Partial Armor Editing

[Falcon4ch]

Hello everyone!

 

I have a question about editing a part of a piece of armor. I like the armor a lot, but there's one part of it that bugs me. So I was wondering if it was possible to remove it.

 

What I've already done:

 

1. I've tried just editing the .dds files inside the .bsa with Photoshop and just removing the part I don't like. This just made it white.
   
2. I've downloaded NifSkope and edited the .nif files. The part of the armor does appear to have it's own "NiTriShape entry" (just going off what somebody has told me) and I have deleted it (it was under NiTriShape/3 BSDismemberSkinInstance; I clicked "Remove" as clicking clear would not delete it in-game). This causes the game to crash. I've also tried editing the number of (guessing here) bones? that are supposed to load. The game still crashes upon trying to equip the armor.
   
3. The same as the last one, only clicking "Remove branch". Game still crashes.

 

I've been putting them all in my skyrim/Data/Meshes/armor folder. I don't know how much of this actually helps, but I think I was on the right track by deleting the NiTriShape entries. I just don't know what to do next.

 

Does anyone know what to do?

 

Also, apologies for the newbish questions; I'm relatively new at modding. Thank you for your help in advance!

[SineWaveDrox]

In Nifskope, I usually just right-click on the armor piece itself and click remove branch. Works for me.

[Falcon4ch]

Hm, is it maybe because it's already in the game?

 

This is the Nightingale set I'm modifying by the way. I had thought that maybe because it's a default part of the game that it doesn't load in the proper order or something. Again, just really throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks here.

[ghosu]

http://666kb.com/i/c7jzuthytotwvvap3.png

 

The whole mesh/model is one part so as a regular user it would be quite impossible to adjust it only using NifSkope.

With several parts, like 1 NiTriShape = Pauldrons, 1 NiTriShape = Armor, 1 NiTriShape = Cape you could simply select a whole NiTriShape and delete it.

 

In this case you have to load the whole thing into a 3D Editor with a Nif Plugin like 3Ds Max or Blender, change the shape of the mesh by moving polygons or delete/add parts, weight the whole thing (that's why there are bones/skin in the nif file, deleting these parts as you tried will only mess up the whole thing or crash to desktop) so the model stays in position when you move and adjusts to the new body stance and blahblah - no easy task for a beginner.

 

greetings

Edited September 25, 2012 by ghosu

[Falcon4ch]

Ahh, that's very helpful. Thank you :)

 

Honestly, I was worried about that when I first opened it up and looked at it. But figured, hey if it's under that category, must be alright. Obviously not.

 

I'll give 3D editing a whirl, and see how well it goes. I have some friends who do this for a living, so I may be able to get help there. If not, I may be back. Thank you again!

[Perraine]

If it's only a small edit you are making, you can still use your original idea of deleting a pert from the texture file (.dds) you MUST however remember to add an "AlphaProperty" to the NiTriShape, otherwise you end up with the "white" piece on the mesh

[Falcon4ch]

Tried that idea just now and the game crashed. I right-clicked on the NiTriShape and clicked Node>Attach Property>NiAlphaProperty

 

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm252/Fal444/Untitled.jpg

 

Did I do something wrong? Thank you for your help!

 

By the way, after a couple of tests I've confirmed that it is that NiAlphaProperty that's crashing the game (I loaded the game without the nifs but including the textures, and with non-edited nifs and textures).

Edited September 27, 2012 by Falcon4ch

[Falcon4ch]

Sorry for the double post, but I did succeed, sort of. I followed the tutorial here http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Skyrim._Part_2 specifically the part:

 

Add transparency

Shader flags for working transparency

 

You may need to have a part of the mesh transparent or semitransparent. To do that:

 

1. Select the NiTriShape node that contains your mesh and right click on it
   
2. Select Block -> Insert from the pop up menu
   
3. Select NiA... from the drop down list and then select NiAlphaProperty.
   
4. The new node will be added at the end of the nif file. To place it in its right possition:
   
   1. Note down the number of the new node you've just added (29, for example)
      
   2. Select the NiTriShape node again and browse down in the Block Details until you see the Properties property as shown in picture Moving the BSLightingShaderProperty node to its right position.
      
   3. Expand the Properties and in the second row value change the None to the number of the node you've added (29 in the example). Now the NiAlphaProperty node has moved and is shown under the NiTriShape node as shown in picture Adding transparency.

 

Select the NiAlphaProperty node you've just add and in Block Details look for the Flags parameter and set it to a the value that makes the armour look better in game. The values that work:

 

• Flags = 4845, Threshold = 0
  
• Add also the ShaderFlag SLSF2_Assume_Shadowmask to the Shader Flags 2 as shown in picture Shader flags for working transparency. This way the meshes with transparency won't loose their colour (won't turn black) when close to a lightins source.

 

Once you've modified all these parameters, save the nif file of your armour.

 

So I made the textures transparent in Photoshop and loaded it into the game by following that post's instructions. I ran into two problems:

 

1. Part of the character's body became completely transparent.
   
2. The armor itself became partially transparent as well

 

The first issue I think I can solve rather easily. It's just a matter of only editing part of it.

 

The second issue is what puzzles me. I'm assuming it's because of the Flags variable that the post had me set. I'm not sure what to do about it though.

[ghosu]

Most armor/clothes REPLACE the body parts they cover...so there is nothing below it. When you make a part of the armor/clothing transparent you see the empty body space below it.

[Falcon4ch]

Aye, I understand that. Sorry for not making that more clear in my previous post.

 

I tried something new. I just made the texture I want transparent on the .dds files. This made that part of the armor black.

 

I also tried this with the transparency tutorial I posted earlier, but leaving the Flags variable to default. This still made the armor transparent (but the parts I wanted completely transparent worked!! >.<)