Making 4 armors become 1

[Heavyfuel]

I have this mod that adds 3 new armors to the game, each armour is divided into 5 pieces(Helm, Cuirass, Gauntl., Greaves and Boots) and i'd like to turn these 5 pieces into 2 (Healm and Full-Body[just like the DB clothes])

I have the Construction Set and Photoshop CS4 (i'm clueless about which one i have to use...)

will i need to edit meshes or something via Photos.? I wasn't joking, i AM clueless

[SickleYield]

Fortunately for you, this is pretty easy - a good first modding experience. :D

 

You need:

 

the armors

NifSkope

The CS

your skeleton.nif, unpacked from the .bsa it is in meshes/characters/_male

 

Do this:

 

Open up the skeleton.nif with NifSkope. If you have NifSkope installed, double-clicking should do it.

 

Open up a piece of the armor, let's say the cuirass.

 

Right click on a nitrishape (it might be called nitristrips) in the cuirass. Choose "Copy Branch" (make sure it's "Copy Branch," not just "Copy!").

 

Now go to the skeleton, right-click on the 0 node at the top, and choose "Paste Branch."

 

Repeat for all the nitrishapes in the cuirass. Now your cuirass is on the big skeleton and everything else will fit with it.

 

Open up the gauntlets, greaves and boots and copy them onto the skeleton.nif, too.

 

When you're done, save this in the same folder as the armor with a new name, like AllBlackArmor.nif or whatever. If NifSkope crashes when you're copy/pasting you'll have to start over; try saving as you go along to prevent constant redos.

 

 

Now open up the CS and load the plugin that came with the armor. Set it as the active file with the buttons you see when you choose your data files.

 

Find the armor in the CS and expand it out.

 

Pick a piece of it that already has armor value and an icon, say the cuirass. You may want to increase the armor value so it will be the same as a whole suit of armor, not just one piece.

 

There are some buttons in the cuirass entry that indicate paths to meshes. The top left one is the male one for the main mesh. Click on it and navigate to your new combined mesh.

 

Now change the slot (it's to the left of these buttons) to upperbody, lowerbody, hands and feet instead of just upperbody.

 

Now click OK. Now your full-body mesh replaces the cuirass in the plugin. This means you still find the armor where you would normally, but the cuirass is a full-body mesh instead of just a cuirass.

 

Now save your .esp and close the CS.

 

That should do it.

[Heavyfuel]

Thanks but... i got a problem, i use the Female Eyecandy Body and the skeleton is divided in 4 parts (Upper-body, Lower-body, Foot and Hand)...

can i still do this? (maybe join the skeleton in a single .NIF?)

i've tryed to join the armor pieces but i when i load my game and equip the armor, i become a floating head on top of the cuirass(no legs, no hands and no feet) ...

[Heavyfuel]

when i select the armor in the CS, there's a bunch o things like ID and Enchanting and on the rigth side there is:

 

---MALE--- --FEMALE--

BipedModel BipedModel

 

WorldModel WorldModel

 

IconImage IconImage

<image> <image>

 

which one of these must be changed?

[SickleYield]

I've seen Exnem's and I'm pretty sure it uses the same skeleton as everybody else. Open the SKELETON.NIF, NOT the individual body parts (upperbody.nif, lowerbody.nif, etc.) Those will not have complete skeletons. If you're having trouble finding the skeleton.nif maybe you can use the one from the Dark Brotherhood armor (delete all the armor bits from it then copy pieces over as previously stated).

 

In the CS you are on the right track. Click on the button "BipedModel" under Male and navigate to your combined mesh once it is set up right and saved. If your armor is female you want to click the button under Female instead.

[jaydapie]

Kudos to SickleYeild for being nice! And posting a useful meshing tutorial. I think the equivalent on the CS WIKI isn't as concise as that, you may want to check...

[SickleYield]

I mess with the Wiki as little as possible. :D

 

I try to always be nice to people who ask how to do things instead of ask other people to do it for them. ;)