Trying to get a mesh from blender into the creation kit

[NikaCola]

So, I have been bashing my head against the wall for about a week trying to get this right. I have a companion/quest mod that I've basically completed all the work in the Creation Kit for (scripting, writing, etc) but now I'm getting stuck at simply trying to get a mesh file from blender into the CK.

 

The main problem here is that I know absolutely nothing about blender or nifskope, and it seems nearly impossible to find *current* documentation on how to do this. I already have the 3d model that I want to import (I just bought one from the turbosquid site, no way I'm capable of making my own) and all I want to do now is just get it into the creation kit so I can move on to polishing the completed mod.

 

Is there anyone here that could help me with this process? I promise I'm not an idiot, I figured out the CK and papyrus from scratch (with absolutely no modding experience at all) and now have a working mod nearly ready to go, but this part more than any of the others has just been endlessly frustrating and deflating. =(

[Nutulator]

You need to export as OBJ, bring into Outfit Studio and save as NIF, cleanup in NifSkope and save. I don't know what type of object it is but if it's a world object (e.g. chair) you'll need to make the collisions in 3DS Max or just copy them from a vanilla object.

 

1. You'll need to first bring the object into NIF format, export the object in OBJ format, open it in Outfit Studio, OS will be used as a medium to convert it into NIF file, after importing it save it as a NIF.

 

2. Open the NIF in NifSkope and clean it of all the useless body weights which were applied by OS and which will crash the game if they're not removed. Use the Remove Branch option and delete all the BSSkin::Instance and also right click in the 3D window > Optimize > Remove Bogus Nodes and Remove Unused Strings.

 

3. Open the NIF again in OS and type in the material BGSM file path. When saving it'll say you have no weights applied or something but just press okay and it'll save. OS only applies the body weights the first time you import the OBJ and save it as a NIF.

[NikaCola]

You need to export as OBJ, bring into Outfit Studio and save as NIF, cleanup in NifSkope and save. I don't know what type of object it is but if it's a world object (e.g. chair) you'll need to make the collisions in 3DS Max or just copy them from a vanilla object.

 

1. You'll need to first bring the object into NIF format, export the object in OBJ format, open it in Outfit Studio, OS will be used as a medium to convert it into NIF file, after importing it save it as a NIF.

 

2. Open the NIF in NifSkope and clean it of all the useless body weights which were applied by OS and which will crash the game if they're not removed. Use the Remove Branch option and delete all the BSSkin::Instance and also right click in the 3D window > Optimize > Remove Bogus Nodes and Remove Unused Strings.

 

3. Open the NIF again in OS and type in the material BGSM file path. When saving it'll say you have no weights applied or something but just press okay and it'll save. OS only applies the body weights the first time you import the OBJ and save it as a NIF.

 

Thank you so much for your help!! Seriously, this has given me a good start.

 

I did run into two problems: After cleaning up my test mesh in nifskope, outfit studio wouldn't import/open it again; I got an error "Unexpected exception ocurred: bad allocation" and the program closes.

 

My second question was that I wasn't sure what you mean by material BGSM file path? I've only worked a very, very small amount with materials files, and from what I understood (which honestly isn't much) is that they aren't required, but used mostly to make quick and small changes to different textures? Do I need to add that as a step for this process?

 

Thank you so much again for your help! <3

[Nutulator]

Make sure you're using the newest versions for both OS and Nifskope. Nifskope is tricky, if you have a previous version of it, save a NIF with it and then try to open it with another version of the program it won't open. I'm using version 1.1.3.

 

Without the BGSM file which holds all the texture paths your object will just be bright pink in-game with nothing on them. Material Editor is what you'll need to edit them. Make sure the slashes are backslashes like this otherwise the textures will show in OS, Nifskope, and the CK but not in-game.

 

If your model came with textures they'll need to be in DDS format and you'll link them in your BGSM file.

 

Good luck!

Edited June 5, 2017 by Nutulator

[MissingMeshTV]

No intention of hijacking this thread, but since this one was already started...

 

I've recently run into an issue exporting from Blender 2.77 into Outfit Studio that I have not encountered in the few times I've edited meshes.

 

When importing the OBJ that I exported from Blender into OS, the texture data seems to be exported (or imported) at far too small of a scale.

 

Here's a screenshot showing a Vault locker I've edited in Blender and brought back into OS for NIF export. The placeholder texture is clearly much too small in scale. Have tried playing with several export settings and trying to research the settings I should be using but still no joy. It looks really awful with the actual texture applied. It's not just this file, but anything I export out of Blender as an OBJ.

 

As I've said, I've done this process before without this problem occurring. Obviously I'm doing something wrong and missing a step and am too blind to see it. Can anyone give me a push in the right direction?

[Nutulator]

Looks like something is wrong with the UV map. You might have accidentally unwrapped it and now the whole scale is off. Trying importing and exporting your object without editing it at all and see if this happens again.

[MissingMeshTV]

Looks like something is wrong with the UV map. You might have accidentally unwrapped it and now the whole scale is off. Trying importing and exporting your object without editing it at all and see if this happens again.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Same result when I try that. I also thought there was something regarding the UV maps I was changing, but I'm definitely not changing any settings regarding the UV map or anything else. I've tried importing a previously created OBJ and exporting that object along side the locker into a new single OBJ. The old object imports to OS fine, the new OBJ is still broken. There has got to be something going on in Blender at import or export that is altering the UV map without me doing anything. Have tried upgrading to the latest stable 2.78c, still no joy.

 

Will spend some time trying to get educated on Blender's UV map handling to see if I can uncover something. This doesn't make any sense though. Really would just love to use 3DSMax and not have to jump through these hoops.

 

EDIT: Have given up on using Blender. Was able to get the student version of 3DSMax 2015 to use with the unofficial NIF plugin. In less time than it took to wrote out my previous post and upload the screenshot I have the mesh edited, collision applied from a vanilla locker, brought into the CK and tested in-game. Now I have three years to figure out how to actually use the program.

[Nutulator]

Well, at least you got it in-game now!

[MissingMeshTV]

Well, at least you got it in-game now!

Yep...retextured and everything! :cool:

Thanks again for the troubleshooting advice.

[Nutulator]

Nice; no problemo!