Problem Modding body meshes.

[TCoops]

Hello, I am having difficulty altering body mesh. I don't need to do anything major; at the moment all I want to do is make slight alterations to femaleupperbody.nif to address some of the clipping issues with my favourite armors, and, ofcourse, slim down those hulking manly shoulders (what was bathesta thinking??:)

 

I have the latest working suite of software; Latest nifskope, blender, python, nifscripts, 3ds max. They all work fine.

 

I am a veteran of all the tutorials. I have given it a very honest attempt. However, the tutorials are not specifically aimed at body mesh and because of that, i think, the strategy may be slightly different. Eg - the 10mm pistol and the ashtray. I find they all take slightly different approaches depending on what they are modding, and i've tried them all. If I found a "modifying femalebody.nif" tutorial i would be set.

 

[if there IS such an applicable tutorial, please direct me. I apologise if my google-fu and forumsearch-kata is weak. I need LINKAGE though, because I think some of the awesome tutorials that are supposedly out there have become extinct].

 

I've gotten to the point where I feel I have tried every strategy and combination of settings, but nothing seems to work where i try to reinsert the modified nif,obj,or nitristrips data. The in-game result is either the invisible body, or a horrible mish-mash of sharp polygons. I feel that the solution is probably a small detail that i am missing, so I need your advice.

 

Right now I'm not modifying the mesh at all. I'm just trying to see if I can export and import the mesh successfully first. This is what i've tried so far. I'll just talk things through and please help me if you see the problem.

 

strategy 1: (from http://www.fallout3nexus.com/articles/article.php?id=232)

Import femaleupperbody.nif in to blender

Use import settings as outlined in that article

Modify vertices (but I am just leaving the mesh unmodified for now)

Export nif using the settings outlined in that article

Have 2 nifskopes open, the original and the modified .nif

Copy the nitristrips data of the modified nif

"Paste Over" Nitristrips data in the original nif file.

Save the original nif file.

Place that nif file in the applicable directory

Launch game and Spit out your coffee when you see an ugly mish mash of polygons.

 

Strategy 1 was from a FO3Nexus article on modifying a 10mm pistol. I thought it MIGHT be applicable to meshes in general (the 10mm pistol was only an example). But then again, you tell me. I can't get it to work.

 

strategy 2: (from Growlf himself, http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=633)

Open Nif in Nifskope

Mark the nitristrips of the mesh and FILE,EXPORT, filename.obj

Import filename.obj in blender.

modify .obj mesh (but I am skipping this part for now)

export modified .obj mesh

Open up original(unmodified) nif file in Nifskope.

select the nitristrips of the mesh you want modified.

Import modified .obj file on to that mesh....

....

Rest of tutorial is invalid from here

-----------------------------

Nifskope will not import the .obj file and gives an unnamed error message.

Importing the .obj into a separate file, reveals that the .obj is a nitriSHAPE, not STRIPS

Apon closer inspection, the turorial is dealing in SHAPES, not STRIPS. (wtf? the

femaleupperbody is NitriStrips ???) .

 

I tried this strategy because the author is talking about altering the upperbody. Which is what I'm looking at. He also says that you cannot import body parts as Nif files in Blender because it screws things up, so the best way to do it is his way. But looking at the article, it is 2008. Maybe its outdated??

 

 

stragegy 3: (from http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4941)

watch the instructional video

appears to be making some little pyramid object from scratch.

while educational, i did not learn anything specific to help me alter an existing body mesh.

 

 

*I've heard about these instructional video's, most notably "Growlf's female body import tutorial".

Reference: http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=113316&st=0&p=939640&hl=femaleupperbody&fromsearch=1entry939640

Bingo,thats what I need. Frustratingly, there were no linkages in that post. And googling/forum searching returned nothing. It's like all traces of it has been removed from the internet as part of some government coverup. You know the feeling..

 

*Reading further, I have also seen references to "Zenl's creature exporting tutorial" which people recommend

 

Reference: http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/237446-mesh-editinginto-gameplay-tut/page__p__2109364__hl__femaleupperbody__fromsearch__1#entry2109364

This tutorial is apparently a great reference to what I am trying to do. But, yet another ghostly character that has vanished without a trace. The poster recommended searching posts by user "Zenl" . I could find very few posts by him. And In the fallout nexus, only as a co-author to an alien armor mod.

 

Much appreciate any advice you can give me! I have given it a darn good shot and read as much as possible. But I've hit that brick wall, where I have caved in and decided to humbly head to the forum and ask for mercy.

[WastelandAssassin]

i think there is one problem that you need to take into account

unlike other models, the body model is connected to the skeleton

so if you change the body model, you need to make sure that the skeleton is still attached, and you might even need to slightly modify the skeleton (though i doubt it)

i think that this should fix at least a portion of the problem

[TCoops]

Good point, I guessed it was a different ball game.

 

However, at this point I am not even modifying the body mesh.

 

Firstly, I just want to see if I can actually import the mesh to a 3D editing program (3dsmax, Blender) AND actually export it again to get it inside the game. I figure that I am either using the wrong import/export settings, or wrong strategy altogether.

 

Once I am sure that I have the export/import correct, then I will start making little mesh changes.

Edited December 6, 2010 by TCoops

[WastelandAssassin]

well, the models come in Nif format, so you obviously need NifSkope

and you can google for Nif tools, and get the specific tool that you need (as in the ability to import\export to the specific program that you use, be it Blender or 3D Max or Maya or whatever other program)

 

once you have NifSkope installed properly, and with the tools to export the model for use in your editing program, you should be able to edit the model as you choose

 

i hope that this will solve at least the first of your problems (if you haven't done this already, that is)

[TCoops]

Got all the programs, and then some!

 

*I've basically got the whole modding factory set up. I've done a whole bunch of tutorials and I know my way around all the programs.

 

*I have been able to import .NIF files to Blender. No problem at all. Exporting the .Nif is no problem.

 

*When i load the saved .NIF in-game, it looks invisible or like polygon junk.

 

*At the moment I am not altering the mesh at all. Just seeing if i can get the import/export process working, using a pre-existing .nif body mod (Type V ect.)

 

*I am mainly using the two strategies I have outlined above. Mainly because they are the only two I can find which seem somewhat applicable to what I am doing.

 

*Strategy 1 seems most relevant, but no success. Wondering if my export/import settings are at fault. See article link for specific settings that they recommend.

 

*Strategy 2 seems hopelessly outdated or not appplicable at all.

Edited December 7, 2010 by TCoops

[TCoops]

Lol, why do I get the impression that I am 1 or 2 years too late ? : )

[WastelandAssassin]

Lol, why do I get the impression that I am 1 or 2 years too late ? : )

 

why would you feel this way??

i mean, people still have such question regarding Oblivion, and the game came out 4 years ago!!

and these people still get help (though maybe not as much as they used to)

 

i don't think that you are late

i think that you just need to ask to right people directly, not hope to get an answer on the forum (i mean, for simple questions, this place is almost always great, but for the bigger more complicated questions, you may not get any help at all......)

[dazzerfong]

One thing:

 

The femaleupperbody.nif does NOT affect armors; you have to edit the armors directly. You see, the femaleupperbody.nif only applies if your character's naked.

 

Also, when importing in Blender:

 

You don't need to touch the skeleton, it's fine the way it is. What you're concerned about is clipping, and there's several ways to solve that. One is to fix the mesh up, the other is to fix the rigging up.

Edited December 9, 2010 by dazzerfong

[TCoops]

Lol, why do I get the impression that I am 1 or 2 years too late ? : )

 

why would you feel this way??

 

 

Because so many things are Linkdead.

 

People who were the guru's of this kind of stuff look like they've retired from it!

 

Thanks for the replies though

[WastelandAssassin]

well, that is true, at least to some extent

 

i mean, maybe there are no tutorials on this

but if you look at the Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas mod lists, you will see a rather large amount of body mods (not as many as for Oblivion though)

so if one of the authors of these mods is still active (which i am almost sure of) then all you need to do is find such a member, and ask :)

 

the thing is, posting in the Forum could work well, but it doesn't always get you results

however, if you would just talk to the people who know how to do this, you are almost sure to get the answers you are looking for