How to edit nif meshes (vertices, normals)?

[CatOfEvilGenius]

How do I edit nif meshes (vertices and normals)? I can't do it in nifskope. Specifically, I want to adjust normals on a head mesh nose.

 

I have Skyrim AE and the mesh is in a BSDynamicTriShape in nifskope. That's where the vertices and normals are stored, right?

Can I convert a BSDynamicTriShape into an OBJ (or some other format, I don't even care, just something a mesh editor can edit).
Can I convert an OBJ into a BSDynamicTriShape and bring that into a nif file somehow?

 

I have Blender 3.x. Is there a nif importer/exporter that works for Blender? I can't get the old one to work. :sad:

 

I also have 3dx Max, some recent 202x version. Same question.

 

I have MilkShape as well but it reads OBJ files.

 

Is there some reliable way to convert nif to obj and obj to nif? Won't I lose all kinds of information converting nif to obj?

 

Where is the documentation about the mesh editing workflow???

 

I have been looking for such documentation for over a month! It's 2022! How is it 2022 and this kind of stuff isn't readily available? Having to search through reddit posts or ask in chat forums and discords is just ridiculous (although I greatly appreciate any help I can get here). This stuff should be documented, the documentation organized and front and center on nexus. That's what we did on modthesims so where's the equivalent documentation here? Am I just missing it? What I have been able to find on nexus seems to be out of date, for very old versions of the tools, and I have yet to find something that's "here's how you get a mesh from a nif and then back into a nif". AAAAAAAARGH.

Thank you, nexus community folks, for any help! :)

[Algabar]

Disclaimer first: TBH, I never modded head parts. I only got some (limited) experience with objects like e.g. weapons. So I migh not be aware of some head part specific problems.

 

Nifskope can import and export meshes in OBJ format.

My routine always was:

1. Export from Nifskope as OBJ.

2. Edit in a 3D modeling program (in my case Blender).

3. Export as OBJ from the 3D software.

4. Import and adjust (size, rotation, vertex coloring...) in Nifskope.

 

AFAIK, Outfit Studio can also import and export OBJs. So, probably the easiest (though not optimal) way is to use OBJ as a "transfer format".

 

From my experience, the nif plugin for Blender never really worked (or at least it was/is very difficult to use). AFAIK, 3DS Max has an option to export as .nif files, which works a lot better. Maybe you can try that.

[CatOfEvilGenius]

Thank you Algabar. I was able to export the head/face BSDynamicTriShape from Outfit Studio. It was exported without normals so I'm guessing those are generated on the fly with the ones from a face normal texture combined on top. Makes sense, for a dynamically changing shape.