doctorhr2

Of course, if you or someone with competent 3D modelling skills were to create a new mesh based on the original, then that technically wouldn't be their property. Just a thought. :D

Have you placed your textures in the Skyrim texture folder? If it's anywhere else on your HD then Skyrim and Nifskope won't know where to look for it.

I'm trying to figure out how animated textures work in Skyrim and I thought I'd check out the ore veins... only I can't find them in the meshes. Has anyone come across them? Alternatively, has anyone found any useful resourses for dealing with animated textures? I'm looking to have lights blinking on and off or be turned on and off by a lever/button.

I like it. Schrodinger's Mod! Modding is largely a colaborative effort, even if you don't directly ask for help, Google and the Nexus forums come into play somewhere.

I thought the Stormcloaks were objecting to an invading power trying to tell them who they could worship? The comparison to US politics doesn't seem that apparent to me. US Foreign policy with regard to the Middle East perhaps (trying to fit a Western model of democracy onto Eastern traditions). Politics is generally wrestling. All the fighting is for the public, but behind the scenes they're all in the same clubs clinking expensive glasses with each other. Cynical? Moi? :D

I have found one Word Wall (in the mine) so far and it worked just fine. I realise this is little help or comfort to you, but are you running any mods which might be conflicting? Try running BOSS?

I played Dragonborn for the first time last night, no problems whatsoever. It ran really smoothly and no conflicts with the 51 mods I have installed.

Just to echo Jet4571, if you want to do it then go for it. It might take a long time but you'll learn a hell of a lot and you might end up with a great mod. Innovation comes from treading your own path, not following the path created by others. Good luck and keep us posted!

Are the clothes meant to be transparent? Which mod is it? As much information as possible will help us help you. :)

I know... But I thought the modders had already discovered that you couldn't. I'd be interested to know if the situation has changed.

Just wondering here, but the Sheogorath quest where you are deposited in that realm with none of your inventory items, could that be worth looking at? Not sure about changing race/stats etc, but that is essentially a questline with a fresh inventory of sorts.

As I understood it, it wasn't possible to add new animations to Skyrim, only to use existing ones in new ways.

Result!! After much head bashing/scratching I have cracked it. It was such a simple thing too. I got to the point where the model was showing up in the CK Preview but crashing CK when I tried to import it... and all because I had neglected to follow the naming convention for the meshes. Not a problem when you're dealing with a single mesh, but models with more than one mesh have to share the same name i.e. mesh:0, mesh:1 - whatever you like so long as the meshes are identically named and individually numbered; which I had forgotten to do in 3DS Max! Lesson learnt!

I seem to be the only person who has run across this problem. I went back to Max and detached the parts of the mesh I want to be transparent from the main mesh, thinking that in Nifskope I could apply a different NiAlphaProperty to it. It worked in Nifskope but when I tried to preview in CK, the entire mesh was opaque! I went back and checked every value against my original working model and all seems correct, so there is something I'm not doing! I did wonder if it was something to do with two different meshes in one model using the same tex map (maybe I need to rename it?). I was at a loss as none of the buildings in Skyrim have transparent windows, for obvious reasons. Then at nearly 2am in bed I thought 'Display cases!' The only thing I can think of in Skyrim that has a solid and transparent texture in one model (can't remember if it casts a shadow though). So this evening I will examine the mesh and textures in Nifskope and Photoshop and see if I can crack this. Will post any findings in case anyone else runs into this problem.

It's a neat idea, but would you want to run the risk of being attacked whilst reading?

Wow, thanks for the great feedback and tips everyone! Very much appreciated. Favouredsoul, I had read about the functionality of Point-to-Point Seams and Pelt Mapping, but never really applied it to what I was doing, but I will now.

As a wannabe modder, I would love to see huge immersive quests and I have one in mind that I dearly want to do, but as one person I am really finding my way slowly. I haven't even looked at the scripting side of things. I want to get custom models in the game that look and operate as I want them to, then I can move forward another step. I think if you're new to modding, the idea of making a quest is daunting. I wouldn't want to release anything under my name that wasn't 100% complete, so I won't be rushing it! So rather than people opting for the easy option, maybe it's just taking a long time to get quest mods completed? Afterall, we were blessed with 6 years of Oblivion mods before Skyrim came out and that was only 14 months ago. Unless you have a dedicated group of people who are all wanting to do the same thing, then it will take a long time for lone modders to produce epic quests in their spare time.

To add to this, it is a custom house and there is a shadow being cast on the ground by the door, but not by the building itself! Even though they share the same tex maps and settings in Nifskope!

I have a custom object with a lamp that I want to make semi-transparent, but when I set the NiAlphaproperty to 4845 and 128 respectively, it turns the lamp transparent but the object casts no shadow!. If I go to a setting that enables the shadow, then I lose my transparent lamp! I have experimented with a few settings but with no joy. Can anyone help, please?

Lots of entertaining and well thought out points. I love Skyrim. I think it is a great product and the best game I have bought since Oblivion. When Skyrim was announced, before any promises were made, I was excited. If it was going to be just like Oblivion in style and layout, just in a different part of the World with new stories and characters, fantastic! Okay, so we didn't get snow that settled realistically, which is a shame and something I blame on the console market, and I believe that had Skyrim been made for PC only, then we would have a higher standard of graphics. But thems the breaks. Despite this, when I play it, it doesn't feel like an elaborate money-making exercise. It feels like something that has been crafted with thought and a sense of enjoyment. I have no real gripes with it as I had no expectations beyond what I had experienced with Oblivion (hence why I'm not too bothered by the snow thing). Yes they changed the way levelling up is handled and adapted the Perks system from Fallout, but I suppose they thought it was worth trying? With the exception of Mass Effect 3 (I can't comment as I never completed the first one), disappointment with games generally comes from an expectation in the consumer. Skyrim interests me and entertains me as much as Oblivion did, so I feel I have received good value for money. Maybe my expectation was low? Who can say...

Thanks, I have tried a similar approach on my latest model (UV mapping each part rather than trying to sort out the whole thing) and it did make for better workflow. It might be that I need to impose more control over the placement of seams rather than let 3DSM do it. Thanks again for the tips.

Hello all, I'm on 3D S Max (currently 2012) and I've been using it for a few years, so I know my way around the basics. I would like to know if other users on the forum use the in-built UV Unwrapper or a third party one? Are there any that anyone would recommend? I know it's always going to be a fiddly, time consuming job, but are there any that do a better job than Max? Thanks kindly in advance.

@jcainhaze The wall textures aren't done in one map, but rather smaller repeated maps. If you look at the interiors, they have been modelled as one piece then seperated into parts so they can be reused elsewhere. The same applies to the textures. If you alter one it'll change in every instance it is used throughout the game. Unless you create and assign a new custom texture to a custom model.

I don't understand how it could become 'too heavy' for the cell...

Okay, well it's a reasonable assumption as the lights coming on at a particular time would logically have to be a scripted event. I'll try and get a pulsing light working and then go from there.