How to Extract Fallout: New Vegas Assets to Blender

[DocBadwrench]

Greetings,

 

I'm relatively new to Blender but am conversant enough that I figure I might be able to do this: I'd like to extract some of the models from Fallout: New Vegas.

 

I've followed some rather extensive instructions in order to:

• Install Blender 2.49 onto my system
• Install the NIF plugin into that B-install
• Install the PyFFI & Python thingies
• Install NIFskope

What I have been able to do so far:

• View models in NIFskope
• Save BSA models as NIFs
• Export BSA models as OBJs
• Open NIFs in Blender 2.49

What I have not been able to do:

• Tie the texture to the models

It's just that one problem (mainly). While I can see the textures, and there are materials created when I do the Blender import, those materials are populated with references to DDS files.

 

I have attempted to point the "Texture Search Paths:" at the same folder that has the main BSA's, but that has not worked. Also, is my assumption that it's looking for PNGs? Because it's not clear that there's any export functionality for the NIF's to associate with.

 

My end goal is simply to import these textures to make use of them in Blender. Figuring this out would be the final step. The only other follow-up question I might have is: Is it possible to somehow export scenes? Is there some other completely different workflow for that or is it asking too much? Not looking to create ludicrous amounts of work, just add a little more fun to the modeling-learning.

 

Thanks for your attention.

Doc

[DocBadwrench]

Update:

 

Since my original post...

 

I heard from Samueli/ACB Radio. He is going to be posting a follow-up video to this one going into more detail about the actual extraction process. I just need to be patient.

 

I have had a great deal of success using the Bethesda Archive Extractor to pull all the meshes and textures from the BSA's. I honestly haven't used Blender 2.49 since my initial attempt. But, perhaps, that's a problem, because there have been hiccups in my attempt to get all the textures working.

 

But still, I have something to show for it. Behold:

 

Yup. It's the door from the Prospector Saloon. Please hold your applause.

 

Anyway, I had to do a few things with this - and any other - models:

1. Review the MTL file to find the names of the relevant DDS files. However, you a) May not be able to find all the relevant DDS files, in which case you just make do, or b) you luck out and find an item (like that door), which has a low number of texture maps that are all findable.
2. Copy all the relevant meshes and textures (DDS files; and don't forget to include the normal maps) into a project folder and create my BLEND there.
3. Once I've done my import, I manually connect the relevant normal maps to the appropriate material.

Another almost-success I've had is this:

 

But there are (obvious) things wrong with my Pipboy model:

1. All of the 'illumination' textures are missing. My suspicion is that, in order to really make this work, I'm going to need to extract a tooooon of BSA's (so I can perform enough of a thorough search to find them - wherever they happen to live).
2. Another of those illumination textures is the 'light ray' that comes out of the pipboy when you look into it. For the purposes of the exercise, I took any vert facing that had a broken material and turned it transparent just to get it out of the way.

My current stumbling blocks are:

1. The aforementioned missing textures and where they should be found (MTL is not enough help here; I don't know why...).
2. One special missing texture that I'm sure has to be different: the Collision texture. Maybe one of you can illuminate this? I have to imagine it's the thing that governs all the stuff we bump into in-world.

An illustration of this issue can be found here with our favorite tertiary character from FO:NV: Water Tank:

 

 

I feel like these textures have to be addressed rather than hidden/removed because removing them doesn't improve the situation. It always leaves me with the above vert facing still concealing the underlying texture.

 

Well there you go. I just wanted to update this in case it's useful to anyone. Or if you have pointers. I'm still fairly new to 3D so game-engine considerations are currently outside my domain.

 

Thanks for your attention.

[leeds761]

Here and happy to help :D

[leeds761]

Once a .nif file is imported to Blender 2.49b, Blender will load it's collision, materials and all required textures ect that'll fit that specific object. The Only problem is that Blender will not load the textures to the view point shading, only the mapped UV will exists, you'll need to re-add the texture manually. For vanilla objects, meshes in game should automatically texture but as for custom textured objects you'll need to apply them yourself...my personal quick fix is that you copy the original texture from FNV's extracted Data Texture folders and add it to the desktop for easy importing to Blender, for the Normal, Glow, ect textures you can just add them back to the mesh near the very end though a program called NifSkope. Anyway quick question, why are you using modern blender to import New Vegas meshes, you do know Blender 2.49b was built for Fallout 3 & New Vegas, Modern Blender can work for exporting those objects as .obj then importing them back to Blender 2.49b for the .nif export. Please only use Blender 2.49b for New Vegas Meshes...TIP: In Blender select an object, go into edit mode, select everything (A Key x2) and then hit the U key and select unwrap. Blender will neatly rearrange the UV map so it's way easier for custom textures :D Import .jpg or .png textures into Blender and convert them back to .dds during the NifSkope texture reapply. Have a vast knowledge of Blender so please feel free to ask me any direct questions, happy to help. ACBRadio :D

[leeds761]

Blender Tips: Funny thing about object scenes is that if you select a new object then hold shift and select another, the last object you've selected will become the main scene once you've join them up with Ctrl+J...also you can manually add a modifier though the editing tab and select boolean to join/fuse objects together...The Collision Material can be imported with a vanilla mesh, just delete the mesh and edit the collision like you would with any other object...Nifskope is useful for making sure you've added the correct texture files, for UV mapping your best bet would be Blender as it can take for hours to try and fix up a UV in Nifskope, embarrassingly have tried that method and it sucks lol. :D

[DocBadwrench]

Thanks so much for the guidance. As I’m a noob - and particularly with 2.49b - I have some follow-up questions. In an effort to keep everything straight, I’ll reference your original advice. Also, I’ll boldify the most relevant bits I want to talk about.

Once a .nif file is imported to Blender 2.49b, Blender will load it's collision, materials and all required textures ect that'll fit that specific object.

When I open via B2.49b, I’m assuming that I need to make sure that all the relevant DDS textures are next to the NIF, correct? Also, as I noted above, I haven’t yet used B2.49b. This is because I’m not interested in re-importing back into FO:NV. Is there an additional reason that I’m using B2.49b?

The only problem is that Blender will not load the textures to the view point shading, only the mapped UV will exists, you'll need to re-add the texture manually.

Okay, I don’t actually know what that bolded bit means. When I performed an OBJ export via Nifskope, the resulting file omitted a bunch of things, which I assumed to be a shader of some kind (because I only abstractly understand from my reading that one needs to be there) as well as any thing that’s illuminated.

For vanilla objects, meshes in game should automatically texture but as for custom textured objects you'll need to apply them yourself…

I do know that those aforementioned OBJ’s required that I reconnect all the normals. Are there any additional textures I need to apply?

My personal quick fix is that you copy the original texture from FNV's extracted Data Texture folders and add it to the desktop for easy importing to Blender.

I have extracted the following BSA’s into folders: Meshes.bsa, Textures.bsa and Textures2.bsa. Are there any additional BSA’s that I should extract, perhaps to cover this lack of glow textures?

For the Normal, Glow, etc textures you can just add them back to the mesh near the very end though a program called NifSkope.

Is there any way to obtain the glow textures without Nifskope? I have not been able to figure out where the data is originating from…

The Collision Material can be imported with a vanilla mesh, just delete the mesh and edit the collision like you would with any other object

I’m pretty confused by this. Can you elaborate further? I have tried to delete the materials (see most recent screenshot above), but I’m still left with some variety of a weird ‘additional’ mesh (which does not display as a separate object when I look at the thing in the outliner.

A few of these things may orbit my first question (whether or not I need B2.49 for the extractions). Because B2.49 may be doing some important things that an OBJ export in Nifskope cannot.

Btw, I did not know B2.49’s origin as a building tool for FO:NV. That’s neat. And gives me hope that this can be sussed out. :) Thanks again for your attention and patience.