Creating custom faces?

[JMichi]

Hello, I'm relatively new to the modding scene, but I can learn fairly well on my own. I would like to be pointed in the right direction. My goal is to create custom faces that the player can select to use as his/her own. How do I go about doing that?

 

I have nifscope, blender, sculptris. I've exported a face out to blender, though I haven't actually messed with the geometry yet because I'm not sure how to make sure that the new geometry will work with the rigging of the game. I'm not exactly sure how ask my question, but if anyone has done faces before and could shed some light on the process I would be grateful. Thanks,

 

-J

 

ps. I tried importing a face from the facegendata folder and blender gives me a "Python Script error: check console"

 

Console says:

Blender NIF Scripts 2.5.5 (running on Blender 249, PyFFI 2.1.5)

pyffi.toaster:INFO:--- fix_mergeskeletonroots ---

pyffi.toaster:INFO: ~~~ BSFadeNode [000C440A.NIF] ~~~

pyffi.toaster:INFO: ~~~ NiNode [NPC Head [Head]] ~~~

pyffi.toaster:INFO: ~~~ NiNode [NPC Spine2 [spn2]] ~~~

pyffi.toaster:INFO: ~~~ NiNode [bSFaceGenNiNodeSkinned] ~~~

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Blender Foundation\Blender\.blender\scripts\bpymo

dules\nif_common.py", line 1227, in gui_button_event

self.gui_exit()

File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Blender Foundation\Blender\.blender\scripts\bpymo

dules\nif_common.py", line 1579, in gui_exit

self.callback(**self.config)

File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Blender Foundation\Blender\.blender\scripts\impor

t\import_nif.py", line 3750, in config_callback

importer = NifImport(**config)

File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Blender Foundation\Blender\.blender\scripts\impor

t\import_nif.py", line 274, in __init__

self.import_root(root)

File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Blender Foundation\Blender\.blender\scripts\impor

t\import_nif.py", line 322, in import_root

vertices, normals = niBlock.get_skin_deformation()

File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\pyffi\formats\nif\__init__.py", line 4599,

in get_skin_deformation

bone_matrix = bone_block.get_transform(skelroot)

File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\pyffi\formats\nif\__init__.py", line 3939,

in get_transform

'between %s and %s.' % (self.name, relative_to.name))

ValueError: cannot find a chain of NiAVObject blocks between NPC Head [Head] and

BSFaceGenNiNodeSkinned.

---------------------------------------

HALP! D:

Edited May 11, 2012 by JMichi

[meteora888]

I got the exact same problem, tying to edit a NPC's face in Blender. I hope someone replies...

[neomonkeus]

The BSFaceGenNiNodeSkinned would appear to be a unsupported node type, so much like the other Skyrim blocks has to be stripped out to use the workaround workflow, which in this case would defeat the purpose. I had a poke about the nif.xml and there are no references to this block type, unless that is just the name and not the node-type, but I suspect it is totally unsupported in respect all the tools. I have passed this onto ttl269 our resident decode monkey to see if he can do some decoding but I suspect it will open a bag of spiders as there is another proprietary format involved.

 

On a side note I would suggest updating your scripts to the latest recommended versions - http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/Blender

 

Edit: Which file specifically did you use?

Edited January 30, 2013 by neomonkeus

[neomonkeus]

Investigated trace that you have provided. The error that you are getting is because that it cannot find a chain of between the source node and end node, i.e NPC Head [Head] and BSFaceGenNiNodeSkinned. This is strange since all the nodes in the tree are NiAVObject nodes and they are connected. There is no bones inbetween so it should be fine and not raise an error..... I will get back to you once I have some time to actually look into it.

[Ghostwalker71]

The nif scripts for blender 2.49 do not support Skyrim nifs yet. There is a workaround that fools the plugin into using the fallout 3 nif code but it will create errors that you will need to fix once you get the head back into nifskope. Do a web search for skyrim + blender 2.4 + import and it shouldn't take long to find a tutorial that explains how.

Also altering the head model will alter all faces in game, to make custom faces all you need to use the CK and create the faces there. If you alter the head model you will need to update all of the morph data and tri files to prevent crashes.

Making custom faces that the player can select during generation is also much more complicated than it has been in the past. I suggest you take time to look at how the existing presets are set up in the CK and procede from there.

Of course if you are creating a custom race then you can ignore the warning about altering the head mesh so long as you don't overwrite the base heads in any way and place all your new heads and morphs into a new folder.