Fallout Modelling - Mini Tutorial

[jaysus]

TEMPORARY NOTE: SCREENSHOTS ARE DISABLED TILL DECEMBER AT LEATS AS MY MONTHLY BANDWIDTH HAS BEEN USED UP BY YOU!!! LOL ... well theyre back but will prolly vanish again once you used it up :/

 

ill try to make this as short as possible...

 

keep in mind this tutorial is more experimental than one might think, it still needs alot of trial and error to get an item working ingame as intended but it basicly works

 

read the ongoing discussion to get even more insight as the knowledge expands and the community skills are honed

 

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restrictions so far:

no direct export/import from max nor blender

thus no bones and thus no skinning/rigging or animating (well you can animate in nifskope by numbers if youre really desperate)

 

possibilities:

change any static object, hats and helmets, weapons and probably ammunition, drugs and the like

as long as you need no animation or rigging (hats dont need rigging anymore as they are statics)

 

grey area:

collission ( i didnt bother so far)

 

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method:

 

replace each part of a model with your own custom ones

 

example: for a pistol youll replace the trigger with a trigger, a clip with a clip and so on but not the whole pistol as one

 

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needed:

 

newest nifskope

niftools 3.0 (sadly i dont know bout blender atm) / (beta niftools 3.1 does not work atm in the here described manner but might have other advantages mainly regarding textures)

 

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how to:

 

(note: for nitrishape blocks plz see additional info at the bottom of the page)

 

-create your model and export it like you would for oblivion

 

-open it up in nifskope and navigate to the nitristrip you want to export into your new mesh

 

-copy its nitristripsdata

http://home.arcor.de/jaysus/tutorial/1.jpg

 

-open up the vanilla mesh you want as a base

 

-look for a similiar nitristrips like the one you took the nitristripsdata from

 

-overwrite its nitrstripsdata with the one you copied from your creation

(right click the nitristripsdata to be replaced and choose "paste over")

(also try to remember the originals name youll need it later)

http://home.arcor.de/jaysus/tutorial/3.jpg

 

-change the nitristripsdata name to that which you remembered from the original nitristripsdata

 

so much for the model incooperation, on to textures

 

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Texturing:

 

- go to the nitristrips/shape you want to texture and click on the BSShaderPPLightProperty

- click on its child called BSShaderTextureSet

- under block details you can now select your texture of choice

 

it seems that the diffuse map is always in the first and the normal map in the second slot

http://home.arcor.de/jaysus/tutorial/tex1.jpg

 

notes:

 

there is a difference if you create a weapon or a hut for example... weapons need 4 textures instead of two, you need to supply the mesh with the following:

filename.dds

filename_n.dds

1stpersonfilename.dds

1stpersonfilename_n.dds

all of those need to be in the same folder

 

only filename and filename_n need to be specified under BSShaderTextureSets, 1stpersonfilename.dds will be detected automaticly

 

not creating a 1stpersonfilename.dds will result in swapping textures of the gun with your hand, nifskope errors, ctds and other freaky stuff...

 

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save and done :)

http://home.arcor.de/jaysus/tutorial/6.jpg

 

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addon info for nitrishape blocks instead of nitristrips:

 

-set TSpace Flag to 16 (enables binormals and normals)

 

-undate tangent space

 

-set HasVertexColours to yes

 

update the vertex, normal and binormal array by cllicking on the green arrows

 

-change the name to that which you remember of the original nitrishapedata

 

-save

 

http://home.arcor.de/jaysus/tutorial/shapeaddon.jpg

 

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addon for nifskope save/open errors:

 

-set a nitristripdata tspaceflag to 16 to be able to save, reopen and modify a nif to your liking, but set it back to 0 before you finalize a model to remove the nasty specular bug

 

-also always update normal and binormal arrays (green arrows)

 

-niftools 3.1 produces errors and ctds for exported models atm (at least for me if anyone experiences else plz post) but will be much better once going gold; using 3.0 prevents this atm

 

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youll have to do this for every single part of a mesh... this includes for a pistol for example: trigger, clip, slide and basehull

 

article version can be found here: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/articles/article.php?id=26

 

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thx to vash1985, throttlekitty, moraelin, brurpo and the guys at niftools for their findings, posts and whatnot tazpn in special

 

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the above tutorial remade by a blender user, contains vital info for blender users most likely

blender mini tutorial by R4Byde

also useful for getting the model ingame:

Moraelin's How To Thread and "black" Hex Magic

 

also useful to make armor and learn about skinning:

tutorial part 2

 

collisions:

tutorial part 3

 

setting up a merchant npc:

tutorial part 4

 

 

creating an orbital ion strike call tool:

JaySuS Tutorial about Orbital Strikes

 

armor rigging tutorial by skree:

Skree's Easy Skinned Armor Nifskope Tutorial

[vash1985]

-overwrite its nitrstripsdata with the one you copied from your creation

(click nitristrips - scroll down to data in the block details view and change the number accordingly)

 

-delete the left over nitristripsdata which will appear at the bottomof the list

 

"paste over" on the TriStripsData works and eliminates the last step ;D

 

thanks for compiling this information

[throttlekitty]

When editing a *ShapeData block, there's a bit of a hitch. Right know It's known as Num UV Sets, this will probably change in future versions of NifSkope, but for now, this flag when set to '4097' enables binormals and tangents for the model. After that, you can rClick on the TriShape/Strips and do Mesh>Update Tangent space (as we did in oblivion.)

 

edit: with an update in NifSkope, Num UV Flags and TSpace Flag have been separated. Looks like the TSpace Flag should be set to 16 to enable binormals and tangents. After setting this, you can now rClick the TriStrips/Shape and do Mesh>Update Tangent Space.

 

This is important for any model that uses a normal map.

[jaysus]

k vash as you wish :)

 

oh good addon kitty :) was wondering why binormals were greyed out anyway...

[Timeyy]

Damn it, I just wanted to write a similar tutorial when I saw this ^^

Are you planning on expanding this tutorial ? if not ill propably write one with some more explanation and pictures tomorrow.

[jaysus]

ok updated it abit and even added some pics

[vash1985]

about animations, i would like to note that it seems the firearms have their own separate animations...meaning that half their animations are produced through the character animations (i.e. everything that the character does, like his hand pulling the bolt handle or moving his hand to the mag to change it) so even if we _could_ change the weapons animations right now, it would make little difference until we could change the characters animations as well.

 

unless they are linking the hands to the weapon's nodes... i donno

[jaysus]

there are

 

-the nodes which determine the position of the animation

bound to item and reflected in skeleton

 

-the skeleton kfs which determine the movement of the player (a reloading animatoin for example)

bound to skeleton

 

-the item kfs which determine the items movement (for example the clip dropping out)

bound to item

[jaysus]

i added the texturing path you might need...

also added it as article

[jaysus]

@kitty

do i still have to change the num uv set to 4097 in addition to the t space flag?

nvm solved - its not needed or even possible