Big problem with self-made mod

[ZedMed]

Ok, first time posting, so I hope I'm in the right place. Also first time modding. Decided oblivion needed a jesters hat, so i've started making one. Modeled it in blender, rigged it with a skeleton so that it moves when the head does. Exported the file, loaded it up in Nifscope.

 

Cleaned/sanitised nodes as the tutorial(s) (i've read a ton) told me to. Placed the texture and mesh folders in the appropriate place and updated the texture links.

 

Fired up the construction set, cloned a fur cap, reffrenced my nif files, chose a house to put it down for a test. My "gnd" mesh loaded in the render window, tried a havoc test and it reacted as expected. Saved eps file and loaded it up with my omod.

 

Went to where i placed the hat, no where to be found. Tried placing again and again in diffrent areas, no good. just placed it in my inventory, it showed up (woo ^_^)

 

As soon as i try to put the hat on my head, oblivion crashes :(.

 

would like to know what's gone wrong. Any help would be very much appriciated

[David Brasher]

A missing mesh or missing texture can sometimes crash the game. You might want to verify that your file paths are all correct.

 

This is probably not the case, but extremely high poly count can cause lag so severe that the game can actually crash. But I wouldn't expect this from one hat.

 

You don't have scripting or animation on the jester's hat do you?

[ZedMed]

Kinda figured it out, blender was only exporting my heas node, the thing needed an intire skeleton (all the other nif's i've opened up have had one). Nope, no scripts or animation here, just a hat with a few texture files (multiple parts to mesh, seperate dds files for each, not sure if that will cause a problem :( ).

 

anyhoo, figured out how to set up a skeleton, loaded it up again, and it no longer crashes my game :D......

 

But my hair and ears go missing when I equip the helm, and no hat in sight :..(

 

Ps:thanks for the response man

 

Also, after checking, my texture' s paths are rather long in comparison to other nif files (mine starts out "c:\programs\beth...." while other mod's refs are just simpily "textures\armor\jestercap\JesterCap1")

[David Brasher]

This texture path thing is indeed a problem. It will make it so your mod will only work on your computer and any other computers configured exactly like yours. There is a setting in Nifskope to configure the program for use with Oblivion rather than Civilization IV or whatever. Then it will automatically set up the texture paths right. The proper texture path so that the mod will work on all computers is:

 textures\armor\jestercap\JesterCap1 

[ZedMed]

'Kay, done and done.

 

Actually got out of my inventory screen and, you were right, i am mising a mesh (couldent miss the big yellow "wtf im missing a mesh sign" :P). But i dont get it, my mesh is there, loads in nifscope fine. Any ideas how to fix it?

 

(also noted, one of my mods changed my armor directory from "Armor" to "armor". I havent clue if tthe construction set is that picky, or if i change it, if it will futz with my other installed mods : \

 

thanks again for your help ^_^

 

Edit: okay, its back to just plain invisible -_-. Anyone else care to take a crack at this? Have all the neseccary files, feel like im messing up in nifscope or something : /

[ub3rman123]

Did you add a normal map for the mesh's texture? Gave me all kinds of trouble the first time I tried retexturing.

[ZedMed]

Did you add a normal map for the mesh's texture? Gave me all kinds of trouble the first time I tried retexturing.

 

Yep, have a normal map, and its named appropriatly (cap_n.dds)

 

Have a feeling that its because im pasting the node from the .nif blender gives me into another nif, getting rid of the origional mesh, clearing out all "bogus nodes" and saving as the filename i need it to be.

 

That, and I've noticed that all mesh info from other nif's have a NiStrips lable, while my mesh is just simply a NiNode.

 

i've also gone back and joined the meshes of the objects and their uv maps. Lost image quality but now there are just two image files instead of eight( two for the cap , two for each of the four tendrils, and two for the bells). Tried this all again (import Full_Human_Male_and_Female_Topless_ImportReady_Body_1_0-12248's male mesh, click cap, parent to skeleton-armatuer-dont create groups, add "Scene Root", go under caps properties and change object to "Bip01 Head", Weight paint all verts, delete skin mesh, select cap and skeleton, export as nif), still, after a repeat, the hat is invisible, and im missing my ears and hair :P.

 

ive also tried shortening my path names (read that can cause tis problem too) but no luck. In the construction set, my hat is under "fur". Moved all my files under fur in both the mesh and texture folder, updated my nif to find the textures in the new path, still nothing :(

 

also just discovered my normal generator isnt making mini maps

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/404178651/JesterCap.rar.html

 

my nif, dds, and plugin file can be found there