Import armor from FNV?

[fredlaus]

Anyone working on mods for TES4 based on FNV?

[vometia]

I'm not, but I've done it the other way round, so it shouldn't be too much trouble. Only real problem is that it was quite time consuming, but that probably wouldn't be the case for people who are less inept at using Blender than I am!

[fredlaus]

But what is the catch? The files show up both in Blender and Nifscope?

[_echo]

Thats because Blender and nifskope are able to deal with all nif file versions (except skyrim as of yet).

The fact is, fallout and oblivion are very different in their engines, dispite Fallout being based on the engine Oblivion used. There are many differences that need to be factored when tryiong to convert something from one game to the other... which is illegal, I might add.

[fredlaus]

Of course it is illegal. I would have smashed the entire universe if someone had copied my files:-)

Take it easy guys: I am an old fart who still has the urge to ask questions - after 67 years on this planet - and I am hopefully doing this till the day I die. Do not know though what is worst, picking the nurses butts or smashing games. I suppose only time will show.

I loved to play Fallout NV, and I will go back to it after getting it out of my head. In the meantime I am trying to understand the differences between my favourite games - so far;-)

I love you all!!

[DaMage]

We arent allowed to directly import assets from ones game to another....we can only re-create them.

And as of yet, I havent heard of anyone re-creating things from NV yet into the ES games.......I think the styles are too different that it wont fit.

[fredlaus]

I suppose this is a no-no- then? But still a beautifull shirt (Fallout New Vegas, 1950's Style)

[darthsloth74]

Well it works definately. As an aid to learning about the process, what you do on your computer is entirely up to you and not a problem. Of course I'm sure you are well aware of the legal ramifications if this were an actual released mod so I'm not going to go on about that.

In my own 3d experiments there are various differences between the nifs for the currently released games as people have already pointed out. You have the whole dismemberment issue with the F3 and FNV meshes for a start. The fact that most of them are built as complete outifts rather than individual pieces like in Oblivion and to a lesser extent Skyrim. This is a trend seen in recent games since its more time effective to build a complete model, do a high poly sculpt in Zbrush etc than it is to model individual variant pieces, a shame since it limits diversity but understandable for companies on a tight schedule

I always found exporting Oblivion static meshes the easiest. Using 3ds Max, building the model, exporting it with collision. Everything seemed to work properly without extra effort. Whereas Fallout was a pain because the collision mesh and model had to be copy/pasted over the branches of the existing model. The process may be different now I haven't done any Fallout stuff in years.

Outfits and armour were reasonably straightforward too. Rigging is a pain, but thats true for any game engine. Dismemberment was my personal issue since previous versions of the niftools always crashed Max when using a dismemberment modifier. Later versions ironed this problem out.

As far as I am aware of what people have said about Skyrim meshes is the way the shaders work, apparently its quite different and requires more work. However in many regards the meshes and general nif structure is very similar to F3, NV and Oblivion, clearly thats because Skyrim uses a tweaked Gamebryo engine not a completely new one as Todd Howard led us to believe.

[fredlaus]

I have learned a lot by doing this and your comment clarifies what seemed to be a mystery not only for me but to many fellow modders.

I thank you for inspiring me to continue my search for tremendous designs. Every game has its own personality and can bring new details to f.i. Oblivion.

[vometia]

There are many differences that need to be factored when tryiong to convert something from one game to the other... which is illegal, I might add.

I thought it was only illegal to redistribute them; is this not the case...?

[darthsloth74]

I thought it was only illegal to redistribute them; is this not the case...?

The way I understand it is its illegal to port any asset between games, even those produced by the same company. However porting assets at home as a guide only for learning about the nif files etc falls into the grey area of not something that would typically be actionable providing you own all the games in question and do it purely for yourself.

However the moment learning gives way to actual mod releases it becomes illegal due to distributing said assets and I do hope fredlaus has no plans in that area, because that would cause a veritable storm of trouble, be very wrong and lead to banning on many sites and possible legal action by Bethesda.

Of course if you plan to entirely remake NV meshes and port them yourself thats entirely different, but all the work done must be your own, or once again you would be in breach of Bethesda's copyright.

[fredlaus]

Aren't there loads of convertions around? Some clarifing is needed?

[darthsloth74]

Aren't there loads of convertions around? Some clarifing is needed?

Those conversions to which you refer are typically illegal.

Clarification: Are you planning on releasing a mod that combines assets from Fallout New Vegas and Oblivion? If the answer is yes then you would be breaking copyright law.

If no and this is just practice work to understand nifs and everything you produce remains on your own computer then you are fine.

[InsanitySorrow]

That's enough of this conversation, if you want Fallout stuff in Oblivion then you'll either have to make it or get someone else to do so. Any other way is illegal.