How do you stretch a mesh?

[JDFan]

Thank you very much for the instruction - I followed your advice with my arming swords and tightened up those collision capsules just in case they caused any unexpected weirdness in the game.

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Actually, that collision issue was bugging me just a little bit. Moreover, I went slightly bananas with the shortening/stretching method and converted copies of the cnHall01a and cnHall01b models to half-length models - at least visually (see picture - attached). They seem to work well in the game but there is still a havok surface (in red) which, as far as I can tell, remains full length - so I had to be careful when using these to resolve some of the half-length misalignments that occur sometimes.

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Is it possible to rescale a havok surface like the one in red (to match the white texture surface that was shortened by 50%)? I'm also wondering if there is a way to skew or shear a model in a given plane or dimension?

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Thanks in advance...

 

Yes it can be done but is a PITA since in Nifskope you have to adjust the position of each Vertex of the collision -- for this type of thing it really is better done in Blender or 3ds MAX since in them you can just scale the havok mesh instead of dealing with each vertex individually (so much easier and faster than positioning each vertex)

 

Try these -- I rescaled them in Max but did not test in game so let me know if there are any problems with them.

[RealmEleven]

I have Blender running now but I am unfamiliar with the GUI. I take it that it is necessary to first export the *.nif files to *.obj files (e.g. using Nifscope) and then import them into Blender to make the changes before exporting from Blender as *.obj and then importing with Nifscope to save as *.nif. Does this describe the best way to access a *.nif file in Blender or am I missing a plugin?

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I'd like to learn how to rescale Oblivion models in Blender - but thank you for the models that you supplied. I've placed them by creating new forms for my shortened pieces and then just redirecting the mesh reference to your models. In TESCS, jdfanIscnhall01asc has preseved its original alignment but jdfanIscnhall01bsc appears in TESCS at right angles to the original alignment - as per the following picture:

http://realmeleven.net/ClawFaceMineHalfLengthPlanInitialRereference.png

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This was corrected by a 90 degree anticlockwise rotation in place so that, in the TESCS, we got:

http://realmeleven.net/ClawFaceMineHalfLengthPlan.png

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The picture shows jdfanIscnhall01asc circled on the right with my handiwork displaced to the side. jdfanIscnhall01bsc, rotated in place to line up with the tunnel, is circled at the bottom with my handiwork displaced beside it. In the TESCS, I made sure both jdfanIscnhall01asc & jdfanIscnhall01bsc were aligned correctly (as per the above picture) - at least, that is what I thought I'd done.

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In the game, both jdfanIscnhall01asc and jdfanIscnhall01bsc preserve the original alignment. This has an interesting consequence. Because I realigned jdfanIscnhall01bsc to line up correctly with the tunnel in TESCS, the game renders jdfanIscnhall01bsc at right angles (anticlockwise) - as in the following screenshot:

http://realmeleven.net/jdfanIscnhall01bsc-inGame.png

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The visible surface corresponds to what TESCS indicates to be on the right hand side of the tunnel relative to the picture. Had I left the piece in its original orientation (as per the first picture), it would have lined up correctly with respect to the mesh and the textures. Ultimately, this means there is a way to make the models render differently in the TESCS from the way they do in the game itself.

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This little surprise has got me wondering what else the engine is capable of. Would it be possible, I wonder, to combine a static (e.g. a lamp), a light (e.g. a flame node), an activation surface and a state variable tied to the display of the light? The objective, in this example, would be to produce a single model that could be lit or doused by in-game activation but whose script slot is open and unoccupied. The bits that I still don't understand are how to:

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a) designate the model as an activator

b) assign a state variable to the activator to indicate activation state (much like the open/closed state of a door model)

c) tie the rendering of the light model, as a child node of the activator, to the value of the state variable assigned to the activator as activation state

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Maybe some of this goes beyond the limitations of the engine, but I'd still like to learn how to do what I can with these models.

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Thanks in advance

[JDFan]

See here -- There is a plug in that you use to be able to import and export directly to the Nif format so no need to convert to .obj along the way smd it also adds in dds texture support so you can view the textures in blender as well ! that link also provides some tutorials etc. that you might find helpful. Edited November 8, 2011 by JDFan

[RealmEleven]

Thank you. I've finally got my installation of Blender talking to the nif files on my system. Those tutorials are proving to be very helpful. Thanks again for all your help and encouragement.