Creating Skyrim Armor in Blender Tutorial Series

[Caleco]

Hi, I just have to say I love this tutorial and it's probably one of the best out there

 

So I was using this tutorial to combine some pieces of armor and everything seemed to be going great until I tested it out where I had an issue with the skin of the body being mangled. I've been trying for a week to find a solution for it but I haven't had any luck yet.  I was wondering if you could have a look at it and see where I went wrong?  I feel bad asking for help but I am utterly lost at what the issue is.  I've been using the CBBE body as the base for the armor however like I said the texture goes everywhere, I included some screenshots with the rest of the files.  I just want to thank you ahead of time for any advice on the issue you could give me.

 

Project

[henshu]

Hey Hanaisse, I'm having another silly problem. I'm working on a torso piece which is a combination of existing armors with edited textures. When I add a NiAlphaProperty the CK crashes when I try to load the mesh. Without the property, the portions which are meant to have alpha properties on are completely invisible(both in CK and in game). I've been copying the NiAlphaProperty and BSLightingShaderProperty from the original files and only changing the first texture file so that they are using the original normal maps. This works fine for my sleeves and pants, but not the parts with fur edging. Any idea what I'm missing?

 

You are easily the most helpful person I've ever come across in relation to Skyrim modding. Thank you for all of your assistance to us rookies.

[Hanaisse]

@Caleco, welcome to TESA and thank you for the kind words. I've downloaded your file and will have a look at it tonight. Stay tuned.

 

@henshu, I've never heard of AlphaProperties causing a CK crash. I couldn't guess what you're missing without seeing it either in pics in Nifskope or better to upload the mesh itself. Is there a proper SLSF2_Vertex_Alpha flag?  It could be the textures as well. Anything with alpha needs to be saved as DXT5 format.

[Hanaisse]

For Caleco;

 

Anytime a rigged mesh is "mangled" it's a sign of bad weight painting and/or dirty skeleton syndrome. Your skeleton looks fine in the .blend file so I would re-copy the weight painting for the body.

Other minor issues I see;

15 NiTriShape Belt

- using EnviroMap shader but no enviromap flag
- looks like it's clipping into the body at the back

22 NiTriShape Belts

- has a "spec" map texture but no spec flag - what is the purpose of the texture?
- has vertex colours but no vertex colour flag
- quite a large space in the front of the body, and not showing at the back ... the belts need to be moved on the Y axis until it's not clipping the back any more

30 NiTriShape Bra.00

- using EnviroMap shader but no enviro map, instead using a glow map - which is it?

37 NiTriShape BRA2

- same as bra.00

44 NiTriShape Clothes

- has a "spec" map texture but no spec flag - what is the purpose of the texture?
- has vertex colours but no vertex colour flag
- the sleeves clip on the back of the arms and right shoulder

52 NiTriShape Metal

- has a "spec" map texture but no spec flag - what is the purpose of the texture?
- has vertex colours but no vertex colour flag

Overall;

Only need to use the Double Sided flag if the underside of the object is going to be seen (i.e. don't need it on panties).
Body textures don't need to be moved from where they are, so I hope you just put them in here for reference.

Nice work.

[henshu]

The original mesh didn't have a Vertex_Alpha flag, but adding it didn't fix my crashes.
Exporting the texture from gimp with the specified compression level didn't help either...

Trying with the updated texture without the flag... crashes again.

It doesn't seem likely that it's a problem with my textures. I made the other pieces of armor(boots, bracers, helmet) using the alternate texture system within the CK, no mesh editing, and they have fur edging and work fine... The bracers actually use the same texture file as the torso piece.

 

Here is my mesh. Hopefully you will see something that I haven't and make me feel foolish 

[Hanaisse]

Ok henshu, I think we'll both feel foolish. Took me forever to realize the obvious.

 

In the two NiTriShapes that have the alpha properties, you need to switch the order of the BS Properties. The BSLightingShaderProperty must ALWAYS go in the first slot, the NiAlphaProperty in the second. This was causing the crash.

 

Now, a few other notes;

 

- Those same two NiTriShapes with the alpha properties - you don't need the SLSF1_Vertex_Alpha flag just because you're using alpha ... only if you're using vertex alphas.

- Your NiTriShape for the body skin, you'll need to change under the NiTriShapeData the BS Num UV Sets to 1 (skin is always 1) and the Has Normals to No.

- Go through every NiTriShapeData block and change the Consistency Flag from CT_Mutable to CT_Static.

 

Um, I think that was all. Very cute mash up.

[henshu]

x.x oh geeze, of course it would be something that simple. 
Yep, that did it. Thank you! Sorry if this took too much pondering time. 

[Aiedail]

First of all, thanks for the great tutorial, Hanaisse.

 

So, I'm getting a similar problem to someone about a month ago: Anything that I export using the Blender scripts will miss all it's UV data. BS Num UV Sets is set to 0 as well as all TexCoords in the UV Sets Array. The file is also missing Tangents and Bitangents.

I'm pretty sure I applied textures and material right in Blender, since it renders well.

 

What I'm doing to recreate the issue is this:

1. Prepare an example .nif file like in part 3 of your tutorial and import.
2. Add the texture image.
3. Add a material.
4. Export using the settings in part 4.

 

(Versions are: Blender 2.49b, NIF Script 2.5.9, PyFFI 2.1.11)

[Hanaisse]

Hello Aiedail, welcome to TESA.

 

When you add your texture image, make sure the Map Input tab has "UV" checked and not "Orco" which is default.

 

Seems to be a common problem lately. I may have to write up a mini tutorial on materials and textures.

[Aiedail]

Thanks, it worked now.

I actually didn't add any textures there, but only through the UV Editor, since that's the way I learnd "texturering" in version 2.6x.

 

Edit: Sadly I got another issue now:

When creating boots the right one is attached to the left leg and the left one to the right leg.

Bone Weight in Blender and Bones in NifSkope look similar to vanilla Skyrim boots.

Never mind, it's solved.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Aiedail

[PanEXE]

Seeing that it's been 2 years, I take it part 7 isn't coming?

[Hanaisse]

Who knows. I have many things on my plate, this keeps getting pushed aside. One day, hopefully.

[MyrtleTheTurtle]

Hi! First I want to thank you for such a comprehensive tutorial. I'd actually had this sitting in my bookmarks for ages awaiting the day I finally bit the bullet and got Blender up and running I've picked up the program pretty quickly and have made tons of static meshes as practice, so I thought why not go all-in and make an armor? So here I am!

 

I'm so, so, so desperately close to having this thing actually behaving in game after quite a number of bumps and pitfalls where I had to restart the process at various steps. But now I don't know what else to try, and I don't know where I need to back up, though I think it's probably just me forgetting a really basic step in the CK as usual. Basically, when I put the armor on in-game, it's invisible. :\

 

Everything in NifSkope looks as it should (I think). The UV information is there and correct, the shader properties are fine because I straight copy/pasted the branches from the original pieces to mine (not that that didn't stop me from double and triple checking). The only thing wonky that I can come up with is that the skin piece has two BODY partitions because I'm using a CBBE-derived base. That said, I went ahead and partitioned off everything as I would have for a vanilla mesh, so maybe that's the problem? The skin piece shows arms, collar, and legs/calves, so, as I've partitioned it, NifSkope is showing two body partitions in addition to the calves and forearms partitions. I'm going to go back and try re-partitioning so that the skin piece is all body, but any input you might have would be most helpful.

 

As for the CK, the armor shows up fine in the preview window when I create the add-on form. Default race is selected as are the other additional races. The partitions are selected as well, and in the armor form itself only BODY is selected as per other torso pieces. At the very least, if I'm missing a body slot, wouldn't only that partition not show? I'm probably being very confusing, sorry! I just have no idea what I could be missing, if it's not the multiple body partitions.

 

Thanks again for reading, and for the great resource!

 

 

 

Edit: Never mind, I'm a doofus and didn't change the Scene Root node in NifSkope Aside from some weight painting issues, everything is stellar!

Edited September 6, 2014 by MyrtleTheTurtle

[Hanaisse]

Hello MyrtleTheTurtle, welcome to TESA.

 

You shouldn't have a Scene Root on export, but glad you got it sorted. You could double check your export settings with mine at the end of Part 4.

[soupdragon]

Hi, thanks for the tutorial. I have a question... is it possible to import the UV map or do I have to create it from scratch in Blender? I can export the map from Nifskope as a TGA file but I can't seem to find any way to import it into Blender if its even possible. I'm only trying to make some minor modifications and I'm a complete Blender newbies. I can find my away around the basics, enough for what I need anyway, but this point is eluding me. Thanks.

[Hanaisse]

Soupdragon;

 

It's not possible, but not necessary either. Just import the mesh, assign material and textures to it, then go to the UV Editor to make your changes.

You can also edit the UV in NifSkope.

[hpllaser]

Hi Hanaisse

I'm new to making armor for skyrim. Trying to modify one that already exist.

Kinda stuck on the part 4 of your tutorial. I have now idea how to get those setting to import the meshe.

I downloaded all the exact same version of what you have and the NIF script. 

But i have no idea how to get it running... =/

[hpllaser]

Alright I figured out that part, now im stuck again at the number 6 of part 4.

Can't find how to add material and texture ><

[Hanaisse]

Add material and textures in Blender.

[hpllaser]

Thanks!

[longpinkytoes]

hey Hanaisse~

thank you for making a this tutorial for all us noobs

lost in a sea of wild speculation and misinformation.

 

my question is since i'm using the lastest nifscript

on a more recent version of blender... what changes?

tx~ ^__^

[Hanaisse]

Hello Longpinkytoes, and welcome to TESA! (I almost forgot to answer, lol)

 

You'll have to be more specific about what versions you're using of what.

 

- Nifscripts 2.5.9 (latest) supports Blender 2.49b and 2.6.x verions

- Nifscripts 2.6.0a4 (very alpha build) supports Blender 2.7.x versions

 

Nifscripts 2.5.9 will not work on Blender 2.7.x. The nifscripts are currently being rewritten into the alpha build to support all of Skyrims features in the latest Blender.

[longpinkytoes]

- Nifscripts 2.6.0a4 (very alpha build) supports Blender 2.7.x versions

the plugin i have says 2.6.0a0 and my blender is 2.72

nifskope is version 1.1.3 but maybe that's not important...

[Hanaisse]

You should be ok with that combination, or you could get the latest 2.6.0a4 here. There has been no changes yet to the plugin because of 2.72, it's the same as 2.70 but will work. Might want to keep an eye on that link for more information, or follow the Niftools people on Twitter for updates.

 

Personally, I have not taught myself any version of Blender higher than the 2.49b yet (I'm way behind, I know lol), so I really wouldn't be able to say what the differences in my tutorial would be for the newer versions. I do plan on doing that though.

[ANTCJudgment]

Hi Hana,

 

First off, even if people have probably said this a hundred times to you, I have got to thank you for the in depth guide that you have posted pertaining to this subject. I would definitely have not gotten as far as I have on what I am modifying right now (a mesh that a friend gave to me and said that I could help with thanks to my small amount of experience with Blender), but I have a few questions.

1. I am having great difficulty importing a "clean skeleton" into the program, having checked and double checked the steps that lead up to importing said skeleton, I'm pretty sure nothing else is the problem but this, I am more or less stuck. I tried doing that thing of selecting/deselecting, saving and loading to no avail. Is there any way to insure the import of a "clean" skeleton besides the aforementioned method?

 

2. This particular mesh (of an armour that I am assuming is custom, as I have never seen it either on the Skyrim Nexus, Steam Workshop or in the Vanilla game itself) uses a custom skeleton, which means that the entire armour is technically classified as a SPB_32_BODY despite being, for all needs and intents, a full body covering armour. Here is a link to the picture of the unmodified skeleton of this armour:

 

Skeleton

 

(sorry for the awry perspective, was in a bit of a rush to take the picture)

Does this custom skeleton make any difference? Does it mean that I have to import this skeleton as the "clean" one when I export? Also, will I have to make more NiTriShapes (for RIGHTARM and LEFTLEG) in this exporting process? Sorry if this seems like a myriad questions with little connection, it's just that this process can get a bit confusing, at least for a first time modder such as myself.

 

So that's basically all the questions that I have. I would like to close by saying thank you once again; I noticed the last post being on just the first of this month. There are not many people genuinely dedicated to helping people free of cost in this would (and seeing the state of the world economy, it's small wonder why, but I digress), and you seem to be one of those people. For that, you have my utmost and sincere gratitude, for whatever that counts.

 

Anyways, should be signing off. It's almost exactly midnight local time.