ResolveThatChord

Nice contribution! A lot of modders recommend simply learning Blender 2.49 because it has the .nif scripts. It's a shame because keeping up with more current tech can open up all kinds of opportunities for new kinds of projects.

Nice work!

If you've never made a model and imported it into the game, the best and simplest thing to start with is a sword. A sword requires you to model the object, UV unwrap it, texture it, do nifskope sorcery to it, and put it in the CK. With armour/creature meshes, you need to do all that PLUS vertex weighting which requires a lot more effort and is trickier to import. Buildings don't need vertex weights but they do need collision which I'm not sure has been solved yet, and they require you to be very clever with your UV maps. As for tips? -Before you start UV mapping, make sure your topography is as clear and clean as possible. Good topography can save hours of work and frustration when UV unwrapping and texturing, and a good UV map helps make better looking textures. -Export vanilla buildings and other meshes to get an idea of how Bethesda do it. You can learn a lot this way. -Information/tutorials on mod-specific skills like importing and exporting tend to be incomplete, eclectic and spread thin. when you want to learn something put your project aside and make a simple model that will definitely work with the tutorial you find. -Also check out the Enclave modding school at TESA. -Good luck!

Funny thing is that scanning directly from real life is actually less realistic than doing it by hand. Even if you had the computer power to render something like Gollum in real time, with all his attendant physical simulation and sub-surface scattering, and a scanner/camera that picked up a real, moving object with equal detail, it wouldn't end up looking as good as say, Skyrim. This is the same kind of problem we have with rotoscoped or motion capture animation: tracing from real life gives you movements that read poorly and look weak. It takes and artist who understands the principles of animation to edit them into something decent. As for textures, there's all kind of information you need to make a realistically textured model that photographs can't really give you. The reflectiveness, the glossiness; all the optical properties of an object that work together to make that image aren't retained.

I think I'd enjoy some discussion on how it would work mechanically. Traditionally videogame bosses have some kind of pattern of attacks that you have to evade or outmanoeuvre, and a window of vulnerability in which they can be safely harmed. Some very satisfying boss fights exist in games where evading attacks is an essential part of the combat,and I think designing such bosses would be a good approach. However, you can't dodge in Skyrim, and you often can't block. I find though that the most fun and best designed bosses are the kind that aren't all about pattern recognition and skill, but rather puzzle solving. My favourites would be the bosses from Shadow of the Colossus, but again these are not at all suited to Skyrim's engine or gameplay mechanics. I'm very curious to know how you are going to attempt to create entertaining boss fights using Skyrim's mechanics. Could you explain it? It's a very interesting problem to me. Also, I have heard that Darkrider's "Reclaiming Sancre Tor" for Oblivion had some well designed bosses for Bethesda's engine, although I haven't personally tried that one yet. You might want to give it a look.

Check out the releases for the CK Basics final exams at TESA, there's some really impressive stuff: http://tesablog.tesalliance.org/?p=1668 I'm personally a big fan of Riverside Retreat by Maddox.

It is indeed possible. Brokefoot made a tutorial: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/635550-showracemenu-data-export-to-npc/

Well, do you have a kitchen already? They're heaps of fun to make; plenty of resources to choose from. You may also try an indoor garden; my house mod had a little mushroom garden which worked quite well I think, especially if you get creative with custom lights. And insects.

Collision has been very tricky. You can create convex collision (statics only afaik) quite easily in nifskope following part 4 of this tutorial. However, I've also come across a promising tute for creating arbitrary custom collision meshes, which is fantastic, but I have yet to try it. Check it out here if you're feeling adventurous. Good luck!

Check out the CK basics course at TESA, that's a great place to start.

Nice work!

Okay, if you want to put it from blender 2.5x into blender 2.49 for .nif import, that's super easy; all you need to do is use the "append" feature. If you want to get it from 2.63+ into 2.49, then it's a little more complex. 2.63 has Bmesh, which has completely rewritten a lot of stuff, and the bottom line is that appending it to a non Bmesh version will not communicate the UVs, or the faces. You'll end up with a mesh entirely made of edges, and no UV data. Luckily there's a workaround: export to another format (like .obj) and import it in the non-Bmesh version. (just remember that .obj doesn't retain vertex weight data). Have fun! :teehee: By the way, your mesh looks great. Nice topology.

Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware we are currently unable to make collision of any kind, except for convex collision for statics (NOT havoked things like items). This is handled entirely in nifskope; you'll find details here, in part 4. Luckily there's a very simple workaround for havoked items: Copy the collision from a similar-shaped vanilla .nif.

Okay, the method you described works for weighted meshes (armour, creatures, characters), but not non-weighted meshes (weapons, statics, clutter). If you want to import a weapon/unweighted mesh, open nifskope and simply cllick flie, export, Export .obj, and choose the directory you want to save it to. Then in Blender (or max, I suppose. may work differently) click file, import, wavefront(.obj), select the file you just exported from nifskope, and bob's yourr uncle. This will also work for weighted meshes, BUT the vertex weight data will be lost, meaning it will no lpnger animate.

Nice work! What programs did you use? What's the polycount? Also: Red tie! Red tie!

Could be wrong, but those yellow lines sure look like a collision mesh. Collision meshes aren't needed for armour (unless it's the ground version); check to see if there's a bhkCollisionOPbject in the .nif, and if so, remove that branch. I've yet to try exporting weighted meshes using the .3DS import. Usually I follow the tutorials and append to blender2.49 for .nif export. Let me know how it goes!

Yes, the script is a great place to start from, but it won't do all the work for you. Like all things, it'll get faster the more comfortable you become with it. Perhaps, if blender can create vertex groups from envelope weights, it would be possible to create a armature that weights the mesh... I think I may look into this.

Yep, replacing creature meshes is a similar process to creating custom armour. You'll need to create meshes with vertex weights and export them into skyrim .nifs, which is a rather advanced process. You'll need Max or blender 2.49 (blender 2.5/2.6 don't have nif export scripts yet, which are needed for weighted meshes), the nif scripts, and nifskope. If you have no 3D modelling experience, my advice would be to put your flying whale idea for one side now and get comfortable with the tools, then make a sword, which is a much simpler project that will teach you skills needed for more advanced projects.

"Rigging" refers to in this case parenting the mesh to an armature and giving it vertex weights corresponding to the bones you want to affect it. You did it, but there's more to it than just waving the magic wand/script. Copy Bone Weights is a useful shortcut script, but it can't do all the work for you. Have a look for a tutorial on weight painting; it can be tedious work but... well, it builds character.

Well, I think I might make a custom crossbow. And it's quite possible that the crossbow animations could be adapted to rifles, which I'm sure a lot of people would like.

Did you model that? Because that it some nice topology.

Lanceor knows all about working on a mod for several years. If you're planning to create a mod of any size, it's wise to plan it so that you can do ALL the legwork. If you manage to acquire team members, expect to do NEARLY ALL of the legwork. By no means should you ever deny your creative impulses. By all means, give this a shot, but trust us when we say what you're proposing is too big. My advice would be to consider the core conceit of your mod idea, and cut away everything that does not contribute to or reinforce it. Merge characters, merge locations, use vanilla/existing modders' resources wherever you can. Take your idea and cut away at it: it'll be a better design, clearer in your mind, easier to create and more fun for everyone to play. Better yet, put the idea to one side and learn the skills you'll need to make it. Head over to TESA and do a course on the Creation Kit or Papyrus. Make smaller mods; studies in a particular, neccessary skills.

Nice work, loving the pattern welding. How do you create the texture for that? Because I would love to create some Damascus steel/ Mokume Gane stuff myself.

Fantastic! Glad I could help.

Yeah, exporting is the boring part, it's true, but once you've learned it you can do it quite quickly and easily. One of the best tutorials on getting a custom weapon in-game is this one. It's especially good because it can be done without having to bother with blender 2.4, or the .nif export scripts. I took a look at your blog; you've got some very promising stuff. I like the axe. If you want to lose the blockiness where all the faces are distinct, set it to "shade smooth", and use an edgesplit modifier and "mark sharp" the edges you don't want to be smooth. Just remember to apply the modifier before exporting.