Blender mesh finished....just need to put it ingame

[huntsman2310a]

hey guys, I finished the final mesh design for the Apollo Laser pistol (got materials, right shape, so on).

But I'm stumped about what to do next (sorry I'm not sure how to get images onto the post.)

 

heres what I think i have to do

 

-Export UV map into GIMP, work on the texture (not too sure about this part, because I think I accomplished the same result using materials)

 

-Save UV map as a DDS file.

 

- Convert the .Blend file to a NIF file.

 

-Link the mesh and texture together

 

-edit in NIFskope

 

-Put together in mod folder

 

-Place in Geck

 

-????

 

-Profit (Just kidding)

 

So is that the normal process or am I missing a few steps?

Edited July 5, 2011 by huntsman2310a

[Nadimos]

Hi, you can go to tesnexus.com and search for Mr. Silkas blender tutorial. It will show you step by step with pictures, how to put a static with working collision model into the game.

Come back, if you got more questions.

Edited July 5, 2011 by Nadimos

[Moraelin]

Well, the way I'd do it (also because last I heard the export directly to .nif was iffy for weapons) is:

 

-Export UV map into GIMP, work on the texture

 

-Save UV map as a DDS file.

 

Obviously one way or another you can't skip those.

 

- find a similar weapon in the game and load it in NifSkope. We'll basically be replacing parts of it with your own parts. Among other things this makes sure that named parts that are used by animations keep exactly the name they need. E.g., if you want to see the trigger or bolt moving, or the magazine/battery/whatever when you reload, they have to have exactly the names that the animations look for. Leave NifSkope open for now.

 

- export the parts one by one from blender, and import them in another NifSkope instance. I suppose you can also export directly to .nif and simply load it, I export to .obj and import it, just because I'm already used to that. Up to you. I can vouch that exporting .obj with normals and HQ normals works very well.

 

- Now for each imported part find the NiTriShape node, right-click, Mesh->update tangent space. This is IIRC needed for shine, shadows, that kinda stuff. Right-click again, choose Mesh->Stripify. It will turn into a NiTriStrips node, like most mesh parts are in FO3 and NV.

 

- Find the NiTriStripsData node under it, right-click, choose Mesh->Update Center/Radius. Right-click, choose Block->Copy.

 

- Go to the window with the gun you're modifying, find the NiTriStripsData node for the part you're replacing. E.g., if you're now replacing the bolt, find the bolt node, and find its NiTriStripsData object. Right-click, choose Block->Paste Over. It's important that you paste over, replacing the old part, not just create an extra node. If it is too big or too small, consider using the scale value in the window at the bottom for the NiTriStrips node.

 

- Find the BSShaderTextureSet node for it, edit the textures to your own. You may see all white instead of your texture, don't worry, it's just NifSkope being silly. If it's a .dds and placed somewhere under Textures, the game will find it all right.

 

- If needed, also edit the values in NiMaterialProperty (e.g., if reflections should be tinted or whatnot). If in doubt, you can just leave them as they are.

 

- Save. Preferably under a new name.

 

Repeat for all parts. If your gun has more or less parts than the original, you can also copy or delete some NiTriStrips nodes as needed. Always copy or delete those or higher, unless you know why.

 

Now to import it in the actual game.

 

- Open the GECK, load just the FalloutNV.esm.

 

- Find a similar weapons, preferably the one you just used as a base. Double-click it, change the ID, hit OK, say "yes" when it asks whether to create a copy. Double-click the copy and change the ammo, damage, etc, to suit your own vision.

 

- Set the 1st person model to none. (This will make it use the normal gun model for the player char too.) Save.

 

Now you have a gun but no way to get it in the game. We'll fix that.

 

- Find some suitable container under statics. Duplicate it like above. (Change id, save, "yes", etc.)

 

- Kick out its contents from the list, drag and drop your weapon from the weapons list into its contents list. It's literally just drag and drop.

 

- Find a suitable shop or dungeon map in the lower-right window, double click. Zoom, drag, etc, for a suitable place to place your new crate, drag and drop the crate into the render view. Edit its position to your taste, or if it'll be sold, just give it some -30000 coordinate so it's buried deep and good if you want the players to have to buy it instead of getting to the crate and looting it. (Downside, whoever killed the shopkeeper then can't get your weapon.) Set to no AI acquire, so the NPCs don't loot it. If it'll be sold, assign ownership to the shopkeeper, so he'll sell the contents. I usually also set it to locked with a very easy lock, so the player feels they did something for it.

 

That's it.

Edited July 5, 2011 by Moraelin

[huntsman2310a]

huh, so you can use materials as well as textures. Its a lot easier that way.

 

and it also saves me some more modelling since I don't have to make a new trigger for the gun, I can just snatch one from the vanilla laser pistol, rextex it and walla.

 

thanks man

[Moraelin]

Well, it's not exactly materials as Blender uses them, as far as I can tell. Don't expect to apply some fractal clouds there and get brass, like you can in Blender :P It's mostly where you set stuff like tints and such.

 

And yeah, I've been reusing triggers, hammers and occasionally even revolver frames myself. Saves a lot of work :P

 

Edit: oh, you mean the first two items in my list above? Sorry, those were just copied and pasted from your message. I use textures, not materials. I should have properly marked it as a quote, sorry.

Edited July 5, 2011 by Moraelin

[ecksile]

Look for a downloadable Vid tutorial called artisen's from blender to fallout. Everything you will need is in there.