LE Regarding nifskope visibility controllers

[Urwy]

Edit: I just notice i should've posted this in the Skyrim mod authors section. Would any moderator glancing this topic be so kind to move this topic to that section? =)

 

Good day fellow forumites, mod authors, ladies and gents!

 

For the last few days i've been trying to create some new weapons that combine both "magical" parts with physical parts. Much like bound sword that already has a physical grip that doesnt phase into existence.

Now, there are several mods out there that seem to pull this off: Magicka sabers by Lord Haun, the arcane weapons that come with Forgotten magic by 3Jiou and in a sense Improved Psi blades by Gwyvern.

All these mod have a (partial) weapon phasing into existence unsheathing it or casting a spell.

 

What i am trying to accomplish with my weapons is that when the weapons are sheathed, all that is visible is the grip and crossguard. But when it is unsheathed the blade itself phases into view. This process should work in reverse when sheathing. All this without having to cast a spell to summon the weapon.

 

While i have been fiddling around in nifskope and the files that come with those mods, i have been unable to figure out how this exactly works.

I suppose i could ask the authors of the above mentioned mod for use of their files, i find this to be a lazy approach. Once that i can't learn that much from.

So right now i'm hoping there's a nif expert amount here that would be kind enough to help me out, or give me some pointers.

 

Thanks in advance. =)

 

A little peek at the current models:

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/7mRHuHj.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/X9E2fQE.jpg

 

(The pinkish parts are to ones that are supposed to vanish once sheathed.)

Edited April 21, 2013 by Urwy

[Yukichigai]

Hey, I asked a similar question over here and got a reply:

 

 

Yukichigai - Hello!

"I'm trying to figure out what it is exactly that makes the Shishkebab's flame effect disappear the minute you holster it."

Two things working in conjunction, a specific block within the model & the animation .kf being called on the model at the time.

If you go to the shishkebab & open it in Nifskope, click on the flame effect in the Render window.

The flame effects, glow effect, etc. are all under a NiNode named ##VisCtrl.

Blocks with ## are always model parts that animation .kf's will look for.

The ##VisCtrl is used for visibility.

When an animation .kf gets used that is set up for ##VisCtrl it looks for any Nodes in the model with that heading & acts according to it's settings (makes it invisible/visible).

Animation .kf's like:

1hmunequip.kf
1hmequip.kf

That are 1 Hand Melee animations, have ##VisCtrl listed in their "Controlled blocks" that control what happens to the Node & all it's children that is called ##VisCtrl in the model.

 

You'll also notice that they have many ## that they look out for like ##batonhandle that works with the baton.

As long as your weapon is set to use the same animations like the shishkebab, the ones with the ##VisCtrl listed in their "Controlled blocks" & you've set up the parts you want to disappear under a node named ##VisCtrl as in the shishkebab model it should work the same.

Use the shishkebab's set up as a guide.

Hope this helps!

Prensa

[Urwy]

Hey, I asked a similar question over here and got a reply:

 

-snip-

Awesome! Thanks for letting me know. I'll have a look if this still applies to Skyrim nifs. =)

[Yukichigai]

No problem. I imagine the names may have changed some, things added, others removed. Even between Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas there are some serious changes.

 

Anyway there's a few things you may want to consider in checking animations. First, FNV/F3 seem to use a mix of the animations stored in _1stperson and _male, as in NPCs can holster "partially hide" weapons and have them hide, even though it's only the animation in _1stperson that has the calls to the correct block (##VisCtrl).

 

Second, even if your specific weapon type animation doesn't seem to have calls to the Bool Interpolator, you MAY be able to trigger them as though it was using a different base animation. In FNV/F3 there's a weapon setting for Hand Grip Type. Set to default, ##VisCtrl blocks are not toggled when holstered/unholstered. HOWEVER, setting the grip to "HandGrip5" miraculously makes ##VisCtrl blocks hide/show as they should. Even better, this is the ONLY effect: the base animation itself is identical, as are the attack animations, and even the hand grip itself.

 

I'm not entirely sure what the Skyrim editor looks like, but I suspect it has the relevant field to modify (and if not, there's always TES5Edit). Just figure out what block some vanilla weapons use to toggle, name your hidey bits to that, and start swapping HandGrips. Worked for me.

 

Anyway, good luck, Vaya Con Queso, etc. etc. ^_^