The SH0CKER

I'd untick the 'auto smooth mesh' if that re-applies smoothing. You want to keep the default smoothing such as not to generate shadowing at the mesh boundary.

It doesn't look like there is anything wrong with the nifs, so maybe there is a limit on how many separate rigged trishapes you can have. How many trishapes did you have in your other helmet? If it is less, then try having the same number for yours and re-export.

your model in game has no UV mapping data attached to it. You'll have to UV map it then paint it again and it will work.

Then you'll have to start using the weight painting tool and rig the model to the skeleton. Either that or use the Skin Wrap modifier and copy over the rigging from another model.

Under the Skin Modifier click on Edit Envelopes and click on each of the bones. In the viewport the areas around the bones on the model should have colours ranging from red to orange to blue.

Either select the vertices at the interface between the torso and leggings and break/un-weld them or select the polygons making up the parts and detach them using the polygon tools.

Might be a silly question, but do you have the game skeleton for the Scorpion in 3ds Max, have a Skin modifier on your model and have it weighted to it?

From my experience with this, provided each of your nitrishapes has its skin instance set up correctly and matching with the creation kit, it should work. Invisibility does seem to be entirely down to the skin instance. Having multiple meshes using the same skin instance doesn't seem to be a problem as well. However, things I would check/change in the nif: try using 130 for the body part instead of 131. In your BSlightingshaderproperty, check whether shader flags 1 has sf_skinned ticked. Screenshots of say your nif structure showing skin instance, lightingshaderproperty etc as well as anything from Blender ( export settings etc ) would help - I can't help much with Blender as I'm a Max user.

Model rigged and in game: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/marvelshocker/2014-07-03_00004.jpg http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/marvelshocker/2014-07-03_00006.jpg http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/marvelshocker/2014-07-03_00007.jpg

As far as I can tell, when you set the collar in your cuirass nif to 30 the whole head is missing when you equip the helm. The only way I think it will work is if you pretend it is hair, such that when the helmet is equipped the hair is recognised to be hidden, assuming it doesn't mess up the hair of the player.

The _m texture is an environment mask used in conjunction with a cube/environment map, whereas the alpha channel of the normal map contains the normal map.

Are you using that in the alpha channel of the normal map?

This has been a constant problem for me ever since I started using rigged meshes, mainly because there was no apparent reason for the mesh breaking on export. Considering how annoying it is, and how you won't find information on this easily, I thought I'd make a topic providing a reason: The engine's requirement of having a maximum of 4 bones per vertex is the cause. If any vertex in your Skin modifier is weighted to more than 4 bones, the face associated with it gets the appearance of flipped normals or perhaps more accurately a major Draw Call error.

The shine is controlled in the BSlightingshaderproperty object in the nif. By default, the specularity glossiness setting is set at one ( completely shiny ). Increasing the value to say 50 will make the specularity more reasonable (larger numbers result in lower specularity).

You have only replaced the inventory model and not the game model, which I think has the suffix "go".

It sounds like the meshes are displaying the normal map file as the Diffuse texture. You will need to edit the paths of the textures in your nif files so that the first slot in the textureset points to your diffuse (_d) texture. If that is correctly setup then perhaps the diffuse is actually missing and you'll have to place one into the textures folder.

Finished the UV Mapping. I think I have reproduced the paint job reasonably faithfully: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/marvelshocker/IronManV1Render1.png http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/marvelshocker/IronManV1Render2.png

If you have added new geometry to the game mesh, i.e added new vertices and polygons, you will need to uv map the model again as the new polygons won't be mapped correctly. Also, recalling the last time I looked at the meshes, your nifs with your weighted meshes should be split up into torso, hands, boots and helmet. So you shouldn't have say the hands in the same nif as the torso.

The UV mapping is nearly finished. There is just the chest and arms to do. Unfortunately, my rendered normal maps only worked once with the helmet and I'll need to figure out how to get them to render out properly again.

UV mapping, turbo smoothing using smoothing groups and rendering the normals to texture seems to work. It provides some control over the edges while mapping one to one with the game mesh's UVs. With regards to texture, to achieve the car paint finish of his suit, It's going to need a balance of cube map, spec and normal. I don't think I'll be putting scratches on it as it isn't supposed to be battle damaged, plus all the suits start out with prestine paint jobs of course. After looking over the texture sets for Skyrim, it seems I can't actually use a cube map with a glow map. To achieve the glow I think I'm going to have to detach the glowing parts and turn some sort of emissivity modifier in nifskope on for the separate meshes. Hopefully that won't become a problem when the time comes for rigging.

When you have finished uv mapping you need to save the image of your uv template. The uvw file just contains your mapping data for your model and can't be used to texture with. In 3ds Max for instance, within the UV editor there is a render uvw template option. Your 3D software should have something equivalent if you aren't using Max.

My plan was always to just produce the game model and not to make a high poly, do retopology and bake the normals onto the low poly. Firstly, I've seen it done but I lack the skills in Mudbox\Zbrush to go do that. Secondly, I wager that the difference from having baked normals on an already reasonably detailed mesh ( at about 25k polys ) isn't going to be particularly pronounced. If I was modelling something more organic looking, I'd most likely go and make a base mesh and then attempt\learn to sculpt in Mudbox etc

To texture a model you need to UV map it (a process in which all the faces of a model are effectively laid flat upon an image allowing you to paint them ). Depending on what 3D software you're using, I'd search youtube for UV mapping tutorials for your particular software. If you don't have software for painting, something like GIMP will do the job for you and it's free.

I've pretty much finished the model now: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/marvelshocker/IronManWIPRender12.png http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/marvelshocker/IronManWIPRender13.png http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/marvelshocker/IronManWIPRender15.png http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/marvelshocker/IronManWIPRender14.png Now it needs to be UV mapped and made game ready.

I think the texture is going to be very much reliant on the mesh detail and the environment map. After all, the whole model is supposed to be made of highly polished and machined metal parts.