I need some help/pointers with gore caps for custom armor.

[BurgermanJones]

I've made a few NIF-bashed armors for a mod I'm currently working on, and they work well enough except for the gore caps, which don't line up with where the limbs actually sever (arms should sever in the middle of bicep, but the whole arm falls off). I've tried parting the mesh in certain ways, moving the caps themselves, and other methods as well, but I just can't seem to get it to work.

I'd appreciate any tips on how to best fix this, and would especially appreciate any offers to help, as I am very much a beginner with Blender.

[H0LL0W4YF0X]

Lacking additional information, I would assume that you need to partition your custom armor mesh.

 

0.] A Brief Note

After writing this guide, I realized I made three basic assumptions:

1.) You are using Mod Organizer 2.
2.) You are running BodySlide and Outfit Studio from within MO2.
3.) You are using a dedicated "Testing" profile while working with modding and testing, separate from any other profile containing playthrough saves, load order data, etc., or have otherwise created a backup of all relevant, important files.

Concerning the first point, I have no experience with other modern mod organizer software outside of MO2. Other software may be able to do everything it does, and if so, then carry on with that software instead. For the second point, not running BodySlide and Outfit Studio from within your mod organizer software or otherwise lacking access to your data files will most likely cause issues with textures (at the very least), and it is therefore assumed you are running the program such that it can access all necessary files from their expected directory locations. The final point I expect to be self-explanatory.

 

I.] Basic Partitioning

Here is a detailed guide concerning the full process of rigging, skinning, and partitioning a mesh from scratch:

Rigging Skinning and Dismemberment
https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Rigging_skinning_and_dismemberment

I would suggest you read through the above guide from start to finish (or give it your best attempt, if this is all completely new) so that you gain a full (or otherwise better) understanding of how the game parses this information on a mechanical level.

However, you do not need go through that full process if you're just partitioning an armor mesh, thanks to the powerful and convenient Outfit Studio. I'll do my best to try to point you in the right direction, as I recently completed this process myself as part of a larger project.

If all you need to do to your custom armor mesh is partitioning and nothing more, then you're in luck, because it's not terribly involved, nor time-consuming. All you will need for this process is Outfit Studio.

First, let's look at what you're trying to replicate with your armor. A simple example from the vanilla game files is one of the Sorrows tribal body meshes from Honest Hearts, unpacked from "HonestHearts - Main.bsa" in the directory "...\meshes\nvdlc02\character\..." using a .bsa extractor utility. You can use any mesh, actually, but this is the simplest example I could quickly find. Open Outfit Studio, File > Import > From NIF.

You should be looking at either the male or female Sorrows body. In the top right corner, the "Meshes" tab should be open. You will see that this is a simple mesh, consisting only of a body mesh and the necessary ten gore caps (the four "bodycaps" and four "limbcaps" are grouped together). Click the "eye" icon next to the gore cap meshes ("meat*") to temporarily hide them, select the "Arms*" mesh (this is the body), and change the tab to "Partitions," to the right of "Bones." Here you will see all of the necessary partitions of a full body mesh. You can click on them to highlight each individual partition in red.

Additionally, View > Deselect "Enable Textures" (or just press "T") will make seeing the partitions easier by hiding the textures of the mesh.

The torso is a single partition, and each limb has two partitions, one above the dismemberment point (the part that stays attached to the torso) and one below (the part that gets dismembered into its own object). By returning to the "Mesh" tab and toggling the visibility of the gore cap meshes (click the now-closed "eye" icon until it is open again), you can see that the gore caps are aligned with the partitions, with one set of body gore caps covering the torso partition of a limb, and the other the limb itself.

Lastly, hide everything but one of the body or limb gore cap sets, select it, and check the "Partitions" tab once again. You will see that each cap has its own partition, corresponding to each individual limb.

Now that you have an example to reference, all that remains is to create the partitions to match the gore caps on your custom armor mesh in the same way the gore caps and partitions are arranged on this example mesh.

This is as straightforward as loading your custom armor mesh into Outfit Studio (File > Import > From NIF), selecting the mesh of your custom armor, selecting the partition you want to change in the "Partitions" tab, and painting the partitions on the mesh by clicking it in the render window. Click "Apply" frequently as you complete an area correctly; click "Reset" if you make a mistake, as in my experience, it is far less time-consuming than correcting it manually.

The size of the brush can be adjusted by clicking the "Brush Settings" Button in the top toolbar. You can add any partitions you need by right-clicking in the "Partition" tab field and clicking "Add Partition." A partition assignment can be changed by selecting the partition and clicking the drop-down "Type" menu.

If it's as simple as painting each partition to the respective gore caps and exporting to .nif, then all you need to do is load your new .nif properly in a temporary mod folder at the end of your load order, test each individual limb dismemberment and the VATS rendering, and you're all done if everything works properly.

 

II.] Potential Issues and Possible Solutions

1.) If textures are not appearing upon testing, first check the directory of the textures for the mesh. In Outfit Studio, right click the mesh, select "Properties" at the bottom of the menu, and click "Textures" in the window. The file path needs to be "textures\..." contained inside of your game installation's "data" folder or your mod manager instance.

2.) If gore caps specifically are not appearing, ensure they are also properly partitioned. Each cap needs its own partition.

3.) If gore caps or textures still aren't appearing and you are certain it's not a partition or texture directory issue, you need to check the shader flags for that part in NifSkope. NifSkope can be overwhelming at first glance if you've never used it, but we're only doing something simple in this case:

A.) Open NifSkope and load your mesh.

B.) Click View > Show. Ensure "Block List" and "Block Details" are checked.

C.) On the left side of the screen, the "Block List" menu should show a single "NiNode" entry. Click the triangle to expand the menu. You should now see "NiTriShape" entries. To the right of each is a value. Select and expand the "NiTriShape" that corresponds to the mesh(es) with missing textures.

D.) Select the "BSShader..." under the appropriate "NiTriShape." Below, in the "Block Details" menu, there will be an entry "Shader Flags." Generally, the entry should read "Specular | Skinned | Remappable_Textures | ZBuffer_Test." If any are missing, add them by double-clicking the field, clicking the arrow to the right, and selecting them. If a texture uses transparency, "Alpha_Texture" should be enabled as well. Repeat as needed for each relevant mesh.

E.) Save and test. If this didn't resolve the issue, and you're absolutely certain it's not a partition or texture directory problem, further solutions are beyond my ability to diagnose without additional information or looking at the file directly.

 

III.] A Final Note on Basic Gore Cap Issues

Aligning the partitions with preexisting gore caps is the preferred method of editing meshes as long as they can actually be made to align without clipping or transparency graphical issues. However, if you cannot simply partition your way to an acceptable final output, you will need to manually adjust the gore cap positions first in Blender (or a suitable alternative), and then follow the steps above. Realigning gore caps can be as straightforward as simply moving the ones that already exist, or as involved as making entirely new ones.

 

IV.] Fixing Gore Cap Positions Using Blender

If you must manually fix the positions of the gore caps, this is my personal workflow for doing so. I am still a novice with this kind of work, and this is not the most elegant solution. However, it is the most straightforward process I could make given my limited experience, and I assume that if you're reading this, simple solutions with a few more steps are preferable to more involved ones with fewer steps.

I use Blender for object editing only (as .obj) whenever possible, Outfit Studio for everything else (weights, bones, partitions, etc., as .nif), and finally NifSkope to deal with any remaining issues. So this mini-guide is written with that mindset.

Additionally, I use:

 + Blender 2.92.0 with the "blender_niftools_addon_new_vegas_v4" plugin.
 + Blender 2.49b with the "blender_nif_scripts-2.5.9.77b0815" plugin.

1.) Partition your mesh appropriately in Outfit Studio. Save. This is your "Full Mesh with Partitions."

2.) Create references for properly positioning the gore caps, as well as the current set of gore caps, all standardized as .obj for work in Blender (additional details in subsequent steps), as follows:

 + The "Relevant Dismemberment Parts of the Full Mesh" (i.e. the complete arms and legs).
 + The "Torso-Attached Limb Components" (i.e. the parts of the limbs above the dismemberment partition), as a separate object.
 + The "External Limb Components" (i.e. the parts of the limbs below the dismemberment partition), as a separate object.
 + The current "bodycaps," as a separate object.
 + The current "limbcaps," as a separate object.

3.) With these five objects imported into a single workspace, quickly toggling visibility between them will allow easy visualization of both the full arms and legs, the breaks along the partition seams, and the position of the current gore caps, while also allowing "easy" creation of new caps if needed.

4.) Create the "Relevant Dismemberment Parts of the Full Mesh." In Outfit Studio, delete all meshes and gore caps from the "Full Mesh with Partitions," except the relevant portions of the arms and legs. Export as .obj and .nif (with an appropriate filename, as with all of these new objects).

5.) Import as .nif your "Relevant Dismemberment Parts of the Full Mesh" into Blender (2.92.0 is preferable). Select the mesh and click the emerald "triangle" icon to open the Object Data Properties. Here you can view the partitions. In Edit Mode, find the four partitions that correspond to each part of the arms and legs below the dismemberment break. Click one of these external limb partition to highlight, then click "Select" below. Repeat for the remaining three external limbs. You should now see selected only the parts of the limbs below the dismemberment partitions. Separate this selection. Now you have two objects split along the partition breaks. Export each as an individual .nif file.

6.) Import your two new .nifs back into Outfit Studio and then export each as .obj.

7.) Import your original "Full Mesh." Delete everything but the "bodycaps." Export as .obj. Repeat for the "limbcaps."

8.) Import all five .obj files into Blender. All geometry should be standardized, as we used Outfit Studio for all exports.

How you proceed from here is at your own discretion. Essentially, the sole determinants are you own standards of quality as compared to how much you want to invest in producing that desired result.

By toggling visibility you can quickly find the dismemberment breakpoints. The "full" mesh serves as a convenient reference for using Shrinkwrap modifiers. Mirror modifiers will save you time if symmetry allows for them. If simply repositioning the misaligned caps is adequate, do so. If you want to make new caps, study and replicate/modify the current caps or see the "Rigging Skinning and Dismemberment" link above for a detailed guide on making your own caps using a standardized method. You could also make a standardized cap with a cylinder and Copy > Position > Shrinkwrap > Tweak Interior UV for each. The textures for the caps are "textures\gore\meatcapgore01.dds" and "...\meatcapgore01_n.dds."

Regardless of your decision, export each complete set of caps (body caps as one set and limb caps as another) individually as .obj files. Detailed guides concerning these final steps can be found elsewhere; the following is simply the remainder of the workflow. Import your original "Full Mesh with Partitions" into Outfit Studio as a reference, import a set of your new caps, copy the weights from your reference to the caps, check the weights and bones, and export the caps as a .nif. Repeat the previous for the other set of caps. Import your new, weighted .nif files into your "Full Mesh." Replace the old caps with your new ones (preserve the original list order of meshes while doing so). Save as a new file, of course. Now partition these new caps, add the proper gore texture with transparency, check "Shader Flags" in NifSkope (everything from before, basically), and test the results.

 

V.] Final Thoughts

Lastly, in my own experience modding many different types of games in many different ways, the process always devolves into the following:

1.) Determine *how* to do whatever it is you want to do.
2.) Determine how *best* to do whatever it is you want to do.
3.) Do whatever it is you want to do.

Usually, the first two steps are the most involved. Doing anything for the first time is always the most frustrating and time-consuming part of the process. So, for example, if you decide that you need to actually make your own gore caps, it may be prudent to start by making only one, following the process and maybe even keeping notes along the way until it's done and you ensure it works properly. Not only is it a validation of your ability to make the mod you want to make, but it also will likely give you some ideas about how to improve your output or simply be more efficient in the future. It is highly preferable to avoid situations in which you complete a significant amount of work only to realize that the entire approach is unworkable or flawed, and thus needs to be partially or completely scrapped; that's often a one-way ticket to Burnoutsburg, nestled deep in the dreary Greater Province of Unfinished Projects.

 

I hope the above has been helpful. I can try to answer any additional questions over the course of the next several days, but my availability beyond that may soon be severely limited, perhaps even for the foreseeable future.

Best wishes with your modding endeavors.

Edited November 23 by H0LL0W4YF0X
Minor Typo.

[Pellape]

Bookmarked 

[H0LL0W4YF0X]

16 hours ago, Pellape said:

Bookmarked 

I'm glad some of that text may possibly be of help to you. It's really nothing more than information pulled from several other guides and posts, albeit with some of my own little discoveries along the way, but it might hopefully serve as a decent introduction to gore caps and such using the convenience of Outfit Studio instead. Cheers!

[Pellape]

@H0LL0W4YF0X

I have been making 3D since 2005, Morrowind and started making stuff for Oblivion 2006 and during the journey, stuff changed. At some points we where able to make perfect meshes, with perfect collisions, and at some points, we where not able to make it. I so have faith in those that still try to fix the NifTools, but the development of Gamebryo goes to fast forward. I am just happy that I managed to make F4 meshes really with the tools avaiable. I do have some contact with a former 3D artist in Florida, that did solve collisions for F4 but I cannot make it work, even if I follow his guide and he do have access to my meshes. Well we see where we end up. It is often a matter to combine the right versions of NifTools + Blender.

I have not made any meshes yet for FNV, but I did release some face make-ups for F3, natural but still colorful and soon I do it for FNV as well. Right now I am focusing at Quests as that is lacking more than graphic stuff. I could show off some stuff I made since 2005 and I choose 3 things to not clog up this thread. 

• My simple 3D/CGI stuff. (I will not take 3D jobs, just make stuff for games from now on, here at Nexus, unless I get forced to do it)
• My 2 years Oblivion Project 2020-2022, Loaded with OBSE scripts, spells, 60+ quests, 3D, 2D and everything that a lazy player like me would ever need.    Right now I do not have plans remaking it for Fallout, but who knows? What will I do when all my quests are made? IDK. Not yet. Maybe we play TES 6 at that point?  IDK?? Right now I focus at F3 and FNV. I also wanna test Skyrim + Mantella AI, if I get the thumb out reinstalling Skyrim that is...  I did play it 2020 again, but I had more fun in Oblivion at that point really and more control. I can make whatever I want in Oblivion, well I have not yet made creatures. 
• Morrowind, my first project. 2004-2006, edited and re-uploaded 2020.

To make collisions to actually work with the new Interface of Blender, well v2.7+ was a pain in the rear end. I am sure I will be able to repeat it. So every single tip that I see about 3D for our beloved Bethesda games is welcome. It was easier to get help a couple of years ago than it is now as Some damn good 3D artists have left the scene and the one that got me started passed away 2011, right before Skyrim was published (Qarl R.I.P) and he was a damn good problems solver and a pioneer within Morrowind, and he did experiment with Normals before any other modder did have a single clue about how it worked, well that I know off, until I did find DXTBMP and dds-tools was published for gimp. Well with 19 years behind me, both as 1 man project maker and a team worker in different smaller projects. If you are interesting in our F4 tests, they are here. Still, we need to dig deeper into this issue. I solve collisions anyway with NifSkope. I can keep writing forever, so I stop there.

It is extremely vital that we all help each others as best as we can.    And I also forgot: Welcome to Nexus Forums. 

Edited November 28 by Pellape