Easy(ish) Custom Collisions

[JesterDoobie]

I made a custom collision for a static object I am working on for a mod. Can't claim any credit for this, I'm just modding someone else's work into something else again, kinda a thing of mine (modding mods), and since it was SOOO hard to track down this info,l I thought I'd share what works for me. Here's how: First, I watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3WV3xukyqU about 13 times, and ANY credit goes to MagicTaric Then I modified his technique as follows:

 

I did NOT generate a convexhull for my object, stop right there in the video. Instead I cloned it, linked the clone as child of the original, reset the xForms of both. I selected the child object I then clicked the "add rigid body" button under Havok Content Tools (way up at the top-right menu bar if you missed it, I did for a bit) This added the modifiers shape and rigidbody. I set shape to mesh, and under rigid body Set the following check boxes, left the values default : Linear Dampening, angular dampening, linear velocity and angular velocity. Now goto utilities, press more, and select CollisionGroup. Once here, I changed the properties to: MetalHollow (my object is made of steel pipes), and the type to Static. Click APPLY. DOn't Forget to click APPLY. Applied a Material as instructed in the reference vid, and export. At this point, if you open you newly-made nif in Nifskope, first off it'll error out about arrays being bad and all kinda stuff, so do NOT save, just for checking, but you should see your object, with proper textures (I selected a vanilla bgsm in 3DS and it worked fine.) highlighted with a green glow. This is VERY promising, ignore the garbage bhkCompressed stuff, atm it's all broken. Run the resulting .nif (from 3DS, not nifskope) thru Elric, with the reference video's settings (default.) The result from Elric is a working nif with custom collision ingame.

OOMPA. Now I can beat my head off MY OWN WALLS!!! <eidt:> to add that I left mass 0, as my obj IS a form of wall (as buddy explains in the video)

 

You MUST HAVE 3ds2013 x64 installed, as well as the included-with-FO4 3dsmax plugins installer (C:\Games\Fallout 4\Tools\NIF_Exporter\BGS_Fallout4Exporter_-_1.2.52.0.exe. you CAN install 3ds to a non-default directory, just run the plugin installer, and grab the stuff it places at C:\Program Files\Autodesk\* and copy to YOUR \Autodesk folder.) I have added ALL the plugins under \BSG to my external paths (no idea if it matters or not, something to do with shaders led me there, i think. IDK for sure where that advice came from, been trying many things lately to get working custom collision for my mesh.) Hope this helps y'all out, I was stuck for almost a week on this one.

 

One final note that my object came out in-game (and displayed in 3DS) with a very messed-up transform and rotation, half-in the ground twisted away from center when created. There was a point when I had "orthagonal view:realistic" open in my main viewport in 3DSMax and the "ground" mesh square was invisibly far away on a crazy axis ( 285-ish degrees right from the "North view" by about 20-ish +Z (10:30-11 o'clock high in "flight combat" terms.) Could NOT figure out how to reset it, I finally just changed the secondary NiNode's transform in Nifskope to correct it. Primary NiNode changes looked good in Nifskope but still messed around in-game.

Edited June 30, 2016 by JesterDoobie

[JesterDoobie]

http://trial.autodesk.com/SWDLDDLM/2013/3DSMAX/ESD/Autodesk_3ds_Max_2013_EFGKJS_Win_64bit.exe

 

Official/Legit Link to 3DSMax 2013 for use with "C:\Games\Fallout 4\Tools\NIF_Exporter\BGS_Fallout4Exporter_-_1.2.52.0.exe"

VERY useful setup for FO4 3d models. Novices to 3d models (like me) should expect much frustration and many face-palms before they start to get it, but this IS the "official" way to do things. IDK about a license, I'm just using the 30-day trial period, but I did read the TOS/EULA on the AutoDesk site, and IMO the section for "educational use" covers modding a video game you pay for by being a self-directed learning experience, they use VERY broad terms there, covers almost anything not directed at making $$. Didn't ask for credentials/ID numbers/anything "official" when I created an edu acct, I selected "Other" for a location/school name under the "design and manufacturing" edu section, and filled in manually "Victoria, BC" for a location. Nothing told me I don't qualify, but nothing explicitly said I DID, either, and I haven't tried to activate those credentials in-program yet, got 28 days left on the 30 they give atm.

Edited June 30, 2016 by JesterDoobie

[PoliteRaider]

Thanks, this is useful information.

 

The link to the 2013 version of 3DSMax is helpful too. I have the 2016 version but didn't know the older one was still available, I must not have looked carefully enough.

[radiumskull]

I signed up for the 30-day-free subscription thing yesterday, and I haven't even received the download link yet.

 

But THANK YOU for confirming that we need 3DSMax 2013, and for the installer link.

[Amarch89]

Thanks for the info! Very helpful although i doubt i will be able to handle something this serious for a while... still trying to muddle my way through the basiccs

[g2mXagent]

good tutorial, thank you!

[mazakala]

For export from Blender: I model everything in blender, including collision object, export as .obj with 0.1 scale and y-up. Then drop into outfit studio, export.nif, open in nifskope, export .obj to get an .obj that imports into max 2013. Import into max (no scaling) and proceed as OP described.

Edited July 12, 2016 by mazakala

[Stemathome]

I have just found this thread, thank you very much for the info.