Fallout Modelling - Mini Tutorial

[jaysus]

glad it worked out... but be careful with the newest nifskope testbuild (xxxxx.17) - growlf had some trouble with it in combination with the geck and i personally am still working with the xxxx.16 version which works just fine xcept for the fact that you cant reopen yet modified nifs sometimes...

 

anyway... no today is not my birthday... just some fanatics who said it would be due to the fact that all the infidels in the world celebrate the summer - winter - sun rise height - tide yesterday ;)

[PrometheusTS]

glad it worked out... but be careful with the newest nifskope testbuild (xxxxx.17) - growlf had some trouble with it in combination with the geck and i personally am still working with the xxxx.16 version which works just fine xcept for the fact that you cant reopen yet modified nifs sometimes...

 

anyway... no today is not my birthday... just some fanatics who said it would be due to the fact that all the infidels in the world celebrate the summer - winter - sun rise height - tide yesterday ;)

so the newest version is less friendly than the old ones?

[hereticus]

Hello everybody ^^

 

I'm actually working on a mod to add Sulik to the game.

 

I'm using this tutorial ( on first page ) to add the colar of sulik , it work fine but i have this problem : when i'm close to the character the collar disapear and when i am far of him the collar appear ><

 

By the wy , when i'm testing with animation the collar follow all the movements ^^.

 

If someone can help me .. it will be realy great ^^

 

Thanks in advance

 

keep doing the good work ^^

 

Hereticus

[Potifar]

Could anyone explain how to add something (for example scope) to already existing weapon??? (for example hunting rifle)

 

I don't know how to do that... :wallbash:

 

(tut please)

[Baelkin]

Could anyone explain how to add something (for example scope) to already existing weapon??? (for example hunting rifle)

 

I don't know how to do that... :wallbash:

 

(tut please)

 

Well it's a bit of a tricky question but I'll try answering as best as I can. I'm pretty sure the scope isn't "add-able" in other ways than either adding as a new NifNode in NifSkope or making a new model of the old weapon with a scope on it and then using that as the mesh of the item. Anyway, here's how I'd do it:

 

The first thing you need is a 3d model of the scope you want to add. I don't know how the scoped weapons already ingame are designed in terms of their NifSkope tree, but my guts tell me that they are part of the pistol and not separate models. Once you have the model, you'll need to add it to an existing one using NifSkope - which in itself isn't always an easy thing to do if you haven't used NifSkope before. The simplest way is copying a branch of a NiTriStrip or NiTriShape and inserting it as a subnode to your main node, which will give you one more block to work with. Then you simply follow the standard method desribed in the "tutorial" of the first post of this topic, where you copy the NiTriStrip data of the scope and paste over the NiTriStrip data of the node you just inserted. At least I've gotten a model with about 8 parts working this way, so it's not that difficult getting it all into the same .nif file. The female dog about using this method is getting the damned meshes aligned proper according to each other. For this purpose you'll need to use the "edit" option (if I remember the terminology right) on the various NiTriStrips and move them about so they'll fit together and look nice. Takes forever, but it's the only way of doing it if you want to use this modular approach.

 

Alternately, if you know how to make new 3d models, you can just export the gun you want a scope on and the gun with the scope you want to add from NifSkope, import the meshes into your 3d modeling software, cut and tag the scope on the new gun and export the new mesh as a .nif and use the copy/paste method as per "community" standard.

 

If you don't have any experience modding or modeling at all, I'd recommend you start getting the hang of NifSkope by making a simple replacement mod and following the first method described if possible. The second method takes a long time if you need to learn modelling software and whatnot first, but still doable if you know what you are doing.

[Potifar]

Thanks for answer!

 

If I again would ask something:

 

I open hunting rifle in Blender

Import some random scope to it

attach it to the hunting rifle

now I have four parts, which are trigger, slide, mag and the gun itself

NOW COMES THE PROBLEM

i export the gun part to OBJ.

import it to the NifTools

AND I HAVE TWO SEPARATE OBJECTS, THE GUN, AND THE SCOPE.

WHY THEY AREN,T IN A SINGLE OBJECT, EVEN IF I COMBINED IT WITH THE GUN IN BLENDER???

 

You may call me noob, but I don't understand why NifTools do that...

 

Thanks already....

[jaysus]

its not niftool problem but a setting in your blender exporter or how you set up the model (aka welding the 2 parts together)

see a blender tutorial on how to properly do that or change the settings i have not enough knowledge of blender to tell you exactly what to do

[BulletSix]

Did you merge the two objects in Blender? (the scope and the gun)

 

brief description how i go from Blender to Fallout3 (kinda) :

 

-edit in Blender as desired (merging the objects in Blender that shoud be combined. e.g. gun/trigger/magazine seperate but merging the scope to the gun.)

- export .nif with blender (there are beta-import/export-scripts)

- open the exported .nif in nifscope

- goto spell-> optimize -> stripify all TriShapes *edited afer looking in nifscope*

- copy the desired tristrips (should be the "main gun part" with the scope in one)

- load the target nif (the original hunting rifle) select the right block -> paste over

- save as *your desired name*.nif

done

 

(don´t know about the textures and stuff, though)

 

hope this helps

 

 

*Edited the spell in nifscope

[Baelkin]

Thanks for answer!

 

If I again would ask something:

 

I open hunting rifle in Blender

Import some random scope to it

attach it to the hunting rifle

now I have four parts, which are trigger, slide, mag and the gun itself

NOW COMES THE PROBLEM

i export the gun part to OBJ.

import it to the NifTools

AND I HAVE TWO SEPARATE OBJECTS, THE GUN, AND THE SCOPE.

WHY THEY AREN,T IN A SINGLE OBJECT, EVEN IF I COMBINED IT WITH THE GUN IN BLENDER???

 

You may call me noob, but I don't understand why NifTools do that...

 

Thanks already....

 

The post above this one pretty much sums up what you need to do.

 

I'm pretty sure it's not a Niftools problem, but rather how your model is put together. I'm not a hundred percent sure of how .OBJ exports meshes, however if you scope and gun are welded together in the same mesh I don't understand why it turns out as two different NiTriStrip objects in NifScope, unless the two are actually individual objects in your 3d editor. If they are, when they are exported they'll become separate NiTriStrips when imported to NifSkope which sounds a bit like the problem you are having. In any case, try exporting the model as a .nif directly from Blender instead of importing the .OBJ into NifSkope and see what happens.

[nikokurk]

This reply is only for those who want to retexture an existing Nif not a new one.

 

Why people use Nifskope to retexture existing models is beyond me. It is like performing brain surgery with a Ripper. Creating a new Nif object creates bloat and takes up valuable resources. Bethesda has provided us with a tool in the GECK that makes it fairly painless, the Texture Set.

 

Pardon me if it sounds as if I am being condescending but I'm writing this for the Noobs as well as for you more experienced modders who will already know most if not all of this.

 

Retexturing is fairly easy, at least compared to making new or even altering existing meshes. Bethesda archives all the meshes, textures, voice, sounds etc. in their archive files. These files can be found in C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3\Data by default unless you put them somewhere else when you installed the game and have the extension bsa. The textures that come with the game are in the file Fallout - Textures.bsa

 

To extract these files you will need the FO3_Archive_Utility. You can find it and most every other utility you need here

 

Falout 3 Nexus Categories

 

under utilities. Choose the files you need and the utility will extract and create the necessary subfolders for you where they belong.

 

Note only extract what you need this conserves disk space and makes it a lot easier for you to find the files to work with them latter. If you must extract everything then extract them to a different folder.

 

Now you will need a good paint program. I use Photoshop and the NVIDIA released DDS plugin. If you don't have Photoshop you will need to download GIMP also in the Utilities Category from Fallout 3 Nexus. Just follow the links. You will also need the GIMP DDS Plugin to view and work with the files which can be found at the same place. Also recommended is the GIMP normalmap plugin found here

 

Gimp Normal Map Plugin

 

This is not absolutely necessary but if you don't want your textures to look funny get it. By funny I mean the the old texture might bleed through as a shadow beneath your new texture. This can be very annoying under most light conditions. See this article for a brief tutorial.

 

The Elder Scrolls Construction Set Wiki

 

Open the GECK. In the left pane of the Object Window open Items then choose what you want retextured. Right click on it and choose preview to make sure this the item you want to retexture then close. Double right click to edit and assign it a new ID and Name and close click OK and yes to to new object.

 

Note the ID must not have any spaces or special characters.

 

You now have an Item that is an exact clone of the one you opened but without your new textures.

 

Now back to the Object Window expand Miscellaneous and Click on Texture Set. Right click in the right pane and choose new. Assign it an ID, again no spaces, but a bit different than the new Object you created. Highlight Diffuse in the list and then click on the edit button under texture. Browse to where you created your new texture and choose it. You will notice that the Filename for the Map Diffuse is now populated. Do the same thing for Normal/Gloss click OK.

 

You now have a new Texture Set, and your new Object. Now you need to link them. Navigate back to your Object and double click to edit. Open the Art and Sound Tab if it is a weapon click on the Edit button under Model You will see a space for Alternate Textures. Right click on the appropriate 3D name in the list and choose New a drop down menu will appear. Scroll down to the Name of the Texture Set you created and double click. You have now linked your new item with your new textures. Do that for each part of your weapon. Rotate the item in the preview pane and admire your handiwork.