JDGameArt

https://www.blender.org/ This is what everyone uses if you want a free 3D modeling package.

Was wondering if someone could help me out with a vsync issue? For some reason after the garage loading screen V sync seems to be enabled and I can't turn it off. (kiling fps) I started playing Fallout when the game first launched. I let the auto settings run at Ultra, turned off vsync and the game ran like a top. I quit playing Fallout for maybe a month until last night. Steam did an update, and ever since then I'm unable to turn off vsync. I've manually set the nvidia settings, changed the .ini file in the game folder and in the documents directory (iPresentInterval=0), yet for some reason it's just stuck on. Anyone know what I might try next?

This will work in max 2013 and 14 but I don't know how reliable it is. I've used it in 14 and seems fairly solid but I didn't use every feature. https://tesrenewal.com/forums/tools-and-coding/nif-importexport-plugin-for-3dsmax-2013

I'm kinda tired right now, so I'll answer this the best I can but... There are no written in stone poly limits as far as what a game can have in it, and since we're all using different PC's each one will handle the scene better or worse. If I remember right, default Skyrim will jump from 1.5m - 2.5m triangles at any given time outdoors. If this were all quads it would be up to 1.25 million quad polygons. A game engine handles 3d assets in triangles and vertices so that's a better way to look at it. Another thing to consider is the draw call, this has a HUGE impact, and the number of materials and lights in the scene being called will affect this greatly; so it kinda goes beyond just raw vertex / tri-count. The limiting factor is the CPU / GPU / and available memory (everything is sort of a pipeline, one affecting the other); drivers can impact the performance too. The physical size of a mesh is sort of relative; games are built on a power of 2, sort of base scaling, and everything is built off of that. An example is a character being 128x32 units is size. 6' ish. Skyrim was released in 2011, with consoles in mind. Considering current desktop hardware id probably keep the entire scene around 3-3.2 million tris, but even then, how many lights and materials will you be needing? Also, here's a great read on building modular environment related to Skyrim. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JoelBurgess/20130501/191514/Skyrims_Modular_Approach_to_Level_Design.php

You probably already know this, but the game engine is designed to call files from the .bsa archives if no mods are installed. Even if I have no .esp's active but I do have files installed that are of the same path and name as the .bsa, they will overwrite the default .bsa call. Do you know how to use nifSkope, and do you know the name / location of the meshes that are having issues? If so I'd start there; check the mesh in nifskope, including the texture file path. BS Num UV Sets should be set to 4097, it should have a material, and normally at least two textures; Diffuse and Normal.

Woo look at that booty!!!

Yes exactly. And make sure BS Num UV Sets under NiTriShapeData is set to 4097.

Ok, this should give you a base mesh to work with. It loads into nifskope and CK with no crashing / errors. I just put a generic dragon material on Neovenator: 0 and that's it, so anything else it might need you will have to add / tweak. I never messed with any of the weighting / skin so I don't know if it was correct coming into max, or was exported out correctly; probably, but not sure. Let me know how it goes. Mesh >>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/oc712ycrzi3n0gb/SkyrimNeovenator.nif?dl=0

Export it from Blender. Sorry I don't know the situation with Blender, I thought you were using Max. It looks to be juts that one thing so focus on that.

Here's the first issue; re-export the mesh, not selected, but the entire scene. Don't forget to check "remove extra bones" I don't know what this shape is; It crashes max when trying to import it. Just make sure this is right. http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/images/110/1566738-1428017698.jpg

Some pics of the stack in nifskope, or a link to the mesh would help.

.obj will handle the mesh, and 1 UV channel, no animations / bones. It's a simple format in terms of options, but for going from one 3d package to another is rock solid reliable.

This means you're missing texture / mesh. The engine is calling up something that isn't there. Double check the file paths.

Since I don't fully understand your question I'm just going to ramble off a number of things had hopefully it solves the issue. :) First off, materials don't properly export out of Max if you're using the exporter off of Nexus, no one ever updated it. So you have to make one from scratch, or do a Copy Branch / Paste Branch operation in NifSkope; copying a material from a vanilla mesh with a similar look / material. If you're trying to duplicate a mesh in nifSkope, this can be done no problem, but Id probably just set this up in max first, attach them (same material), and export it like that. I have a tut on the nexus, it's not extremely detailed but covers some nifSkope operations related to what you're doing. >>> http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/6152/?

.obj

Hey. A normal workflow would be to edit the mesh, attach everything, then add a skin wrap modifier which after using will give you the new skinning data. or. Drop down to the edit poly in the stack, move the verts you need, then go back up to the skin in the modifier stack. You just don't want to start deleting verts / polys with the skin on the stack above. As far as weighting goes, yeah you want the verts weighted the same / similar from the mesh layer below compared to the one above. If not they will move at different rates and probably clip. Hope I understood the question right.

Yeah, my next mod will be named Immersive Immersion. That's like worth 1k endorsements alone rite?

Don't feel too bad, the paint weights tool in max isn't all that great. The bulk if the editing can be done with the Weight Tool. It also has that Blend button that can help. Using Shrink, Grow, Ring, and Loop to make selections. Another way to make large adjustments is changing the envelope around the bone. The inner / smaller one gives the bone 100% (red) control, the outer one is the falloff. Chances are you won't have to use this because of the Skin Wrap. As a workflow option, you can keyframe the bones in some kind of extreme pose and use this to check for fly-away verts; as opposed to exporting to Skyrim each time.

Does the mesh have working collision? It could be falling through the map. Quick way to check this is to drag/drop it into the CK viewport in some cell then turn Havok on; see if it falls / bounces, etc...

Skin Wrap works pretty well but it's rarely perfect and normally needs some tweaks. Have you checked the trouble area weights in Max? Chances are you have more bones than you need, or the wrong ones pulling on the verts. I haven't worked on the dragons in Skyrim so I don't know their setup, but I'd go back to your best working version, open it up on max, then go to Skin... Once there click on Edit Envelopes, and make sure under Select, Vertices is checked. At this point there are a number of ways to check the mesh. Down the list, you will see an icon that looks like a wrench; this is the Weight Tool. Whatever verts you have selected, the bones with weight values will show up here. You can also use this tool to change the weight values. Another tool is the weight table right next to the wrench; works in a similar way. You can also check the weighting visually by clicking on the bones in that big list above the wrench icon. Red or 1.0 is 100% control of the vert, no color or 0.0 is 0% control of the vert, and it ranges from Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red. An example of what I would not want to see is the pelvis bone controlling verts up around the shoulder. Another thing to look out for are verts with 0 weight value. All of the verts should have at least some assigned bone(s). Since you used Skin Wrap, it probably wont happen but you never know. There are also various tools in the menu to help you weight the mesh, but many are self-explanatory, so no need to ramble on about them. Hope this helped, Good Luck

Purple meshes are caused by shader & texture problems. Do you know what trees are causing the issue? If so you can open them up in NifSkope and make sure BS Num UV Sets under NiTriShapeData is set to 4097 and under BSShaderTextureSet, it's pointing to the correct textures. It's common to find at least the first two slots used, which are the diffuse and normal texture. The normal map with have an _n.dds If this is too much monkey business, be sure to not only uninstall the mod, but remove the meshes (.nif) and textures (.dds) as well. If not, the game engine will still call up the installed (modded) files instead of pulling it from the default .bsa file if the files were named the same as the default ones.

Have you tried ChunkMerge? http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/Skyrim/Adding_Collision_Mesh_using_ChunkMerge

Can you link the .nif?

Both unwraps are a bit messed up. The UV's should at least somewhat resemble the shape of your mesh. For this, you can use a number of different options. (pelt map, cylindrical, or under mapping > flatten mapping) A planar map could probably even work on this too. If things are looking better, I'd probably run 2 seams under the armpits on each side. If not, one down the middle of the front or back. Don't forget to relax the UV's too. Under tools > relax > relax by face angle.

"...Because up until now that's definitely not what modding has been about at all." I agree completely. It's hard to say how things would play out. On one hand, we would probably start to see better tools pop up. I'd gladly pay $5.00 or whatever for a 100% working 3ds max exporter, among other tools that might come along. On the other hand, if free and open modding were removed completely it would kill the modding scene completely. I'm not sure why it would go this way though, I mean look at Google Play store for example. You have free apps, paid apps, and it's only gotten better over time. Either way, I'd probably just like to see things stay the way they are. 2c