i need help

[Mareca]

Hi guys.I have a problem, i dont know how to add new armor to the game.Every time i try to take it it is like statue (just standing there),so does someone knows how to help me plss?Some tutorial will be helpful :D :thumbsup:

 

PS:.............head slot item.............

Edited May 22, 2012 by Mareca

[Lanceor]

We'll need more information...

 

1. 
    
   
2. So, you already have an armour mesh that you made or obtained somewhere is that right?
   
3. Can you confirm that the mesh was created as armour and not something else?
   
4. In the CS, did you add the mesh to the Items > Armor category?
   
5. Has an armor slot (such as Head or UpperBody) been selected?
   
6. Can you confirm that the armour shows up in-game, but does nothing when you click on it?
   

 

These will let us know where to start troubleshooting.

[Pokegami]

I think it probably doesn't have the right kind of collision or isn't Armour in the CS, one of the two.

[Mareca]

  On 5/22/2012 at 10:33 AM, Lanceor said:

We'll need more information...

 

1. 
    
   
2. So, you already have an armour mesh that you made or obtained somewhere is that right?
   
3. Can you confirm that the mesh was created as armour and not something else?
   
4. In the CS, did you add the mesh to the Items > Armor category?
   
5. Has an armor slot (such as Head or UpperBody) been selected?
   
6. Can you confirm that the armour shows up in-game, but does nothing when you click on it?
   

 

These will let us know where to start troubleshooting.

 

 

Ok. 1.Helmet mesh is created by my friend (he only did it in Blender) and gave it to me.

3.Yes.I did that.

4.Yes i selected head and hair

5.Armor shows up in the game but i cant get it.

And 2. Idk....... Someone told me that i need to take BSA unpacker (i think that is called)and find daedrichelmetGO and add that in nifscope and replace with my helmet.Is that right?

Edited May 23, 2012 by Mareca

[Striker879]

If you want your item to replace a vanilla item in the game you'll need two things. First you need the exact path used inside the vanilla BSA file that includes the vanilla object you want to replace. I use the BSA Browser utility in Oblivion Mod Manager myself (Utilities button and then BSA Browser). For your daedric helmet you'd open 'Oblivion - meshes.bsa', sort by folder and scroll down to 'meshes\armor\daedric'. You'll see that there are two valid file paths ... 'meshes\armor\daedric\f\helmet.nif' and 'meshes\armor\daedric\m\helmet.nif' (one for male helmets and one for female ... some items may only have a single universal gendered nif). To replace the vanilla daedric helmet your file must be named helmet.nif and it's location in the game folders must be 'Oblivion\Data\meshes\armor\daedric\m\helmet.nif' and/or 'Oblivion\Data\meshes\armor\daedric\f\helmet.nif' (depending on if you're replacing both male and female helmets or just one gender).

 

Now if you don't want to replace the vanilla daedric helmet you'll need to make your own unique file path ... e.g. Oblivion\Data\meshes\armor\MyDaedricStuff\f\helmet.nif and then make sure you create a new item in the Construction Set and point to the new file (and you'll be creating an esp to put the new item in the game).

 

For a replacer to work the second part of the puzzle is archive invalidation (a method of telling the game to use newer assets if they are named the same and located in the same relative game path). Easiest way to do that is again using OBMM and from the Utilities button select Archive Invalidation. Select the BSA Redirection option and leave all other items at their default. Note that OBMM doesn't have a save button ... it saves the changes only when you close the program.

[Mareca]

Ok! Thanks man! Aloooot! I will do this later.And i will tell you if there is some problem.Ok?

[Mareca]

And one more guys.It is invinsible in CS and in Game.help?No crashes. Edited May 23, 2012 by Mareca

[Striker879]

I have a text file I call 'Drakes tips' where I keep track of posts DrakeThe Dragon has posted on various questions dealing with things I haven't learned yet ... turn the posts into a Question/Answer format. This is a lengthy one so I'll put it in spoilers (and I do hope you don't mind me reposting Drake):

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

  Quote

Question: I'm trying to edit a mesh shape, but in-game it always shows up invisible (sometimes extremely distorted in inventory screen)

Nothing with textures, just the shape. Seeing as it is really a very minor change, it must be something with the exporting or the whole root thing.

Simply said, this is what happens:

 

1. import nif

2. slighly edit mesh (just the shape, nothing else)

3. export nif (paste over original)

4. somehow invisible

 

I've searched the entire web for an answer, but quite frankly, there isn't one. If anyone can provide the answer i'd be very thankful.

The answer must be pretty simple, all I use is blender. No nifskope, no messing with weight, no messing with textures, etc.

 

I have this exact same problem. I tested it out by importing an untouched vanilla nif to blender then doing nothing to it and exporting it straight away. The mesh didnt show up in oblivion. Same as any nif ive ever loaded into blender.

 

I tried all that nifskope stuff and it hasnt made a difference. This is my first modding attempt so i really am a newbie. Here is the link to the entire mod download:

 

(in this upload i havent done the nifskope work after exporting as i didnt know about it at the time)

The first two armours work fine because i didnt have to edit the meshes in blender. The ranger one does not work tho. As you can see in the description, I have ruled out normal map problems, texture/meshes paths and also recently ruled out the possibility that blender is attaching the texture to the object and not the mesh. They are all attached to the meshes. I am out of ideas here

 

Answer: I'm still trying to get this file downloaded, already tried once when this topic came up but gave up on it for then, but for some reason none of the regular servers I select ever completes "preparing for download" phase and opens the "download to" dialog of my FF. It seems to be only with this file though, which is weird.

 

So I sadly couldn't take a look at the NIF, yet, but if the image of the cuirass in NifSkope is any reference, then it's weird I'm seeing only "1" bone (the white line with the small square dot at the end) in there and it's not even a body one. The armature of this particular NIF seems to be quite wrong, but without access to the actual NIF I can't for the life of me get any closer than guessing from the screenshots. I'm sorry.

 

edit: Oh, for future reference, there's different ways to import and export meshes with armature into or out of Blender, and it depends on what you plan to do with it which one you should choose.

 

For one you can always import the whole thing all-in-one, neither "skeleton-only" nor "geometry-only" checked in import options. But if you're going to import another file to mix it together, this armature will most likely be missing certain bones the other item will need, and mixing armatures in Blender is something you really need to know exactly what you're doing at all times to not mess it up.

 

Then you can import the armature of the item first and the actual item afterwards, having selected the armature previously (therefor "parent to selected armature"). But again this might lead you to an insufficient armature for the merging process you're about to do. And depending on which of the options on the upper right you check, you can also easily mess up the armature to begin with.

 

My prefered way to go on merging different NIFs into a new one is to first import a complete armature, like from "meshes/characters/_male/skeletonbeast.nif" via "skeleton only, parent selected" (without having anything selected from the empty scene of course), then importing only the mesh of the item, "geometry only, parent to selected armature", while having the armature you just imported selected previously. For the second file to import you do the same, that is only importing the geometry again and again parenting it to the one-and-only armature you selected previously.

 

And once you export there are also different options, depending on the different applications for your NIF you might have in mind.

These are pretty simple though, as it circles only around checking "flatten hierarchy" (is it called that?) or not.

 

Checking it means all armature nodes end up on the same level below "0 NiNode Scene Root", perfectly sane for use in armor or clothing item NIFs.

(The result is a bunch of white lines all going from the origin of the scene to their individual positions in the armature.)

 

Not checking it means the nodes will stay in their hierarchical structure, only "Bip01" will be seen under "Scene Root" and you can expand it down the whole tree branch by branch. It must be done that way, if you for example want to export bones for an actual skeleton, not just an equippable item. And I found out keeping it that way, in hierarchy, enables me to "animate" the one NIF already after export in NifSkope, without having to copy&paste each mesh object over into "skeletonbeast.nif" before being able to do so.

(The result of this looks like a stick-figure of white lines, and using animations on it it even behaves like one.)

 

The latter I use for example to animation-test a new body mesh for my dragon race, after I exported the whole body with all features into one single NIF file, for later to clean it up, sanitize everything, and take it apart and put into the individual seperate body part NIFs afterwards. It's a perfect way to preview it all-in-one, even animated, before taking it apart later to put it into the game. A simple "flatten branch"(?) on "Bip01" later should create exactly the same armature structure you'd get by exporting with "flatten hierarchy"(?) checked anyways.

 

edit2: Got it! All good things are 3 things, or how are they saying here in Germany? Third time's the charm, I think it was around here. Finally, on my 3rd try, a server decided to finish preparation phase and let me download it. Taking a closer look ASAP.

 

Yes, the cuirass doesn't have any armature at all!

Additionally, by exporting without an armature, any rigging data (the NiSkinInstance block in NifSkope) was totally lost in the process and the vertices have no weights anymore and nothing to stick to!

This file, the cuirass, is damaged beyond repair I'm afraid. Too much vital information was already lost on export.

 

The lowerbody part looks like you tried to merge two armatures, just like I mentioned previously. As a result the "Foot:Legs" mesh has no armature at all now, and the rest is rigged to an armature "Scene Root" <inside> the real "Scene Root"!

Perhaps this one could be recovered somehow, but I think it's best to start over with both of them, this time im- and exporting everything correctly.

Remember, no armature mixups in Blender! Always use "1" complete armature "skeleton only" prior to importing "geometry only, parent to selected armature" from your NIFs afterwards!

 

And last but not least, the coat one completes our collection of what all could possibly go wrong on merging items in Blender... think I've never seen it all in one mod until now...

There's a second root node, "Scene Root.00", inside the real "Scene Root", and this one contains the coat and a body mesh or something and a proper armature in star-structure. However, the game will not accept the second root node and simply ignore most of this file.

At the same time there's a bogus mesh outside of it all, at the same level as "Scene Root". This one the game also won't accept, as it doesn't even know what to stick its vertices to.

 

I'm sorry, but it seems your best bet would be to do the merging again from scratch, following my instructions on how to do it right.

If there's any further questions about it, don't hesitate to ask.

 

edit: Oh, almost forgot something else important! In the cuirass there's a part of the arm...thingy which has its own white line coming from the origin. This is not a bone node, so it can only mean the mesh was moved away from its place improperly, which is copied by there being a translation and rotation on the object itself, which, if you check the others, you'll see no other meshes ever have.

 

I suspect you moved and rotated this object in Object Mode and afterwards never "applied" this transformation to it. I got used to never doing these things in Object Mode but only in Edit Mode. This way the offset of the origin of the object won't be touched and everything stays fine.

 

Of course, you can do these transformations in Object Mode also, but then you'll always have to "apply" them to the actual object before you export it. Unfortunately the shortcut for the Apply context menu escapes my memory right now, maybe because I only rarely used it at all, but perhaps you can also access it via right-clicking the object or from the menu bar below... don't know anymore, sry.

 

 

If that doesn't help perhaps Drake will suggest other possibilities.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Striker879

[Mareca]

ok this is helpful ! But i dont wanna to create whole armor just helm.But i will try now like he said DrakeTheDragon load skeleton mesh and add that item there.Will that work?

[Striker879]

The only other thing that comes to mind is something like missing normal file. I don't know much about it but I do know that the normal needs to be the same base name and then an underscore and letter n. The game is also very picky about having other underscores in the name. If the helmet texture file is named MyHelmet.dds then make sure the normal is called MyHelmet_n.dds. If the helmet texture is named something like MyHelmet_r.dds (perhaps because it's red) then the normal would be called MyHelmet_r_n.dds which would not work.