Please help the poor, downtrodden bots and critters of the Mojave

[devinpatterson]

Got a bit of a bug/flu thing going and I figured instead of just shooting out mucus all day, I'd try and tackle something I'v always wanted to do with fallout.....NiVisControllers.

 

Set the NiVisControllers up right and creatures/non humans can appear to swap out equipment like armor and weapons, from something as small as Tabitha's "taking off" her glasses to allowing Marcus to swap out armor. ED-E can have hats that he can swap out (and you know he wants one), or weapons. Pistol tot'n protectrons can blaze a steam of led, then appear to holster their revolvers. Rex can have a pack, hat, bandanna, homemade wasteland armor etc. Essentially you can change models without having to change Ref/Base ID's and difficulties that includes.

 

Long story short the NiVisControllers turned out to be simpler/easier than I thought, but there are complications. I'm using my dog the fallout 3 mod as an example. The visibility controller is triggered by a idle animation, (the kf just has a few blocks in it) and all the extra meshes are rigged to the skeleton.nif. I don't mean they are rigged in the standard way (import skeleton only + parent selected) like we do everyday, but rather they are in the skeleton.nif itself.

 

 

 

http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u404/devinlpatterson/skeletonnif_zps09e2c319.jpg

 

 

 

The skeleton.nif is a unfamiliar creature to me, with the amateur, some basic polygons that look to me like collision meshes around the amateur and other oddities. If I try to import + parent the skeleton.nif's skeleton to itself and any other objects I want to add (lets say a hat) only disaster results. Here is a eyebot skeleton.nif with a hat, I tried to rig and the unfortunate result;

 

 

 

http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u404/devinlpatterson/eyebotSkeleton_zpsf7df424b.jpg

 

 

 

I can copy a item in nifskope via copy branch to the skeleton.nif without a problem, but it's not rigged so it doesn't do me much good. And I don't know of any practical way to rig an item in nifskope :sad:

 

Christmas is coming soon, won't you please help all the disadvantaged creatures and bots of the wasteland to have shiney new weapons and armor......don't they deserve that?

[nivea]

I would be more then happy to add something like this to my Corgi companions or even a new dog companion idea I have, if someone would be able to explain the NiVisControllers to me. Such as how to make one, what do I need to do with the animations, a tutorial would be nice.

[devinpatterson]

a tutorial would be nice.

I know it so difficult to find any solid info for rigged meshes. Plenty of info on controllers in weapons, but that is very little help. What helped me to get a handle on it was this link (but it's for Civ5 and a fair amount doesn't apply or uses uncommon tools for fallout) and studying the fallout 3 mod "My Dog" nif's. This tutorial was also semi useful, especially part 6, but it focuses on 3DSMax, not blender (my preferred program). Another problem is we can't use nifskope to add the controller (although it can copy and paste it fine), but nif tools & some civ 5 tools come into play. I'm still piecing it together myself. And although I'm very happy to have it working, it won't be any practical use to me until it's rigged properly to the skeleton.

 

It is surprising, just how bare the info re: the controllers really is, especially when you consider how useful they could be :confused:

 

I'm crap with nifskope, but somehow I'v struggled through and feel like I have a pretty good handle on everything except I just need to get pass this last stumbling block. If I figure it out, I'd be happy to help rig them up for you Nivea.

[nivea]

Rigging is easy if you are referring to the rigging of meshes and not rigged the controller or something, its the same as you would do for any armor just instead of a human body its for the animal. I have done tons of them myself and released a large amount of rigged animal stuff already.

I studied the My Dog mod for a long time trying to figure out how to get this stuff to work when I was working on my Corgi mod and then again more recently when I was thinking about making a brand new dog companion, I can not understand how it works sadly.

 

I do not know what this civ 5 tools you are talking about is, if someone could explain it to me how to set it up I dont need help rigging items I just need to know how the NiVisControllers work and how to set them up.

[devinpatterson]

Rigging is easy if you are referring to the rigging of meshes and not rigged the controller or something, its the same as you would do for any armor just instead of a human body its for the animal.

Alas I wish it was, because I'd be done, but it's a whole different beast. You can demo/try it to get a better idea of what I mean. In addition I'll make a little sample mod that has a eyebot and his hat for you if you want (just say the word).

 

But for the example, grab your pup's skeleton.nif then import a hat or whatever you want to put on your pup. Now this has to be rigged and saved as skeleton.nif. The standard ways we do it with any other mesh, which both of us have done countless times, have all failed me. Parenting the skeleton to hat & the other items from skeleton.nif, in the scene, in blender, completely fubars it. Selecting and assigning all of hte hat mesh vertices to any of the available vertex groups (every group I had available in my eyebot skeleton) has refused to export. It's a different process/conundrum. Once you load it up and try rigging it you'll have a much better idea of what I'm trying to convey.

 

I wish we could just rig it like normal, but due to the way the animation triggers the controller I think we *have* to use skeleton.nif.

 

I have done tons of them myself and released a large amount of rigged animal stuff already.

Absoultely, I'v rigged far more western hats, boots, holsters and pistols to bots than is healthy. And I know with your corgi mods you'v probably done an order of magnitude more than me, but this is unfortunately a different challenge all together. If it wasn't, we'd already be good to go, as I'v got a handle on liking up the controllers. But the skeleton.nif is a strange beast that I don't know how to conquer yet. That's why I'm hoping some of the legendary nifskope experts of old, like Ghogiel or Weijiesen will enlighten me.

 

I studied the My Dog mod for a long time trying to figure out how to get this stuff to work when I was working on my Corgi mod and then again more recently when I was thinking about making a brand new dog companion, I can not understand how it works sadly.

I totally get where your coming from. I was looking at it for quite a while, and probably far more through luck and happenstance than any cerebral ability, I'v got the animation and controllers figured out. Got my little eyebot with his dis/appearing hat in a happy little esp....except it's not rigged :sad:

 

I do not know what this civ 5 tools you are talking about is, if someone could explain it to me how to set it up

I know, it's a mess, everything has to be gleaned though obtuse hints for Civ5, little hints and clues in various threads and experimentation, but I'm hopeful that we're almost there.

[nivea]

Alright send me over the file, I will take a look at it tomorrow. But I use blender too so I dont know if perhaps that has something to do with it or not, have you tried contacting rainrtw or even perhaps Ghogiel since Rain credits him for information about the controllers.

 

I havent tried contacting them because I was working on other projects that where more important to me when I started my research, I saw how it required knowledge of editing animations and since that is not somthing I am into I passed on it. I just figured I would create more creatures with different items and then switch between them in the mod if I made it.

[devinpatterson]

Alright send me over the file, I will take a look at it tomorrow. But I use blender too so I dont know if perhaps that has something to do with it or not, have you tried contacting rainrtw or even perhaps Ghogiel since Rain credits him for information about the controllers.

No this post is the first I'v used to reach out, I just started looking at the NiVisController thing this afternoon. But it's something that has been on my mind for quite a while. I'll try contacting them.

 

I saw how it required knowledge of editing animations and since that is not somthing I am into I passed on it.

Not really, it's just a couple of blocks in the KF, you never even need to go into blender for the animation, you can just cut and paste in nifskope. It's actually a really threadbare kf, not much in it at all.

 

I just figured I would create more creatures with different items and then switch between them in the mod if I made it.

Yeah definitely, but say for a companion it kind of sucks having to tie each actor into their dialog quests, inventory, companion quests and everything else that we would expect from a single actor that is not a multitude. I guess you could use the same voice type for all of the dupes, which would make the dialog quests seamless, but for the rest it's a hassle. I just want to have my bots or dog swap out items and not have to have a bunch of clones to accomplish that.

 

 

EDIT: formatting

Edited August 18, 2013 by devinpatterson

[devinpatterson]

Here is the mod not much to installing it, just make sure the new skeleton.nif is in the eyebot directory.

 

Go ahead and punch up an eyebot, I use CrEyebotEnclave, but you can use any of them since they all use the same skeleton. Make sure you have your preview selected and your on the animation tab. go to gameplay->idle animations. Under creatures->eyebot->idleAnims you'll see a new idle animation called EyebotHat. Click it and a hat will appear. Now if only it was rigged.

[nivea]

Can you in any way explain to me how you set the nif up to have the new NiNode with all the new information in it, because I think with that information I might be able to help. I am trying to set it up in a dog skeleton to test out some ideas but if I can not build a NiVisControllers into a nif I dont think I will ever be able to help. :\

 

Also there is no KF file in your upload is that right? Because the hat is not showing up at all in the animations in GECK.

Edited August 18, 2013 by nivea

[devinpatterson]

Can you in any way explain to me how you set the nif up to have the new NiNode with all the new information in it, because I think with that information I might be able to help. I am trying to set it up in a dog skeleton to test out some ideas but if I can not build a NiVisControllers into a nif I dont think I will ever be able to help. :\

 

I can try although I'm still working them out for myself, so I'm probably not going to be a good teacher until I get a real handle on how to do and get it down pat.

 

Also there is no KF file in your upload is that right? Because the hat is not showing up at all in the animations in GECK.

 

Crap, yep, that is essential, it's right here. You probably already know this but throw it in the idleanims folder of the eyebot.

 

EDIT: Weird, don't know why that linked to the whole folder instead of the file, but it should be working now.

Edited August 20, 2013 by devinpatterson