DiodeLadder

That's very kind of you, thank you! They may look complicated if you haven't done animations, but once you understand the concept (take your time - I know I did, lol), what I did in those assets isn't very complicated. One thing that may not be obvious is animating the UV coordinates in 3DS. In the video example, the belts and moving cloth in the middle are done by animating the UV offsets. Take a look at some of the tutorials available on YouTube for "UV animation" in 3DS (using "material" modifier, and animating offsets from there). This did not need any extra Gamebryo specific steps, so you can just follow those videos and they'll work.

It was a straight export (PE Anim) for me. Here's a couple of my assets made using the waveform controller : By the way, you need to make sure to do "Export Selected" rather than just "Export". It randomly screws stuff up otherwise, because 3ds is a seriously weird piece of software, lol. To apply morph tag and all, take a look at one of those animated door tutorials. Some of those tutorials contain mistakes (Mass should be zero for keyframed object, Quality Type should be "keyframed Reporting" rather than just "keyframed")., but they tell you how to do proper Gamebryo animation exporting process. As for Blender, I make collision meshes in it, and create all the parent/child hierarchy (so that I don't have to do them in 3DS), but there's no nif plugin for it. I use FBX to go from Blender -> 3DS. With Blender you need to : 1. Set Units to "Metric", Unit Scale to 0.01, Length to "Centimeter", then you set the 3ds Max Units to 1 Unit = 1 cm. This way, you will have 1:1 scale compatibility between the 2 software. 2. When Exporting an FBX from Blender, make sure the orientation is "Y Forward / Z Up", and change Geometry / Smoothing to "Face" rather than "Normals Only". 3. Sharp edges created in Blender need to be split using "Edge Split" modifier because 3ds uses a really archaic "Smoothing Group" system which is not compatible with other software. These 3 points are what made my models to show up correctly in 3ds. It maybe over your head if you are just starting, but hopefully it'll make sense after spending some time in both software. Good luck with your project. :smile:

For static meshes, if you already have specific collision meshes made for them, you could change the "shape type" property to "mesh" (default is "convex hull") as this would give you the exact collision mesh you've made when exported. I think Convex Hull, or Capsule are more appropriate for dynamic physics objects, like stuff you can drop. By the way, if you look in the Collision Layer section of CK, it will tell you the colors used for collision meshes showing in viewport + F4. You could use this info as a reference to determine the appropriate collision object types for your custom assets.

For animating simple machines in 3ds Max, this tutorial was very helpful for me :

Hello guys, I was assuming flagging an object as "Non Occluder" in the Static object edit window is for not including it in visibility generation, but that's not the case? Or is that for line of sight stuff?

Hello orangedeal, You need to create a new weather with your own lighting setting, and create a new region with this newly created weather assigned. (I'm pretty sure there was an inverted FX light region with whitish light from Bethesda, though. Try any of the FX light region with "invert" in the name.) How to : 1) Create a new weather. 2) On the left side there's a tetris like grid. Click on the "Effect Lighting" row. (This is the only row needs to be edited for this purpose) 3) In the cells that say "EarlySunrise", "LateSunset" etc., you'd find color setting. These colors are your FX light for those time period. Edit them to your liking. Hit OK and exit editor. 4) Open Region Editor by clicking on pulldown menu at the top "World", and choose "Regions..." 5) In the Region Editor, choose the worldspace you are in, and right click on the region list, choose "New Region" and create your FX light region. 6) Choose this new region, and click on the weather tab, enable this type of data. 7) Assign the weather you created. You can now choose this region in the exterior light emittance menu in the object ref editor.

Hello pepperman, Bethesda aligns it close to the edge. In CK, you can hit F4 in viewport and check how the collision mesh looks on vanilla assets (Red = Static, Cream White = Stair Helper). Bethesda uses shape set to convex hull on a plane, I think, and resulting helper mesh is a volume. I've been using plane + shape set to "mesh", though, and it works just fine (less triangles).

Ah, so that wasn't a chain link fence, lol. Sorry about that. :tongue: The opacity map is supposed to be packed into the alpha channel of _d.dds (diffuse), and diffuse map need to be encoded in BC3 or higher. The _d.dds map uses RGBA format (Red, Green, Blue, Alpha = 4 channels of 8 bit data), and this "A" channel is where your opacity map should go to. I don't know how the channel editing works in GIMP, but I assume there's a way to paste grayscale data into a channel like in other image editing software. There are quite a few people using GIMP for texture editing, so hopefully someone who know would chime in. I am guessing the opacity map in your case would make the cutout for the the frames only. I think it is better in this case to use 2 meshes : 1 for glass (BGEM), and 1 for frame (BGSM), so that the frame would look more solid and give the asset more dimension. Right now you have the alpha blend additive on the whole thing, so the frame won't look solid. If you have downloaded the texture from the net somewhere, you might want to see if the normal map of your texture is in DirectX or OpenGL (this should be noted on the source website). Most 3d software uses normal map in OpenGL format, while Fallout 4 uses DirectX normal. If you use OpenGL normal in Fallout 4, your texture may look like it's getting light from a wrong direction. If you have the normal in OpenGL, you would need to invert the Green channel of your normal map.

I don't see the alpha working on that mesh. That looks like a solid plane with uniform opacity. Alpha Test & threshold : this will "test" the alpha map (gray scale, 8 bit, 0 - 255) against the threshold value. If the gray scale value is lower than the threshold, that part of map won't be visible. This is basically an On/Off switch, and is what you want for chain link fence. Fallout 4 engine uses BC3 and above for Alpha (full 8 bit). BC1 hack is not used in the vanilla Fallout 4 texture with alpha, as far as I know. Simple Alpha Test doesn't use BGEM, by the way. Take a look at Bethesda's chain link fence material. About vertex color : I think vertex color is blended with "multiply" in-game. It is often used as "fade to black" effect on meshes. It's also used for darkening the cracks on glass material, like for that BldGlassNoBarTrans nif, which has vertex color values of R = 128, G = 128, B = 128 (middle gray). BldGlassNoBarTrans uses Alpha Blend + Additive BGEM. This is not what you want for chain link fence.

I've looked at those .nif files, and just like niston said, the UVs themselves are different on 6 meshes. This method is better than having 6 different material files with UV offsets because one material file will add one draw call. Fewer material files loaded = better optimized scene. So, if you are adding another texture set of 6 posters and want to see different parts, just pick the mesh with the UV in the right coordinates as a base.

I completely forgot to mention this : http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/outliner?page=1 This Max addon Outliner is cleaner and works much better than the 3ds Max 2013 scene explorer. The download link is actually in the comment section, look for the attachment in one guy's comment (that's the only good download link on the net - other ones didn't work for me).

If you are trying to learn 3d modeling, I'd recommend doing that in Blender instead, and use Max for exporting to the final .nif files. To make Blender compatible when exporting FBX to Max : 1) Units must be set to "Metric", Unit Scale to 0.01, Length to "Centimeters". This will perfectly match the unit scale of 3ds Max and Creation Kit, 1:1. 2) Orientation is always Y Forward and Z Up, importing to, or exporting from Blender. (Except when importing FBX exported from Creation Kit, in which case you need to set it as -Y Forward and -Z Up, since this FBX type has a rotation modifier meant for 3ds Max. FBX export from CK, press F2, is a very useful feature if you are creating a custom settlement border mesh, for example. Using this will require understanding of object parent-child hierarchy in 3d software.) 3) Smoothed face normals won't be imported into 3ds Max properly most of the time, because that software has a weird system called "Smoothing Groups" which is proprietary to them. To ensure the export from Blender would be compatible, you need to use "Edge Split" modifier (set it by angle if you have auto smooth, otherwise split by sharp edges). All the parenting and use of dummy (I use Plain Axis) in Blender created FBX will be imported properly in 3ds Max. Meaning, you can do almost all the work in Blender. (Changing unit scale in Blender will break its physics engine. So, if you are using cloth simulation, you need to temporarily change the Unit System setting to "None", and change it back after the process is done.)

A dummy with nothing parented to it will be automatically deleted by the Nif Exporter, I believe, unless you specify not to. To keep it : 1) Right click on the object in 3DS Max and bring up "Object Properties". 2) Click on "User Defined" tab and in the text field, type in : sgoKeep = 1 I don't know if this particular node needs more steps, but at least for weapons, needed nodes are created this way using the BGS Nif Exporter (weapon export script would convert them according to the names).

Wow, finally there's a concrete info on this. Thank you so much for this, SKK. :thumbsup: I'm going to check out your Target Dummy mod later. This is going to be very helpful for tuning gun damages. :laugh:

Hello kalevala17, I wrote a tutorial to create collision volume through use of SCOL a long time ago here : https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/8002618-how-do-modders-handle-nif-collisions-these-days/&do=findComment&comment=73541303 It's not the official way, but it works fine. You'd probably want to create a static version of an item you can pickup (like one of those junk items), and make an SCOL with your recon scope. The last object you select while creating an SCOL will be the source of the SCOL object origin. Nice thing about using SCOL to steal collision is that you can freely resize, rotate, and combine them in CK. I'd recommend keeping the collision mesh as simple as possible, since this will affect the game performance. I've used multiple object in the tutorial example, just to make a point about combining objects to get more complex collision, but if this was a real project, I'd just use a simple cube. If I were you, though, I'd just stick with how Bethesda did it with the mod object box in vanilla game, because that box would be far easier to find and pick up than the tiny object like recon scope. Good luck with your project.

Hello Masterflylie, Those textures are called "PorkpieHat_", and you can find them in Clothes/Tuxedo folder. You can use NifSkope to examine the Nif, and you will be able to find out about textures like this : I hope this helps.

Hello redfandango, As Zorkaz said, the barter menu is tied to actors but what you can do is to create a dummy NPC whose sole purpose is to act as a vendor when your vending machine is activated. 1. Create a dummy vendor NPC and a vendor faction. (I have the "essential" and "unique" boxes ticked here, but this is completely unnecessary.) 2. Create a dummy interior cell to house this dummy NPC vendor and the vendor chest. The cell doesn't have to be functional. Just something to hold the NPC and the chest. 3. Create an activator to access this dummy vendor NPC. The vendor NPC and the activator share the same name for consistency when bringing up the barter menu. 4. Attach a script to this activator. This script example plays a sound FX, and then opens a barter menu with the dummy vendor NPC. I think I had to disable player control while the sound FX played so that the player won't move once it is activated. Once this thing is activated in game, it will directly show the barter menu associated with the dummy NPC. I hope this helps.

Most game engines use something called Back-face Culling to render meshes : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-face_culling These are what I found from quickly doing a google search. You might find better explanations somewhere else. Anyway, that's where I'd start with troubleshooting your case.

Having looked at my post in the linked thread, looks like I forgot to mention that the Keyword has to be configured with Type = Instantiation Filter. With object template and instantiation filter, you can even spawn legendary weapons without using quests and form lists. That's how Silver Shroud SMG is configured (look at the object template in Submachine Gun). I think this is a much simpler method if it can fit your project.

There's a 3DS Max Havok Animation importer/exporter : https://lukascone.wordpress.com/2019/03/21/havok-3ds-max-plugin/ github : https://github.com/PredatorCZ/HavokMax https://github.com/PredatorCZ/HavokLib I wonder if this would help? I don't know if it's compatible with havok implementation in Fallout 4. If you can eliminate the dependency on 3ds Max 2013/14, BadPup, you'll be remembered as a saint who performed a miracle on Fallout 4 modding community. :laugh: I really appreciate that you are taking time to look into this. I was going to get the Max indie license as soon as it was available where I live, but then found out that Autodesk would allow users to run only the recent 3 versions. Obtaining a legal copy of Max 2013 is pretty much impossible now. :confused:

It is definitely slow, and not only that, it's the part that is most likely to crash (always save before opening actor editor). I have 32 GB RAM here, but I don't think that matters. I highly do not recommend editing face gen data in CK, because your actor will look very different in game engine. I use in-game character editor + FaceRipper to create faces for NPCs, and it works great.

Hello Sammy, In Blender, did you make sure the orientation of faces for your meshes are correct? In the Viewport Options, make sure you check "Backface Culling". This will show only the side of mesh you will see in the game engine. You could also use "Face Orientation" option in Viewport Overlay panel. This will show the faces in correct orientation in blue, wrong ones in red. Make sure you check both high and low poly mesh. (Edit) Also make sure your high poly mesh is not bigger than the cage you are using when baking.

Here's what it says on Wiki : So, rigged. Looks like it's based on OutfitStudio.

Thank you so much for making this, BadPup! Being able to import NIF with bones will be very useful to many people. :thumbsup:

"Alpha Test" works by telling GPU not to draw the pixels with alpha value below "Alpha Test Reference". (Take a look at the material file) Bethesda DDS format is 8 bit, and therefore each RGBA channels have values ranging 0 - 255. When you check these channels individually, they will be expressed in greyscale images in image editors like PS. If you have the Alpha Test Reference = 128, for example, a greyscale value of less than 128 in Alpha channel will tell the GPU to not draw this part. By the way, the RBGA channels are just a way to store 4x greyscale values in one file. For example, _s files in Bethesda DDS have Specular and Gloss values expressed in greyscale as 2 separate images, packed into red and green channels of one DDS file (so that they can load one DDS file instead of two).