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Setting up a .nif file for a custom armor (helmet, specifically)


theotherguy7

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I’ve been working on this armor that I’m hoping to use as one of my first mods for Skyrim (LE specifically), which I’ve recently finished doing the helmet for in Blender, since I thought that might be simple enough to start with bringing into the game (but textures could also use a bit more work, since the normal map seems to come out a little too shiny). One part of the process that I’m having the most trouble with is setting up the properties in Nifskope, as you might guess. In this case, getting the blocks to be arranged as they typically would in any other .nif file for the same thing. The last NiNode and the BSDismemberSkinInstance look like they've had their places mixed up, and if I try to correct it by changing the Skin Instance value in NiTriShape, the mesh just collapses onto itself.

 

Here's what I mean: https://i.imgur.com/gUG41IG.jpg

 

I'm told that it's a problem with weight painting, since it's trying to inherit the values of another mesh that don't exist on this one (my reference model would be the iron helmet, if that's relevant by any chance). I tried copying over the weights in Outfit Studio, which doesn't cover the entire mesh, and doesn't seem to do any good after exporting back to Nifskope. I don't know whether I could somehow get it to work after just weight painting the whole thing myself either. As you can see, I'm just a noob with both of these software, so I'd be thankful for any recommendations on up-to-date resources that demonstrate how this could be done with them. ^^

 

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Basically what I see there is it's not rigged properly, but it can be fixed.

(Make a copy of your first mesh as a backup)

In NifSkope;
- going by the first picture mesh, delete the BSDismemberSkinInstance entirely (right-click > Block > Remove Branch)
- in the NiTriShape, double click the value of Skin Instance and just blank it out (backspace)
- go to the header Spells > Optimize > Remove Bogus Nodes, this will 'clean' your mesh of any previous rigging
- save the file

In Outfit Studio;
- import the saved file
- import an iron helmet, right click on the shape name under Meshes, select Set as Reference so the name turns green
- select your helmet shape name under Meshes, right click > Copy Bone Weights
- you can delete the iron helmet now, that's all we need from it (right click > Delete)
- switch to the Bones tab so you can see the weighting (hitting the T key will turn off textures to see it better)
- if your helmet is not completely red, paint over it until it is - helps to change the strength all the way to 1 under brush settings. Make sure to look at it from all angles, inside and out.
- switch to the Partitions tab, make sure the partition is 131-Hair
- export the nif (if you get any warning that there are unweighted verts do not export, go back to the bones tab and fix it)

Double check it in NifSkope but it should now be set up properly.

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