Splitting Armor Sets via NifSkope & Blender

[kayinv]

I've been trying to learn how to do this because of all the single-piece armors that drive me absolutely crazy. I like to mix sets up, it's fun, but a lot of the best armors are single pieces and therefore are of no use to me. :( I've read some of the basic tutorials for NifSkope and the one for Blender that I found on this forum through a Google search. Basically I've learned what to install and how to import the NIF files, but I have no idea how to actually manipulate them. The tutorials pretty much just say "remove skeleton and pieces you want to remove" and don't tell me how to do it. I have managed to split Hentai's Void armor into the chest piece by deleting block branches, but the game still sees it as a whole set piece and the character just has invisible body parts.

 

I don't need a tutorial for someone who already knows Blender. That's good for them, but I need help with every single step because my background is strictly 2D graphic design and I have no knowledge of 3D software. Am I really going to have to spend a ton of time learning Blender just to split these silly armors up? Or is there more detailed tutorials for beginners that I'm not aware of?

[mcole254]

You actually don't need blender if you can remove the pieces in Nifiscope. However Your problem is that you must edit the .esp with the CS, create new clothing/armor with the new nif file you made. You will notice when you do this there is a list on that menu (in the CS) where you choose what slots the armor takes up. So when you remove say the legs from a set of armor, in the CS you must unclick legs (I think its called lowerbody don't remember) and foot. Hope this is clear enough.

[WastelandAssassin]

This is a tutorial that is just about what you wanted

it may be wise for you, however, to learn a bit on how to use Blender before you do it, since you need to at least know the key combinations for different functions, like deleting parts, selecting specific things (vertices instead of faces etc)

other than that, it shouldn't be too hard to understand how to do so, but if it is still too hard for you, contact LHammonds (the writer of the article), and ask him for help, and maybe he'll be able to give you simpler instructions

 

good luck :thumbsup:

[mcole254]

As long as the pieces are separate in the .nif file you don't need to use blender

[kayinv]

This is a process I'm trying to learn step by step, so I figured splitting one piece armors would be a good first step. I want to eventually get into editing the armors and making my own meshes, but that's a lot of steps down the road. I also want to learn Blender, since I really need too. Can't stay with Adobe software forever.

 

Anyway, I'm sure many of you know all of Hentai's armors are one-piece covers all sets. I'm just trying to take the Void armor and making it into a chest piece, arm piece, leg piece, etc. instead of the one unified piece Hentai made. Also, this is all for private use and knowledge on my part. The re-texture process is very easy for me since I know Photoshop so well, but the modeling part - not so much.

[mcole254]

Start in Nifscope though, remove unwanted pieces by using the remove branch function, change the occupied slots of the armor in the CS. If you come to a piece that you cant split, then import it into blender however you may have to reweight it which is another thing you would have to learn. Best of luck though.

 

Matt

[kayinv]

With removing the branches, do I keep the body portion, or do I delete the body and only leave the chest armor hanging in space? I guess these are some of the details I get confused on. Deleting the boots and arm pieces is obvious, but what about the body underneath the armor in NifSkope? Do I just keep the body portion that's attached to the chest piece and get rid of the legs and arms?

 

Also, I take it the CS is where I relink the model portions to the textures and whatnot? Sort of like a website that needs links to the images so they can be seen? This is where I get confused in NifSkope.

 

Select the skeleton that was imported with the mesh and delete it.

Delete the parts of the model that are not wanted. (See Pic #3)

You may have to enter into Edit Mode on some objects and select sections individually to delete them if parts you wish keep and remove are in a single object.

 

I get to that part of the tutorial and I'm like...okay, I guess this where I need to learn Blender - because I have no idea how to mess with the skeleton or how to even turn it properly in the scene. Don't even know where edit mode is...or what it is.

[Freelancer604]

I got into this a while back because of hentai's armors! All that stuff is 1-piece and it drove me crazy because I wanted to mix. I was and still am in some cases, confused by the same stuff as you = .=

 

But about the body underneath the armor, you should only have one piece in the set you are creating that has an actual body component. If you have, say an chestplate that has a body mesh with it, which include arms and everything, then try to wear that with a pair of guantlets + shoulders which also has the whole "male/female upperbody" mesh, then you end up with 2 meshes overlapping eachother. Sometimes the effect is a quirky flicker on the parts where the body mesh is showing, because the game doesnt know which one of the two identical meshes to show.. I think because you are rendering 2 upperbodies at once it also lowers fps.

 

Before I gave up on the whole modding thing I made this set out of one of hentai armors, mixed with some trish and R18PN Lingerie stuff and the "MOM" flower things:

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/image.php?id=60372

 

I tried mixing and matching random stuff to get some experience for my first (and final to date as it turned out) project. The original looked like this:

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/25612-3-1246875200.jpg

 

Im not sure if this is what your asking but ill describe how to remove the shoulder piece. if you have hentai mania 1, you can follow along and learn it if you dont know it already.. the file is located in data/meshes/armors/hentai/angelic

 

1. Open the NIF with Nifskope
   
2. Select each piece of armor and R-Click -> block -> remove branch.. EXCEPT for the armor itself. It should now look like a floating pair of shoulder guards and 2 guantlets.
   
3. Use all the spells -> sanitize features at the top of the screen. This should remove all the "ball on stick" things that you dont need.
   
4. save and import into blender
   
5. Now, when I did this, I ONLY wanted the left shoulder and not the other, or the gloves... so I selected all the verticies of those components and deleted them im blender. Sorry I forgot how to select entire groups of verticies.. but know that you do not have to click each triangle separately.
   
6. Now there should just be a shoulder guard floating there, with no body or anything. (For my chest piece I included a full upper body mesh) If you did not delete the upper body or arms mesh in NifSkope, and you wear an chest peice with no arm mesh, your character will appear to have no arms when you take the shoulder piece off!
   
7. Hmm where was I?... omg this forum's numbered list system SUCKS
   
8. O right... export nif
   
9. load into Nifskope. Check to see everything is in order (I donno what to look for in this step but every tutorial i read told me to)
   
10. Do all the sanitize stuff again and save the NIF
    
11. Now your ready to use the armor in a mod! Just open up the construction set and put it in a box at some place you know in the game world, save the esp, and check it off in obmm.
    

 

Hope that helps and that I didnt write all the for nothing! GL