Question about the Power Armor

[dsr1231248Danny]

I've been lately trying to make a mod, but I'm a bit stuck atm and the deal is this:

 

I understand where the creation kit gets the .nif for the world model for the PA piece no questions asked there, but I don't understand from where it gets the piece for the PA frame, I've been trying to google it but have failed in getting anything of use (probably overlooked something as I'm very distracted in that sense).

 

Can anyone bail me out with a quick lesson on how to set the .nif file to the PA frame pieces? or maybe a link with a useful tutorial that covers some PA modding? Thanks in advance.

[DeathMotif]

Care to clarify your question? What do you mean by “PA frame pieces”? Do you mean the armor pieces?

[DeathMotif]

As for a power armor tutorial, firstly, I prefer to use FO4Edit over the Creation Kit. So Iâm not as familiar with the CK. However, I have done a fair amount of research on PA, and have discovered, most unsatisfactorily, that key components of the way the game handles PA is hard coded, and difficult (at best) to manipulate. It involves heavy use of scripting in most cases. Consequently, the best way to answer your secondary question would be to ask what you intend to do with your mod.

[dsr1231248Danny]

Hi, by "PA frame pieces" I mean the parts of the PA that you put in the frame (the torso, arms, legs, helmet) as I don't understand how to give it a new mesh that the frame uses.

 

What i intend to do with my mod is just a remesh (tho not a replacer, it would be like "copy" an existing power armor to give it a new mesh and then make it standalone),so it's not something that (I think) needs coding.

 

I've been playing around with the FO4Edit, but still no luck there either, although it did look more simplified than the Creation Kit, so maybe that is a good start

[SMB92]

So you want to make OMODS for the Power Armor? Man I gotta start learning that system. Look up a user named Worsin and link him to this thread. He's right onto this stuff. Edit: tell him I sent ya, and I'll take the slapping ;)

[DeathMotif]

Hi, by "PA frame pieces" I mean the parts of the PA that you put in the frame (the torso, arms, legs, helmet) as I don't understand how to give it a new mesh that the frame uses.

 

What i intend to do with my mod is just a remesh (tho not a replacer, it would be like "copy" an existing power armor to give it a new mesh and then make it standalone),so it's not something that (I think) needs coding.

 

I've been playing around with the FO4Edit, but still no luck there either, although it did look more simplified than the Creation Kit, so maybe that is a good start

Ok, that’s what I thought. I’ll explain it like this.

 

Think of the PA frame existing in one of two states. It is either a furniture or a race. Furniture is promoted to a race when a character (PC or NPC) uses the armor. It is returned to furniture when they exit. There is only a single piece to the frame, and that is the frame itself.

 

As for the pieces, when dealing with the PC, NPC human, NPC ghoul, and synth races, there are two types of clothing they can wear: underarmor and armor. These items are attached to locations defined in the game. Similarly, the PA race and PA furniture are capable of containing only pieces of armor. They cannot use underarmor (I’ve tried with no success).

 

There is quite a bit involved with making your mod. In addition to the meshes, you will need a material for every different skin you wish to apply to each mesh. Each skin will be stored in a .bgsm file that contains references to your main texture, the normal map, and the specular map. There are other textures (such as the glow map) that may be applied as well. A reference to your default .bgsm will be stored in the .nif file for your mesh.

 

Once you have all your .nif’s and .bgsm’s, you will need to create an armor addon (ARMA) reference to your character models and an armor (ARMO) reference to your world object models. This will allow the meshes to be seen in game using their defaults. The ARMO will contain a reference to the ARMA.

 

You will need to create a material swap (MSWP) for each of the materials you want to be applied to your meshes.

 

A Miscellaneous Item (MISC) record should be created for each of your pieces and each of your materials. The MISC, ARMO, and ARMA can contain direct references to your MSWP, or you can defer that to the object modification (OMOD) you need to create for each of your pieces and materials.

 

If you want your pieces to be craftable, you will also need to create constructable objects (COBJ) for your pieces and materials. You can also make use of instance naming rules and keywords if you wish to enable dynamic naming of your pieces. You can look at either of my mods for examples of how to do anything I’ve mentioned here.

[dsr1231248Danny]

So you want to make OMODS for the Power Armor? Man I gotta start learning that system. Look up a user named Worsin and link him to this thread. He's right onto this stuff. Edit: tell him I sent ya, and I'll take the slapping :wink:

Alright, I'll give it a try with him, thanks for the reference :thumbsup:

 

 

Hi, by "PA frame pieces" I mean the parts of the PA that you put in the frame (the torso, arms, legs, helmet) as I don't understand how to give it a new mesh that the frame uses.

 

What i intend to do with my mod is just a remesh (tho not a replacer, it would be like "copy" an existing power armor to give it a new mesh and then make it standalone),so it's not something that (I think) needs coding.

 

I've been playing around with the FO4Edit, but still no luck there either, although it did look more simplified than the Creation Kit, so maybe that is a good start

Ok, that’s what I thought. I’ll explain it like this.

 

Think of the PA frame existing in one of two states. It is either a furniture or a race. Furniture is promoted to a race when a character (PC or NPC) uses the armor. It is returned to furniture when they exit. There is only a single piece to the frame, and that is the frame itself.

 

As for the pieces, when dealing with the PC, NPC human, NPC ghoul, and synth races, there are two types of clothing they can wear: underarmor and armor. These items are attached to locations defined in the game. Similarly, the PA race and PA furniture are capable of containing only pieces of armor. They cannot use underarmor (I’ve tried with no success).

 

There is quite a bit involved with making your mod. In addition to the meshes, you will need a material for every different skin you wish to apply to each mesh. Each skin will be stored in a .bgsm file that contains references to your main texture, the normal map, and the specular map. There are other textures (such as the glow map) that may be applied as well. A reference to your default .bgsm will be stored in the .nif file for your mesh.

 

Once you have all your .nif’s and .bgsm’s, you will need to create an armor addon (ARMA) reference to your character models and an armor (ARMO) reference to your world object models. This will allow the meshes to be seen in game using their defaults. The ARMO will contain a reference to the ARMA.

 

You will need to create a material swap (MSWP) for each of the materials you want to be applied to your meshes.

 

A Miscellaneous Item (MISC) record should be created for each of your pieces and each of your materials. The MISC, ARMO, and ARMA can contain direct references to your MSWP, or you can defer that to the object modification (OMOD) you need to create for each of your pieces and materials.

 

If you want your pieces to be craftable, you will also need to create constructable objects (COBJ) for your pieces and materials. You can also make use of instance naming rules and keywords if you wish to enable dynamic naming of your pieces. You can look at either of my mods for examples of how to do anything I’ve mentioned here.

 

I have the .bsgm files all set, and I followed a tutorial to make the ARMA, COBJ, ARMO, MISC, etc. so all of that is included in the .esp already. The only thing that keeps evading me its the set up for the .Nif file as when i start up the game it keeps on showing the base mesh rather than the one i created (and by "base" i mean the armor piece I use as reference when creating the .Nif file). I don't suppose you know a good link for a tutorial for creating/editing .Nif files, right?

 

Btw, thanks for the answers so far :smile:

[DeathMotif]

Look inside the .nif files. There usually is an obvious link to a .bgsm for each texture to be applied to the mesh section. For example, the vault suit has two sections. One contains a reference to the suit material, and the other contains a reference to the trim. This establishes the base material for the nif. Beyond that all you need is a reference to the .bgsm inside your ARMO or OMOD (witch you seem to be missing based on your above statement). The easiest thing I can recommend is to download my mod:

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/23864

 

and see how I did it. I recommend both files for the variety. It also shows how to use dynamic naming. Itâs pretty simple and straight forward to follow.

[dsr1231248Danny]

Alright, I'll give this a try. Once I'm done I'll post my luck (let's hope it's good)

[dsr1231248Danny]

THANKS!

 

After sometime off for chrismas, I came back to the mod and used your mod as a reference, it was enought for me to reverse-engineer the .nif files allowing me to understand them (ok, just kind of understand them), however it did the trick and the model is finally showing in game! So thanks again for the help, really appreciated :laugh: