New to modding Help

[Skree000]

ok by the sounds of it, you arent adding a new mesh to replace the existing vault door, you are just replacing the texture right?

 

So, to do that all you need to do is open the original vault door's nif file, place your new .dds texture(s) in Fallout3/data/textures/ and then in nifskope plug them in and save.

[ChrisPydtank]

lolz thanks for responding but no... I explain a better full story... its the vault doors im customizing... A guy named vic on the nexus file downloader area has made files to help make your own vault door with whatever number you want. Since im doing the vault 74 tutorial i thought it would be stupid to have the door say 87 like it tells you... this guy also gave out a youtube tutorial to work the vaults so you can use it into the game as a vault 74...

 

I needed

 

Gimp

DDS Converter 2

NIFSCOPE (latest he says)

 

so i listen to video and watch whilst doing it at the same time... I load the textures i downloaded which is a .psd file so i can put up 74 on the vault... I save it as .psd and then the next thing is to make it a .dds file.

 

I load DDS Converter (on vista) and i do what the video says, find that i cant click convert.

I find out that vista has issues so i use my sisters XP computer. Install and load DDS Converter... put up the settings i need...

It converts but doesnt convert like the video showed... He shows 2 files... "Vault 74.dds" and "Vault 74_n.dds"... I didnt get the file "_n" one... he says its needed so I dunno why i didnt get it???

I continue to check if NIFSCOPE will do something and ask later about the _n file...

 

I load Nifscope (vista)... I click load and select the mesh of the vault that i downloaded with the textures... That box above comes and loads with that repeating with different sectors in wrong place if thats what the box means... so it stops and I close the box... what you see in the first picture is what I get... in the video you see the shape of the vault without color or texture if you will... just a plain white object... my object is a dot... i thought i might be zoomed away... i try to zoom in... nothing...

 

I thought something might happen if i continue to follow the video and try to get the texture to load like he tells you... i have to goto Tristrips... What he does... it doesnt have it... I couldnt do what he was doing... i couldnt open the blocks to get to the place to add the texture... whatever happens during the load to get it going is the thing thats screwing this over... I tried it on the XP computer just in case NIFSCOPE has issues with vista... same thing... maybe I havent set up nifscope properly or something... their was nothing on the tutorial about setting up to make it do what happens so i figure you should be able to load and go... but without being able to see mesh or having the other .dds file... it cant be done... nor editing and modding anything else...

 

So im trying to figure out:

 

Why didnt i get the _n.dds file?

Why cant I see the mesh as shown on video?

 

Here is the videos I followed...

 

 

Thats what im trying to do...

 

sorry about the trouble guys... Im trying to learn as best as I can so I dont run into much trouble... but doing this is something that shouldnt be that much of a problem... its easy to do... just hard when it dont wanna work for ya...

[Skree000]

Heres how you do this, i will help you.

 

WHAT YOU NEED

Blank Vault Doors (you might have this already)

Fallout Mod Manager

 

DO THIS FIRST

First of all, make a NEW folder for your custom stuff, in both Fallout3/data/meshes/ and Fallout3/data/textures/

Name it after yourself. For example, my folders for custom stuff are called Fallout3/data/meshes/Skree000/ and Fallout3/data/textures/Skree000/ etc.

This is where you will be saving out your custom modified vault door, as well as the TWO textures you will need to apply to it.

 

IF YOU HAVENT DONE THIS YET

open My Documents/My Games/Fallout3/FALLOUT.INI

Change the line that reads bInvalidateOlderFiles=0 and change it to =1

 

 

ok now, here we go. Do exactly as i say, and should all work, 100%.

 

EXTRACTING FRESH VANILLA COPY OF VAULT GEARDOOR

Open Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM).

Click on BSA UNPACKER

Open up Fallout3/data/Fallout - Meshes.bsa

look for a mesh called \meshes\dungeons\vault\roomu\vgeardoor01.nif

Extract it to your custom meshes folder (whatever you called it in a few steps above)

close these programs, you are done with them.

 

APPLYING YOUR OWN TEXTURE TO VANILLA VAULT GEARDOOR

Open vgeardoor01.nif (the one you just extracted) with NIFSKOPE

Go to Line 561.

Expand the hierarchy tree of Line 561 (click the [+] sign)

Expand BSShaderPPLightingProperty

Click on 'BsShaderTextureSet'

In the Details Sub Window, click and expand 'Textures' (click the [+] sign)

you will see 2 textures: the color/diffuse (top) and the normal (under that)

 

Click the purple flower icon and replace the top one with your new .dds texture you made with your custom numbers on it. (it should be located in your custom textures folder)

Click the purple flower icon and replace the second one with vgeardoor0blank_n.dds (it should also be located in your custom textures folder)

Save the nif file as something like 'MyVaultDoor.nif', (but save it in your custom meshes folder)

exit nifskope

 

Heres a pic to help guide you. The Vault Door file is f'ing FULL of stuff lmao.

http://www.kolcrosbie.com/vaultdoornifthing.jpg

 

 

DONE!

 

To check your results, right click on the new .nif file you saved into your custom mesh file, and 'open with...' Then find and choose the GECK, and check 'always use this program with files of this type'. (that way the GECK's built in 'mesh previewer' will load up all your meshes when you just want to check out a mesh on its own) (you can open multiple copies of the mesh previewer too)

 

Now in GECK, all you need to do is EDIT the existing Vault101 door, look for the line where it says it uses the model, and point it towards your NEW mesh (located in your custom meshes folder). Rename it to what you want, and when you click ok, CREATE NEW FORM--> YES. Then save your plugin (hopefully you already have a plugin made)

 

 

------

Unnecessary, but long winded explanation and discussion of what we just did:

 

that guys video is broken and incomplete. You are right, he never shows how to create the _n file.

 

The _n.dds file is the Normal map texture. For Fallout3, normal maps are also expected to have their Specular map inside the alpha channel of that normal map.

 

Normal maps are special textures that contain bump information on 3 channels (RGB). With DDS textures saved out to DXT1a, DXT3 or DXT5, they can also contain information in an extra fourth channel, called the alpha channel. This is a hidden layer in the texture that is usually empty unless your game engine goes looking for information in there.

(if you dont save your dds texture with DXT3 or higher, the alpha channel will be omitted, and your normal map will be missing its specularity, and look wrong in game)

 

Specular maps are 'shiney-ness' maps, which tell the game what reflects light, and what doesnt. In these textures, white is shiney, and black is matte (non-shiney)

 

Bethesda (like most game studios) decided it would save memory to piggyback the Specular map inside the one of the other textures alpha channels. In this case, the alpha channel of the normal map. Since specular maps only need one channel of grayscale data, alpha is perfect, since all alpha is is an extra grayscale channel! :)

 

 

Im not sure how GIMP handles channels, but if you can find a channels tab, RGB are for the normal map, and Alpha (A?) is for the spec. If you have NO specular map for it, just fill that layer completely grey. (Grey RGB 128,128,128) is like a medium value that is somewhat shiney, somewhat matte. If you make it black, your textured object will not light up with reflections when lit. If you make it white, the object will be always lit up like a mirror, really bright and shiney. (even glossy depending on the gloss value you give it in the Nif's MaterialProperties block)

 

Anyways, if you used the 'blank' _n.dds file he included with his BLANK VAULT DOORS zip file, it will work fine. Its just like normal vault door except the number is gone in both normal and specular as well.

[ChrisPydtank]

How that alot to help with... thanks... but the issue remains on the NIFSCOPE situation... even if i do all that... I cant see what you see in that image... the render nor the BSShader Block to get textures... If you think its the mesh i downloaded then I hope extracting the mesh wont cause my problem... I also have the blank door stuff since I didnt want a pre made numbered door... and thanks I forgot about that invalid txt file change... i was gonna look for it but now you wrote it then maybe my testing of my vault will work better... coz The blank vault doors texture doesnt load properly... it has weird thing going on... flashes to weird plain texture... and when i try to go through a door to the lower level... I freeze their... everything still works... compass to quest still goes... i can press esc to goto main menu window... just cant move, change weapons... use pipboy... but im guessing the objects ive made are causing issues... even tho I made render markers and portals... but I will see what happens... i update here if your idea worked...

[ChrisPydtank]

bad news...NIFSCOPE line 561 isnt Tristrips... its NiStringExtraData... the closest TriStrip is here (544)... I open it and this is all I got that Ive made a picture of... Ive included that box of random stuff again and as you can see you cant see the picture of the plain vault door in the render...

[Skree000]

you didnt listen to instructions :)

what nif file is that... VGearDoorr87.nif?

 

reread my post, and DONT SKIP ANY STEPS!!!

You need VGearDoor01.nif, after EXTRACTING it from the Fallout3 meshes BSA archive with FOMM's bsa unpacker.

 

 

 

 

The white dot is a node (bone), not your mesh. Every object in the game has to have a root bone associated with it so it can be placed in game world, and/or interacted with.

 

Your nif file in that pic is corrupt. Delete it and forget about it. Its useless now. DELETE! (device in wrong position etc etc errors are related to bad header/footer and table sizes, or duplicate/missing vital nif blocks, which means you broke the nif file. Instead of trying to fix that crap just delete. Its not even the right mesh you should be playing with. (two R's in the GearDoor® mean 'rusty' version anyways. So either way its the wrong mesh (ie. vgeardoor87.nif <--- NON-rusty. vgeardoorr87.nif <---- RUSTY)

 

Go extract a FRESH copy of Vgeardoor01.nif just like i said.

 

If you follow the steps through, 100%, you will have ZERO problems. If you have troubles, go back and re-read steps to the LETTER!

[ChrisPydtank]

lolz ok ok im sorry... i did as you asked... ok if that dot is a node then why cant I see what you had on picture and what I saw on video??? the actual picture of the vault???

 

It didnt work... I re did the steps... again it didnt work... same situation occurs... something isnt working for NIFSCOPE... its having trouble no mater what version or OS it is... just dont wanna read it... so the issue is the same as I quote:

 

NIFSCOPE line 561 isnt Tristrips... its NiStringExtraData... the closest TriStrip is here (544)... I open it and this is all I got. (Look at same picture)

 

I extracted the right .nif file as you said... I put everything as it says... I loaded the .nif as said... the box returned and I couldnt get the 561 line... it was as stated above...

 

So its not my steps... its NIFSCOPE atm... from what it looks to be...

[Skree000]

hmmmm

 

can you show me a pic of vgeardoor01.nif that you extracted, and did not modify (yet), open in nifskope, showing Line 561, whatever it might be?

 

im curious to see what that looks like in your nifskope window

[ChrisPydtank]

Sure... here you go... my pic of the file... and pic of the 561 line the other pic showed you anyways... but here it is again...

[Skree000]

EDIT: *deleted Lex Luthor screaming "WRONGG!" Pic because its rude lol

 

see how theres TWO r's in the name

vgeardoorr01.nif =/= vgeardoor01.nif

(2 replies ago i just posted this, i quote, "(ie. vgeardoor87.nif <--- NON-rusty. vgeardoorr87.nif <---- RUSTY)")

and its clearly not from the correct folder either. The meshes you have showing in your screenshots are from VaultRuined folder. I never said anything about that

 

as i said, please re-read my instructions. Please stop posting pics of the WRONG mesh. You will obviously have problems if the mesh is not the right one

 

you want THIS MESH:

 

\meshes\dungeons\vault\roomu\vgeardoor01.nif

 

 

If you can show me a screenshot of THAT MESH (the one i just typed above), with a problem, then ill see what else i can do to help. Otherwise please stop skipping steps. My goodness.

 

 

oh and btw no WONDER the file is F'ed up, you did something to it. Look at the Date modified. The other 2 are modified in 2008, that one is modified 2009.

 

 

(btw lol sorry, im usually not a jerkwad, but every now and then i falter lol (and i always wanted to use that lex luthor pic LMAO *hugs*)