problem with how custom armor looks in skyrim (new modder)

[sepharis]

I decided to learn how to make armor mods and have been following this tutorial as closely as I can. I was able to do everything except the "remove scene root node" step. I managed to reach the end and imported it into skyrim but it doesn't look right in game. It doesn't seem to be shaded properly. And the skin is blank.

 

http://i.imgur.com/bftfHnV.jpg

 

It's really ugly and simple because I just wanted to get acquainted with nifskope and the creation kit before I commit to something big. It's just the vanilla body+underwear with a lazy skirt. I don't know what the problem is, but I think it's because I didn't set something up correctly in nifskope. I do have decent modelling experience with blender however.

 

I have also put the blend, nif and dds files into dropbox, if that helps.

 

As for the software I'm using, I have:

blender 2.49 (& 2.73 but I didn't use it for this)

nifskope 1.1.3

creation kit 1.9.36.0

 

In addition o this, if there is a easier way to prepare nif files, I'd like to hear about it! Also another minor thing, the wrists of the body don't seem to join to the hands. Is that just a weighing issue on the blender end or a nifskope problem? Because that body and its weights have not been altered at all in blender.

Edited December 27, 2015 by sepharis

[RGMage2]

I had a look at it and here is what I can tell you. There may be something wrong with the texture on the clothes. If I set the nif to use a different texture then it displays ok. The body part appears to have been exported from blender without material properties which it really needs to be exported with.

 

I opened your blend file and added material properties with a uv texture to the body and parented it to a skeleton. I changed the skirt to use one of my own textures and adjusted its uv map for that texture. Set faces on everything to smooth for rendering and then exported.

http://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/images/110/410373-1451239750.jpg

 

download from dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/s/5tq90cq0d62d3dm/sepharisTest5.rar?dl=0

I included the textures and an esp that will add it to your inventory for a quick test.

 

As far as making nifs blender ready I don't know what that tutorial says as I haven't read it, but for me it only takes a couple of seconds.

 

In whatever folder the nif is in that I want to import I create a new folder called Blender Ready.

 

- open the nif in nifskope and change the user versions in the Header

 

- save the nif in the Blender Ready folder

 

- open the nif from the blender ready folder

 

- at this point you should notice that the BSLightingShaderProperties and anything else that is not FO3 compliant are now separate from the 0 NNode. Right click on 0 NNode and select block Crop to branch which will remove all the stuff you don't need.

 

- (optional) change BSDismemberSkinInstances to FO3 body parts

 

- save to Blender Ready folder

 

That's it. If you are not changing the BSDismemberSkinInstances then it all takes about 10 seconds.

http://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/images/110/410373-1451239680.jpg

 

You are not that far away from making this work. It's just a few small details you are missing.

[sepharis]

Thanks very much for the in depth explanation! I'll try all these things out right away. So excited to get this going :)

Edited December 28, 2015 by sepharis

[sepharis]

I went carefully again through the tutorial and compared against your nif files and everything came out good! Thanks so much for your example files, they were a great help.

I still have a problem with disconnected wrists, that I'm unsure of. Is it just a weighing issue?

http://i.imgur.com/TUCsv7G.jpg

 

Here are my files

 

 

I also have a question about texture slots in nifskope. How do I manage them? Should each NiTriShape have one texture and normal map only? Thanks in advance!

Edited December 29, 2015 by sepharis

[RGMage2]

The disconnected wrist has to do with the body not morphing with the weight slider setting in the racemenu. In skyrim, clothing and armor and all body parts except for the head have 2 nifs, the _0.nif and the _1.nif. Basically it's the skinny and the fat version for each clothing item or body part. When you select the weight of your character in the race menu you are morphing between the 2 extremes.

 

The original file of yours that I looked at only had the skinny nif, and the one I exported and put in the game also only had the skinny nif. What I did was to save a copy of the _0 nif renamed as _1, so no matter what the weight slider is set to there is no morphing. You can test this by opening the racemenu with a console command (ShowRaceMenu). If you are wearing your outfit or the one I did and you move the weight slider back and forth you will notice the neck hands and feet expanding and contracting, but the body does not change. If you set the weight to the extreme left you should see the gaps at the wrist disappear.

 

Dealing with the morphing body parts is probably the single most annoying thing about modding Skyrim. Generally speaking, we do not export body parts. We only export our clothing items, 2 versions of each, identical in every way except one is stretched to accommodate the fat body. Then we copy and paste them into already working versions of the body nifs.

 

With textures you need at least the color texture and the normal texture. Other types of textures can be added for special effects. Have a look at the ebony armor for example and you will see it has a _e which is a cube map controlled by environment mapping settings, and it also has an _m texture which I believe effects the shinny look of mettle. Best way to learn is to experiment with changes and see what they do.

[sepharis]

ah that makes a lot of things clear, thanks again. I think that's all I needed to know :)