Need mod help - Invisible armor (Meshes not showing up)

[wulfy1]

Hi all,

 

I have posted this on the official forums also, sorry if that is in bad form but I am just looking for an answer, I don't care where it comes from.

 

I am completely new to modding of any kind and I desperately need some guidance. I have read and watched what seems like a blue million tutorials on Blender/Nif Scope as they pertain to modding Oblivion.

 

I am working on my first mod and have it almost finished and have play tested the quests and dialogue a million times but now I have run into a problem I cannot seem to get past. To start, I am using the latest Blender and Nif Scripts/ Nif Scope along with PS CS4 and the NVidia DDS Plug. Running on 64 Bit Win 7 but using the 32 bit version of PS due to the plug in not working on the 64 Bit version.

 

The situation is this. I take the vanilla chain mail cuirass from my extracted BSA. I import it into Blender using the default Oblivion settings. I modify the armor in Blender and the perform my UV functions with my own .dds and _n.dds saving the .TGA file to the Blender directory. (all using the same file name ie: ChainCorsetCuirass.Nif, ChainCorsetCuirass.DDS, ChainCorsetCuirass_N.DDS)

 

At this point I have tried several things all of which result in my models/textures being visible and correct in NifScope but showing either a nude upper body without a visible cuirass OR a completely invisible upper body. I have gotten armor into the game twice but they were not UV'd in any detail.

 

My directories are:

 

data\textures\armor\wulfarmor

and data\meshes\armor\wulfarmor

 

 

The actual steps I take follow:

 

 

 

Scenario 1:

 

I import the chainmail/f/cuirass.inf into Blender using default oblivion settings. (I am not really clear on when you have to import a skeleton seperately so sometimes I do and sometiems I don't. My results are crap either way) When I do import a skeleton.nif I have tried Black Dragon's skeleton, the max compatibility skeleton and the one from full_human_male_and_female_topless_import_ready as well as fullhumanmaleandfemaletoplessimportready and of course the vanilla. Wehn I do import a skeleton I select "Realign Bone Tail + Roll" and "Import Skeleton Only + Parent Selected". I have followed the steps to ensure I had only one Scene Root and that it is named "Scene Root" not "Scene Root.00" and also performed the steps in Blender to add the armature modifier to my mesh (only if the exported mesh failed in game.)

 

 

I parent my armor to the skeleton shift select cuirass > select skeleton. Then ctrl - P > armature > No Groups then ctrl - a > scale and rotation data. I check the weight painting to be sure that I have not added unpainted vertices (and nothing has changed). I hit "A" to select all and then export. I select the "restore default settings for selected game" with Oblivion selected.

 

I then open NifScope. I load my newly saved .nif. I go to the NiTexturingProperties and click the flower to select the texture for each the upper female body and the cuirass. I then open a new window from the file menu and load the vanilla chainmail cuirass. I select the female upper body in the vanilla chainmal and go to Block > Remove Branch. I then go back to my modified file which is still open in the other window and select the female upper body Meshes > Smooth Normals ... Meshes > Update tangent Space ... Block > Copy Branch. I return to the vanilla armor window and select the scene root Block > Paste Branch. I repeat this for all branches (there are only two branches, the female upper body and the cuirass) I then save what used to be the vanilla armor with the name of my .nif. The name matches both my .dds and the _n.dds. I open CS and use my mod's ESP set to active. I then open the glass armor cuirass change the ref ID, change the model info to match my .nif file. Put that cuirass in a chest in my mod. Close all dialogues, save my ESP. I then launch Oblivion and loot the armor. I either give to a companion or wear on my character. Either way, I either get an invisible upper body or an invisible cuirass with a visible upper body. I have also taken other .dds and _n.dds files from other armor and renamed them inside of my textures/armor/wulfarmor folder just to eliminate the possibility that it was a corrupt .dds.

 

I have not always parented with modified vanilla armor. The only times I was able to get my cuirass in game, I took the vanilla chainmail cuirass, modified the model, applied a really fast UV, saved the UV. skipped parenting exported with default Oblivion settings. Opened in NifScope, performed the standardizing as described. Saved as my own filename with matching filenames on the .dds files. This method has worked twice. I spent almost all day UVing my current cuirass ... performed these steps and got nothing.

 

Please, do not refer me to another tutorial. I have read and read and read and watched and watched and read some more... I have searched all over the net for a solution and in every forum I could find (I am sorry if there is a luscious post somewhere that I cannot find giving me all the answers I need.) If anyone knows why this is happening, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to help out. Do not assume that I know anything. Even the most simple answer could solve my problem so please, if something occurs to you as peculiar, let me know or if you think "well surely he is doing this ..." I very well may not be doing it, let me know.

 

Thanks again,

 

Wulf

[razorpony]

When I export I never use the full skeleton. For some reason it always caused me problems. Here's how I do it.

 

Import vanilla mesh, cuirass.nif.

Delete vanilla skeleton.

Make any changes I want to make.

Select everything.

*Import the same vanilla cuirass.nif as before, only this time click "Import skeleton only and parent to selected".*

Save .blend file (Optional, but I always keep a backup in case the export goes wrong)

Export my .nif.

 

The only time I import the entire skeleton is when I'm weight painting and need to see how things look when the entire suit of armor is put together and posed in varius positions, checking for clipping. You shouldn't nave to do anything in Nifskope other than check your textures and save.

 

Good luck with it.

 

-Razorpony

[wulfy1]

I tried what you suggested from a "late process" version and it did not work. I am going to try the same thing from a very early save where I had not changed anything about the model except some UV data and the model shape.

 

Thanks,

Wulf

[wulfy1]

well, I tried the same thing on a very early save of the mesh and I got the same results. I have not done anything special with scripts as far as set up and configuration. Should I have? I have the newest version of everything and none of the tutorials specifically say to *The ones I have seen at least. I have however, seen people talk about it in other places.

 

Thanks,

Wulf

[Tomlong54210]

Invisible body sounds like a missing texture path. I ran into a similar problem once, but I cannot remember what the exact issue was.

[wulfy1]

It looks like I may have just fixed it. I actually did have a _g.dds in there btw. I believe that what fixed it was a combination of changing my filing structure and file naming to mimic Oblivion's more closely ... I.E. naming the Cuirass nothing but "Cuirass.nif" inside of a folder named after the armor as opposed to dumping a bunch of misc files into the wulfarmor folder and expecting the game to sort them out and I also took the advice of RazorPony. I like that process much more. I felt like the one I was using was way way to complicated. I'm happy to see some steps that are easier to perform. I did come across a tutorial that gave very similar steps to the ones you gave but I think my filing system was stopping it from working.

 

 

 

I tried this several times and it did not work until I changed my file structure and then it did work. My structure is as follows for a Cuirass called Blu Corset:

 

Data/Textures/Armor/WulfArmor/BluCorset/Cuirass.DDS ... etc

Data/Meshes/Armor/WulfArmor/BlueCorset/Cuirass.NIF ...etc

 

As opposed to

 

Data/Textures/Armor/WulfArmor/BluCorsetCuirass.DDS ... etc

Data/Meshes/Armor/WulfArmor/BluCorsetCuirass.NIF ...etc

 

I think that sub directory made a really big difference. I have been able to duplicate the success using Daedric, Glass, Blu, and Chain variants so far. All models have shown up in game.

 

Thanks for the help and replies. I am posting this information here in hopes that it might keep someone else from spending several days of butt scratching trying to figure out why things aren't working.

 

Thanks again all,

Wulf

 

P.S. It looks like you were right on the money also Tom. I think that my flawed technique combined with the bad file layout were giving me the old 1 - 2 punch. Thanks for the reply. Next time I wont struggle for a week to post up if I have a problem.

[Tomlong54210]

Good to hear. Another common problem is having the texture paths not start in the right directory. I thought they could just start in "Textures", but I do not make mods, haha.

 

 

Happy gaming!

- Tomlong54210

[LHammonds]

I had issues with folder paths before but opposite to what you were doing. While creating Vvardenfell Glass, I started out with a fairly long folder structure due to all the variants and it did not work. Only when I made the amount of sub-folders and overall path shorter did they start working. In your case though, it might have been that the game engine cannot recognize such a long filename. May warrant some testing to see how long a filename can be before it breaks...and then see if increasing the folder path causes a barely working filename to become too long (overall). There may be limits to the overall (path + filename) and filename.

 

Although I wasn't clear why you were copying your exported NIF to a vanilla NIF. That used to be an old NifSkope process to get custom armor in the game but the NIF Scripts can export a fully-functional NIF that can be used in the game.

 

Regardless of whatever skeleton you import, you should still run through the optimize and santize spells as seen in the last steps of my latest tutorial here

 

EDIT: Tomlong54210, if the texture path is not correct, you would not see the texture when previewing inside NifSkope. A harder problem to track down are texture files that do not have dimensions in the power of 2...such as a 503 x 259 width and height.

 

LHammonds

[wulfy1]

Thanks for the link to that tutorial. I did not know anything about sanitizing. I will put that into practice. I am so happy to have my new cuirass in game now. The girlies look hot in it. Now to work on the bottoms, sexy boots, and some gloves. I'm trying to think of what I am going to do for the head slot ... Maybe a tiara or small circlet. The mod is sexyish but not sexual if you know what I mean so the girls are going to be dressed quite suggestively without putting it all out there. I need to learn how to do transparent armor segments for some of what I have in mind. I wanted a corset armor set-up that worked with the Ecup LL HGEC body and I could not find anything I liked which is why I started the customer armor part of the mod. At any rate, thanks again for the comments and suggestions folks. Keep your eyes out for my mod over the next week or so. It's called "Saving Sammi" and is a CM partner mod with a lead-in quest, player ownable tent, some nice weapons like a couple of pieces/versions of Adonnay's elven weapons. Amy AM clothing and some other extras. Lots of custom dialogue (though not voiced) etc

 

Thanks again,

 

Wulf

[chaospearl]

The problem with NifSkope showing everything correctly is that sometimes it lies. In NifSkope you can set the texture path to be whichever folder you want, but that's not true in the game, so it's very easy to end up with a mesh and texture that look perfect in NifSkope but are invisible or nude in the game. I just ran into this myself a few days ago; I'm learning how to retexture. The tutorial I followed told me to set the texture folder in NiSkope to be my "work folder" that I was putting all my in-progess color maps into. So I did that, and everything showed up beautifully in NifSkope. Problem was, in the game you can't set a customized texture path. You HAVE to use the Oblivion\Data\Textures path or it won't find your maps. As soon as I went back into NifSkope and deleted all the custom texture paths I'd set up and told NifSkope to auto-detect the game's path -- POOF, my texture went missing in NifSkope. It couldn't find the color maps anymore using the game's path. It could only find them when I told NifSkope exactly where to look, something you can't do to the game engine.

 

Now I know that I can keep stuff wherever while I work on it, but once I'm ready to put it into the game, I have to make the textures show up in NifSkope with only the game's usual texture path selected, otherwise it won't show in the game itself either. Probably a rank newbie mistake, but I didn't know any better and it doesn't help that a bunch of the commonly available tutorials walk you through setting up the texture path in NifSkope but fail to mention the part where you can't set that path to your Windows Desktop if you want your stuff to show up in-game.