Help Opening Newer Meshes in Blender 2.49b?

[user826]

Hey, everyone! For as long as I've been playing New Vegas, I've wanted a Welrod pistol, but I've never been able to find a properly-modeled one. Recently, I downloaded a mod for Payday 2 that had exactly what I wanted, and through a long convoluted process, I managed to convert the Payday 2 model file into OBJ format. However, I can only open this OBJ in Blender 2.79. So, I tried saving it as a BLEND file with the "Legacy Mesh Format" option checked, which I then managed to open in Blender 2.49b, even though it threw up a warning about how some key information could get lost. I thought I was home free, but when I tried using NifScripts to export it into a format that New Vegas can read, the mesh doesn't show up in NifSkope!

 

The file tree looks correct, with BSFadeNode, NiTriStrips and NiTriStripsData blocks in their proper configuration, but the render window is empty. The file size is only 36kb, which seems way too small, so I don't think the mesh data is exporting. Can anyone please help me?

 

Alternatively, if you can convert the OBJs into NIFs that New Vegas can read, I'd be grateful as well, but if you could teach me how to do it myself, it would mean a lot to me!

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention, when I enter Edit Mode in Blender 2.49b, the faces are pink/purple instead of the usual blue. I'm not sure if that's significant, but it was the only indication I had that something was off.

Edited October 26, 2018 by user826

[Deleted53139156User]

Sometimes 2.49b doesn't properly export meshes and you have to tell it to export again a few times until it does. You can usually tell because it will actually take a bit longer than when it just quick exports and usually opening that model in nifskope shows nothing anyway. The only data IIRC that get's lost converting down is weighting but that is for armors no idea if weapons get affected except maybe animations if anything. Maybe someone with a lil more knowledge can chime in about the pink faces I don't recall ever seeing them in anything I have edited.

[madmongo]

Blender 2.49b can open obj files. I'm not sure why you can only open the obj in 2.79. I often save meshes from 2.79 as obj and import them into 2.49b as that has been more reliable for me than trying to save in legacy blend format. Try exporting as obj after you've read the mesh into 2.79 then import that obj instead of the original obj. Also, make sure you have everything selected when you export. Blender only exports what you have selected.

 

I think you are also running into texture/material issues. Many 3d models use materials instead of textures, but FNV needs everything to be texture mapped. You might need to remove the material link and add in a new material with a proper dds texture referenced.

[user826]

Thanks for the replies so far! So, after playing around with it a little bit, I discovered that the NiTriShapeData actually WAS being exported, it just wasn't rendering anything in NifSkope. I did the right-click >> Copy >> Paste Over thing into a vanilla base-game mesh to see what would happen, and I ended up with this:

 

 

As you can see, the shape shows up! But, instead of inheriting the texture from the base-game model, it shows up as white on one side, grey on the other. I have obviously screwed up the UV/normal mapping somehow during the conversion process, but don't know how to fix it.

 

@madmongo - You were saying something about texture/material issues which I think is likely the case, given this result. However, the OBJ I used came with a DDS texture, and I even went into the UV mapping window in Blender and chose that DDS, and it showed up correctly in Blender. It just won't export. Any idea how I can fix this?

 

By the way, I'm trying to convert the meshes from this mod, and the uploader has given permission for it to be converted to other games, as long as credit is given.

[user826]

An update:

 

I discovered that if I re-import that pasted-over NIF into Blender, and then re-export it as a new NIF file, the mesh will appear textured in NifSkope, however, I lose all the mapping information.

 

 

Each and every one of the mesh's triangles displays the entire 2048x2048 DDS texture file! At this point, I suppose I could try re-mapping the model, but this sounds like an incredibly daunting task for a novice like myself and I'd rather not have to go that route. Can anyone offer some advice?

[dubiousintent]

A thread from 2011 pointed out:

 

* .blend files are designed to be forward & backward compatible between versions

* the .blend format was not designed as a file interchange format and is essentially a memory dump from a running instance of Blender

* the structure can (and does!) change between Blender versions to support new features.

The Blender DNA stuff is your friend here.

 

Suggest if you can't find someone with experience in this matter here, ask on the "StackExchange" forum for Blender.

 

-Dubious-

[madmongo]

My suggestion is what I posted earlier. Forget trying to use legacy blend and export it as an obj from 2.79 and import that obj (not the original obj) into 2.49b.

[user826]

@dubiousintent - I'll take a look on StackExchange, thanks!

 

@madmongo - I forgot to mention it, but I did actually take that advice and what you see above is the result, haha! It's closer than I could've gotten with the .blend idea, but still not quite there

[user826]

Success!

 

 

For anyone stumbling across this thread in the future, if you're having the same issue and want to know how I solved it, what worked for me was loading the OBJ in Blender, then exporting it as a .3DS file. I re-imported the .3DS file into Blender, then exported it to .NIF, and it worked!

[dubiousintent]

Congrats. Thanks for reporting on what finally worked. Added that info to the 'TIP: Blender Import other Model Formats'.

 

-Dubious-