New race Mod and Retexturing

[WorldShaperDragon]

Making the mesh wasn't too hard, maybe an hour, most of it tweaking. I'm currently trying to figure out how to set the meshes to be used by the race in the CK, because I can't find the options for it, unless its interpreting it via filenames >.<

[Sevcheg]

Hi, I created a new character (not my idea, not my mesh for a character), but I did the whole work for setting, skining and unwarp (texturing is not mine) - here is a whole process http://3694.blogspot.com/search/label/Skyrim (sorry it is in russian). There you can find links for skeleton rig for a charater. The only thing is how to act a head. I don`t know how to make it speak and emotions.

[WorldShaperDragon]

Well, DrakeTheDragon managed to provide a likely candidate in the construction set for getting the meshes matched with the race, so I'm going to try that out soon (not tonight though, going to need to get some sleep in... about an hour ago >.< )

 

edit - in this thread: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/587701-how-to-set-what-meshes-are-used-by-an-npc-race-in-ck/

Edited February 28, 2012 by Wolf of the azar

[DarkLylyth]

sorry, just so that I understand correctly, the mesh is the skeleton underlying the skin, while the texture is the skin itself?

[WorldShaperDragon]

The mesh is the 3D model (ie, you can visualize it as the wireframe, a collection of triangles and the vertices that make it up), the texture is an image that is mapped onto the mesh to make it appear in-game, and the skeleton is a bunch of nodes with 3d positions which are animated, and the each of the vertices are affected by some amount X (none at all or completely) by some bone Y

[DarkLylyth]

Right :) I asked one of my roomates, who gave me a really detailed answer. Im so glad that I live with computer graphics majors sometimes :)

[DarkLylyth]

yea, I asked one of my computer graphics majors shortly after. Its moments like those that make me appreciate living with computer science and graphic design majors.

 

I found this handy tutorial online that showed me how to extract and edit the .nifs, so I should hopefully be good for that

 

http://jaredbangerter.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Play-as-Monsters-In-Skyrim

 

Would I need to edit the overlaying textures also?

[WorldShaperDragon]

For a quality outcome, its best to make some custom textures for your race.

 

Btw, I have so far managed to get all the meshes except the head assigned to the race in the CK. - DrakeTheDragon's answer was mostly correct, but there is another step.

 

First, go to ArmorAddons, and scroll down to the "N" section (sort by name, alphabetical).

Because its easiest just to use an existing one (unless you are making a race with a custom skeleton), just open one you want to copy, change the ID name first, then edit the info (Make sure to change the Race to your Race! Otherwise it won't work!), click ok, and when the CK gives you a popup asking if you want to create a new editor ID, click OK to that too. Repeat for each: Torso, Tail (if race has a tail), Hands, Feet. NOTE: you cannot assign the headmesh here!

 

Now, for the missing step (and most important, since this is what gets it to work)! Go to Armor, and select the root armor category, sort by name, and scroll down to "S".

Search for the entries "SkinNaked" and find the appropriate skin entry (SkinNaked for non-beast races, SkinNakedBeast for beast races), and then in the bottom right, to the left of the papyrus script box, right click and add each of the ArmorAddon IDs that you just created (Click "Show All" to confirm that they did get added)

 

Now, if you go back to the Race ID editor, and click Preview Full, you will now have a headless version of your race!

 

I am now off to go mess with adding a head.

[WorldShaperDragon]

:biggrin:

 

I have finally gotten the head working. Trick was adding a smooth w/ group 2 AND making sure to remove that pesky "Weld vertices 0.0100" that keeps popping up in the nif exporter. Then do the usual nif post processing by moving the BSLighting... node from the original file into the new one.

 

ANYWAYS, to add the head (And mouth, and eyes), go to "headparts", and then like before, edit the existing race's ones, changing the form ID so that the CK creates a new form ID. Then you can set the mesh, and most importantly, you need to set the "valid races" filter to "NONE" (I can't figure out how to add valid race filters yet, but this is a totally functional workaround). You can now select your headpart in the headparts dropdown list in the race ID editor.

 

Happy modding all! :thumbsup:

[DarkLylyth]

for valid race filters, I think you would have to create a new Formlist for that. Give it any name you want, though something like HeadParts____Race works well. Then open it and drag the Race into it.

 

I was frustrated that only the Khajiit options were available, so I previewed a lot of the different body parts, then created a list of the ones I wanted, by adding them to the formlist. It's worked pretty well, I just need to remove my race from the Khajiit one