Custom Model Help

[Deleted19761User]

Not sure if this is the best place to post but here it goes.

 

I just made a custom sword model using Milkshape. Textured it fine and did the UV mapping. I saved it as a wave front file (OBJ) then opened it up with blender so I could convert it to a nif file. I have absolutely no idea if there was anything I needed to do to it in blender. Everything seemed to show up just fine texture wise and what not. So I converted it to the oblivion NIF format and then opened it up with NIFSkope. The mesh shows up just as I made it, but the textures will not show at all.

 

 

I've searched and searched and searched on google/bing and have only found cryptic at best tutorials on all the steps needed to do this. So my question now, noobish and silly as it is, can some one point me to a Tutorial or help me figure out all the things I need to do to finish this particular project?

 

(Sorry if this is in the wrong section)

[Pronam]

My knowledge is quite limited with this stuff but I think you've got to split the object/texture if not done. NIF-files don't contain textures themselves, only a path to them. (Sorry if this is the wrong answer ;))

 

Nope, you're at the right section. Don't worry.

[David Brasher]

The information is a bit vague, so my answer might be misplaced. Have you attached textures using Nifskope? If you don't attach textures or have them in the wrong place, your model will appear pure white in that program. click on a section of the model and white grid lines will appear. Go to the highlighted NiTriShape in the list. Expand it until you find the purple flower. Right click it. Texture>Choose. Make sure the filepath ends up starting with "textures." It should look like textures\weapons\sharpsword01.dds It must not look like C:Oblivion\data\textures\weapons\sharpsword01.dds because then it will only reliably work on your own computer and nobody else's.

 

Sorry if I answered the wrong question.

[Deleted19761User]

Well looking at Nifkope and the nodes, the textures are there & assigned. They just aren't showing up. Just a white model all the way. So maybe I missed a step some where? :wallbash:

[Pronam]

That's because you've got to setup nifskope to look for them.

Go to Render->Settings->Rendering. Auto detect game paths will let nifskope show any textures that are appropriately placed int the textures folder of oblivion.

 

(Sidenote: For vanilla stuff if you got the meshes, but not the textures extracted, you could use .BSA by File->Resources)

[Deleted19761User]

I've done that. I redid some things on the mesh, added a scabbard node and a mesh for it. Copied a similar node from another sword for the properties. That's all working.

 

The texture for the scabbard shows up, and a texture for a part of the hilt shows up. Everything else is whited out still. Is there a problem with the alpha levels maybe? I'm at a loss still here. :confused: I'm saving the textures in standard RGB 24bit dds. Normals are saved DTX3 with no changes made to them. I tried saving the regular textures in the DTX3 format without normal mapping on and it greys them out completely and still don't show up.

 

Or maybe I did something in blender I didn't do before? Learning as I go with blender.

 

My paths are set ".\Textures\Weapons\...." & ".\Meshes\Weapons\..." from everything I've read, thats the right way to set it. Nifskope detects them that way as well apparently. (Not that it has.)

[Unavi]

hmm.. I don't think the problems are the alpha channels as those problems show up only in-game, but it could be that the materials of your models aren't set right. Check the ambient color (in the nif note with the pallete icon). Sry if this isn't of any help.

[Deleted19761User]

Edit : Never mind. I figured out what the deal was. There was a duplicate mesh covering mine. Something there for the colision mapping I think? Anyway, once I removed it, everything showed up just fine. Thanks for the feed back everyone.

[BrokenEdge]

I'm not too sure I can help too much but I think I might be able to assist if you did. I had a similar problem that I have sort of solved.

 

Edit: Congrats.