maya 2011 to fallout3 Geck

[etx527]

my question is what programs should i use to transfer the models that i made in Maya 2011 over to the geck.

i have tried to export it as an obj and open it in nif scope so i can save it as a nif file but every time i do it all i get is the red exclamation point.

[Ghogiel]

you can either use blender or max to export fully working nifs roght out the box.... nearly. you may or may not need to edit a setting of 2 in nifskope to get it to work fully depending on they kind of mesh it is.

 

you can definitely use the obj method. there is just more to it than simply using the obj import function in under file. there is a lot of data that you will need to set up by hand if you are simply attempting that. a cheap way would be to obj import it, into fallout3 version nif, then copy the nistripdata/ nitrishapedata block and paste it over a similar vanilla nif nitrishapedata block. basically what you just did would be simply replacing the vanilla mesh objects UV/ vert/ and mesh data. but all the material, texture, and all extra data of the vanilla mesh object would remain the same.

[maximusnz]

Also one thing Id like to point out, Are you triangulating your mesh, Maya by default dosn't work like this, all its polys are quads by default. Most if not all gaming engines require Tris, not quads, as quoted by 3d Buzz

Also check all your normals as in face normals etc.. make sure they are facing the correct way..

[Ghogiel]

Also one thing Id like to point out, Are you triangulating your mesh, Maya by default dosn't work like this, all its polys are quads by default. Most if not all gaming engines require Tris, not quads, as quoted by 3d Buzz

 

I believe every model in maya and max are always triangles. Every face you create whether quad or ngon, must be stored as data somewhere as tris. else there is no way for the program to work out the correct vertex normal, and thus could bake normal maps nor render them. even though the face is a quad visually, the information is stored as triangles. < or they are only stored as vertex data. ie position, normal, etc. then the actual faces would be worked out mathematically from there. :shrug:

 

you wouldn't really actually triangulate the model with regards to F3. You may inspect triangulation, and run them about in different ways to fix shading issues, but you have to do so before baking any normal maps. because if you do change the triangulation

 

Some game exporters will try mess with the triangulation at export to their native format. And can result in your normal maps causing shading errors.

this is pretty annoying. in that event you would probably tri everything to ensure the triangulation you had in maya or max would remain intact in the export.

 

If get a mesh object into the nif format, it will always be collapsed into tris. so unless your method is messing up the triangulation, then i wouldn't worry about it

Also check all your normals as in face normals etc.. make sure they are facing the correct way..

of course

the mesh will still render though. it'll be obvious if you cocked it up there, because it'll look eww.