Gmax modeling

[DaemonGrin]

I am absolutely horrible with Blender I cannot get used to the controls especially with the mouse right clicking instead of left clicking its like trying to re-wire my brain @.@ anyway I like Gmax and was curious what I need to do to make the gmax models work with nifskope (I can export nif with gmax). Testing it out I copied a mesh exported it but when I opened it in nifskope applied the same textures they came out much darker, much much darker horribly dark I guess is the point I'm trying to make.

 

So what params or w/e do I need to tweak?

 

Thanks!

[Xaranth]

Wildly speculative: Did the export preserve the shader flags (NiTriShape > BSShaderPPLightingProperty > Shader Flags in the Block Details.) and the Shader Property?

[DaemonGrin]

Wildly speculative: Did the export preserve the shader flags (NiTriShape > BSShaderPPLightingProperty > Shader Flags in the Block Details.) and the Shader Property?

 

Yeah I went through it has them all but they are all kinds of messed up compared to the original. It does change the BSFadeNode into a NiNode as well.

[Guest Messenjah]

Is it a character/clothing mesh or is it a static mesh? Does your work include static meshes? I didn't actually know that Gmax could export anything useful to Fallout....

[DaemonGrin]

Is it a character/clothing mesh or is it a static mesh? Does your work include static meshes? I didn't actually know that Gmax could export anything useful to Fallout....

 

The experiment was a static mesh billboard from FNV before I tried making a clothing mesh in it. I just cloned deleted original and exported the clone as something else. Yeah there is a plugin that lets you import and export nifs with gmax.

[Heffy]

Yeah, it does export to nif format but what version? I highly doubt it's FO3 format, there are tens of earlier formats. GMax was discontinued way before FO3 was released, so... I suspect the exported file may not work very well, if at all, with FNV.

 

Anyway, you can't export to nif and have a fully operational model, you need to edit some properties in nifskope:

- The NiNode root (that's normal, actually, max does the same) has to be renamed to BSFadeNode

- Materials and stuff have to be edited (especially check Specular Color, since you say you get dark textures)

- Don't forget to set the proper Shader Flags under BSShaderPPLightingProperty

- Last, but not least, update tangent space when you're done

Edited January 22, 2013 by Heffy

[DaemonGrin]

Yeah, it does export to nif format but what version? I highly doubt it's FO3 format, there are tens of earlier formats. GMax was discontinued way before FO3 was released, so... I suspect the exported file may not work very well, if at all, with FNV.

 

Anyway, you can't export to nif and have a fully operational model, you need to edit some properties in nifskope:

- The NiNode root (that's normal, actually, max does the same) has to be renamed to BSFadeNode

- Materials and stuff have to be edited (especially check Specular Color, since you say you get dark textures)

- Don't forget to set the proper Shader Flags under BSShaderPPLightingProperty

- Last, but not least, update tangent space when you're done

 

Yeah it has FO3 which is what I've been using. Thanks for the info!

[Heffy]

Yeah it has FO3 which is what I've been using. Thanks for the info!

 

Interesting. I knew there was a plug-in for Oblivion for Gmax, didn't know they had added FO3 functionality. Good news.

 

Forgot to add you also need to edit the settings of the proxy mesh in bhkCollisionObject-> bhkRigidBody. It's easier to copy-paste over the data from an existing file, 'cause there are quite a lot of settings to edit there. And also, you need to set the Radius in bhkCollisionObject-> bhkRigidBody -> bhkConvexVerticesShape to 0.1 (if you're using that, of course, but other collision types used to ctd the game for some reason).

 

You can also check Millenia's tutorial on FO3 exporting http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL925958D31D8D30C7

It's more specifically for weapons, but most of it is relevant for pretty much every type of object.

[DaemonGrin]

Yeah it has FO3 which is what I've been using. Thanks for the info!

 

Interesting. I knew there was a plug-in for Oblivion for Gmax, didn't know they had added FO3 functionality. Good news.

 

Forgot to add you also need to edit the settings of the proxy mesh in bhkCollisionObject-> bhkRigidBody. It's easier to copy-paste over the data from an existing file, 'cause there are quite a lot of settings to edit there. And also, you need to set the Radius in bhkCollisionObject-> bhkRigidBody -> bhkConvexVerticesShape to 0.1 (if you're using that, of course, but other collision types used to ctd the game for some reason).

 

You can also check Millenia's tutorial on FO3 exporting http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL925958D31D8D30C7

It's more specifically for weapons, but most of it is relevant for pretty much every type of object.

 

Sweet awesome I'll watch that now! Thanks for all the info. The model is what comes out black adding textures doesn't really affect it at all. My first test with the billboard I rotated and the screen would go from grey to black. I tested a hair mesh the same way however it was all black and no change in rotating it or adding textures. Im wondering if I am not exporting it right there are so many things to check or uncheck.

[Heffy]

There are several factors that could cause such issues:

 

1 - Specular color (the one I mentioned earlier). Sometimes, upon exporting, it is set to black and should eventually be set to light gray or white (unless you want some other color).

 

2 - Glossiness. It's really about what it's titled after, but it affects how much the surface shall brighten when lit.

 

3 - Shader Flags (another one I mentioned earlier). It has to be set to SF_Specular | SF_Environment_Mapping | SF_Remappable_Textures | SF_ZBuffer_Test. That's in the latest version of Nifskope - settings vary in earlier versions, for some reason. If other settings are enabled (depending on which), the mesh may appear solid black, may not be rendered at all or could even cause a CTD when the nif is loaded ingame. Note that SF_Environment_Mapping is optional and has to be used with a cubemap. Generally, with it enabled, surfaces look brighter. It's mostly for shinier surfaces that need to look as if they're refracting something (like metal, glass, scope lenses, etc...).

 

4 - Your specular map. In this engine, the specular map has to "attached" as an alpha channel to the normal map. Basically the darker the spec map, the darker (an matted) will the material look when lit. So, your spec map may need to be brightened a bit.

 

Maybe some other settings, like ShaderType or Unknown Int "x" should be modified as well. Blender and max export them as they should be, for most of them, but I don't know if GMax exports them the same way. Best way to tell is to compare with a vanilla nif file.

Edited January 25, 2013 by Heffy