SSE Custom weapons sink into the ground

[ChewNTobacca]

I thought it would be cool to have regular items to use as weapons, kind of like the knife and fork. I used a pitchfork for a test. I got it created and placed in-game with no trouble. Launched Skyrim and went and picked it up. It's equippable and useable, but once I equip it, it sinks halfway into the ground and stays there even while in hand. Can't find where I went wrong. Any help is appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Chew

[thumbincubation]

I assume you're in NIfskope? Did you use the item's mesh and change it to function, or did you insert it into a 2 handed weapon mesh? If the latter, did you copy and paste the BS FadeNode or the BS TriShape?

 

If I recall correctly you want to take a 2h weapon mesh (warhammer probably) and the pitchfork mesh. On each, click the 0 BSFadeNode, the first item in the block list. The same name should be highlighted down in the block details. On that highlighted name, right-click and "edit string index," to change both meshes to the same name. You can change one to match the other, or name them something unique "warfork" or something. Once they're named alike, go to the render window and click on the pitchfork. The BSTriShape that is highlighted is the one you want. Right-click, copy branch. Then go to the 2h Weapon and right-click on the 0 BSFadeNode and paste branch. You should see both the weapon and the pitchfork. On the new BSTriShape that appears for the pitchfork, right-click, edit, and position it along the weapon so the weapon's handle is where you want your hands on the pitchfork. Then you can click on the weapon, right click on that BSTriShape, and remove branch. You should be left with a weaponized pitchfork. You will want to save 3 versions. Save one raw, one after you've optimized, and the third after you've optimized and sanitized. (I say this because sometimes, with no pattern apparent to me, sanitizing seems to make the item crash the kit and game. Other times, it works fine. This way, you have backups.)

 

There is probably a way to move the pitchfork's collision to the weapon mesh also, but I've never had luck with it, so I choose items with collision similar to what I want to do.

 

I have a war shovel that I made, this same way. If you want, let me know and I'll send it to you so you can see what I've changed.

 

Also, you may already know this, but if you want to be able to scale the vertices of the item individually (make it shorter without making it thinner, etc) you want to extract and combine Oldrim meshes, then optimize them for SSE. The SSE meshes don't give that option in nifskope.

[ChewNTobacca]

Thumbincubation, Thank you so much for the info! Works perfectly. With a little adjusting I got a fully usable pitchfork for combat. You rock! \m/ I may publish this one when complete; it would be my first. Thanks again.

 

Chew

[thumbincubation]

You're very welcome, Chew. Glad to hear it worked out for you.

[ChewNTobacca]

One more question, what does "sanitizing" in NifSkope accomplish? I understand the optimization, removing nodes and whatnot, but can't quite see what the sanitize function actually does.

[thumbincubation]

That's a very weak point in my limited knowledge. I remember a tutorial about having "auto sanitize before saving" on, and I just followed that all along. The tutorial wasn't especially descriptive about what it actually did, but I went with it.

 

Once SSE came out, and some things started crashing the kit or game after I optimized them to work on SSE, I unchecked it and the item started working. Then I spent a lot of time crashing and working both ways, so that's what led me to do multiple saves. I try the sanitized version and, if it works, great. If it doesn't, I go back and try the unsanitized version and usually have success. My guess is one of those small chores somehow undoes the SSE optimization, but only in some meshes.

 

Here are some links that may help. Nifskope has changed a lot, and I think only Jon is still working on/maintaining it, so I don't know how up to date they will be but I'd imagine many are for oldrim versions. Take them with a grain of salt.

 

http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope/Documentation_And_Tutorials

 

http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope/Working_With_Nifs_101_:_An_Introduction

 

http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope/Working_With_Nifs_101_:_Basic_Use#Nifskope_101 (This is the one with a little blurb about sanitizing)

 

Here's Jon's Github, which also looks to be quiet for a couple of years. Pre-Alpha 6 is what I have been using. I've never tried the Dev 7 version, so I don't know about that.

 

https://github.com/niftools/nifskope

 

https://github.com/jonwd7/nifskope/releases/tag/v2.0.dev6#downloads_2_0_dev6

 

https://github.com/niftools/nifskope/releases

 

I hope something in here will help. It's the best I can do, as I mostly stumble through nifskope without any real idea what I'm doing. There was a dedicated forum for nifskope, where Jon was actively discussing and answering questions, but I can't find it now.

[ChewNTobacca]

Wow, I didn't expect all that info; thanks again! I'll have to read up on some of those. Yes, definitely lots of gray areas and trial and error in the modding world. I did take your advice to make multiple saves. Out of the 10 objects I've worked with, 9 have been fine after sanitizing and one made CK wig out. You've definitely got my 2 thumbs up (no pun intended). If I can find anything further on the sanitizing I'll post back here.