Skree000

they are nif files located in meshes/effects/muzzleflashes/ open in nifskope to do simple things like change color, texture, scale etc or delete parts. To do major changes such as reshape them, etc youll need to import the nif into blender or max, then back out again and back into nifskope, reassemble and resave. I just did muzzleflash work last night so its fresh in my mind :)

that sounds cute :) typically when people request stuff they post in the Fallout3Mod Requests section. Maybe this thread can get moved there so it will get noticed sooner by people with free time looking for ideas :) usually the mod talk forum is for people already working on mods seeking help or advice or such

that would be cool... and quite possible i think. script that forces them to drop their weapons, play a 'hands raised up' animation, and give up when HP reaches a certain % for example. Yeah thats doable

great! yes, normal maps are usually greyscale in R and G channels. B channel is usually pure white unless in rare cases. Most diffuse colormaps usually have atleast a little blue in them, this is what causes total borked-ness when a diffuse is plugged in as normal. Any 'black' regions on the diffuse will be black in all channels, R G and B. This ends up screwing with the renderer, since having black in all channels means it would be in continual shadow. Its actually a cool hacked way of making glowmaps glow in the dark, but go dark in the light. If you ever wanted to have a glowy watch-face or something that only lights up in dark areas :)

dude those are awesome. With some ace animations those would be real strong competitors for best original creature. serious. just need to take practice animation, or get someone to animate em. They look very impressive as is, but with some super duper animations they will come to live with character and spirit!

you could do it through a particle, but i believe in that example it is a lens + material effect. Sword meshes material is designated as a trail-generating surface, so when it moves a trail is left behind. (but a postprocess lens effect must be enabled on the viewport i believe)... although im kinda talking out of my ass making guesses... Ill ask one of our graphics programmers at work tomorrow and see if he has some thoughts on the issue. Through particles is possible but i dont think that example was done that way since the trails are so smooth, like silk! perhaps if there was hundreds of particles per second it could be smooth like that, but that would be alot of processing.... ill ask anyways :)

try begin onadd instead of gamemode

supposedly 'that guys mods' were actually other peoples mods that he passed off as his own ;)

was your game running when you tried to edit the file? try closing the game, closing geck, then edit the file if that doesnt work try editing the file properties and uncheck read-only

you are looking at skeleton.nif in nifskope right? thats the biped fallout3 uses. Any rotation or range of motion information would be in there. as far as i know the actual ragdoll physics is part of the havok physics it uses. not sure how to get at that stuff though.

what you are seeing there is the new models with vanilla textures applied. This occurs when fallout3 is not 'allowed' to look for custom content. To enable fallout3 to recognize custom content, you can do as Ryuukon said above... and ALSO Make sure "bInvalidateOlderFiles=0" is set to "=1" in your fallout.ini file. (located in MyDocuments/Mygames/Fallout3/ )

yeah texture set is like this 1. Diffuse/Color 2. Normal (_n) with Specular in the Alpha of that texture 3. Glowmap (_g) 4. (not sure) 5. Cubemap/Environment Map 6. Cubemap/Environment Map Mask a cube map or environment map is a texture of a picture that you would see 'reflected' across whatever surfaces are 'masked out' by the texture in 6. 5. can be a full color texture of anything, usually its best to make a proper cubemap for those, but a blurry or bizarre random shape can often produce interesting results too. 6. is a grayscale map that defines what parts of your mesh will show the 'cubemape/enviromap'. Black wont show it, white will. Grey and middle values are gradual blends. If the texture is a 32 bit TGA, or a DX5-compressed DDS, it will have an alpha channel, which is basically an additional channel, (in addition to red, green and blue). In a normal map, since red and green contain updown and leftright light information, (blue is usually blank white in Tangentspace normal maps), the alpha channel is free, and Bethesda likes to stash their Specular maps in there. That way it saves memory since theres only 1 texture used for both purposes :)

oh btw, just thought of something. If you want to use FOSE (fallout script extender) you can probably do this with just 1 script. Using FOSE's equipped slots reference commands along with the 'GetEquippedObject' you can make a script that checks to see when you equip those particular items., you can make a script that basically does this scriptname testscript begin onequip if player.GetEquippedObject 0 == "Name of Helmet" && player.GetEquippedObject 2 == "Name of Shirt" >cast enchantment on player< else if >remove enchantment from player< endif end Each piece of armor in this set would have that script fed into the 'script' slot of its properties, and it would work. like i said, this syntax is probably ALL wrong so dont rely on that. But that should give you some ideas. (all youd need to do is lookup proper syntax :) btw here are the equipment slot refs: Equipment Slot IDs 0: head 1: hair 2: upper body 3: left hand 4: right hand 5: weapon 6: pip boy 7: backpack 8: necklace 9: headband 10: hat 11: eyeglasses 12: nosering 13: earrings 14: mask 15: choker 16: mouth object 17: body addon 1 18: body addon 2 19: body addon 3 you can read more about them here: http://fose.silverlock.org/fose_command_doc.html

oh on second thought, if all you want to do is disable the eyes from the mod try opening the mod up in geck Look in the "Eyes" section near the top of the objects list Click the eyes you want to disable, then un-check the 'Playable' box. This should prevent you from picking it in game. NOTE: I HAVE NOT tested this out myself, but im guessing this should work for ya :) backup the esp before you do this, and make sure (when you open it up in geck) you set the eyes and hair mod as 'active' (so that it saves to THAT mod, not your root Fallout3.esm or something like that) (hope you have a little Geck experience)

ok this is possible, just need to make a few scripts. im no scripting master, but im going to take some guesses here and assume it works something like this: You will need -one script for each piece of armor -one master script that keeps track of whether or not your armor pieces are enabled Each armor piece has its own script that would basically have a Value in it. for example: Gloves script scriptname Glovesscript short glovesconfirm begin onequip set glovesconfirm to 1 end begin onunequip set glovesconfirm to 0 end Each piece of armor could have a tiny script like that for it. Now, to tie all those together youd need a master script, that references all of the little ones. All that script would need to do is make some checks like this: scriptname masterscript if glovesscript.glovesconfirm == 1 && shirtscript.shirtconfirm == 1 && helmetscript.helmetconfirm == 1 && pantsscript.pantsconfirm == 1 >cast enchantment on player< else if >remove enchantment from player< end if end now, bear in mind, i roughed out that script and it probably wont work. but that might give you some ideas. Basically the && statement is saying, if the gloves, shirt, helmet and pants are ALL EQUIPPED (all == 1), then cast the buff on the player. Youll need to find out what proper syntax is for casting a spell effect (enchantment) on a player is. im not sure what it is since ive never had to use one, but i can guarantee there is one you can use. hope it helps you atleast a little bit :) btw my syntax is all wrong, dont copy it word for word or it likely wont work :) Id highly reccomend using Cipscis's GECK Script validator to make sure your script is correct it will check for bugs for you and everything :) Cipscis's Script Validator <--- uber!

hiyas :) for any mod's custom content to work, all you need to do with the files are place them in the appropriate folder, and fallout3 will auto-detect them, and use them . If your content is a Replacement for vanilla stuff, thats fine too. New or old, it should auto-detect it all. -BUT- it will only auto-detect your stuff if it has been allowed to do so. The Archive Invalidation business Penny talked about is (usually) the main reason most people cant get mods to work. Fallout3 has to be allowed to use custom content, or it will ignore it and still use the stuff in the BSA's You dont have to unpack BSA's to use mods. You only do that if you want to work on vanilla models yourself, make your own mods, or make changes to existing vanilla. Dont worry, its confusing only in the start... ok its confusing further on too, but eventually it smoothens out and becomes pretty straight forward. :) Im still learning myself! One other thing, you must also do this for mods to work: Make sure "bInvalidateOlderFiles=0" is set to "=1" in your fallout.ini file. (located in MyDocuments/Mygames/Fallout3/ ) if that still doesnt give you any luck, write back and we will see what we can do.

ok before i can be 100% sure of your exact situation, if you can post a screenshot of your problem it would be most helpful. Normal maps arent part of the mesh, they are just a texture, however they are a special texture that has directional lighting information stored in grayscale, in 3 different channels, RGB. Specular maps are also an informational texture, white being shiney/reflective, black being matte (nonreflective) so think of a normal map as more of an informational texture. Diffuse is the only texture that actually contains stuff we want to see. The others are just for giving instructions to the renderer. When a renderer goes to light a model, it takes a look at the polygons, the smoothing groups, the surface normals of the triangles (taking into account smoothing groups) and the light source, and makes some calculations then starts to shade it as best it can. However, if it sees a Normal map plugged in, depending on its intensity, it will disregard the actual polygons of the model, and instead gather all the information for lighting from the normal map texture. If a part of the texture says, 'this area has ridges', but is uv-mapped to a perfectly flat part of the texture, the renderer will light that flat area like it DOES have ridges, and you will see cool shadows and lighting in that area, despite the fact there isnt really anything there. IF the problem is mirrored UV's with things looking upside-down or backwards, then you may have a big problem. On the weapons im working on, i mirror the geometry all the time from one side to the other, sometimes even top to bottom to piece it together. I dont really notice any bad normal-related lighting issues (too much)... from what i can tell Fallout3 seems to treat all normal maps equally whether they are mirrored or not. Again, if you can post a pic of your issues (perhaps in 2 different lighting conditions so we can compare whats going on) id be able to provide more help. (and a solution) There are solutions to everything :) some are just less desireable solutions lol

well im not exactly sure where the mod is, however if you ask here in this thread im guaranteed they can help you :) http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/515/erywyewyew.jpg

have you gotten to open any custom mod content nif files? i know your vanilla ones arent opening, but did you succesfully open anyones mods? tell you what. grab my 2142 mod, if you cant open those nif files in nifskope, then atleast we can have a better idea of whats to blame here. Have you tried opening more than just one vanilla object?

it might also be referring to phsyical size of the textures. (ie. 1024x1024 diffuse and a 512x512normal) it might be picky and want those to be both the same. (if thats the problem. The wording is pretty vague but im guessing thats what its referring to) btw is there any reason you are using tgas instead of dds? (aside from the fact that dds take forever to save lmao)

yeah i would confirm that your nifskope is up to date. that error message occurs when there is an offset discrepancy. Offset discrepancies happen when nifskope tries to open a nif file that has a compatability problem. The nif file is either a version mismatch, or is corrupted. Corruptions can happen if you save a nif file incorrectly, the nif file contains bogus or invalid contents (such as multiple blocks of things that there should be only one of), or was damaged. luckily version mismatches are corrected by getting the appropriate version of nifskope (usually newest is best), and/or if you are talking about an export from max, ensure its exported with the Fallout3 type in the export window. Why nifskope isnt opening vanilla meshes, that worries me. Im not too sure but i would (like the others suggest) try getting your hands on the latest nifskope. And while you are at it, try uninstalling the old one first. *shrugs*

OK before you go any further, are you talking about the Normal Map being mirrored is displaying texture detail insideout/upside down, ie. Bumps appear to be 'dented in'? -OR- do you mean the normal map is being mirroed, so the texture detail is being Lit Backwards, ie. When a light shines down upon it, the mirrored part seems to look like its lit from below instead of above. -OR- do you mean parts of your model appear transparent. -OR- are you getting strange (usually 'blobby') shadows or shading on certain parts of your object? in the first case, its your normal map having some parts on either red or green channel need to be flipped in the second case, its because of how normal maps contain directional lighting information. One channel is Up/Down, the other is Left/Right. If you flip something on the model that is assigned to a place on the texture with a specifical directional lighting info, it will appear wrong on the model. (this is commonly referred to as 'mirrored normals problem'. It depends on the game engine, i dont know offhand if there is a setting in nifskope to fix that. I believe it has to do with the renderer. btw. 'Normals' are the direction a triangle is facing. A 'normal map' is a fake map of the directions the user wants light to behave in, so as to hint at details that arent really there. Ie. a flat surface with normal information of something complex will LIGHT like its complex, yet the details arent really there. in the third case, it just means some parts of your model have 'flipped normals', meaning, some polygons are flipped inside-out (the 'normal' of the triangle points inward into the model). This can be fixed in max by opening your model, right clicking on it, in the Properties box, check off 'Cull Backfacing'. This will 'hide' any back-facing polygons, to fix them, click them (in polygon mode) then hit 'Flip' on the side bar (also available from right click menu) Typically on a model you want all the normals to face outward so players can see them. If your texture is not a 'double sided' material, it will look invisible from the 'wrong' side of the polygons 'normals'. NOTE: Vertices cannot be welded together from one triangle facing one way, and another triangle facing the opposite way. Ie. if you have a flat surface with one triangle facing inwards, that triangle will never be able to attach to the flat surface, until its normals are flipped to match the surrounding normals. You can never have a surface facing up, directly WELDED to a surface facing down. There has to be some kind of transitional triangle that is half way bent, to accomodate the change in direction. (or just flip the normals on the anomalous tri) You can ATTACH multiple triangles facing all kinds of directions together, but when you want to weld them, they have to have matching face-normals, or they wont weld. in the fourth case, (smoothing groups problem) Smoothing groups are artificial relationships between multiple triangles to instruct the 3d renderer to 'treat this as one surface'. So any bunch of triangles on the same smoothing group will appear smooth, and rounded. Triangles not on the same smoothing group will visibly show their edges, and appear 'faceted' (like a crystal, where each side is clearly visible, looking 'chiselled out') In nifskope, the right click option 'Face normals' will indeed do something to your normals, but not what you expect. 'Face normals' basically breaks all smoothing-groups. You only really need to do this if you are having 'Smoothing group' problems. (usually denoted by shading errors, ie. Weird shadows on your model that look very wrong and usually 'blobby'.) setting 'face normals' in nifskope is the exact same as in max, selecting all polygons, then hitting 'Clear groups' in the smoothing groups window. It will make everything look faceted. This is not likely what you want. If your object has parts that you want to remain rounded-looking, those parts need to be selected (by hand) and their smoothing values/groups need to be setup. Smoothing Tolerance, or angle, is a generic 'across-the-whole-model' angle in degrees that will determine whether or not surfaces should be smoothed (soft edges) or given hard edges. Its really lazy, and usually never looks 100% right, but it works in a pinch, and can save a ton of time. Doing smoothing groups by hand, triangle by triangle is a pain in the ass, but the only REAL way to get the model to look 100% perfect.

placeatme corrupts savegames, better to use player.additem

what is that object 00000000f some objects cannot be placed in the world since they are references only, (ie. non geometric, non visual entities)

its disregarded so it doesnt matter what you put there. Alot of the fields dont apply to melee weapons