3D Work and Switching mods to Skyrim SE...

[drewsbrew]

Hello all,

I'm working on a few mods right now, all of which use a fair amount of custom 3D objects (weapons, alchemical ingredients, etc) I have a decent chunk of the 3D work done; I've made a fair amount of the models I need, textured them, etc. but I haven't imported them into the CK yet. I tend to have a lot of trouble with that part, so I guess I've been putting it off. My first question is;

 

Is there an easy way to convert mods from Oldrim to Skyrim SE, or would I have to re-import all of the 3D models and basically rebuild the mod all over again?

 

Also, although I can use 3Ds Max, I find I'm a little better with Blender, and I'm considering doing my 3D work (at least some of it anyway) in Blender. When searching for the NifSkope plugin for Blender, I found one for v2.49 of Blender, but there doesn't seem to be a more recent version of the NifSkope plugin. My question is;

 

Is there a more recent version of the plugin, and if not, does the older version still work with more recent versions of Blender?

 

I'm currently using the most recent version of Blender (v2.79) and don't know where to get older versions.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who offers to help! :)

[Grimolfr]

No, the new versions of Blender don't work with the older version of the NIF plugin.

 

There is a new version of the plugin under development that works with Blender 2.70+, but it's last release was in June of 2016, and that was considered a Pre-Alpha. There have been updates in the codebase since then, but no more releases. Some people have been able to make it all work:

https://www.darkcreations.org/forums/topic/10525-blender-27-nif-exporter-tutorial/

https://beyondskyrim.org/exporting-blender-2-7-skyrim/

 

It's a pain, but the recommended solution for working with Blender is to install both 2.49 and 2.79 (latest). Use 2.49 with the NIF plugins only for imprting/exporting NIFs to a semi-generic file format (OBJ, or a 3DS Max format, I think) and do your actual modeling work in 2.79.

[Algabar]

TBH, "pre-Alpha" ist a fittting description for the NIF Plugin for Blender 2.78/9... It works for static meshes (which is the main focus of the first tutorial linked by Grimolfr), for anything else you will have at least a very hard time (if you get that thing to work at all...).

 

As for the 2.49 approach: OFC this is still possible, but I don't really see the benefit of it. For armours, exporting from Blender as OBJ, then opening this OBJ in Outfit Studio, adjusting it and resaving as .nif seems the way to go. For weapons, I went back to the old method (exporting as 3ds, then importing that 3ds file with an older version of Nifskope). The details are described here:

 

As for the conversion to Skyrim SE: OFC it depends on what you're aiming at. Converting esps and esms is quite an easy task: esps are basically just opened and resaved in the SE Construction Kit, esms have to be converted to esps, e.g. in Wrye Bash, then resaved with the CK, then turned into an esm again.

Meshes themselves can easily be converted from "Oldrim" to SE with this amazing tool: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4089

Same goes for animations. The necessary tool and information can be found here: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2970?tab=description

Most textures for "Oldrim" will work flawlessly in SE, so nothing to worry too much about.

 

Bottom line of what I'm saying: If you don't have anything reliying on .dll files (which you would have to recompile and adjust for SE) or depending on mods not yet released for SE, converting a mod from "Oldrim" to SE ist rather easy and not very time consuming, once you figured out the basics.

So there's nothing wrong with doing the main work for your mod on an "Oldrim" basis and later converting your work to SE. To the contrary - working from an "Oldrim" basis, you can create mods for both versions of the game. If you work with the SE CK all the way, your mod will only be for SE, since converting from SE back to "Oldrim" is currently next to impossible.

[drewsbrew]

Cool, thanks for the help you two, I really appreciate it! :)