timstertimster Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I have watched many videos about how to use CK to replace skyrim source files. Watched Blender tutorials on modeling, zbrush videos, intros to 3DS Max, and played around a bit in DAZ3D. But I'm missing some basic understanding on how these things all work together. I was hoping maybe someone here might be able to explain it in broad terms. An ESP is like a zip package containing meshes and textures? Right ? A NIF holds mesh only. Just vertices, no skeletons. Right? DDS is a texture file. Right? If I'm authoring in 3DS max, I have an integrated way of manipulating meshes, i. e. modeling. I can apply textures and edit specular and rig a skeleton then animate. But it doesn't look like I can just export the whole thing and save it as NIF because that format is only for mesh data. Right? How does skyrim reference animations? Can I import an animation to DAZ for editing? Finally, shouldn't it be possible to import a Daz3d OBJ file into nifscope or 3DS max and then simply export to skyrim compatible NIF? I appreciate all help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhowington Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I have watched many videos about how to use CK to replace skyrim source files. Watched Blender tutorials on modeling, zbrush videos, intros to 3DS Max, and played around a bit in DAZ3D. But I'm missing some basic understanding on how these things all work together. I was hoping maybe someone here might be able to explain it in broad terms. An ESP is like a zip package containing meshes and textures? Right ? A NIF holds mesh only. Just vertices, no skeletons. Right? DDS is a texture file. Right? If I'm authoring in 3DS max, I have an integrated way of manipulating meshes, i. e. modeling. I can apply textures and edit specular and rig a skeleton then animate. But it doesn't look like I can just export the whole thing and save it as NIF because that format is only for mesh data. Right? How does skyrim reference animations? Can I import an animation to DAZ for editing? Finally, shouldn't it be possible to import a Daz3d OBJ file into nifscope or 3DS max and then simply export to skyrim compatible NIF? I appreciate all help.A bsa file contains the meshes and textures unless they are loose files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThresherMaw Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Esp file are information files.They make stuff exist and work ingame. Nif files contain the bones that affect the mesh in it.A helmet, for example, uses "Head" and "Neck" bones.The Nif with the helmet mesh also contains these 2 bones, as well as the effect of each bone on specified vertices with a specified intensity. And yes, DDS is texture file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LargeStyle Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 To elaborate a touch... .esp files are plugin files that consist purely of data and not assets such as meshes or textures. When an .esp is present in Skyrims Data folder it will give instructions to modify or add adjustments from master files (such as Skyrim.esm). .esps can also be "empty" (contain no master data adjustments) and used only to trigger the use of a .bsa (archive) file providing both files have the exact same filename. DDS stands for "Direct Draw Surface" and is a texture file which have various compression / usage modes. DXT1 DDS files contain only RGB channels and DXT5 contain RGB and an Alpha (transparency) channel. As for animations, there's no quick way of getting them adjustable. Unless the following article is out of date, I'd at least refer to it to gain a better understanding of the process involved in animation editing... http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Working_with_animations_in_Skyrim I know it works as I've done this myself, and once you have everything prepared then it's not as bad as you may initially think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timstertimster Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 Can someone recommend a BSA browser? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LargeStyle Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 Fallout Mod Manager. It's lets you browse and extract files from BSAs quickly and easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted31005User Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Im using BSA Unpacker by Wookie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackowonderful Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 I use the fallout one too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiftyTifty Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 Uh. The fallout .bsa manager is known to cause all sorts of issues. BSAOpt is 100% Skyrim compatible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackowonderful Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 like what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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