Tutorial: 3ds Max Skinned Meshes Into Game

[BlazeLeeDragon]

Question...you don't need some sort of .esp? You just add the folders to the main directory for Skyrim? do you need anything special like an .esp file to get it to reconize the new mesh and texture?

[PrometheusTS]

No...

[Edmond Dantes]

You import both the _0 and _1 into the same scene. clone the _0. You can delete the skin and dismember modifier off the clone if you wanted and just paste those back off the original _0 once done. Now add a morpher. pick the _1 as the morph target and whack the the slider up to 100. From there you could probably use snapshot to create yet another clone off that clone of the _0 in the morph state to avoid any collapsing of the morpher or having to export with that in the stack or something. then paste the skin and dismember modifiers back on and you can delete the _1 and the first clone of the _0 with the morpher on it. then you can export both remaining meshes into the same nif in one go, and copy that nif and remove one version of the mesh from each leaving you with the 2 versions you needed.

 

that's probably how I would have set my scene up to get around any morph issue I might encounter. In theory you have made your own working morph target without trying to get someone elses meshes into then back of max intact. You cut out import error causeing discrepancies from the equation as the mesh and hopefully a perfect clone is only exiting the scene.

 

Thank you very much Ghogiel. I was able to get my morph to work properly this time. All thanks to your generous explanation :thumbsup:

I did pretty much what you instructed above. Turns out the morpher modifier was quite friendly to use.

 

I just have one tiny question though, whenever I do a morph or any other changes that I want to make final. I tend to collapse the changes. Is that good practice or is there any negative side effect to doing it that way?

[Ghogiel]

It's not an entirely safe thing to do... it really depends on what's in the stack and if the meshes vertex order has been order by max already, I think using collapse to would be better as you use that to keep instancing intact, so I guess that is safer. I've had issue with stack collapsing reordering vertex index before.

 

I think that using snapshot might be more sure fire option instead, as what should be doing is cloning, straight and simple.

[Laurelion]

Uff... Another error.

 

When i export the model_0 no problem, but when i try to export the model_1 appear this:

 

bad niskin data some vertices has no waights at all

 

I set vertex weights whit skin wrap tool

 

Someone know this error?

[PrometheusTS]

its not an error , you simply didn't skin all vertices , check weight all vertices in the skinwrap modifier , if you used that or check all the vertices without a weight in the skin modifier....

[klyve]

Notice - please read first time (hidden in spoiler for tidiness)

 

OK, I just cracked it after a lot of trial and error on my part. I've noticed the same methods I've used here have kinda been mentioned throughout posts in the forum, but tracking them down and understanding them can be quite difficult! So I've documented my process here so that can get you from a skinned mesh (one that uses bones) in 3ds Max into a perfectly working model in Skyrim.

 

Firstly, I give no promises that this will work. I have done very little testing, but it was kind of a breakthrough moment that I thought worth documenting here.

 

Please note that this is just my process that I have to do for now. This is likely to become obsolete possibly very quickly, but for now it's a working process. Hopefully someone can make use of it for some good mods while we wait for an easier more streamlined method!

 

I don't claim to be an expert in this area. I've simply tried lots of things until they work. This may not be the best way of doing everything. I don't understand how everything with Skyrim nifs works, just if it does work or not! The steps here may likely require tweaking for your individual requirements.

 

I keep a lot of the steps to the point, so you'll partly need to know what you're doing already. If you don't fully understand a step, searching the forum can likely help.

 

Let's Begin

 

Tools you'll need:

1. NifSkope with Skyrim ini (or use Amorilia's, but may currently cause issues - thanks throttlekitty).
   
2. MaxTools 3.7.1 The forum post for this has unfortunately recently been merged and previously mentioned links are broken. This may change again soon, so I don't guarantee this link will work.
   
3. 3ds Max (obviously) - I'm using 2012 x64
   

Importing the mesh you wish to change

1. First find your mesh you want to edit. You'll need to extract the nif.
   
2. Make sure you have the required skeleton nif file extracted to the same directory. If you're unsure, import attempts will produce an error telling you which skeleton you need.
   
3. In 3ds Max, import your mesh with the following settings:
   http://i.imgur.com/AaDsF.png
   

 

Make your changes to your mesh.

It's your responsibility to ensure changes you make are valid: ensure the Skin has correct bone assignments and your UVW maps are good.

 

Exporting

Export with the following settings:

http://i.imgur.com/hXKk3.png

Ensure Generate Strips is off. We need NiTriShapeData, not NiTriStripsData.

Remove Extra Bones shouldn't be necessary if you correctly checked Remove Unused Bones on import.

 

Fixing with NifSkope

This is the most important bit and can be tricky.

 

1. Open the original non-edited mesh and your new edited mesh alongside each other. If you can't for some reason, just open each one as you need to.
   
2. Replacing the shader information with the original's:
   
   • This is important, otherwise your mesh probably won't appear at all. In your original, copy the branch of the BSLightingShaderProperty.
     
   • In your modified, delete the BSLightingShaderProperty branch, then paste the one copied. It won't be linked in correctly yet, so don't worry.
     
   • In the NiTriShape, find Property Link 1 (it's near the bottom) and input the node number of the pasted BSLightingShaderProperty.
     

[*]Fixing the mesh up: At this point your mesh still may not appear correctly in game. It'll likely have incorrect textures. Following steps are on your modified mesh unless stated:

• In your NiTriShapeData, find Has Normals. If this is Yes, double click the value to change it to No. I don't know why, but normals data it isn't needed and it's just adding a lot of redundant data to the file size. The importance of this step is uncertain, but it's probably worth doing. If you experience issues, try without. Update: Comment by Ghogiel (also mentions the need to recreate the BSdismember Modifier)
  
• Still in your NiTriShapeData, find Has Vertex Colors, and change it from No to Yes. If it was already Yes, it's likely you had accidentally checked Vertex Colors on export, which you shouldn't have done! I find this step is very important, as Skyrim needs the vertex colour information to render the texture properly; without it, my diffuse textures didn't appear (or they appeared black). If your mesh actually needs certain vertex colour information, I'm sorry I can't help at the moment. Update: Comment by Ghogiel

 

Finishing up

Save your nif and put it into the correct data folder in your Skyrim directory so the game uses it. You should now be done! Have a test and see if everything worked ok.

 

I hope this helps. I really cannot provide too much support for this, because even I don't fully understand it. But I hope my process, which I've found to work for me, will work for you too. And I apologise in advance if everyone finds that the method doesn't help when you actually do some serious modifications to your meshes. I haven't done so yet, so I can't guarantee it'll work right! But I hope the concepts will be a good base to work from.

 

Good luck and happy modding! :)

 

Thanks so much Vannus!!!!....it finally worked!

Been playing around with modding and i'm a little bit of an idiot so far recently.

Know enough to get me into trouble...anyway, your tutorial made it work!

wanted to enlarge thighs hips and breasts on a nude female....but couldn't find a decent mod except for CHSBHC which is excellent!

Just wanted to tweak things a bit and didn't think it would be complete rocket science? finding out it kinda is?!

Spent hours and hours....gonna give up until I read your tutorial, exactly what I needed! Thanks again for writing tutorial!

[nimbonius]

You import both the _0 and _1 into the same scene. clone the _0. You can delete the skin and dismember modifier off the clone if you wanted and just paste those back off the original _0 once done. Now add a morpher. pick the _1 as the morph target and whack the the slider up to 100. From there you could probably use snapshot to create yet another clone off that clone of the _0 in the morph state to avoid any collapsing of the morpher or having to export with that in the stack or something. then paste the skin and dismember modifiers back on and you can delete the _1 and the first clone of the _0 with the morpher on it. then you can export both remaining meshes into the same nif in one go, and copy that nif and remove one version of the mesh from each leaving you with the 2 versions you needed.

 

This method works best for me, thanks Ghogiel !

 

I was wondering though-- is it alright if snapshot is used twice instead of cloning?

[jojjo]

Hey, company!

Does anyone figures out how I can use my "Could not load texture data for UV editor." In Nifskope.

Forgive me for disturbing you, I really wanna know.

Best of luck, company! :thumbsup:

Sorry, wont happen again.

Edited February 10, 2012 by jojjo

[vineyard]

Hey, company!

Does anyone figures out how I can use my "Could not load texture data for UV editor." In Nifskope.

Forgive me for disturbing you, I really wanna know.

Best of luck, company! :thumbsup:

Sorry, wont happen again.

 

well, did u get a pretty grey/black model in nifskope? and when u port it back to 3ds max, it turns totally black? if so u are my man, i have this problem several days ago, i fixed it by transform the mesh from gridding to polygon, then transform back to gridding( this might not necessary , but i love doing stuff by gridding), now u will get a proper stuff. :thumbsup: