[New Vegas] Stuttering when drawing weapon

[FrenchieDwemer]

Hello,

So I'm brand new to Blender, and I've spent the last couple days tweaking some weapons for Fallout New Vegas. Nothing major, just trying to fix some very small flaws to put my OCD to rest, and making the weapons fit better in my character's hands.

However, there's a noticeable stutter now when I try and equip said weapons. It lasts for maybe a second and a half, but it's pretty annoying, and I'm worried that these somehow faulty models may have a more general impact on performance, even if it's barely noticeable.

Basically I'd use NifSkope to export .nif files to .obj, which I could then import into Blender and mess around with. Then I'd export the finished mesh back to .obj, and open two instances of NifSkope, one with the unmodified base .nif, and the other with the modified .obj. I'd stripify the latter, then copy the NiTriStripsData and paste it over the corresponding bits in the original .nif file. Lastly I'd update the Tangent Spaces and be good to go. Or so I figured.

I'm guessing there's something about this process that "de-optimizes" the models for the game, even though they are technically "playable", as in they show up in game - the game just seems to struggle to render them. I couldn't attach an .nif file to this post, but I'd be glad to send some to anyone that cares to look at them; they come from readily available mods on the Nexus so no big deal I hope.

In any case, thanks in advance for your insight.

 

[M48A5]

Which version of Blender are you using?

 

Is there a compelling reason you are doing twice the work by not directly importing the .nif file into Blender?

Edited June 24, 2022 by M48A5

[FrenchieDwemer]

3.1.2

 

No good reason I'm afraid. I had downloaded Blender to make mods for a different game altogether - Hearts of Iron IV - and noticed I could import/export .obj files, which I knew NifSkope also dealt in, so I figured I might be able to use Blender to edit models from Fallout 3/NV or Skyrim this way. Seeing as that method seemed to work well enough, I didn't bother looking for a plugin to import/export .nif files at the time.

 

After reading your comment I downloaded the Blender Niftools Addon. I was unsure what settings I needed to mess with so the exported .nif would be directly ready to use, so I simply indicated, as required, what game the model was meant for, specified a shader type, and exported as is (as a NiTriStrips). Then I pasted the NiTriStripsData from the modified models onto the originals. Under BS Vector Flags within the NiTriStripsData, I had to re-check Has_Tangents, then I updated the Tangent Spaces.

 

That reduced the stuttering significantly, but it's still there, and I'm not sure how to proceed from here.

 

In NifSkope the only difference I'm seeing under NiTriStripsData between the original models and the edited ones is the triangle count, for some reason. Using the .nif to .obj method I end up with a much lower triangle count.

[M48A5]

Any version of Blender, other than 2.49 does not work well with Fallout3/Fallout: New Vegas. You can use other versions, but you have to export the work as an .obj file, import the .obj file into Blender 2.49 and then export the file as a .nif file. You should use the default shader setting for FNV and then use NifSkope to set the additional shader setting for skin and any additional shader type settings.

[FrenchieDwemer]

Well, I got the same result using Blender 2.49b. It turns out it was only the textures causing some residual stuttering on the particular weapon I was testing. They were pretty large and had been left uncompressed. I took care of that and everything's back to normal now.

 

I guess the moral of the story if that you shouldn't export back to .obj and just go straight to .nif. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated !