Oblivion to Fallout.. Sparkles

[redsquirrel666]

Hello :)

 

I am trying to add sparkles to a model that previously worked fine. These sparkles are from a mod for Oblivion. Since it's for a different version in Nifskope, I just went and manually duplicated about 50 properties to create the sparkles. When I try to view it in GECK, it's the infamous red diamond and I get "MASTERFILE: BSStream Error NiZBufferProperty: cannot find create function" Is NiZBufferProperty not something I should copy the data from the Oblivion data from? If I remove that property the model doesn't show up at all but there's no errors (lol). Does anyone have an idea what that error could mean before I drive myself crazy trying to figure it out? Thanks :)

[redsquirrel666]

When I try to view it in GECK, it's the infamous red diamond and I get "MASTERFILE: BSStream Error NiZBufferProperty: cannot find create function" Is NiZBufferProperty not something I should copy the data from the Oblivion data from?

 

Correction: If I remove the NiZBufferProperty, GECK crashes. If I leave it in, I get the red exclamation point.

 

Can I assume that the red exclamation is actually better than the crash? OR is having the NiZBufferProperty in there actually masking a bigger issue (ie maybe GECK doesn't try to fully load the model or something because it runs into some issue with NiZBufferProperty) and removing that property allows the bigger issue to surface and crash GECK?

 

I went under the NiParticleSystem node and removed each child node one by one with and without the NiZBufferProperty in there. The issues existed even with just the NiParticleSystem parent node. Once I removed the children plus the NiParticleSystem parent node the model worked fine, but without the sparkle effect of course. These nodes are all under a NiBillboardNode btw... dunno if that's bad in Fallout or not.

 

Any ideas? :( Or does anyone know a good tutorial for adding fx in nifskope and I'll try to start from scratch? :laugh:

[Infinit350]

When I try to view it in GECK, it's the infamous red diamond and I get "MASTERFILE: BSStream Error NiZBufferProperty: cannot find create function" Is NiZBufferProperty not something I should copy the data from the Oblivion data from?

 

Correction: If I remove the NiZBufferProperty, GECK crashes. If I leave it in, I get the red exclamation point.

 

Can I assume that the red exclamation is actually better than the crash? OR is having the NiZBufferProperty in there actually masking a bigger issue (ie maybe GECK doesn't try to fully load the model or something because it runs into some issue with NiZBufferProperty) and removing that property allows the bigger issue to surface and crash GECK?

 

I went under the NiParticleSystem node and removed each child node one by one with and without the NiZBufferProperty in there. The issues existed even with just the NiParticleSystem parent node. Once I removed the children plus the NiParticleSystem parent node the model worked fine, but without the sparkle effect of course. These nodes are all under a NiBillboardNode btw... dunno if that's bad in Fallout or not.

 

Any ideas? :( Or does anyone know a good tutorial for adding fx in nifskope and I'll try to start from scratch? :laugh:

 

The red exclamation is better than a crash, it only means your missing a texture, but it can be very annoying. I'm not a modder so I don't understand the rest of the post but if the red exclamation is bothering you try this:

 

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4710

[redsquirrel666]

Thanks but I wanna get it fully working to create a mesh/texture with sparkles..

 

I ended up sort of starting from scratch and copying a smoke effect onto the model instead of sparkles and it worked- now I'm trying to turn the smoke into sparkles. I'm pretty sure the issue is with NiPSysMeshEmitter because it was working until I changed the particle effect shape from NipSysCylinderEmitter (I think it was) to NiPSysMeshEmitter, and now it looks fine in GECK until I turn on Havok, then it crashes GECK.

 

So.. I want the sparkles to happen on the face of the main mesh.. should I try to clone the data from the main mesh into a NiTriShape to point NipSysCylinderEmitter to? I'm probably getting the terms wrong, but when I tried pointing it to the main mesh itself it caused all kinds of GECK anger (ie crash). I'm so dang close to this.. maybe lol.

[redsquirrel666]

OK, shorter version questions..

 

Does anyone know any 'gotchas' when using NipSysMeshEmitter that could cause GECK to crash?

 

Are there any tools to use to debug NIFs? It looks OK in Nifskope, just crashes in GECK and only when Run Havok Sim is checked.

 

Am I correct in assuming that NipSysMeshEmitter node is causing the issue, or is there something else I need to add if I change from a NipSysCylinderEmitter to NipSysMeshEmitter?

 

Should a correct NipSysMeshEmitter look like a mini version of the model itself, or be a little yellow ball in the middle?