Galcyon

Ok, so I've downloaded a drow race, and modified some textures to greyscale (so I can get a proper obsidian-looking skin), and I've hit a major snag. Is it actually possible to make a brand new race, with brand new textures, without having to edit *all* armor entries in vanilla and mods? If the answer is yes, and if it's supposed to be "under copy data, select 'default' for armor race", I can tell you that it's not working; the skin texture keeps defaulting to the basic skin texture on the armor, not the modded skin texture I want.

Yay, I'm back. So, this is a followup to my thread here. So, after my prior failure with the 2.79b build of Blender and its associated .nif plugin, I downgraded to the 2.49b, using the 2.5.9 build of the .nif plugin (the last plugin developed for Blender ver. 2.49, at least according to its download page). So, as the title says the import function... simply fails. I already loaded the required Python and PyFFI scripts/installer. So, here's the debug info I'm getting on the failure to import: Anyone have any idea what's going on? Should I be using Blender at all at this point? If not, should I be trying something else? I'm starting to get a little PO'ed at this point; what I'm trying to do is a fairly straightforward mesh re-fitting on some meshes that came with a mod so they fit Argonian heads, yet I'm facing roadblock after roadblock for what should be (and is) a straightforward task.

Cool. So, any suggestions as to which version I should be using, beyond one that's before 2.6?

The file I have is... blender_nif_plugin-2.6.0a0.dev4.zip Hm. "2.6.0a0". Maybe I'm using the wrong scripts? Was 2.6.0a0 a released Blender build, or am I just confusing the file version for Blender version compatability?

So, I'm using Blender 2.79b to alter some modded meshes for Skyrim Standard Edition, I've installed the scripts needed to import .nif files, but I can't seem to export them (despite having the option to do so). I can alter them and save them as .blend files, but the moment I try to export as a .nif, I get an error, and manually changing the file type to .nif fails to work. Screencap of the error messsage Anyone have any ideas as to what's happening?

Nope: once you deliver Serena and accept or reject Harkon's gift, you're stuck with that choice. There's a mod that allows you to switch sides, but it's apparently buggy as hell, and the mod author has quit developing it. It's called the "Dawnguard Change Sides Script".

Bumping, since I haven't gotten a reply to this latest development.

Ok, so here's the thing. I'm using blender 2.79 to alter some pre-existing armor .nif mesh files. It's fairly straightforward, once I figured out how to do it, so I import the files I want, complete the modifications I wanted to make and try to export it. And blender won't do it. It feeds me something about a list index being out of range and a string reading of 112. I am using this guide to the best of my abilities, but some of the options don't apply (such as collisions), don't appear (the shaders), or are already pre-filled (numeric codes for .nif files). Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Should I switch programs?

Depends. Not sure about SSE, but you've got CBBE and the companion BodySlide tool for normal Skyrim. And UNP. On the Nexus, there should be a vanilla non-skimpy replacer for at least CBBE and UNP bodies. CBBE has partial (official) non-skimpy support, however. I don't have it with me right now, but someone did do a full CBBE vanilla conversion, but didn't name it as such, so it's a bit of a pain to find. It does need some further mesh tweaking, but it does support out to Dragonborn, IIRC. In addition, you could look into some character creation slider expansions for vanilla (I can't recommend any, since I'm not too big on them), but that requires SKSE and a compatible body. Won't impact NPCs (the Bodyslide tool is used for that), but it impacts the PC.

... We're gonna need more information than that to go on. What, exactly, are you trying to do?

Ok, I followed the latter link as far as I could (some of the items didn't apply in my case, since I'm altering meshes worn on the player, not static pieces, and everything was more-or-less pre-filled), and I get the following error upon attempted export: "list index is out of range", with something about the python index reading 112. I'm using 2.79 of Blender. What's going on?

Yep, one of THOSE threads. So, after the seemingly-failure of my mod request (fell to page 2, no responses), I realized I'm going to have to bite the bullet and figure out how to alter meshes myself using proper meshmaking tools (since BodySlide is more of a sledgehammer than the scalpel I need it to be). So, I first tried using Blender, using information from this website here, to try and get it to read Skyrim meshes. However, attempting to load the Skyrim .nif afterwards failed to work (something about a code string being too long). In hindsight, it looks to be dated info since it says there's no Skyrim support, but my google searches failed to turn up more current information. So... how do I .nif? Should I be using Blender at all? And what setup/addons do I need for whatever program is the better option? I figure once I'm up and running, it's a relatively simple procedure afterwards in learning how to move the polygons, so I shouldn't need more help after I'm up-and-running.

Textures for .nif files (the meshes Skyrim uses) have their filepaths encoded into the mesh itself. The game reads that and applies the appropriate texture, regardless of where the mesh is placed, so long as those textures exist under the folder named "Textures" or are included in a .bsa archive. For example, if you use the above-mentioned method to replace the ancient nord swords with, say, the Nordic weapons added by the Dragonborn DLC, those weapons will still be using the Nordic weapon textures instead of the ancient nord weapon textures. So, if you're replacing the ancient nord weapons with modded weapons, be sure to include the mod's textures folder in the appropriate place (typically either Skyrim\Data or Skyrim\Data\Textures, depending on whether or not the mod already uses a folder named "textures").

So, we all probably know about the Amazing World of Bikini Armor- an armor mod developed for Bodyslide. 15 armor slots and eyecandy, etc., etc. It also stopped active development (which is why I'm asking here and not bugging the creator/current steward of it). One of the things that bugged me about it is the lack of support for Argonian and Khajit characters, in terms of the headgear. The meshes used were designed for human/elf, and it stopped there. So, wearing any of that headgear causes severe clipping. Yeah, I know, could use the regular helmet from the vanilla armors, but it just doesn't feel right, y'know? So, anyone familiar with meshes feel like altering the headgear meshes used in AWBA? Under normal circumstances, I'd do something like this myself, but I don't have the tools/programs to work with meshes, and Bodyslide feels fairly blunt for this sort of work (I've made the attempt. It wasn't pretty.) I don't want/need a compiled .esp (I can patch it into an .esp myself)- all I'd like is the mesh work done.

Yeah. And unnecessary, what with being able to reset skills after they hit 100, so you can keep leveling after the soft cap of 81. Early-game Skyrim is the hardest, but once you get some half-decent gear and an understanding of game mechanics, you'll find that it's not too punishing.