throttlekitty

Also, they'd have to do their own QA on each user mod. No-one would want a "Community DLC Pack" filled with bugs, crashes, "easter eggs" and incompatibilities. Much like "Can I be a moderator PLEAAAAAZZZZZZSSSSS" Bethesda would be overrun with "INCLUDE MY MODDDDDD" emails. Or the butthurtfiesta that might ensue when someone doesn't get their mod put into a DLC, or ends up being cut from a final release, etc. -Just another way it would put them in semi-bad standing with the community, IMO.

With the amount of reused assets, I think that Bethesda's usual "no content from other games" might not apply when it comes to F3>F:NV. It wouldn't be overkill to step up the nif version and re-export everything, but that also means that everything would need a proper QA once-over before handing it all over to Obsidian.

I'm having trouble thinking of much here, so I'll ask for a bit of clarification. Your opening post leaves a few things out, I think. So, you go to load a .nif file in the CS, navigate to Oblivion\Data\Meshes\Weapons\KS Mods\, and the file you are after does not appear in the list? -I don't think that the 'select a .nif file to load' dialog can filter anything BUT .nif, but check along the bottom that it's not filtering to another file type. This is a lot of its. Windows explorer gives you a broken link to the file in question? I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "broken link", can you explain this?

The .nif is not there? Where did you save it to? The game will only read .nif files from the [path to game]\Data\Meshes\ folder.

The final result in-game will be a triangulated model, so how Lightwave handles things up until final doesn't much matter. But to be more precise, what matters more in the end is the final vertex count.

I wouldn't get too caught up with the notion of "true" normal maps using MapZone; it still uses the same techniques as any other 2d Image > Normal map application does. With the exception of CrazyBump, but that's specialized for the task. But it is easy to pick and choose which parts that contribute to an image go into the normal map creation. (ex: highlights on a metal piece would cause odd lumps in the normal map, and shouldn't be included) This practice isn't any different than managing layers in something like Photoshop or GIMP. MapZones focus is creating procedural textures, which then can be baked into finalized images, or a game that uses this engine to generate the textures at runtime. I think gives people who think of themselves as "non-artistic" a leap into creating higher quality textures without actually "drawing" them. The approach is much the same as more traditional photoshop-like methods, say "draw a circle, bevel it inside, cut out a smaller circle inside this" becomes mathematical rather than dexterity-based. @roquefort: Many of us also throw minor surface detail into the mix, so 2d>normal is a godsend without needing to go all Zbrush crazy when it's not needed.

I'm not a blender person, but doesn't it display this in the status bar, upper right? The 2.5x version has a status window that sounds like it might act a bit like Maya's, one may be able to query in there.

It's helpful to drop the lighting on your model now and again to check the silhouette. In Maya, there's a hotkey to use scene lights, but if you haven't made any, the model is totally black with no shading- not sure how this can quickly be done in Blender.

Polycount Wiki: a growing treasure trove of information; in particular, the normal map section. For a *lot* of tips on sub-d modeling, check out the "How U model dem shapes?" thread at polycount as well. Marmoset Toolbag. It's nice to show off what you've made, Viewport shaders don't really touch on the ease and realtimey-ness of Toolbag.

Something you'll also hear a lot is "If it doesn't contribute to the silhouette, then it doesn't need to be there."

You've got it. You could also try booleans, but often the cleanup on that isn't worth the time.

It's nice to see a support section for art, but I think a generic 2d/3d section would do just fine. It's much easier to find/give help with a single subforum.

Polycount is kind of relative, it really depends on what you're making. (slight) Overkill would be: 30 faces on a cube when 6 would do, or a 24 sided cylinder for a tin can clutter piece.

I've written an article that sort of touches on this: http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18566 The files also include all of Scanti's apps for working with facegen files. In your case, EGTPacker can un/pack the images in the .egt file. Aside from the actual facegen software, one can't easily create these images, they're mostly mathematically generated. However, there are two other choices. 1) Use one of the Blank EGT files: These are just black images, and give the facegen texture sliders nothing to do. This can be handy for personalized character face textures, but not handy for in-game customization options for players for a custom race. 2) Use texture baking to transfer the .egt images from the stock head to your custom one. Depending on what shape your head is, you may need to adjust the stock head to better suit the shape of your new one to get a good bake. (This is the method I used when I made Head06) 3) Oops, I guess there are three! Just make the UV mapping of your head match that of the stock head and use the .egt for that head.

What OS are you using?

I just had a look at xNormal's texture baking, looks pretty straightforward. Check the basic tutorials for the basic setup for normal mapping, it's just the same; load high and low poly models in the appropriate slots. In this case, use the vanilla head for the 'high poly' and Head06 as the 'low poly' (source gets baked to target) In the baking options, only check Base Texture, and you should be good to go. If you get any bake errors (shouldn't though, the two are closely matching enough), you may have to go back to the low poly/Head06 and adjust the ray distance, or go with xNormal's cage editor.

Hey, lookin' good there!

Great tips, thanks for sharing!

I think every app has a method for resetting the skeleton, so it's not much to worry about. (actually, I don't think that reposing the skeleton would harm anything, other games using the .nif format have their characters/outfits in full on poses rather than the usual T or A frame that we're used to seeing.)

If you're just wanting to preview or check your skinning work, you can pose and animate to your hearts content; just be sure to reset the skeleton back to the bind pose before export.

I believe the alien blaster has an animation on the material for controlling the glow. I'd probably detach the power cell from it, and attach a new, static one.

Did you change anything other than the texture size setting?

Polycount is kind of relative; ideally you want it as low as possible, but it's also easier for modders to get away with using more. In Oblivion, I saw some scenes pulling 1.5 million polys on screen, and still going strong at 30fps. (although I did run across a few weapons with grossly high polycounts that really trashed my game when I looked at them, but this was rare to run across.) Fallout 3 uses some newer tricks for keeping the scenes running more optimal (rooms and portals), so interior performance is great. Things that are more likely to cause a large impact are excessive use of fancy shaders, or loads of layered transparency. I'm pretty sure I read that the Bethesda devs aren't given strict poly budgets, just general guidelines. Yes, you can safely remove the unseen faces without causing problems. You could arbitrarily remove faces from any part of a mesh without the game getting unhappy with you for doing so.

It can be fixed, it's just a matter of effort. :)

Sorry TG, but I really gotta call you on the investigation part since your words ironically harsh. (oh, the misinformation too) :D I've been mulling over how to best handle fixing the neck seam issues. With the stock head and body, the models themselves don't totally match up, and a couple of the body mods have similar issues. The wrists should be relatively easy. The biggest problem on the texturing side, is that there's 53 textures that make up what you see. (color, normal, specular, and the 50 facegen textures inside the .egt files). technically the .egt files for the vanilla body and head models *should* already be matching, but I've a feeling that the aforementioned problems with the models may have skewed that result. (especially since very few female chars in the game have matching pieces...) That said, it's a fairly labor intensive process, and custom bodies just complicates things. :) I've a thread on another forum exploring some of the possibilities on this topic, I hope something good comes from it. coronerra: Luchaire made an awesome set of .egts that come very close to eliminating the seam in Oblivion.