UV coordinates from blender to nifscope via 3ds max?

[JNR]

My problem is basically what the title says. I want to create a new floor tile for the workshop mode. I do my 3d work in blender. So far, I have been able to export it to 3ds max from where I export it again as a .nif file. I copied the branches of the new nif file into the file of an existing floor tile and removed the old model.

 

All parts of my model have the following branches:

BSTriShape

>BSLightingShaderProperty

>BSShaderTextureSet

 

My problem is with the textures: I have done the UV mapping in blender, yet the coordinates somehow seem to get lost on their way to nifscope, where the textures do not show up and the surfaces stay white.

 

I do not have any experience with UV mapping in 3ds max, but got far enough to see the UV editor and play around a bit in it and placing the faces all across the board, I was able to get the texture onto the nif object after exporting. HOWEVER, I do not want to do all the UV mapping from scratch again, 1st because I am not familiar with the controls of 3ds max and basically have zero workflow there, 2nd because copying and pasting the UV coordinates vertex by vertex would take ages, just like doing it all over again would (I got a whole tileset in the making and most objects are more complex than a floor tile).

So my question is if there is any way to make sure vertices keep their UV coordinates throughout this conversion chain from blender to 3ds max to nifscope.

 

Thanks in advance already.

[crimsonmatrix]

Silly question, but have you set up a material .bgsm file for your new textures? Your textures need to be defined by a .bgsm file to ever show up in the CK or in-game.

 

I work with blender aswell, though I have to export through Outfit Studio, as I can't legally own a copy of 3DSMax, though the process is much the same by the time I get into NifSkope. I can't say I've ever had any problems with UVs getting lost or mangled, and by the sounds of things, the mesh just doesn't have a material assigned to it.

 

However, if you are sure you've got your material file set up and its still not showing up in the CK or in game, then perhaps you should try exporting your tile as a .fbx from Blender, running it through Outfit Studio to generate a .nif and doing the usual hackery in NifSkope. You -should- end up with a working mesh with good uv data.

[JNR]

No I never set up a bgsm file. However, I found the solution: I was exporting from blender directly as a 3ds file, which apparently causses these issues. Doing this step through an .obj file worked fine. Once 3ds max had the UV mapping, the .nif-exporter tool created everything necessary I think and I was able to get a first prototype to show up ingame.

 

That being said, texturing is my largest weakness and currently I am using very simple textures. Also, I have no experience with materials when it comes to modding, and for now the sunlight reflections and such stuff obviously are still way out of place and bullet impacts will probably not show correctly either (e.g. craters in concrete and the impact sounds).

 

Thanks a lot pointing me towards the bgsm though, I will have a closer look at what's the deal about them later.

[crimsonmatrix]

There was a really good write up on .bgsm files back on the closed CK beta forums. While they are public now, it's sadly quite a slog to find a particular post in all the chaff that's built up since they opened up.

 

The short story on .bgsm files is that they handle most of the things you used to tweak directly inside the .nif. Now the .nif points to a .bgsm which provides all the textures and settings for things like specular intensity or subsurface scattering. What's nice about them is that you can swap out an entire material in the CK with a simple material swap, which can point to a new .bgsm file that will completely redefine an object's properties.

[Hallgarth]

No, actually they don't need to have a BGSM to show up in the game or the CK or even nifskope. I have a custom revolver I'm working on and it has no Bethesda Material and the textures show up fine. Of course when the gun is more complete, then I'll start to make BGSM files for different textures etc. What I have noticed that textures over a certain size (Filesize) don't show up in Nifskope and thus are white.

Edited June 5, 2016 by Hallgarth