Blockhead Unique Bodytypes

[DonozPaps]

Hey everyone,

Heard It's possible to have an unique bodytype for your character with blockheads.

If anyones up to help I would really appreciate.

[Striker879]

I'm up, and at 'em Paps ... have a little grocery shopping on the morning's agenda but I'll get you started with some prep work before I head to the store.

 

One tool that I find indespensible for Blockheading is NifSkope. It allows me to preview different bodies while I'm trying to decide which one to use for either my own character or NPCs that I'm Blockheading.

 

I got started using NifSkope version 1.0.22 so that is the one I prefer, but I do have versions 2.0 and 1.10 downloaded. When you click on the link Download NifSkope 1.2.0 (right below the grey box that says Download Link) it will actually bring you to the page for version 2.0 (could be my NifSkope page link is a bit behind the times).

 

For version 2.0 scroll down past all of the tutorial stuff to just above the section marked with the heading NifSkope 2.0 Pre-Alpha 6. Click on NifSkope_2_0_2018-02-22-x64.7z (I'm assuming you have a 64 bit version of Windows). That will bring up a Windows Save dialogue window. Create a folder to download NifSkope to (it doesn't need to be anywhere special ... mine is even on a different hard drive than my games) and once the download is complete extract the archive to that same folder you created.

 

In the extracted archive you'll find a folder named NifSkope_2_0_2018-02-22-x64 and inside that you'll see NifSkope.exe (along with some other files and folders). I create a shortcut on my desktop for making running NifSkope more convenient myself, but open NifSkope and you'll see a window similar to those shown in those tutorial pics on the NifSkope page. In the top left click on the folder icon and then navigate to your game install's Oblivion\Data\Meshes\Characters\_male folder and scroll down to find the file femaleupperbody.nif which will show you the same HGEC upper body we installed in the OCO v2 mod comments. You may need to go through some setup steps in NifSkope (setting up your game paths etc).

 

Next you'll need some resources for doing your Blockheading.

 

My number one source for body meshes is SetBody Reloaded Blockhead Edition which has a wide variety of body types, plus they are all seamless quality!! Download SetBody to a folder and extract it's download to that same folder ... we aren't looking to install it in the game. Inside the extracted download you will find three folders ... Core, Data_Pak and Templates. Open the folder Data_Pak and then continue down so you have Data_Pak\data\meshes\characters\Bombshell all open. You'll now see a bunch of folders (e.g. AGHGEC, CLS, Curvaceous etc). and some of those will just have their resource files (e.g. CLS) while others contain further subfolders.

 

While I'm doing my shopping you can look through all of the possibilities and select which body you'd like for your character. NifSkope should have associated itself with the NIF file extension so it's just double left click on a file you'd like to see and NifSkope will open it. Once you have more than one open you need to move between open instances of NifSkope down in your task bar at the bottom of the screen. When I narrow the choices down to a few possibles I find it real handy in comparing the subtle differences between some NIFs by just using the Windows preview of the remaining open NifSkope instances down in the task bar.

 

Learn how to use NifSkope a little and do some exploring.

Edited September 17, 2020 by Striker879

[DonozPaps]

Hey my friend.

I downloaded Nifscope and Setbody Reloader. My windows is x64 yes.

I managed to open the upper body on nifscope.

There are few different things though.

Setbody folder only has DATA file and few text files.

Inside the DATA file I went through meshes/characters/bombshell and inside that there is only this NIF file called Nothing.nif

Btw what did you mean by setting up the game paths?

And do I need to know 3D modelling?

[Striker879]

No ... all we will use NifSkope for so far is to view the various NIF files.

 

My bad ... I should have looked at the Files tab on SetBody Reloaded before I ran off to the store. The download we will be using is the second one down named SetBody Reloaded Blockhead Edition Data ... you can delete all of the other stuff first if you want, or create a new folder for the second download to keep things organised.

 

- Edit - In NifSkope when you looked at your currently installed femaleupperbody.nif did the body textures show up fine?

Edited September 17, 2020 by Striker879

[DonozPaps]

femaleupperbody is just white.

[Striker879]

femaleupperbody is just white.

 

OK, lets get NifSkope set up with the paths to your game that it needs to display the textures.

 

In NifSkope click Options and then Settings in the menu at the very top of the NifSkope window. In the Settings dialogue that opens you'll see three items listed to the left side ... General, Render and Resources. Click on Resources and now over on the right side you'll see a button with Auto Detect Game Paths on it. Click that and NifSkope should find your Oblivion folder path (e.g. mine is G:\Games\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data ... I'm on the disk version of the game, yours will probably be something with Steam).

 

Now it may also pick up your Skyrim install ... that's not a problem as NifSkope will work there too.

[DonozPaps]

Sorry for late reply,

Yes I both found skyrim and oblivion data in nifscope. Whats our next step?

[Striker879]

Well providing you now have body textures showing on the NIFs in NifSkope your next step is to decide which body mesh you want for your character. Go through the folders from SetBody Reloaded I outlined above and pick your upper body. Some upper bodies will allow a choice of lower body, some won't. Once you tell me which upper body we can work out any of those details. For the most part the folder names will help lead you, but don't be afraid of opening folders and seeing what NIFs are in there using NifSkope. Like I said, it's simple to just double left click in Windows Explorer and NifSkope opens it. If it's not something you'd be interested in just close NifSkope and move on to the next.

 

I'll get you started ... go to the SetBody Reloaded Data_Pack\data\meshes\characters\Bombshell\HGEC\UpperBody folder and open the NIF femaleupperbody_AC_AA.nif which is an example of one of the many upper bodies available in SetBody Reloaded (and you'll have trouble finding seamless quality versions of those hard to find meshes elsewhere too).

Edited September 18, 2020 by Striker879

[DonozPaps]

I gotta say there is nothing in bombshell file, just ''nothing.nif''

[Striker879]

Did you download that one I mentioned ... the second link down from the top of the list on the SetBody Reloaded mod page Files tab. It says SetBody Reloaded Blockhead Edition Data as the download name.