All my custom NIF files just do not show up in the game

[BonJons]

I'm not sure what I've done wrong, i'm trying to create Boone's 1st Recon Beret and I've succeeded... almost.

 

My first attempt I made a custom mesh for the item but I kept failing at putting it in the game. i'd use .dds for the textures, i'd use a BGSM for the material, i'd look at the Military Cap for reference on how to create my NIF file. I made a female and male version and also a GO version all exactly the same as the Military Cap NIFs but with my mesh and my material file.

Anyway so once i've created the NIF files I load up creation kit and duplicate the armor and armor addon for the Military Cap and then change the names and IDs and replace the NIFs with my NIFs. In the creation kit it works, it shows up in the preview and when i put it into the map it appears in the render window.

 

So then i place it on the floor on some part of the map, save it as a new plugin, load the plugin, go to that part of the map and nothing. It's not even invisible, it's just simply not there. So i find the ID of the item and add it to my inventory, it's there in my inventory but it's invisible, when i put it on my head the hair removes from my character but there's no hat, no shadow either.

 

The folder layout is Data\(Textures)(materials)(meshes)\clothes\1streconberet\(beret.nif)(beret.bgsm)(beret_d/n/s.dds)

 

If someone could help me i'd be happy to send them over my NIF files and see if you can get it to work.

 

 

[SydneyB]

BonJons, in my experience with rigged nifs for Fallout 4 the problem is with bones that have no weight assigned. I just delete all the bones that have zero weights (in Blender, delete the vetex groups of those bones) and then the mesh becomes visible in game.

[BonJons]

BonJons, in my experience with rigged nifs for Fallout 4 the problem is with bones that have no weight assigned. I just delete all the bones that have zero weights (in Blender, delete the vetex groups of those bones) and then the mesh becomes visible in game.

What was wrong was that i was missing something from the ini which stopped it picking things up from the directory. Once i fixed this i put the textures on the original military cap mesh. I wasn't happy with how flat the emblem looked so i decided to edit the mesh by converting it to OBJ, loading it into Maya, added the emblem and uv mapping it. Then to put it back into a nif i used outfit studio, once i did that i basically just replaced with the new mesh i had made. However now whenever i load up the game it shows up ingame (i put it on the floor in creation kit) but when i put it into my inventory and either equip it or inspect it the game crashes. Here is the difference between the new nif and the original.

http://image.prntscr.com/image/0c674f18e1c8401a89649f096f9e67c7.png

 

Another thing is i've almost no experience or knowledge about bones, vertex groups or anything similar. So if you could be very explanatory and treat me as you would a newborn about this stuff. Also I can't edit the nif inside any program because i can only navigate my way around Maya and Maya 2015 has no NIF plugins.

[SydneyB]

The bones / vertex groups, etc are the items you see as Head and Head skin, which are part of the skeleton of the character. All items that are to be worn by characters need to be rigged (or weighted) to bones of the skeleton so they move when the skeleton of the character moves (walking, sitting, etc).

 

When you export something as OBJ all weights are deleted and you have to recreate them. I don't know if you have done that. This part of the tutorial on the wiki talks about adding weights in Blender: http://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Fallout_4._Part_1#Add_weights_to_the_armour

And if you are using Outfit Studio then this talks about it: http://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Fallout_4._Part_4#Add_weights_in_Outfit_Studio

 

For me, if a mesh that for example has zero weights to the head bone, has the head bone assigned, it is invisible in game. It doesn't crashes my game but it is completely invisible. I have been able of fixing that bug by removing the bones that had no weight (in the example, by removing the head bone). I don't know if that is your case, though or if invisibility can be caused by something else.