Just need the right direction lads.

[FrogTheFirst]

Goddam... I must admit that I'm completly lost ...

 

I've been searching all kind of stuff and it's not really clear for me.

- I want to import meshes from FO4 and edit them in 3ds max, have their 3d model, which software should I use exactly? Some tutorials say I need a nif importer-exporter, some say nifskope, you talked about the archive extractor, which one to get/install? Where to install it?

- I keep searching nif files into my fallout 4 data, but I can't find all of them. In Data/weapons there're the sledgehammer and the baseball bat, that's it, can't find the machete, the swords, etc ...

 

I've been watching lots of tutorials but they all say different things, lots of them are outdated (2010-2012). And most of them just import a fo4 mesh without explaining how they installed a tool to do it in the first place.

[ehtyeci]

You won't find all the nif files, because they are packed inside ba2 archives in your Fallout 4/Data folder.

The one you specifically need to open is the "Fallout 4 - Meshes.ba2" one. Just get the lastest version of B.A.E, extract it to any folder and make a desktop shortcut so it's easily accessible. You then either drag and drop a ba2 file onto the window (it literally says "Drag archives here" in the main window), or navigate to your Fallout 4 Data directory through File > Open and open said ba2 file.

You just need the nif plugin I linked earlier correctly installed in order to open nif files directly in 3ds max.You don't need NifSkope unless you have trouble importing the nif. To open a nif in 3ds max you go File > Import.

[FrogTheFirst]

So for the installation of the nif plugin, am I doing it correctly so far ? Sounds obvious but I don't want ti make any mistake.

 

[ehtyeci]

Looks about right. They should point to the sub-folders inside the Data folder. So, yep.

[FrogTheFirst]

Hi !

 

So I couldn't start modelling the last few days bc of all the work I had, but I was able to do so today. The problem is a few minutes after importing a nif (example the sacrificial blade for the machete or any other model) I have this issue appearing and forcing 3dsmax to shut down. Do you know where it comes from ? How to fix this ? Is it even actually a problem ?

Edited December 6, 2017 by FrogTheFirst

[ehtyeci]

Something is calling for it to compile in a folder that doesn't exist. You should be able to ignore any and all ioapi.h errors. Click the third option, "always ignore this assertion, and then Continue.

Do not click "Try to Save, then Quit". It's a trick choice that crashes 3ds max. Always click Continue.

[FrogTheFirst]

Sweet! Thanks!

 

Now should I be aware of some things I must or must not do? Like forbidden rules to avoid ruining the mesh?

 

Here for example I want to turn this

 

 

 

 

 

 

into this (random dishonored sword)

 

Can I just play around with the polys an vertexes to make it look like it? I plan on making the blade longer, is it difficult to modify the collisions accordingly? Can I just replace the modified machete blade into fo4 data (after rexturing it etc in ck) to have it IG?

[ehtyeci]

You could edit the mesh to resemble the one in the picture, but it depends on how accurate you want it to be. Simple scaling will lead to UV stretching. I would personally delete the blade part of the mesh and make a new one that followed the contours of the knife edge. However, it would involve a UV re-unwrap and retexture because of the new mesh information added.

You can't really ruin the mesh unless you set out to do it. The only thing that you'll inevitably ruin, is the existing UV map if you add or remove polys (moving/rotating/scaling is fine, though).

Either way, this is a good occasion as any to learn UV unwrapping.

Eventually placing it in Data/Meshes would make it a replacer, yes. Given that you have prepared the mesh in NifSkope beforehand.

[FrogTheFirst]

I see, I'll try making it from scratch then, do you have a simple technic to place this image in the background to make the contours?

 

 

EDIT : nvm got it

Edited December 6, 2017 by FrogTheFirst

[ehtyeci]

Reference images in 3ds max are textures projected onto a plane. So you'll be creating a plane, a new material with the image, then assigning the material to the plane. That's how you'll see the image while modeling.

But before that, you should use an imaging program to rotate the image so the blade is completely horizontal, and crop the image down to just the blade. For a simple blade, only a single reference image is really needed.

I recommend watching a tutorial on how to set up reference images in 3ds max.

I'd give you a step-by-step myself, but I'm more proficient with Blender than 3ds max.