about 3ds max 2009 export

[duketiger]

i just made a new weapon model with 3ds max 2009 for Fallout 3 ,i've had the nif plugin installed,i didn't use the niftools tho,does that matter? i don't know what the collisions or anyting like that mean because i'm new to fo3 modeling ,after creating a model i just exported it as a NIF with Animation type file successfully,then i put it directly in the \Meshes\weapons\shotgun folder,but i just can't see the model in game,,somebody pls give me some help!! appreciate it

[pob255]

Yes it does matter greatly.

 

The nif files contain a lot more than just the mesh and animation, it's all this additional data the game needs to use the mesh

 

Get nifskope and have a look at this tutorial http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=82738

 

I've found it easier to export from max as a nif then copy and paste the nifstripsdata over into an existing weapon.

than trying to import a .3ds or .obj

[duketiger]

good, ur info is fairly helpful :biggrin:

[Skree000]

yea your head is gonna hurt after you learn how to get stuff in fallout, its like jumping through hoops, copying and pasting exports into already-working fallout3 versions and saving them as new ones ;)

[Ghogiel]

assuming you thoroughly set the scene up for export, there are a couple things still to be done post export.

 

open in nifskope-

If its rigged -update tangent space> save

 

if it is not rigged(and depending on what it is...).- update tangent space> change the sceneroot ninode to BSFadeNode> disable the shader flags - SF_Shadow_Map, SF_Shadow_Frustum>save

 

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I recomend exporting a shotgun as a nif w/o animation.

1: unless you strip the vanilla shotgun nif down into a kf file, and import that kf and the shotgun nif into the scene, you will not have any animation in your scene. so unless you animated the scene yourself you're not exporting any animation. embedded animations in nifs will not import. You have to rip everything out the nif besides a nicontrollersequence. simply right click the sequence>block>crop to branch. save as a .kf

2: most of the animations in the vanilla weapon nifs do not do anything in game. < its controlled blocks in the characters animations.

3: If you did want to export a working nif with an embedded animation, you will probably want to use nif w manager.< it will take some post processing for those to work.

Or instead of faffing around with that, an easier, quicker method I recently put together, export a kf of the anim and the nif separtely, then simply copy the tristrip data of your mesh over a vanilla mesh(that has a nicontrollermanager, ie a door). then paste in the nitransformdata from your kf.

[Skree000]

assuming you thoroughly set the scene up for export, there are a couple things still to be done post export.

 

open in nifskope-

If its rigged -update tangent space> save

 

if it is not rigged(and depending on what it is...).- update tangent space> change the sceneroot ninode to BSFadeNode> disable the shader flags - SF_Shadow_Map, SF_Shadow_Frustum>save

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I recomend exporting a shotgun as a nif w/o animation.

1: unless you strip the vanilla shotgun nif down into a kf file, and import that kf and the shotgun nif into the scene, you will not have any animation in your scene. so unless you animated the scene yourself you're not exporting any animation. embedded animations in nifs will not import. You have to rip everything out the nif besides a nicontrollersequence. simply right click the sequence>block>crop to branch. save as a .kf

2: most of the animations in the vanilla weapon nifs do not do anything in game. < its controlled blocks in the characters animations.

3: If you did want to export a working nif with an embedded animation, you will probably want to use nif w manager.< it will take some post processing for those to work.

Or instead of faffing around with that, an easier, quicker method I recently put together, export a kf of the anim and the nif separtely, then simply copy the tristrip data of your mesh over a vanilla mesh(that has a nicontrollermanager, ie a door). then paste in the nitransformdata from your kf.

 

 

so weapon specific anims plop fine overtop of a doors anims as long as they both have nicontrollermanagers?

neat

[Ghogiel]

even without nicontrollermanagers.

structurally controllersequences are all the same. even in kfs. the only things that will be different between them, besides like #frames, sequence name and what not, is that the controller sequences will be targeting and controlling different nodes, And the nitransfromdata will be doing different transforms. otherwise its all the same poo. simply pasting over a node that is targeted with your trishapedata and replacing nitransformdata with you own, you can hijack any working animation. And actually go on and build from there.

 

Because flipping what is actually exported from max to work in game actually takes a bit longer. doing it this way saves time and is actually quite robust, and with it you can get any transform animation from max into a working nif.

 

you may have to get a good eye on the pivot centers, otherwise when u paste things around, they may not be aligned correctly. the numbers are there if you look so its not a show stopper.