Brand new Bow mesh in game

[AurelTristen]

So, I think I might be the second modder so far to do this and live to tell the tale, but I've got my own custom bow mesh in Skyrim and working. It was at least a week's work of trial and error, aided by what can only be luck.

 

Some of you may remember that my very first post here was about making a new bow for Skyrim. Well, here it is.

 

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b55/AnimeNanashi/TESV2012-03-0118-46-26-85.jpg

 

 

 

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b55/AnimeNanashi/TESV2012-03-0118-45-34-03.jpg

 

 

 

Now If I had found this same post weeks ago, I'd be PMing the OP on the spot, begging for a tutorial or hint. So for any of you who want to make a custom bow, I'll try and provide some guidance. Sadly, because of my poor memory and the trial and error process that I went through to get the damn thing working, I cannot provide an exact step-by-step process, but here are some keys:

• 
   
  
• Import a vanilla bow into 3D Studio Max
  
• Model your bow on top of it so that the pivot points for the string are correct (You CANNOT change these poits to make a taller or shorter bow. Note the unique design of mine to get around this)
  
• Use your skin wrap modifier to skin it (I don't do this)
  
• Or delete the original mesh and skin it yourself.
  
• Optionally, you can animate the bow (Make a new keyframe on frame one to keep the original pose!) to make sure your mesh and skin allow it to move correctly
  
• Go into your weight table and use the remove zero's option (I don't know if this is critical, I just do it)
  
• DO NOT Flatten hierarchy during export! This was a big key I was missing
  
• Make sure the Scene: section is set to BSFadeNode
  
• Most settings seem to be as they always are
  
• Open your nif and the nif you based it off of, and painstakingly copy blocks until yours looks just like theirs OR
  
• Re-name your root node to whatever the original nif's is
  
• Copy your nif into the original nif as you would for any other weapon
  
• Fix your textures as you normally would for any other weapon
  
• Is your model all bent out of shape? Make sure you're using your own SkinModifier container, not the one from the original file.
  

 

I'm sure I'm missing something here, but there are a few keys that should get you started. As I do this more for other bows, I'll try to lock down the exact process and make a tutorial. If you manage to get this to work, please post any steps I've left out, or any additional information that will help others.

 

Note: The clothing is from my mod. The location is a simple test room I built. The bow is based off of the Japanese long bow, but has those extra bits added so that the string still pulls from their original pivot points (You cannot move bones on a skeleton or the bow will not work properly in game). I'm going to go have a few more beers in celebration.

[TheRealAedh]

Awesome, now to see if it I can use your method with blender.

[AurelTristen]

Awesome, now to see if it I can use your method with blender.

Shouldn't be a problem. The critical step in the 3D program was unchecking flatten hierarchy (I think). So long as you have been able to skin meshes in the past (armor, clothes, monsters) it should be about the same. The true battle takes place in NifSkope.

 

Now I need new arrow models :)

[TheRealAedh]

So I followed your directions as best I could with Blender and it exploded in Nifskope. Triangles went everywhere. A copy/paste into another nif results in bits of the mesh disappearing but not exploding.