Advice needed: Scaling armour in Nifskope

[Martian1]

Hello Nexus modders, I hope someone will have the time and knowledge to help me out here.

 

So, I have modified the female Elven cuirass, but would like to eliminate clipping between the armor mesh and the merged femalebody mesh.

here is my uploaded mod... http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4296

 

I have read that the way to correct this is to rescale the armor, which can be done with nifscope alone, but when I do so I end up with the armor sitting too high on the player model.

 

In this image Lydia is wearing a merged armor/body cuirass_1.nif at default scale.

My player character is wearing a merged armor/body cuirass_0.nif with a scale of 1.0075 at 1.1.1 xyz.

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/5527/helppy.jpg

 

Why is the armor out of vertical position and what can I do in nifskope to correct it?

I have tried rescaling the cuirass within the merged mesh, and I have also tried rescaling the cuirass on its own before merging it with the body mesh but I get the same result either way.

 

If anyone could give me some pointers on this I would appreciate very much. Or if you have found any good comprehensive but easy to follow tutorials please link me.

Edited December 24, 2011 by Martian1

[FavoredSoul]

I wouldn't bother using nifskope's scale modifier; it like, never works.

 

If you're not able to make modifications the proper way (using Blender or 3dsMax), then try using Translation. Translation is the second property above Scale in the Block Details window (Nifskope). Translation has three values (X, Y and Z). Since you're experiencing an unintended vertical adjustment when viewing the armor, try compensating for that by translating the armor downwards on Z by x many degrees as you think the armor is ascending when viewed in-game.

 

GL. :)

[Martian1]

Thanks FavoredSoul, I will try using Translation instead of Scale. Just incase I have another vertical misplacement, could you give me a rough starting figure for how much I need to drop the Z axis based on the image above?

 

I have tried to get my head around doing this in blender as my first attempt at using any modeling suite, got as far as importing and scaling but then got a massive headache trying to save the file back out to nif. At this point I dont really understand the relationship of models and the various maps ect. I have been reading the wikibook Blender n00b to pro, but at this time of year I dont have time to study properly. Hence why I'm looking for a quick fix with Nifskope.

Edited December 24, 2011 by Martian1

[FavoredSoul]

Judging from the picture, it looks like the chest piece is at head level height.

 

-35 would be a good place to start I think.

Edited December 24, 2011 by FavoredSoul

[Martian1]

Judging from the picture, it looks like the chest piece is at head level height.

 

-35 would be a good place to start I think.

Thanks, I will start experimenting with your advice in a little while and let you know how I get on.

[Martian1]

hmm, after shifting around with translation it seems to only offset the mesh in one direction per axis. Is there a way to perform two translations per axis to allow me to stretch the mesh between two points?

[Ghogiel]

I think you are asking something to do with the fact that in nifskope the translation works in relation to the meshes pivot center, ie that is the point that it would scale from...? :unsure:

 

you seem to want some mesh editing tools like a subobject level and soft select of something.. Nifskope isn't meant to be a modelling program really

[Martian1]

Yes Ghogiel, I mean that translation is only offsetting the pivot point.

Its a shame that nifskope wont work to scale the mesh as I expected. I have been tinkering with a combination of scale and translation but still get the same result as I originally posted.

 

edit: Scrap that... I have it!

 

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/5619/wootzg.jpg

 

........^ before ...............................................................................................^ after.........

 

After a closer examination of the nitristripdata block details I realised that I could manipulate each vertices individually, whereas before I was trying to rescale the whole armour at once.

Thanks for the translation tip FavoredSoul, you certainly pushed my tinkering in the right direction.

Just a few more adjustments and I can get a good fit.

 

 

Thank you FavoredSoul and Ghogiel for your assistance here, and a very merry christmas to you both.

 

+1 kudos each ;D

Edited December 25, 2011 by Martian1

[chrisdf]

I have the same problem. But I don't understand what you used to fix it. What is nitristripdata? Are you still using nifskope? I'm moderately familiar with the program and just found out that neither scaling or translation of blocks works at all. I have major clipping issues that I can fix, if only the scaling and axis translation worked in Skyrim.

[ghosu]

NiTriSNitTriShapeData holds the mesh, it's inside a NiTriShape block.

When you click on it you see its properties in the block detail window below.

There is an entry VERTICES, you can open it - inside are your model's vertices/points...a 4 sided polygon uses 4 points, one each corner - each point has its own XYZ coordinates, you can edit them to change the shape of your 3D model.

 

So instead of changing the mesh in a 3D editor like Blender or 3DsMax and reattach it to the skeleton (so it stays in position when you move) he just edited it in NifSkope by moving around these points...so there was no need to weighten/reattach the whole model to the skeleton.

Edited April 21, 2012 by ghosu