CTD when equipping weapon NIF file issue

[SwisgarSwigelf42]

Hello all, I am brand new to modding. This is my FIRST post, regarding my FIRST mod/model. I started on the Nexus looking for basic weapon mods for Skyrim, when I couldn't find a good set of axes that I liked, I decided it couldn't be that hard to make my own. So I downloaded Blender, Nifskope, Fallout Archiver, GIMP, and a 30 day trial of Photoshop. Fast forward one week and a WHOLE LOT of man-hours and burnt retinas.

 

My axe thing turned into a...'ok, lets try something simpler'. So I made a replica of 'Thor's Hammer', like the one in the movie. Basically a block on a stick, I figured it would be easy to model.

 

From blender, I exported as a 3DS file then imported into Nifskope on top of the two nif's for the steel mace (1st person nif and the other one). Deleted the blood effects, and replaced the trishape data. I only have one texture (I'm still learning that part) for basic color and design which is a DDS. I linked the texture up in the nif file under the first texture string line thingy with value "textures\weapons\steel\thorshammer6.dds". That made it stop rendering the texture in nifskope...but creation kit now recognized the texture.

 

Everything was going swimmingly, and I got the hammer in the game running on super basic graphics and windowed mode. I ran around wacking people in Solitude for 5 minutes before going back to CK to try editing some sound/damage etc stuff. When I went to load the game again, it crashed to desktop. I reloaded a save from before the autosaves of my killing spree, one where I didn't have the hammer yet. It loaded ok, but when I tried to equip the hammer in the console commands, it CTD. I played around with some of the settings, and I believe the problem is in the 1st person model/NIF. If I leave the regular model the same but change the 1st person setting to fork, or mace or something, then it loads. If I drop my fork, it correctly turns in to the Thor Hammer model on the ground. It is now 2:20 AM ....I thought I had this thing figured out but I'm running out of ideas. This is my FIRST model and my first week into learning these programs and whatnot. At this point I'm thinking there is def a problem with the 1st person NIF...somewhere. The textures that load up in CK when I load the 1st person NIF show a weird alternative texture next to the scabbard, usually gibberish, not sure what that's all about; I tried deleting the alt texture but it comes back. CK also sometimes crashes when trying to import the 1st person NIF. I'm also thinking I might have too many polygons in the handle.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Attached all of the NIF's I've been working on and the DDS.

 

Well ok, I didn't know you couldn't attach NIF files to a post. Had to upload to the Nexus. ....it is now 3 AM.

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/40140//?

 

 

[SwisgarSwigelf42]

I think I fixed it. I did a few things but I'm not sure which one fixed the CTD. I left all of the old NIF file versions in the Skyrim data textures folder last time. I removed all but the two that were active in the ESP file thingy. Also re-did the 1st person mesh in Nifskope. The first time I did it, I re-translated and called up textures and whatnot on the non-1st person NIF and once that was done, I copied the whole branch and pasted on the 1st person NIF. This go-round, I pulled up the 1st person steel mace NIF and inserted the 3DS rather than copying the branch from the non-1st pers NIF. Something seemed to work and now I don't get a CTD on equip item. I guess I posted this prematurely. I'd still welcome any help or insight into modeling/nif/texturing. My next step is making it look cool with new textures.