What would I need to make mods for FNV?

[DerpyMcPants]

I'm completely new to modding, and I thought i'd try my hand at it, but I've just realized I know diddly squat about it. What programs should I get? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Deleted53237921User]

The GECK, available from Steam (Library -> Tools -> GECK - New Vegas Edition) and FNVEdit from Nexus Mods (https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/34703) are the minimum you will need. Both are free.

From there, you will need the tools which are specific to whatever it is you want to do. Graphic editors, 3D model makers ... etc.

Edited August 16, 2018 by Guest

[gromulos]

there are a half a dozen programs you may need depending on exactly what type of mod you are making, besides that becoming a mod author is a long and tedious trip that takes HOURS to invest. Some of the programs you will need are:

 

1) Creation kit (GECK for FO3 and FONV)

2) FNVEdit

3) nifskope

4) blender

5) gimp

6) bsaopt

 

those are the most used when someone makes a mod ( as far as I know ), although i have heard of some people also using photoshop and paint as well. If you're making a follow mod then you need good QUALITY mic and recording software and the ability or knowledge to be able to write scripting as well

 

Also, one very VERY important thing, if you plan on publishing these mods ( uploading them for others to use )

 

DO NOT USE ASSETS FROM OTHER GAMES, IT WILL GET YOU BANNED

Edited August 16, 2018 by gromulos

[M48A5]

In addition to Blender, you will need Python, PyFFI and NifSkripts in order for Blender to work with .nif files.

 

Blender version 2.49 is the one to use along with the latest stable versions of NifSkope, Python, PyFFI and NifSkripts.

[gromulos]

listen to M48A5, he knows his stuff

[madmongo]

The GECK is the basic tool to create mods. The GECK creates esp files (mods). I have often said that the GECK is really a secret vault-tec experiment designed to test modder's frustration levels. It's buggy and often is not at all intuitive to use. For example, to open a file, pretty much every Windows program in the last 20 years uses file->open. Not the GECK. You start the GECK and go to file->data. There's no "new file" option. To create a new file, you load up whatever master files you want, make your modifications, and save. Only then does it ask you for a file name for your new mod. Completely un-intuitive.

 

What is also not intuitive is that you don't compile scripts. They automatically compile when you save them. To make things worse, if there is an error, the GECK won't tell you what failed. The script just doesn't save. If you are editing scripts, getting the GECK power-up add-on is STRONGLY recommended. The power-up will annoy you with all kinds of unnecessary error messages all throughout the GECK (which is very annoying in itself) but it will at least tell you what fails when you try to save a script.

 

The GECK is broken in many ways when you get it. It expects a spell checker, which isn't included, so every time you edit text it fails on spell checking every single word. You can turn off the spell checker for the current session only using the power-up.

 

The GECK is also missing the lip generator for voice files. To create voice files for conversations, you need a wav file which has the sounds, and a lip file which controls the NPC's lip movements during speech. In order to make this work, you need a lip generator. If you have the creation kit for Skyrim or Oblivion, those both contain working lip generators which you can copy into your GECK folders. See the link below for details.

 

The GECK does not edit textures and does not create models.

 

For texture editing, you need something that can create and edit dds files. Paint.Net (not the ms-paint that comes with windows) can handle dds files and can create normal maps (plugin required), but it doesn't handle alpha channels very well. GIMP requires a plugin for dds files, but handles alpha channels better. GIMP is also less intuitive and more difficult for beginners than Paint.Net. GIMP is preferred by most modders. A small minority (like me) prefer Paint.Net. You can also use Photoshop, but this is rarely used by modders since the version that does what you need isn't free. GIMP and Paint.Net are both free downloads.

 

You can retexture existing models and do some very minor model editing using NifSkope. For proper model editing, you need a 3d model editing program that can work with nif files. Blender is the most popular, since it is free. Some modders use 3ds Max, but the version you need for Fallout is not free. The version of Blender that works the best is 2.49b. Some people like to use newer versions of Blender, but there are all sorts of things that don't work with the newer versions of the nif tools. If you want to save yourself a ton of pain, use 2.49b.

 

There is a package that has Blender 2.49b along with the nif tools for importing/exporting nifs and nifskope, and python, all in versions that work together. You can drive yourself crazy trying to put these all together piecemeal so you'll save yourself a ton of work by getting them all together. See the link below for where to get this package.

 

FNVEdit is handy. Some people use it to create mods, but I personally would rather use the GECK since the GECK is much better at creating mods. FNVEdit is very useful for making minor edits to mods though.

 

Fallout uses bsa files to pack things together. You don't need to pack things in bsa files when you create your own mod, though you might want to, but sometimes you'll want to extract existing game assets so that you can modify them. In addition to bsaopt mentioned upthread, FOMM (Fallout Mod Manager) also includes tools to create bsa files and to extract assets from bsa files. Most mods created for Skyrim are packed into bsa files. Most mods for Fallout are not. There's no real technical reason either way, it's just what is more commonly done by modders. Some folks like having only a couple of files per mod, so packing things into bsa files makes everything easier. Some folks prefer having loose files, but directories full of loose files are harder to remove manually if you want to get rid of a mod. Either way works.

 

This web page has links to all of the tools and has a lot of other advice as well:

https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Getting_started_creating_mods_using_GECK

 

The GECK can be a royal pain in the backside, but it's not too difficult to figure out. Editing textures and changing textures in NifSkope is easy. 3d modeling is much more difficult and has a bit of a learning curve associated with it. Creating animations is also a bit difficult. Some modders only get as far as using the GECK and maybe doing some texture editing. It all depends on how much time and effort you want to invest.

 

The most difficult thing I have found is creating new worldspaces. There are some definite tricks to it which are not documented anywhere if you want to do it properly. Making animations is time consuming and is a bit of a pain, and again, to get them to work properly with the GECK requires a few tricks that aren't documented anywhere.

 

Start with making a simple house mod using existing game assets. All you need is the GECK for that.

 

Important note: If you are creating NPCs, Fallout 3 and New Vegas have a fairly infamous head/body texture bug. If you define the NPC in an esp file, the head and body textures won't match. There are some things you can tweak in ini files which fixes some of it (for some people), but the fixes don't work universally. The only way to properly avoid this bug is to define your NPCs in esm files. You can use FNVEdit to convert an esp to an esm.