated. I hope this helps. :thumbsup:

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Fantastic! Really helped me out. Bookmarked.

 

One thing I would suggest is not forgetting to include the armor parts you've added to the Armor body part reference and ArmorAddon body part reference in the Creation Kit if you're adding to an existing outfit or else they will be invisible and leave you wondering if it was something you did in Nifskope. It also prevents problems in-game when equipping, especially if the piece includes HDT Physics which may cause crashes if the body slot is multi equipped.

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  • 4 years later...

Very late to the game here in 2019, but I just have to give thanks. Out of all the crappy, half-assed, uninformed, or condescending advice on Nifskope out there, this is the first guide that tells you EXACTLY what to do. Someone with no Nifskope experience can follow it very easily and I was FINALLY able to combine the meshes I wanted and see them in Skyrim! Thanks so much!

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