Need help with nif texturing

[griffinrider]

I want to start on the next pony pack, but not until I get this problem figured out. I made the gem for Trixie's cape, and made a nif with it on a cape. I'm not sure how it'll set in game, but first, I want to figure out how to make it complete as a nif branch. Here's a picture of what it looks like at the moment. How do I made this right?

 

 

[Lanceor]

I only know NifSkope editing, but comparing it with a vanilla amulet, the branch does seem to be missing a lot of info. What I'd normally do is open up an existing amulet mesh and replace the NiTriShapeData. Perhaps a Blender expert will come along and advise the best way to export the mesh.

[griffinrider]

Hope that will happen soon, if I can't figure this out. This is a critical part of Trixie's costume.

[Nephenee13]

Where'd you get this mesh originally?

[Nephenee13]

Here's a gem mesh I threw together, though it would probably be easier for you to send me the cape mesh you are using, since I just really took a guess.

Also, for the record, manipulating this stuff in NIFSkope is about the worst way possible.

 

Anyway, the Gem is UVd so you can just change it to whatever texture you want, the UV map is basic so it shouldn't be hard to make a texture for.

[griffinrider]

The gem mesh I made from scratch in blender since Maya doesn't have a nif plugin. The cape is from an open source thing from the nexus. I'll be adding that to the credits when this is released. I'll give your's a look.

[DrakeTheDragon]

When you create a mesh 'from scratch' in Blender, a couple important steps have to be done as well to make it a usable NiTriShape/Strips block in the exported NIF in the end.

A mesh always needs a material property and a texture property, already set up in Blender, but you can of course also add it in later in NifSkope. I prefer doing it in Blender though.

 

Every mesh imported from the game has following properties created by the NifScripts, and when your meshes also have all of those, they will create working NiTriShape/Strips blocks from it on export.

 

In "Shading (F5) > Texture buttons (F6)" every object has a Texture.

In the tab "Texture" the "Texture Type" is set to "Image",

in the tab "Map Image" the options "Mip Map" and "Interpol" are checked,

and in the tab "Image" the option "Still" is checked and the respective Image specified through the browse button.

 

In "Material buttons" the object also has a material.

The material properties, the exact same way they're going into the NIF's NiMaterial property, are specified inside the "Material" tab,

in the "Texture" tab there's the mapping to the respective texture records,

in the "Map Input" tab the options "UV" and "Flat" are always checked, and "UV:UVTex" is entered after "Object",

("UVTex" is the default name for the UV-Map created in the UV-Editor, so you're telling it which texture layout mapping to use)

and in the "Map To" tab for normal textures (=diffuse maps) only "Col" (Color) is checked.

That's what the NIFTools will need to create a proper NiTriShape/Strips block on export. Usually, when you create an Object 'from scratch' in Blender, none of this is specified or does exist.

 

I'm also missing the NiStringExtraData (or what it's called) for "Tangent Space" in your NIF, but this can also be created 'after the fact' quite fine in NifSkope through "Spells > Scripts > Update Tangent Spaces" (or what it was again).

 

My memory's failing me, I have to admit, and I was using a German version of Blender 2.49b, so better take any "names" with necessary precaution!

[griffinrider]

Well, Trixie is pretty well done as far as concept and costume. I'm currently working on Octavia's concept. All she needed was a bow tie, which I got permission to use from Hepsy. I think Cloudchaser will be next. Hopefully, the first two are the only ones with special gear.