Adding Collision to Buildings

[Triforce1]

Can someone tell me how to add collision parameters to a model in NifSkope? As most of you probably know, the tower part of the IC Palace building doesn't have any collision, and a mod I'm making requires it. The collision doesn't have to be attatched right to every bend and curve of the building, it just needs to make it so you can't walk (or fly) through it.

[Vagrant0]

Can someone tell me how to add collision parameters to a model in NifSkope? As most of you probably know, the tower part of the IC Palace building doesn't have any collision, and a mod I'm making requires it. The collision doesn't have to be attatched right to every bend and curve of the building, it just needs to make it so you can't walk (or fly) through it.

Since there aren't any normal meshes with the same sort of proportions, you really cant, unless you want to have a very large capsule shape. Building collisions kinda require you to make them in a 3d program like 3dsmax or blender. Trying to do it with capsules, boxes, or anything else usually doesn't work too well.

[Triforce1]

Okay. How can I attatch collision to the tower in 3ds max? Import as a .Nif and then what?

[Triforce1]

Thanks a ton. I'll check it out.

[Triforce1]

I found the tutorial on the CS Wiki but unfortunately it was of little help. I have a feeling it is a bit outdated, as you said. I couldn't find a tutorial on either the Silgrad website or the NifTools website. So, I attempted to do it from your explanation. I just used a bunch of cylinders to make the tower, shaped around how the tower actually looks. Then, I applied the "bhkRigidBody" modifier to each of the cylinders and attempted to export it. The program wouldn't let me because it detected more than one collision object. So, I stuck all of the cylinders together into one object and applied the modifier to that one object. I exported it again, and there was no error. Great, I though. Then, when I opened the nif up in NifSkope, there was nothing there except a little white dot. I assumed this must be correct, so I copied the branch (one of two) that referenced collision/bhk and attempted to paste that branch into the nif of the complete tower. NifSkope got mad at me because the version of the nif was different from the version of the program itself. I continued anyway, but then NifSkope got mad at me again, this time about missing vertices or something. Can you give me any more advice? Perhaps a slightly more detailed explanation?

[Vagrant0]

Hmm, when you do the collision, it should be all one object, as simple as possible. Using multiple objects, or ones which are comprised of smaller, scaled, duplicate parts can lead to issues.

 

If you're running into problems, before you export, you should use "reset xform" on the collision mesh, and make it a group with the same name as the mesh. Then when you export, make sure collision is checked. You may not have been seeing anything because either only part of the collision exported, or it was some unusual scale.

 

If I have time, I'll see about just throwing a simple collision model together for you, with slightly more detail near the bottom.

[Triforce1]

That would be wonderful. And I really mean that. If it helps; the tower is actually upside down, and some parts (namely the bottom, which is at the top) are almost obscured altogether by the different floors of the city. The tower serves as a central pillar to the different levels of the city. Check out the picture here should you actually want to do this for me. The tower is there in the middle, and is alot less obscured than it appears here. Thanks in advance, regardless of your choice!

[Vagrant0]

First attempt didn't work too well. When I exported, I lost some of the shading information and broke the texture links since I didn't move them to my Oblivion directory. Tried to pull the collision mesh from one and put it into the other, but for some reason it isn't linking right.

 

Did find this however

http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?thr...18052a3df27199b

and

http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=5970

 

For the collision, you might want to considder just using a loft, make a circle at the base, about the same diameter, then make a line that matches the profile of one side of the tower. When you select the line as the path of the circle, the end shape will be a single piece that conforms to the rough dimentions of the tower. You could even do two lofts, and follow that second video tutorial or merge the two shapes together.

 

Just Lathing the line is another option, but ends up being a bit more high poly, but is easier to alter to fit the recessed areas.

[Triforce1]

Thanks a ton! I followed one of the tutorials and it was really not hard at all. I can always count on you to answer my questions; we all can. I appreciate it.