Blender invisible meshes

[schmooley]

I'm trying to edit a mesh shape, but in-game it always shows up invisible (sometimes extremely distorted in inventory screen)

Nothing with textures, just the shape. Seeing as it is really a very minor change, it must be something with the exporting or the whole root thing.

Simply said, this is what happens:

 

1. import nif

2. slighly edit mesh (just the shape, nothing else)

3. export nif (paste over original)

4. somehow invisible

 

I've searched the entire web for an answer, but quite frankly, there isn't one. If anyone can provide the answer i'd be very thankful.

The answer must be pretty simple, all I use is blender. No nifskope, no messing with weight, no messing with textures, etc.

[DrakeTheDragon]

I'm trying to edit a mesh shape, but in-game it always shows up invisible (sometimes extremely distorted in inventory screen)

Nothing with textures, just the shape. Seeing as it is really a very minor change, it must be something with the exporting or the whole root thing.

Simply said, this is what happens:

 

1. import nif

2. slighly edit mesh (just the shape, nothing else)

3. export nif (paste over original)

4. somehow invisible

 

I've searched the entire web for an answer, but quite frankly, there isn't one. If anyone can provide the answer i'd be very thankful.

The answer must be pretty simple, all I use is blender. No nifskope, no messing with weight, no messing with textures, etc.

 

Well, the lack of the NifSkope afterwork is likely to blame here.

It is insanely easy to mess up the NIF structure in Blender or during export (by not-100%-perfect-for-the-matter settings) and only some NifSkope'ry afterwards can fix it then.

Pretty common is the "Scene Root" doubling, or nodes getting renamed beyond what the game will tolerate. It depends on how you imported, what you imported, what you did to it in Blender, and how you exported it afterwards, but there's a lot which can go wrong in the process.

 

I'm pretty sure, if you upload your NIF somewhere and give us a link to download it and give it a look in NifSkope, it is quickly determined what is wrong with it.

In most cases it would even be suffice to give a screenshot of the NIF tree in NifSkope with all branches expanded, as it is pretty obvious and easy to spot, if you know what to look for, in most cases.

 

I'm especially concerned by this "paste over original". It just doesn't sound like the right way, I'm not pasting anything after export, just fixing the file, but I don't know what you mean by it either.

[mrlosesafer]

I just use blender for the 3d model. and nifskope to make the correct path for the texture.

and if its already ingame then copy and paste works well ...and I know this problem all to well. your problem is using the same sceen root for some resone unknown to me

tes 4 dont like it. You need a new skeleton with new armatures and parenting and a complete over haul on the rigging.

Edited December 2, 2011 by mrlosesafer

[Nephenee13]

 

I've searched the entire web for an answer, but quite frankly, there isn't one. If anyone can provide the answer i'd be very thankful.

The answer must be pretty simple, all I use is blender. No nifskope, no messing with weight, no messing with textures, etc.

 

Is there a particular reason you aren't using NIFskope?

 

After I export a NIF, I always open it in NIFskope, and do the "Adjust Link Arrays", "Update Tangent Spaces" and "Remove Bogus Nodes" commands. Having worked with a few dozen meshes I've altered in Blender, I've yet to have any problems...except for the times I forgot to do those things. I'm still only vaguely aware of why those need to be done, but they apparently do.

 

This tutorial is technically about making things BBB compatible, but it gives a good overview of the Import/Export and NIFSkope steps, and is well worth perusing to make sure you have the export setting in blender correct.

 

Also, if you aren't already, start using Growlfs universal skeleton. Copy it into you Data folder in place of your normal skeleton, and then use it for all your meshes. That will basically guarantee compatibility going forward with everything.

[Ekzz]

Yo. I have this exact same problem. I tested it out by importing an untouched vanilla nif to blender then doing nothing to it and exporting it straight away. The mesh didnt show up in oblivion. Same as any nif ive ever loaded into blender.

 

I tried all that nifskope stuff and it hasnt made a difference. This is my first modding attempt so i really am a newbie. Here is the link to the entire mod download:

 

(in this upload i havent done the nifskope work after exporting as i didnt know about it at the time)

The first two armours work fine because i didnt have to edit the meshes in blender. The ranger one does not work tho. As you can see in the description, I have ruled out normal map problems, texture/meshes paths and also recently ruled out the possibility that blender is attaching the texture to the object and not the mesh. They are all attached to the meshes. I am out of ideas here =/

 

http://tes.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=41723

[Nephenee13]

Ok, the missing normal maps is your main problem, but there is also something completely messed up about the skeleton as well, and I have no idea how to go about fixing it.

[Ekzz]

i now have normal maps would you like me to upload them?

[Nephenee13]

i now have normal maps would you like me to upload them?

 

If its still not working with the normal maps, then the problem is with the completely messed up skeleton, and I don't know how to fix that at all.

[Ekzz]

ok so what is wrong with the skeleton? how do you tell?

[DrakeTheDragon]

I'm still trying to get this file downloaded, already tried once when this topic came up but gave up on it for then, but for some reason none of the regular servers I select ever completes "preparing for download" phase and opens the "download to" dialog of my FF. It seems to be only with this file though, which is weird.

 

So I sadly couldn't take a look at the NIF, yet, but if the image of the cuirass in NifSkope is any reference, then it's weird I'm seeing only "1" bone (the white line with the small square dot at the end) in there and it's not even a body one. The armature of this particular NIF seems to be quite wrong, but without access to the actual NIF I can't for the life of me get any closer than guessing from the screenshots. I'm sorry.

 

edit: Oh, for future reference, there's different ways to import and export meshes with armature into or out of Blender, and it depends on what you plan to do with it which one you should choose.

 

For one you can always import the whole thing all-in-one, neither "skeleton-only" nor "geometry-only" checked in import options. But if you're going to import another file to mix it together, this armature will most likely be missing certain bones the other item will need, and mixing armatures in Blender is something you really need to know exactly what you're doing at all times to not mess it up.

 

Then you can import the armature of the item first and the actual item afterwards, having selected the armature previously (therefor "parent to selected armature"). But again this might lead you to an insufficient armature for the merging process you're about to do. And depending on which of the options on the upper right you check, you can also easily mess up the armature to begin with.

 

My prefered way to go on merging different NIFs into a new one is to first import a complete armature, like from "meshes/characters/_male/skeletonbeast.nif" via "skeleton only, parent selected" (without having anything selected from the empty scene of course), then importing only the mesh of the item, "geometry only, parent to selected armature", while having the armature you just imported selected previously. For the second file to import you do the same, that is only importing the geometry again and again parenting it to the one-and-only armature you selected previously.

 

And once you export there are also different options, depending on the different applications for your NIF you might have in mind.

These are pretty simple though, as it circles only around checking "flatten hierarchy" (is it called that?) or not.

 

Checking it means all armature nodes end up on the same level below "0 NiNode Scene Root", perfectly sane for use in armor or clothing item NIFs.

(The result is a bunch of white lines all going from the origin of the scene to their individual positions in the armature.)

 

Not checking it means the nodes will stay in their hierarchical structure, only "Bip01" will be seen under "Scene Root" and you can expand it down the whole tree branch by branch. It must be done that way, if you for example want to export bones for an actual skeleton, not just an equippable item. And I found out keeping it that way, in hierarchy, enables me to "animate" the one NIF already after export in NifSkope, without having to copy&paste each mesh object over into "skeletonbeast.nif" before being able to do so.

(The result of this looks like a stick-figure of white lines, and using animations on it it even behaves like one.)

 

The latter I use for example to animation-test a new body mesh for my dragon race, after I exported the whole body with all features into one single NIF file, for later to clean it up, sanitize everything, and take it apart and put into the individual seperate body part NIFs afterwards. It's a perfect way to preview it all-in-one, even animated, before taking it apart later to put it into the game. A simple "flatten branch"(?) on "Bip01" later should create exactly the same armature structure you'd get by exporting with "flatten hierarchy"(?) checked anyways.

 

edit2: Got it! All good things are 3 things, or how are they saying here in Germany? Third time's the charm, I think it was around here. Finally, on my 3rd try, a server decided to finish preparation phase and let me download it. Taking a closer look ASAP.

Edited March 3, 2012 by DrakeTheDragon