mesh help please

[cuddlesmuch]

so i have once again come back to the most helpfull FNV GECK site there is on the web for help, this time im wondering how to make custom meshes (.nif files) i cant do it with Gimp i dont think and i have an idea or two for armors/weapons tha id like to make any help would be great

[Moraelin]

To edit a 3d mesh, you'll need a program like Blender or 3DS Max. To package it as a .nif file, assign the textures, etc, you need NifSkope. To make the textures that will be applied on that 3d surface, you need some graphics editor like, yes, the GIMP and the NVidia DDS tools or the .dds plugin. Because the textures are in .dds format. And because you'll likely want to start from some existing files, if nothing else, for the .nif file structure, you'll need something that can unpack files from the game's .bsa archives. Like, say, FOMM or the FO Archive tool.

 

Since you sound new to all this, though, I would humbly suggest starting one step at a time. Try just retexturing some existing meshes first. For that you need just the GECK, the resource unpacker, the graphics editor and the .dds plugin or converter.

 

Once you're comfortable with just retexturing a mesh, you can move on to creating the mesh AND texturing it.

Edited May 8, 2011 by Moraelin

[Moraelin]

Ok, as a mini-tutorial, here's a couple of previous posts I had written for someone else trying to do the same thing:

 

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So the way I'm doing it is like this (albeit, more comfortable ways do exist, but I'm a command line kinda guy):

 

1. I create a work directory (folder) for my project. (Well, that's not entirely true, I've been known to work on more than one thing in the same directory, because I'm a fat lazy Garfield type;)) Let's say I'm retexturing the Tenpenny outfit this time. (I was actually planning to do a retexture of that one, before I got hijacked to hammer gladii and shields for the legion;)) So I'll put that directory in, say, Documents\MoraelinsTenpennySuit.

 

2. I know you got your NVidia texture tools already, so what I do is -- again because I'm lazy -- copy the nvdxt.exe and readdxt.exe programs to that project directory.

 

3. Unpack the textures .bsa files somewhere else with the FO3Archive program. It works on New Vegas too.

 

4. Find the texture I want to change in there. If in doubt, look in Nifskope and/or the GECK for what texture your base mesh uses. E.g., I'll look for "tenpenny.dds" if I'm retexturing the Tenpenny outfit. I copy it into the project directory too.

 

5. Start a command shell. From the Start menu, hit the Run Program and type "cmd" without the quotes. Change the directory to where you put that work directory, by using the "cd" command. In my case "cd Documents\MoraelinsTenpennySuit".

 

6. Now the first order of business is to unpack the tenpenny.dds to a .tga picture. I'll run "readdxt tenpenny.dds" in that command window. If all went well, now I'll have a bunch of files called "tenpenny00.tga", "tenpenny01.tga" and so on. Only the 00 interests us.

 

Since I'm not making a replacer, I'll rename that texture to something else, like "GreenTenpenny.tga" if I'm making a recolor to green instead of the original red.

 

7. Launch the GIMP, load GreenTenpenny.tga, edit it. (Actually in my case that would also involve writing a couple of programs to do some of the editing for me.) For a simple, albeit ugly, recolor to use as an example, you can simply use the Color Tools -> Hue-Saturation and just type 120 in the Hue box. This will rotate the colour space by 120 degrees so red becomes green, green becomes blue, and blue becomes red. Now we have a green jacket and the trousers and boots are stained with green. (My excuse is that they're grass stained;)) Save.

 

8. Go back to that command line window, type "nvdxt -dxt5 -file GreenTenpenny.tga". This tells it to pack it to dxt5 texture (best) and which file it must work on. This will result in a file called GreenTenpenny.dds.

 

From there just do the Texture Set thing as I told you in the other thread, and there you go.

 

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To retexture most items -- most notably except furniture the player can sit on -- you don't need NifSkope at all. You only need the GECK.

 

In the GECK, you need to define a texture set. This is a set of diffuse map (the texture of the suit), normal map (wrinkles and such, plus the alpha channel says how dull the object is from 255 = no extra shine to 0 = pretty much dressed in a mirror. Very sensitive. I usually use 240 alpha even for shiny-ish iron), environment map (bump map), etc. If you're sane, you'll take the textures of an existing suit, and _only_ change the diffuse map (texture.) That way it'll keep the wrinkles and all from the original suit, and you just change the colour and texture.

 

Now you find the suit you want to use as a base, and clone it. That is, change its form id, save, say yes when asked if you want to make a copy. That way you have your own modded suit that, for now, is identical to the old one, but you don't replace anything.

 

Now basically you'll see it has 3 meshes: male, female, and folded on the ground (if you drop it.) If you click the Edit button for any of these, you can tell it to load a different mesh. But for now DON'T. You'll also notice there's a table with the available pieces of the mesh, and to each of those you can assign a texture set. Assign the one you just made, and you'll notice in the preview window that it retextured the existing mesh with your textures. Yay.

 

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Look in the GECK under Miscellaneous -> Texture Sets

 

Each of those entries you can assign is a texture set consisting of one or more of:

- Diffuse map (the colours and patterns you see on that gun)

- Normal/Gloss map (it's actually combined: the RGB part is the normal map, the alpha channel is how shiny it is, the less alpha the shinier. This is very sensitive, I use 240 alpha for shiny-ish steel.)

- Environment Map (bump map. Closer to white is higher pixels, closer to black is grooves and pits)

- Glow/Skin/Hair (unless you make one of those exactly, you don't need this)

- Height (no idea)

- Environment (The kind of light reflection to be applied to the missing alpha in the normal map. For example, "effects/ShinyBright_e.dds" for something shiny, "effects/Reflection.dds" for polished steel, "effects/ShinyDull_e.dds" for a more matte surface. The _a to _e textures, I never found a guide to, so I go by trial and error. Btw, these aren't really textures, but effects. Reflection for example actually does a cube map reflection, so it can be expensive if you plaster it on everything.)

 

Well, you probably knew what those mean already, but I figured just in case, I better not be cryptic like an Oracle again

 

At the very least you need to replace the diffuse map. You typically only need to replace the normal or environment map if you want to make or remove embossed details on the gun, otherwise the safest is to leave the ones from the original gun there. Environment effect and Gloss, if you want to make parts of the gun shinier or duller. E.g., if you're replacing a black revolver with one of those polished stainless steel Smith & Wessons, you'd lower the alpha and go "effects/Reflection.dds" so it's really polished, if you go in the other direction, well, the opposite.

 

Happy modding.