AurelTristen

You've gotta sell your idea! Tell us what it is, what it does, how it works, what it looks like in game (Save for a lack of models). Someone (like me) is likley to say "oh cool, lets do it!" All too often it is the other way around. Someone models a VF-19 transforming fighter jet from Macross and then says 'all I need now is a script to let it obliterate Skyrim's lore!' I'm very curious what you've come up with. Is it a stationary weapon, or something you can hold? Does the script allow it to animate properly, or will it be like the 'throwing' knifes that never leave the player's hands?

Damn! I looked at that too, but didn't try it! So is the new exporter setting that to 1 by default now? I've never had to mess with it. Thanks a million. Sometimes its like pulling teeth to get someone to point out a little oversight around here. :) For the record, after changing Num UV Sets, I right clicked on my model and re-set tangent space (For anyone who might come across this). Seems to have fixed it.

I've been making models for Skyrim for a while now, and I've never had issues with Normal maps. Now all of the sudden, nothing I make has working normal maps. I did recently update to the latest NifTools for 3D Studio max, and I thought that might have something to do with it. As to that, I'm not sure where I found the update because google keeps taking me back to a wiki that lists Niftools as nolonger under development. Digging through my new nifs and comparing them to my older works, I've found that in my NiTriShapeData just under the Has Normals bool, my old models have a Normals section as well as a Tangents and Binormals. My new nifs only have the Normals entry. This has lead me to believe that the new Nif tools are creating damaged NiTriShapeData files. Can anyone open up a nif file that they have made with working normals and look for these entries? I'm at a total loss here. Everything else looks perfect. I've tried loading a normal map from a working nif into my new ones to see if my actual dds files were bad. Nothing. Any ideas? (Note: for testing, I'm shutting off vertex colors so that normals will be drawn in Nifskope, but I've been sure to turn vertex colors back on before saving, and I've also tested the models in CK to make sure)

From my experience, I've found that Max can be intimidating and confusing when you first get started, but if you become competent with it, its extraordinarily fast and efficient. I also like that it is both widely used and very old, so it plays well with older engines while continuing to be used for modern stuff. If you are just using it to make swords for Skyrim, many of its features don't make sense (like modifier stacks), but when you start doing something a little more serious, it all starts to come together. I also like having a robust rendering engine built right in (Actually, several rendering engines). The major features each seem as though they were the primary focus of development, unlike some software that appears to have things like raster rendering tacked on as an afterthought. The truth is that most artists are going to rep their proffered software. I'm a Max user and I love it to death, but I'll admit that makes my opinion less valuable. In the end, they are all comparable, so pick the one that has the most tutorials for what you are trying to do (Max?). Note: I work with a 3D mouse and across three monitors, so my workflow is VERY fast. Not everyone has the hardware for this, so my experience is a bit unique.

I have replaced the Skyrim logo with my own NIF. Just look at the model you wish to replace in nifskope to determine what special settings it might need. A word of warning though: Even though they have an autoplay flag, in-built animations will not play :(. Also, UVW maps on models displayed in the menu are seriously bugged. If your UVW map is just fine in Nifskop and in game, the menu screen version will have your UV coordinates sqished 50% to the left. The only way to correct for this is to edit your model over and over, jumping in the game each time to see how close your alignment is. Its a serious pain. I made a nice little animated nif of a Japanese flag fluttering in the wind, but noooooo, couldn't animate it :( The UVW issue might just be with the title model. Others might not be so bad. I noticed some mods have added new loading screen models without issue.

Sounds amazing. You should post videos of some of the stuff you've pulled off with it! Also sounds like something that could eventually develop into a coop play mode if the right minds got together. I know there is that multiplayer mod out there, but last I checked, other players were nude T posed people flying around the map like a nightmare o_O.

Interestingly, I ran into this issue the other day. One handed sword's models (Nif files) are tied to a root node that makes them attach to the one-handed-sword-bone. Same with two handed weapons. You see, the characters bone system has a bone for each weapon. These bones are animated so that they sit on the hips or back, wherever that type belongs. When you draw a one handed sword, the animation has the character actually pull that bone (and thus that weapon) off of the hip and swing it around. If you simply tell CK to use a one handed weapon as a two, or vice versa, you'll notice that the weapon will not be unsheathed because its Nif file is still tieing it to the bone (or root node) it was originally intended for. In order to do what you want, you'll need a copy of Nifskope. I've never done it before, so I can't write a tutorial for you, nor can I verify the above theory, but it should be as simple as opening the one handed you want to become a two handed, and changing the NiStringExtraData block to read 'WeaponBack' instead of 'WeaponSword.' I think this is what tells the engine what bone the nif should be attached to. If that sounds confusing as s***, you should go to the tutorials thread and muck through some of those tutorials on making custom swords n' stuff to get all the nifskope madness down.

I understand, and not to preach but I'm compelled to mention that good modeling habits are just as important as good habits are in any skill. If you force yourself to do things the 'right way' when you are first getting into it, you'll save yourself so much pain later on. If you care to read it: Otherwise, I still look forward to your finished work. :)

Awesome. About time someone did some cool Samurai armor. And the design from Last Samurai is great looking, so good choice :P In the future, could you put your images in spoiler tags? Makes viewing threads much better. Also, are you planning on creating a new texture or are you going to stick with the photo texture shown here? I know its a pain in the ass to make a new texture from scratch (on that level of complexity) but photo textures look so very bad. :(

Found it. Just didn't imagine that they'd use an armor form. Odd. Well, we'll find out soon enough if it works. I've had very little luck with _0 _1 mesh fun. o_O Thanks.

I've been through the Race form quite a bit, and I'm trying to figure out where I can specify my custom model for 1st person hands / arms. I know it can be done, I just can't find where I need to make the change. This is for a new playable race based off of the Imperials. Any ideas?

See the page I've added to the CK wiki here.

I agree for the most part, but I wanted to point out that there are occasions when 'big' mods aren't speeding trains distend to fly off a cliff into a volcano. I've been modding since Duke Nukem 3D... Sadly, games are so complex now days that one person can't do what they could before, but a properly structured 'big mod' or TC can be more than a train wreck. For example: I'm (obviously) working on a very big mod, but because of how I'm working through it, so long as we reach our first milestone, total failure would not result in nothing achieved. Each step brings the mod closer to the final vision, but each step is also its own self-contained mod in a way. This production 'path' is set up like this because we can't access all features of the engine right off the bat (Such as new worldspaces with proper LODs). This forces us to take a layered approach, but in the end is probably best. Admittedly, it is highly unlikely that my mod will ever reach the level I'd like it to, but in striving for that impossible goal, I'll manage to make some nice content along the way. The key here is that compartmentalization. I don't need item number 999,999 to make item number 4 worth something. I might end up with a big pack of weapons inspired by edo period Japan, or a pack of weapons and armor. Or a pack of all kinds of items, with some new races, and so on. With that said, I think my case is rare, as I'm not 'the idea guy' that you see in every modding community ever. I do just about everything (Modeling, compiling, textures, sound, animation, music, ect), and thus I know exactly what goes in to each properly rigged shoe, and every overly compressed normal map. Maybe we need a sticky that outlines some suggestions to mod authors: Take a tally of all assets you'll need for your first playable version. Try making one of each type of asset to assess how difficult each will be to create. Reassess what elements are truly needed. Consider the capabilities of the engine. Does your mod involve features you've never seen before? How would these features be implemented? Think about your target audience. Is there a following? Are you making something others might like, or just something you would want to play? As a mod leader, how will you contribute to the effort? In general, if you cannot create, or learn how to create the majority of the content, you should re-consider the scope of your project. Along those lines.

Heck, you practically wrote a tutorial for my little problem. I KNOW more users would love to be able to add spell casting events to weapons, so that would be my suggestion. ^_^

There is. Put a bucket on their head. :P Wait, that might actually work. Try putting a bucket on their head and see if they still watch you. If not, you'll just need an invisible bucket (Or more realistically, use a custom mesh of some kind with a simple collision)

I hate starting a whole new topic for semi-random questions, but: Has anyone here seen, or created a nif for the load screen (Or title screen via the logo.nif) that animates? I've created a nif to replace the Skyrim logo and it has its own skeleton and animation (which works wonderfully in Nifskope), but the animation doesn't play despite the nif (and the original logo) having a autoplay property. Also, interestingly, the Skyrim logo's UVW maps are squished by 1/2 to one side when opened in MAX or Nifskope, but (obviously) it looks fine in game. Vice versa, my properly UVW mapped model looks fine in MAX and Nifskope, but has wrong UVWs in-game. Is this some sort of system for improved performance? Is there a setting in the nif I can use to 'break' my UVWs and make them 'correct' in-game? Thanks ^_^

The easy way is to move the model in NifSkope by changing the appropriate setting, but always remember to do your best to have the model in the proper place and scale in the first place! I'm not totally clear on the details, but apparently making changes in the Nif is far less efficient than just having the model correct in the first place, as the game has to make your new corrections in real time. That said, I should also note that I know EXACTLY where you're coming from. I went on a mad all-night learning spree with many hours spent poking through NifSkope moving things and toying with settings to get my first weapon in game. But my first sword ended up 4x too small, facing the wrong way and with no smoothing groups (Used OBJ import instead of just making a NIF). Back on subject here, now that you know the process, it should be quite easy to make your changes to your model in max / blender (Go into vertex or face edit mode, select all, move so that your origin stays in place). IF you do that and re-export your nif, you should only need to copy over your shape data. Should you not feel like doing that right now....

4 bones per vertex - gonna keep that in mind. I did fix my problem in the end by removing all the blue weights - so all the ones that have weight value of less than 0.2. It fixed both the clipping and the strange shadows. Just thought I'd throw this out there too: The exporter should be set to max out at 4 bones per vertex. To keep from having the issue in the first place, you can also tell the skin-modifier how many bones are allowed per vertex. If you do this before skinning, it should prevent it from happening in the first place. Also, the subscribers of my Roman Weapons mod would really like to have that armor I'll bet, and I wasn't looking forward to making it. Contact me if you are interested in collaborating (I think Workshop allows multiple authors per mod)

I know there is some documentation on this somewhere, but I don't remember off the top of my head. The basics are these. Defuse map has all your color information in it, as well as some baked in shadow info (IE, go ahead and paint in ambient occlusion and any static shadow effects you want, just like you would with most other game engines). The alpha channel of the defuse map is the actual transparency of that texture. An alpha property object will need to be in your NIF file if you use opacity of any kind. Just copy one over from another nif that uses transparent textures. Almost all textured objects have a normal map too (_n). This has your run-o-the-mill normal map in the color channels, and a grayscale image in the alpha channel which defines specularity. Specular is just as you find it in any other engine. For more advanced shinyness, you have an environment map (_en I think). This is a grayscale image that specifies how much of the cube map is reflected per pixel (White is shiny, black is not). You should never have to worry about what order these go in. Make sure you are copying over material properties from an existing NIF that uses all the features that you wish to use. Then you'll just be replacing textures one by one, and don't have to worry about slots. There are many more types of materials, including glow maps and sub-surface scattering. Its all about looking through nif files from the game and figuring out how they work. Update: From a user named Ghogiel over at the NifTools forum

Sorry for the delay, I finally got back to poking around at this. Oh, and yeah, it WORKS! I simply can't thank you enough for the time you put into not only making this script, but providing good clear instructions on how to use it (Including great comments in the scripts to help me learn what is going on, instead of just blindly using them). It isn't much, but I'm adding you to my mod's credit page, and can only offer my modeling, texture and sound design skills to you for anything you may need done. This does what I need and more. The script as it is will allow me to progressively add additional skills 'controlled' by power attack slots. Better yet, this ONE script can also handle multiple weapons? They say elegance in programming is simplicity, and I think you've taken the cake on that one. Many more thanks. I'll have a video put together soon to show how I've put it to use. ^_^

Hmmm... Not sure where I messed this up, but when editing the properties for the last little script that goes on the Magic Effects, I can select the quest, but cannot select the alias. In-fact, I can select any quest and none of them have aliases listed! I'm going to open up your test-mod to take a look at it and see if I can't figure it out.

First off, I apologize for posting without looking at your attachment. I was going to bed for the night. Next let me say thank you very very much for taking the time to work through this with me. I can get all the voice actors in the world, and be bombarded with applications from seriously talented musicians for my mod team, but scripting is just like programming was with making Half-Life mods: Finding programmers (Scripters) is like spotting extrasolar planets with a toilet-paper tube for a telescope. I'm going to start working through this right now.

Hmmm.... well, in my case, that might be super-close! My use would be on a two-handed sword, so a power attack is a power attack. The catch would still be distinguishing which one. Also, would a spell cast with this method still draw from the player's magic so long as the spell selected is set up to cost magic? And why I'm asking questions, would it also be possible to check the player's race before allowing the spell to be cast?

That script looks mighty interesting, but what should RegisterRH be set to?

I also need to do this. Such a thing is central to my mod's concept. If I wasn't totally clueless when it came to scripting, I'd help out. Please keep at it folks!