Tutorial for custom meshes with custom collision?

[YouDoNotKnowMyName0]

Hello everybody!

Is there a way to get custom (static) meshes with custom collision into the game?

I had a look around the "tools" folder in the starfield main directory and there seems to be a software that needs 3dsMax 2021.

Is there any other way?

I really have a distaste for subscription software like 3dsMax.

[zonksIsAwake]

I've been trying to learn how to do this and am at a point where I am stuck. Here is what I've learned so far. I have also been unable to find a tutorial video for Starfield specifically. Because the files are slightly different than FO4 (for example meshaggedon causes .nifs to no longer contain geometries) previous tutorials are helpful but don't do the whole job. I think a couple people have been able to get a static mesh into the game using creation kit with a custom texture that wasn't a replacement.

 Organization of SF Meshes and Related assets.

https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/articles/268

 

Starfield Tools:

Nifskope Dev 9 for seeing SF meshes (can also use to open meshes of other sf mods)
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/articles/268

Blender to starfield / starfield to blender
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/4360?tab=posts

Bethesda Archive Extractor starfield specific
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/165?tab=posts

 

I have been following this FO4 tutorial playlist.

 

Getting stuck:

I've gotten to where I am able to splice my mesh onto a copy of the m1919_receiver_standard.nif and see it in nifskope. However when I preview in CK it only shows a red exclamation point. I'm using the same unextracted material as the m1919 at the moment so I'm wondering if that is the issue but I'm not sure yet.

[AngelWilly]

6 hours ago, zonksIsAwake said:

I've been trying to learn how to do this and am at a point where I am stuck. Here is what I've learned so far. I have also been unable to find a tutorial video for Starfield specifically. Because the files are slightly different than FO4 (for example meshaggedon causes .nifs to no longer contain geometries) previous tutorials are helpful but don't do the whole job. I think a couple people have been able to get a static mesh into the game using creation kit with a custom texture that wasn't a replacement.

 Organization of SF Meshes and Related assets.

https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/articles/268

 

Starfield Tools:

Nifskope Dev 9 for seeing SF meshes (can also use to open meshes of other sf mods)
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/articles/268

Blender to starfield / starfield to blender
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/4360?tab=posts

Bethesda Archive Extractor starfield specific
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/165?tab=posts

 

I have been following this FO4 tutorial playlist.

 

Getting stuck:

I've gotten to where I am able to splice my mesh onto a copy of the m1919_receiver_standard.nif and see it in nifskope. However when I preview in CK it only shows a red exclamation point. I'm using the same unextracted material as the m1919 at the moment so I'm wondering if that is the issue but I'm not sure yet.

Did you just export the .nif out of the Blender and then put it into SF directory?
Show us an image of Nifskope when you open that .nif file

[zonksIsAwake]

Using BAE I extracted the .nif for the m1919

I exported the .nif from blender and copied the geometry block then pasted it onto a duplicate of the m1919 receiver .nif

Rn I'm just using the same material as the m1919 as I'm just trying to see if I can get an object in the game.

 

 

Also, when I first paste my geometry block over the m1919 and save it it gives me this error:

Edited June 27, 2024 by zonksIsAwake
adding info

[zonksIsAwake]

So good news, I figured out how to add a custom mesh to CK. Here are the steps I took if you find them helpful. I'm not sure how important extracting the materials is but I did it just in case.

1. Extract your Starfield game materials using BAE or Archive2 from Main.ba2 > Materials
2. Extract your mesh from blender as a .nif using geometry bridge into a folder that contains a copy of the .nif you're going to be splicing.
   • Example: I exported this block out of a glock into a new folder that held a copy of m1919_receiver_standard.nif.
   • It may be important to know that I did this with a mesh extracted from meshesPatch.ba2 instead of meshes01.ba2
3. Now in this new folder you will see a geometries folder. Just be aware of that we'll use it later.
4. Open your .nif and the bethesda weapon.nif you're using.
5. In your mesh click it so that the edges are highlighted green and then right click > Block > Copy (NOT COPY BRANCH)
6. Go into Bethesda's .nif select the game weapon mesh there and find what node it is listed under.
7. Then right click on that node and select paste.
8. Still in Bethesda's .nif, right click your BSgeometry node and transform it so that it matches up roughly with Bethesda's weapon mesh.
9. In the blocklist find the BSgeometry node of bethesdas weapon and to the right of BSGeometry you will see a number.
10. Add this number to your geometry node by double clicking the right of the "BSGeometry" text and entering the number of bethesda's weapon node.
11. With your bsgeometry node selected find "Shader Property" and change the number to match the Bethesda geometry node shader property. You can find this property by selecting bethesda's geometry node then looking bottom left for "shader property"
12. Go into Bethesda's geometry node and click the drop down menu, right click the BSLightingShaderProperty > Copy
13. Paste this onto your geometry node replacing your old BSLightingShaderProperty
14. Delete Bethesda's weapon BSgeometrynode by Right Clicking > Block > Remove
15. Ctrl-S to save.
16. Close Nifskope Dev 9
17. Take that .nif and drop it into Starfield/Data/meshes/weapons along with the geometry folder. If you don't have that file structure then create it.
18. Back in that new folder that you created find the geometries folder and add the folder that has your mesh to /Starfield/Data/geometries/weapons (either a long string of numbers or letters or something like /glock).
19. Why did you copy the geometry folder to two locations? Adding it to the meshes folder allows you to still view the mesh in nifskope without changing the mesh path. Adding it to /data/geometries allows the game to find the mesh file. At least I think this is all from trial and error
20. Now in CK you can duplicate and rename  an Object mod to something like mynewweapon_receiver_standard then double click it and edit the Model path and it should give you a preview of your model

Now hopefully you can add a new mesh to the CK

Edited June 27, 2024 by zonksIsAwake

[Allnarta]

For everyone who's messing around custom meshes and Starfield Geometry bridge, I'd like to clarify: it is highly reccomended to join SGB Discord https://discord.com/invite/4eKExKkKF7 , as Sesame updates nexus version rarely and lazy.  Discord has github feed with latest builds (it updates several times a day now), and you always can ask for help and discuss things related to meshes.