Complete noob here. I want to know how to convert an armor from one body mod to another body mod.

[QuantumEffect92]

And the same question goes for fallout 3. Also, explain it to me as if I were retarded, please.

[madmongo]

If the two body types use the same skeleton (armature), it's a bit easier. Either way, a 3-d modeling program is generally required.

 

Here is how I would do it. Other people may have different methods.

 

If they share the same skeleton:

 

Delete any human body parts from the armor mesh using NifSkope, then open another window with NifSkope, open the target body mesh, and copy the body mesh over to the armor mesh nif. Now, open the armor mesh with the new body type included in your favorite 3d modeling program (Blender or 3dsMax). I use Blender, so everything from here on will be Blender specific. Edit the armor mesh to conform to the new body, and modify the body mesh as necessary to avoid clipping issues. For example, a jeans and T-shirt outfit will generally only include the human arms and the upper part of the torso and neck from the body mesh. There is no reason to include the legs and the lower torso from the body mesh since they are completely covered by the clothing.

 

If they do not share the same skeleton:

 

First, open the armor in Blender, remove the human body parts, and take the armor mesh parts and unparent them from the skeleton/armature. Now, export the armor parts only (do not export the skeleton/armature). I generally use obj format for this. Now in a new Blender project, import the new target body, including its skeleton/armature. Once that has loaded, import your armor obj, and parent the armor mesh pieces to the new skeleton. I generally use the default to create bone weights, but I have very rarely had Blender assign the bone weights completely correctly. I have almost always had to go in afterwards and edit the bone weights to get the mesh weighted correctly to the armature. The default gets fairly close, though. Once that is done, edit the armor mesh to fit the body and edit out the unneeded human body parts as above.

 

For either method:

 

Now that you have your new armor mesh, export it to nif, create a GECK entry for it, and place it in the game somewhere. If you are using Blender, you'll probably have to fiddle with the shader flags using NifSkope, since Blender never seems to set those properly.

 

For the export in Blender, on the nif screen, starting from the default settings, click on creature, then skin (both in the middle of the screen up towards the top), then make sure Use BSFadeNodeRoot is NOT selected over on the right.

 

In NifSkope, the shader flags are under BSShaderPPLightingProperty. For regular armor parts, the type needs to be set to SHADER_DEFAULT and make sure SF_SHADOW_MAP and SF_REMAPABLE_TEXTURES are both checked. For the any visible human skin body parts (arms, legs, etc) the type needs to be set to SHADER_SKIN and make sure SF_SHADOW_MAP and SF_FACEGEN are both checked. Blender usually sets the rest of the flags correctly. Setting the flags incorrectly will make the armor and body parts invisible in-game.

 

If you are not familiar with Blender, there's a bit of a learning curve for it. Blender Noob to Pro is a free online book that is a great resource for learning how to use it.

 

Edit: Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas both use generally the same format for nifs. The only major difference is that hats and hairs are rotated 90 degrees between the two games. Why they kept everything else the same but changed that is beyond me. It's easy enough to rotate the parts in NifSkope to convert between the two games.

Edited October 12, 2018 by madmongo

[dubiousintent]

For additional information and detail, please see the 'Custom items' and 'Armor & Clothes' sections of the wiki "Getting started creating mods using GECK" article (most of which was contributed by madmongo as well).

-Dubious-