Going to make a motorcycle mod.

[Fragilicious]

Hi Forum,

 

As the title says, I'm going to have a bash at making a motorcycle mod for Fallout 4. Mainly because I really, really want a motorbike mod, and as I've always been told: "If you want something and nobody has made it yet... make it yourself dummy!"

 

Just to set some expectations:

 

- I can only commit a few hours a week to this.

- I have never built a full mod before.

- I have used the CK in Skyrim and Oblivion enough times that I'm pretty sure I know my way around it.

- I have proficiency (though not expertise) in creating/modifying models and animation.

- This will be my first official mod.

 

This is just informational, I'm going to attempt this, maybe I fail, or maybe I succeed. Either way it should be fun.

 

I'll be adding regular updates to this thread, mostly so that I can ask for advice. If anyone has any comments or suggestions they would be most welcome. I'm not a total rookie, but I am pretty green.

 

I am under no illusions that this is potentially a freaking huge undertaking.

 

Wish me luck!

First step: How to get something that doesn't move... to move.

 

Quotable: "Something tells me this isn't a job for WD40"

Edited April 29, 2016 by Fragilicious

[ShenmueScrolls]

Its not really about turning a static object into an animating one , its about changing the animations of the player into new animations

 

Two bases from the main game to work from is

 

1) The vertibird, the player climbs into it and it moves, albeit in a set path, could that be changed?

 

However if I was going to attempt something like this I would go with the

2) Power Armor

Player climbs in and it moves, this seems to be the best basis for altering all animation movements, I think it would work better as an animal or horse rather than a mechnical vehicle, mainly due to motion physics probabally wouldnt work well. I also suspect that to avoid replacing the power armor you may need some sort of script extender but I have no idea how sophisticated Fallout 4 programming is

 

Good Luck

[DarthWayne]

There was a motorcycle mod for New Vegas I think. The engine and especially scripting has changed a lot since then, but maybe it's worth a look. There was also a mod for Skyrim that let you use boats. Anyway a new race for your bike would probably a good thing to start with. Then you have to let the player control the bike "actor".

 

Good luck with this!

[EmissaryOfWind]

Power Armor is an actor, so I agree with DarthWayne that a race would be a good start. DDProductions and trainwiz are both making stuff involving moving vehicles, but both are big enough to stand on, and also not player-controlled, so I don't think it'll be relevant to what you're trying to do. I assume you have Skyrim, so you could look at how horses are controlled there, and try to replicate it in Fallout 4.

[Fragilicious]

I was indeed looking at Skyrim. Though there is a good deal of disparity between TESV and FO4.

 

After some research (always the best first step ^^) I have found that possibly the easiest (for my skill set) path would be as follows:

 

- Create a skeleton (with a saddle bone) based on the 'Lone Wanderer' motorbike model.

- Add the skeleton to a player skeleton (creating one unified skeleton for 'mounted') which will cover both wheel, steering and (player) actor animations for riding.

- Create model & animations for first person (3rd will come naturally through the use of the skeleton and new actor).

- Use Paprys to link the mount, dismount, and various ride (steering, wheel spin) animations together.

- Give the new (player) actor that involves both bike and character a generous (but reasonable) speed boost.

- Add sounds.

- Test.

 

Once that is done I can move onto fleshing the mod out:

 

- Add collision physics that allows for limited clipping for a smoother ride (limited clipping will be on the wheels, which likely won't be visible in 1st person, and will have to figure something out for 3rd).

- Create 'dynamic' dismount animations for bailing out or being forced off the bike.

- Make the bike destructible!

- Add a fuel mechanic, probably coolant.

- Create quest based creation method.

- A whole bunch of other stuff I haven't thought of yet.

 

As I'm pretty familiar with 3dsMax and Nifscope, I'll probably start the skeleton on the bank holiday.

 

Thanks for the pointers guys, I'm really looking forward to this!

[DarthWayne]

Sounds like a good plan. If you need help with the scripting send me a pm.

 

 

[Fragilicious]

Ok, so first hurdle. I can see that there is a model for a motorbike (Lone Wanderer) in game. I have also seen that there are a couple of texture mods out there. I cannot find the mesh that already exists when using B.A.E. and google gives me nothing.

 

Does anyone have any ideas where the model is kept, and/or what it is called?

 

Failing this, (and forgive me if this is a stupid question) what sort of polygon count is reasonable for fallout 4 if I were to have to make my own bike?

 

Thanks again all!

[EmissaryOfWind]

Meshes>SetDressing>Vehicles>Motorcycle, there is a clean version and a dirty version.

[Fragilicious]

You are amazing. Thanks.

 

Now it's a simple case of cutting that thing up into movable parts. I'll only need to animate the wheels and steering armature. Shouldn't be too difficult.... I hope lol.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Fragilicious

[tawatabak]

this sounds interesting

i will track this topic

 

goodluck