please help me to modify my first body mesh.

[blackplasma]

Hi all. Well im new to all this stuff and feel like ive fumbled through for a week or so but now ive hit a brick wall.

 

Aim.

To start by modding a custom body, and to develop some clothes/armour to fit.

I decided to begin with something simple and take a type 3 body and make it pregnant.

start off simple, you know?

Having now picked up the knowledge to use fomm etc and geck to modify npcs, inventorys, race and textures, now i want to move on to modding a mesh.

I have blender 2.49 with nif 2.5.5 and the other bit installed but now ive got problems.

 

Problem. Whatever new nif file i export will not show a 3d model when double checked and previewed in geck. All i see is the red floor but no model.

if i zoom around a bit i can see some sort of data in a 2d layer floating somewhere but no model.

 

Ok so i must have missed something a step, an install or something?

 

So back to basics..

I took a .nif imported it in to blender delete the box, camera and lamp select all with A export to nif wait an while Place new nif in data mesh folder allongside original double click .....no pretty black mesh...red floor only.

 

Please help me get started?!  Ive tried loads of import export options but still nothing. Could anyone link to or provide a tutorial? Do i need to do anything with a skeleton at all? 

Thanks in advance 

[anb2004]

alright, i'll take that you only edit the body shape right ? for exporting with blender, you might want to check Quetzlsacatanango blender export setting if you still having difficult with setting that you need to use..

 

i'll guess you set wrong shader. in nifskope you can find these settings in BSShaderPPLightingProperty inside NiTriStrips/NiTriShape, where you should see shader flags and shader type in block detail. i.e for skin mesh you need to set the shader_skin on the shader flag, different with armors/clothes/weapons/objects that must use shader_default. the best way to figure what apporiate shader flag and shader types for skin/armors/weapons/objects is to see vanilla .nif files for reference.

[blackplasma]

check Quetzlsacatanango blender export setting

 

superb, now i can see my modified body thankyou very much.

I tried 5 or six "setting sets" from various tutorials and this is the only one which has worked.

 

Interestingly tho, the original mesh showed as a black skinned object when viewed in geck preview, (double clicking it in windows), the new body shows as a rendered body with pink skin etc. does this mean the skin texture will overwrite anything else which is applied with geck? or will it display in game with whatever texture is set to a npc with the geck?

 

Thanks for your help it is much appreciated.

 

Is the black texture like a blank canvas for geck to texture with whatever is assigned but a specific texture like the pink skin on my nif is hardcoded?

i will look for an answer in the mean time but would appreciate a reply if available

[blackplasma]

yep, the texture from the host body nif is now a permenant fixture. i can change it in niftools but if i load a race in to geck and try to overwrite the body with a ghoul texture for example, the preview still displays the original texture not the ghoul one.

what is the plain black texture? where is the setting for it or what is the file path for it?

could it have been caused in the export of the nif?

[blackplasma]

for reference to any other modding newbs out there,

I found the solution to this body showing up as a hard coded skin texture not as a black texture-able body.

using this guide

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Fallout._Part_2

I realised that i had basically created an armour or clothing mesh with a fixed texture.

by reading the "Modify textures and materials " section in part 2 i checked my body for the shaderand shader flags relating to the body i edited.

they had the values used for a piece of armour, so onced changed to "SHADER_SKIN" and "SF_ZBUFFER_TEST | SF_SHADOW_MAP | SF_WINDOW_ENVIRONMENT_MAPPING | SF_EMPTY | SF_UNKNOWN_31"

 

working great now thanks.

 

Maybe I can contribute with a step by step body mod guide for noobs like me.