Need help making a new weapon using Nifskope!

[MasamuneZenith]

What's up, folks? I've been around on the nexus for quite a bit and now I'm finally getting my foot into the door of actually making mods. I'm trying to create a new weapon by combining the automatic rifle from Dead Money with the drum magazine of the riot shotgun. I've successfully used Blender to make the model how I want it to look, and earlier before that I've already learned how to use the G.E.C.K to give the weapon it's own ID properties and stats. Now all I need is to know exactly what I'm supposed to do with the weapon in Nifkskope and how. For example, I know that you're supposed to copy and paste certain "branch" properties or something to give the weapon the correct animations and such that correlate with the original weapon's model. I'm just not sure which properties need to be copied from where or to. I've managed to get this far by watching online tutorials on youtube, but unfortunately the only relevant ones I've found aren't as good at explaining things as they are showing them. Here's a screenshot of the point I'm at so far. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/we44ji7jv4nqesf/Screenshot%202015-07-09%2012.16.24.png?dl=0

[SGTbayk47]

I think I know what to do, but I'm not 100% certain. So here goes...

 

1) If you look at the differences between the two images you've shown, you'll notice the magazine for the riot shotgun is named '##riotClip' and the automatic rifle magazine is named '##SRClip'.

2) If you want the riot shotgun magazine to move when reloading weapon (I'm assuming you want to keep the Automatic Rifle animations so the bolt moves etc.) you will simply need to rename '##riotClip' to '##SRClip' exactly how it is written (without quotes of course).

3) If my knowledge of NifSkope is correct that *should* work, and the animations will play correctly.

 

There are also some other things about the nif that I noticed, that you might want to change now to save trouble later.

 

1) There is an item called 'ProjectileNode.00' in your nif, and as it is written now it will not work correctly. To fix this simply rename it to '##ProjectileNode' exactly (once again, no quote marks).

2) If the main mesh, as in the weapon itself, hasn't been moved at all, then you might want to copy and paste the sighting node as well, to give your weapon iron sights. If the weapon, and in turn its sights, were moved however then it might not be accurate.

 

And that's about as far as my knowledge of NifSkope goes, so I hope it helps, and that you understood what I wrote. Good luck :D

[MasamuneZenith]

I think I know what to do, but I'm not 100% certain. So here goes...

 

1) If you look at the differences between the two images you've shown, you'll notice the magazine for the riot shotgun is named '##riotClip' and the automatic rifle magazine is named '##SRClip'.

2) If you want the riot shotgun magazine to move when reloading weapon (I'm assuming you want to keep the Automatic Rifle animations so the bolt moves etc.) you will simply need to rename '##riotClip' to '##SRClip' exactly how it is written (without quotes of course).

3) If my knowledge of NifSkope is correct that *should* work, and the animations will play correctly.

 

There are also some other things about the nif that I noticed, that you might want to change now to save trouble later.

 

1) There is an item called 'ProjectileNode.00' in your nif, and as it is written now it will not work correctly. To fix this simply rename it to '##ProjectileNode' exactly (once again, no quote marks).

2) If the main mesh, as in the weapon itself, hasn't been moved at all, then you might want to copy and paste the sighting node as well, to give your weapon iron sights. If the weapon, and in turn its sights, were moved however then it might not be accurate.

 

And that's about as far as my knowledge of NifSkope goes, so I hope it helps, and that you understood what I wrote. Good luck :D

Thanks for that response! I'll try all those things. But before I do I also have a few questions. First I have to ask about the 1st person model. Isn't there some data entry I'm supposed to make to ensure that it looks correct in 1st person? I'm asking because the tutorial vids said that it was an important step, but I'm not sure what values to edit or what data to enter. Second, one of the modifications I made to the automatic rifle was the removal of the large blocky rear ironsight so that the weapon can be aimed with only the front sight near the muzzle to improve the line of sight. If by doing so, have I messed up the sighting node thing you told me about, or is that more related to the script for looking down the sight rather than the model of the weapon itself? Third, if I have moved the weapon in Nifskope from it's original position, will that affect it in game? And if so, how would I reset it to the proper in game automatic rifle position?

Edited July 10, 2015 by MasamuneZenith

[SGTbayk47]

I personally have never heard anything about any first person data entries, nor have I ever added/changed any when making weapons myself. If there is such data, it was probably retained in the original model you edited anyway, so it shouldn't matter.

 

Regarding your iron sights, I actually did a very similar thing in my most recent weapon mod, but instead removed the front sight. The iron sights on my weapon still work, because I made sure not to move the iron sights and the sighting node independently. What I mean by that is, in Blender for example, when I edited the iron sights mesh, and tweaked them to fit the weapon, I did so with the sighting node selected as well, so when I moved the sights up, the sighting node would also move accordingly, allowing the sights to work as intended.

 

Lastly, about original positions. I myself am not sure what the in-game effects are of an off-centre model, simply because I try to keep the bulk of the gun (the handle in particular) in it's original position, since a mismatching stock placement is generally less noticeable than the player holding the handle wrong.

 

Anyway, in the case that you have moved the whole mesh, it can be reset to default in NifSkope.

 

Simply open your weapons nif, and right click the parts of the weapon then click on transform, then edit.

 

This will bring up a window with x, y and z coordinates. To reset the mesh they should all be set to 0.

 

Now, this will work for all the parts of the Automatic rifle, but most likely not for the magazine from the riot shotgun, since it's 0 coordinates will be set to fit the riot shotgun, and not the automatic rifle. So with the mag, you can edit the coordinates in NifSkope, which can be tedious, or save the mesh with the reset weapon, and adjust the mag accordingly in Blender and export it once more.

 

Once again, hopefully you understand what I wrote, and good luck with your mod :D

[MasamuneZenith]

I personally have never heard anything about any first person data entries, nor have I ever added/changed any when making weapons myself. If there is such data, it was probably retained in the original model you edited anyway, so it shouldn't matter.

 

Regarding your iron sights, I actually did a very similar thing in my most recent weapon mod, but instead removed the front sight. The iron sights on my weapon still work, because I made sure not to move the iron sights and the sighting node independently. What I mean by that is, in Blender for example, when I edited the iron sights mesh, and tweaked them to fit the weapon, I did so with the sighting node selected as well, so when I moved the sights up, the sighting node would also move accordingly, allowing the sights to work as intended.

 

Lastly, about original positions. I myself am not sure what the in-game effects are of an off-centre model, simply because I try to keep the bulk of the gun (the handle in particular) in it's original position, since a mismatching stock placement is generally less noticeable than the player holding the handle wrong.

 

Anyway, in the case that you have moved the whole mesh, it can be reset to default in NifSkope.

 

Simply open your weapons nif, and right click the parts of the weapon then click on transform, then edit.

 

This will bring up a window with x, y and z coordinates. To reset the mesh they should all be set to 0.

 

Now, this will work for all the parts of the Automatic rifle, but most likely not for the magazine from the riot shotgun, since it's 0 coordinates will be set to fit the riot shotgun, and not the automatic rifle. So with the mag, you can edit the coordinates in NifSkope, which can be tedious, or save the mesh with the reset weapon, and adjust the mag accordingly in Blender and export it once more.

 

Once again, hopefully you understand what I wrote, and good luck with your mod :D

Okay, done everything as you suggested. Now the problem is I've made the gun but the model still looks like the original automatic rifle (with the alternative texture mod I'm using). So, this brings up a few of questions. First of all, exactly how do I get the game to use my model instead of the original weapon? I could assume that the texture mod I use may have something to do with it. Or the fact that I've already made the weapon it's own unique ID in the game using the G.E.C.K and tried to alter existing data in a save file by switching models. Or I could be wrong and overlooked something else?

[SGTbayk47]

I'm going to assume you haven't changed any actual meshes so far, so here's how:

 

1) Create a new folder to put your meshes in. To do this you need to find your Fallout New Vegas game directory, for Steam it's found here:

• C: > Program Files (x86) > Steam > SteamApps > common > Fallout New Vegas.

Once your in the directory, you'll see a data folder, where all of your esm's and esp's are found. You should also see a folder called Meshes (I'm assuming you've installed other mods). You need to open the Meshes folder, and create a new folder inside that, and give it any name you want, as long as it's different to the rest. Once you've made the new folder, put your custom Automatic rifle nif inside.

 

2) Create a static first person model in the GECK. Search for '1stperson' in the object window, so it looks like this. You can use any of the static models here, so just double click on one, give it a unique id and change the model to your new one that you made a folder for.

 

3) Finally you need to change the model once more in the weapon itself, and select the first person model you just made in a drop down box. The boxes you need to edit look like this.

 

Hopefully your weapon will be done after this step, good luck :D

Edited July 11, 2015 by SGTbayk47

[MasamuneZenith]

I'm going to assume you haven't changed any actual meshes so far, so here's how:

 

1) Create a new folder to put your meshes in. To do this you need to find your Fallout New Vegas game directory, for Steam it's found here:

• C: > Program Files (x86) > Steam > SteamApps > common > Fallout New Vegas.

Once your in the directory, you'll see a data folder, where all of your esm's and esp's are found. You should also see a folder called Meshes (I'm assuming you've installed other mods). You need to open the Meshes folder, and create a new folder inside that, and give it any name you want, as long as it's different to the rest. Once you've made the new folder, put your custom Automatic rifle nif inside.

 

2) Create a static first person model in the GECK. Search for '1stperson' in the object window, so it looks like this. You can use any of the static models here, so just double click on one, give it a unique id and change the model to your new one that you made a folder for.

 

3) Finally you need to change the model once more in the weapon itself, and select the first person model you just made in a drop down box. The boxes you need to edit look like this.

 

Hopefully your weapon will be done after this step, good luck :D

Thanks for that advice, it was the second step there that I was missing. Unfortunately, I can't seem to complete it either. I've searched in the object bar for models with "1stperson", "1st", and "person" in their names and nothing shows up. I even scrolled through the entire list of weapons in the base game and have found absolutely nothing. Any idea what may be the cause of this or better yet how to fix it? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your instructions.

Edited July 11, 2015 by MasamuneZenith

[SGTbayk47]

Well, the only reason I can think of that the models weren't there is that you didn't have the filter set to *All? Like this.

[MasamuneZenith]

Well, the only reason I can think of that the models weren't there is that you didn't have the filter set to *All? Like this.

Okay, that helped! Now I've run into this problem...

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rui2zgou1qpx0by/2015-07-12_00001.jpg?dl=0

 

Yeeeah. That's the model for my weapon laying against the wall (or supposed to be).

Edited July 12, 2015 by MasamuneZenith

[SGTbayk47]

That red exclamation mark means there's a missing mesh, which can be caused by deleting the folder the mesh was in, or renaming the folders or mesh in any way. Once you set the file path, you can't change it without having to update it in the GECK as well.

 

So my only guess is that once you were done in the GECK, you might have renamed the mesh/folders? Other than that I'm not sure without looking at the esp myself.