[LE] Nifscope - Merging Meshes and Addon Nodes

[ItsYourPalAldfaasdfa]

For a mod I'm working on, I'd like to try to simply merge an addon node with the mesh itself instead of being "added on" later. (I could explain why later if necessary)

 

The trouble is that these addon nodes aren't visible in Nifscope. They seem to have some data, like textures but there are no meshes as far as I can tell nor any animation data, and these nodes in particular are animated flames.

 

Attached is the object loaded in Nifscope. The data blocks are shown in list view, instead of tree view. Notice on the right that the nif isn't displayed. It should look like well, fire

[NexusComa2]

I was hoping someone else would take this as once i answer the post seems to stop.

 

Anyways ... I did a lot of this stuff. Merging and moving around things in the nif. I just used Copy branch and Paste branch. There is a spells pull down that has a few otpind that clean up the .nif also. Sometimes it was hit or miss. I would the same thing and the 2nd version would work. Later I started to understand why. Or at least why it was crashing. Sometime you can use the spells sometimes you can't. I just started rebuilding the branches to mimic the ones there by ordered names. Then used the label rebuild "spell" in .nif skope. Sometimes it took a few tries and different options. Turns out scraping one that isn't working and rebuilding from scratch is better than tryin to get a mesh working that isn't.

Edited October 13, 2020 by NexusComa2

[maxarturo]

What is your actual question?.

Those add-on nodes will dictates the type of "Particle" the game engine will use, that's why there isn't any data available like textures, those game's particles don't use textures and their functionality are exclusively handled by the game engine 'particle system'.

In order to change anything to those particles you need to edit them in CK.

Edited October 13, 2020 by maxarturo

[NexusComa2]

I missed that part "should look like well, fire". That would be the ACTUAL problem ...

[ItsYourPalAldfaasdfa]

 

What is your actual question?.

Those add-on nodes will dictates the type of "Particle" the game engine will use, that's why there isn't any data available like textures, those game's particles don't use textures and their functionality are exclusively handled by the game engine 'particle system'.

In order to change anything to those particles you need to edit them in CK.

 

My question would be; Is it possible to convert these BSMasterParticleSystem models into a model that can be merge with another model. The problem is that these particles do have textures and nif models, as I've found them. These AddOnNodes are contained within the mps folder, found in Skyrim > Data > Meshes > mps.

 

I had a brief conversation with someone on Discord who said that no particle systems will be visible in Nifscope, only in-game. I've already been successful in performing basic edits to these models by changing the color of their textures. But for my purposes, it would be easier to extract the model data from the particle system, and merge it with the model that it would have been add to

[ItsYourPalAldfaasdfa]

For a mod I'm working on, I'd like to try to simply merge an addon node with the mesh itself instead of being "added on" later. (I could explain why later if necessary)

 

The trouble is that these addon nodes aren't visible in Nifscope. They seem to have some data, like textures but there are no meshes as far as I can tell nor any animation data, and these nodes in particular are animated flames.

 

Attached is the object loaded in Nifscope. The data blocks are shown in list view, instead of tree view. Notice on the right that the nif isn't displayed. It should look like well, fire

 

Thanks for the reply. I've sort of done what you've suggested with no success. I've tried simply copying the branch data and pasting it into the other model, but it doesn't show in game, even after optimizing, sanitizing, converting etc

[maxarturo]

Let me rephrase: "those game's particles don't use textures", i meant textures that you can see directly in NifSkope like the textures you see with meshes, sorry about that...

To answer your question:

From my knowledge those add-on nodes are not models, they just hold the info / data that the game engine will read and then apply the particle system in the add-on node position.

The actual particle system is inside the game engine structure, something like the 'Hard Coded' codes.

* At some point i did try to create a brand new particle system to use for some of my applications, because the vanilla one didn't do the job i wanted, but it was too much trouble for something that 99.99% of players won't ever notice, so i gave up half way through...

Particle systems are made by a collection of 'vertex' which each vertex holds the data/texture/color/emitance/direction/velocity/gravity that you see as a whole, so in a way each vertex is its own model and all together make the visual model you see when they are render.

At least this is how they work in all the professional 3d programs.

Making them into one compact unify model is something that i personally don't know if it can be done, and especially when it come to the Skyrim game engine.

Have a happy modding.

Edited October 13, 2020 by maxarturo

[NexusComa2]

Possible solution. In my mod Enchanted Ship in a Bottle I created a Skyrim logo that is glowing. I also used this effect on the Bottle you can put in your inventory. It is a spell effect linked to the object. It's kind of out there and a bit complicated how to get the effect on the object. But it's all right there if you take a look at it in the Creation Kit. It is set up to be a bit generic. So you could replace the effect used with most any spell effect. Just keep in mind this is a constant effect the way it is set up.. But it is a effect permanently linked to an object and works well. Still not altogether sure what you are looking to do. But if it is a on or off effect with fire on the blade. This could be done the way I stated above. You would just need a trigger to swap weapons with one that isn't on fire. I could easily see this technique used as a draw your weapon and the blade lights up with whatever ... fire in this case. I was also able to change the effect color. The glow could be easily made into an custom enchanted weapon with a custom effect in whatever color. Skyrim has a lot of spell effects so this would be interesting to play around with.

Edited October 13, 2020 by NexusComa2

[ItsYourPalAldfaasdfa]

 

Let me rephrase: "those game's particles don't use textures", i meant textures that can see directly in NifSkope like the textures you with meshes, sorry about that...

To answer your question:

From my knowledge those add-on nodes are not models, they just hold the info / data that the game engine will read and then apply the particle system in the add-on node position.

The actual particle system is inside the game engine structure, something like the 'Hard Coded' codes.

* At some point i did try to create a brand new particle system to use for some of my applications, because the vanilla one didn't do the job i wanted, but it was too much trouble for something that 99.99% of players won't ever notice, so i gave up half way through...

Particle systems are made by a collection of 'vertex' which each vertex holds the data/texture/color/emitance/direction/velocity/gravity that you see as a whole, so in a way each vertex is its own model and all together make the visual model you see when they are render.

At least this is how they work in all the professional 3d programs.

Making them into one compact unify model is something that i personally don't know if it can be done, and especially when it come to the Skyrim game engine.

Have a happy modding.

 

 

Ahhh, I think I understand what you mean now. I still feel as though I should be able to add this directly to my model instead of using AddOnNodes so I'll continue muddling my way through NifScope but your comment helped me anchor my expectations so I wont waste too much more time trying to do this

 

Aside from adding the effect directly to my model, I've been successful in actually creating more of these addonnodes in the CK with my customizations. I don't love this method because each addonnode is supposed to have a unique index and if another node from a different mod has the same index, I believe it results in an instant CTD when the object tries to load. And to make the mods compatible, one mod would have to change the addonnode in the CK and inn every model that uses it

[maxarturo]

I don't know what you are trying to do, but:

- One of my ideas back then was to create a 'Special' animated flame VFX that CK didn't had, at least the way i had it in mind.

So, i used this:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/102123

And i created 3 different nifs which i applyed in different Z axes to create my 'Special' flame, the result was pretty sweet, quick and easy to do!.

But at the end i had a different idea, so i didn't use it, but is worth a shot. (it was for a spell projectile).

* If your original GIFs are well constructed you will end up with an awesome result.

Have a happy modding.