[Tutorial: 3ds Max Skinned Meshes Into Game]

Notice - please read first time (hidden in spoiler for tidiness)

 

OK, I just cracked it after a lot of trial and error on my part. I've noticed the same methods I've used here have kinda been mentioned throughout posts in the forum, but tracking them down and understanding them can be quite difficult! So I've documented my process here so that can get you from a skinned mesh (one that uses bones) in 3ds Max into a perfectly working model in Skyrim.

 

Firstly, I give no promises that this will work. I have done very little testing, but it was kind of a breakthrough moment that I thought worth documenting here.

 

Please note that this is just my process that I have to do for now. This is likely to become obsolete possibly very quickly, but for now it's a working process. Hopefully someone can make use of it for some good mods while we wait for an easier more streamlined method!

 

I don't claim to be an expert in this area. I've simply tried lots of things until they work. This may not be the best way of doing everything. I don't understand how everything with Skyrim nifs works, just if it does work or not! The steps here may likely require tweaking for your individual requirements.

 

I keep a lot of the steps to the point, so you'll partly need to know what you're doing already. If you don't fully understand a step, searching the forum can likely help.

 

Let's Begin

 

Tools you'll need:

1. NifSkope with Skyrim ini (or use Amorilia's, but may currently cause issues - thanks throttlekitty).
   
2. MaxTools 3.7.1 The forum post for this has unfortunately recently been merged and previously mentioned links are broken. This may change again soon, so I don't guarantee this link will work.
   
3. 3ds Max (obviously) - I'm using 2012 x64
   

Importing the mesh you wish to change

1. First find your mesh you want to edit. You'll need to extract the nif.
   
2. Make sure you have the required skeleton nif file extracted to the same directory. If you're unsure, import attempts will produce an error telling you which skeleton you need.
   
3. In 3ds Max, import your mesh with the following settings:
   http://i.imgur.com/AaDsF.png
   

 

Make your changes to your mesh.

It's your responsibility to ensure changes you make are valid: ensure the Skin has correct bone assignments and your UVW maps are good.

 

Exporting

Export with the following settings:

http://i.imgur.com/hXKk3.png

Ensure Generate Strips is off. We need NiTriShapeData, not NiTriStripsData.

Remove Extra Bones shouldn't be necessary if you correctly checked Remove Unused Bones on import.

 

Fixing with NifSkope

This is the most important bit and can be tricky.

 

1. Open the original non-edited mesh and your new edited mesh alongside each other. If you can't for some reason, just open each one as you need to.
   
2. Replacing the shader information with the original's:
   
   • This is important, otherwise your mesh probably won't appear at all. In your original, copy the branch of the BSLightingShaderProperty.
     
   • In your modified, delete the BSLightingShaderProperty branch, then paste the one copied. It won't be linked in correctly yet, so don't worry.
     
   • In the NiTriShape, find Property Link 1 (it's near the bottom) and input the node number of the pasted BSLightingShaderProperty.
     

[*]Fixing the mesh up: At this point your mesh still may not appear correctly in game. It'll likely have incorrect textures. Following steps are on your modified mesh unless stated:

• In your NiTriShapeData, find Has Normals. If this is Yes, double click the value to change it to No. I don't know why, but normals data it isn't needed and it's just adding a lot of redundant data to the file size. The importance of this step is uncertain, but it's probably worth doing. If you experience issues, try without. Update: Comment by Ghogiel (also mentions the need to recreate the BSdismember Modifier)
  
• Still in your NiTriShapeData, find Has Vertex Colors, and change it from No to Yes. If it was already Yes, it's likely you had accidentally checked Vertex Colors on export, which you shouldn't have done! I find this step is very important, as Skyrim needs the vertex colour information to render the texture properly; without it, my diffuse textures didn't appear (or they appeared black). If your mesh actually needs certain vertex colour information, I'm sorry I can't help at the moment. Update: Comment by Ghogiel

 

Finishing up

Save your nif and put it into the correct data folder in your Skyrim directory so the game uses it. You should now be done! Have a test and see if everything worked ok.

 

I hope this helps. I really cannot provide too much support for this, because even I don't fully understand it. But I hope my process, which I've found to work for me, will work for you too. And I apologise in advance if everyone finds that the method doesn't help when you actually do some serious modifications to your meshes. I haven't done so yet, so I can't guarantee it'll work right! But I hope the concepts will be a good base to work from.

 

Good luck and happy modding! :)

 

Thanks so much Vannus!!!!....it finally worked!

Been playing around with modding and i'm a little bit of an idiot so far recently.

Know enough to get me into trouble...anyway, your tutorial made it work!

wanted to enlarge thighs hips and breasts on a nude female....but couldn't find a decent mod except for CHSBHC which is excellent!

Just wanted to tweak things a bit and didn't think it would be complete rocket science? finding out it kinda is?!

Spent hours and hours....gonna give up until I read your tutorial, exactly what I needed! Thanks again for writing tutorial!

[companion quest "striking the heart" trouble?]

Thanks for your reply.....Yes, I cleared both towers...and keep going back thinking of the time element.

wonder if it has to be a full moon since it deals with werewolves?

 

I do have a mod that in 72 hours it equals a month....accelerates time.

As I'm getting more powerful in the game and it seems like nobody respawns anymore?

 

anyway.....the quest marker lands up in the river by the bank,

I went to everyplace near there thinking a cave is nearby?

thinking the place is a cave room underground?

 

anyway...thanks for trying to help

 

Still open to new ideas of anybody has an inkling of what is going on?

 

Might have to reload an old save, but hate to do that, cause I advanced a lot since then.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone for helping me with this topic

[companion quest "striking the heart" trouble?]

I'm having trouble with a companion quest "striking the heart" I'm to go to Valthiem towers and get rid of the silverhand leader.

I can go to the quest marker....and it ends up on the bank by the river, but nobody is there?

 

Do I have to go underground? or is this quest broken ?..or what?

 

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Focus the oculary?!]

Hi!...I'm in Mzulft Aedrome....on the quest for "Revealing the unseen"

I thought I activated the machine with my crystal and my NPC makes me think so too.

as I got the new quest for "focusing the oculary".

My frost and flames spells don't seem to do anything and I don't know what to line up with

the three button machine?

Any idea of what I should do?....or what I'm not doing?

Thanks

[Little problem in Mzulft]

I had the same problem. Go to the center and look above and place it above your head.

 

Hi!....having a problem here too!

I tried using my hot and cold spells everywhere and trying to line up the light beams to the pads?!

tried the three buttons too on the other side of the room......anything I'm doing wrong? or missing?

Thanks for any help