Converting FO3 mod mesh to OB, help required

[JosefGrey]

Hey all. I'm having a REALLY weird problem trying to convert a weapon mesh from an FO3 mod to Oblivion. I've successfully been able to convert the mesh simply by importing it into Blender via the Nifscripts and exporting it with the settings for Oblivion, however upon loading the mesh in the game (equipping the weapon) it crashes. I found if I removed the normal maps from the texture folder it works, although the texture is naturally black since there are no normal maps to load. This makes it pretty clear the normal maps are the issue.

Has anyone ever experienced something similar? I've seen a couple topics on forums about similar issues, but there were no solutions posted. Any advice would be a big help. Thanks!

[_echo]

What is the model you are trying to convert?

What are your blender export settings?

What does the resulting nif structure look like?

[JosefGrey]

What is the model you are trying to convert?

What are your blender export settings?

What does the resulting nif structure look like?

I'm trying to convert the Raptor44 nif from this mod: http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=8108

My export settings are as follows: http://www.box.com/s/5j6fs0s18sgsqkuln9f9

As for the nif, here it is! It's probably easier to take a look instead of posting a bunch of screens: http://www.box.com/s/miza7j26yjl8xkbyaydo

Thanks for the quick response. If you need anything else let me know!

EDIT: Also, I made sure to set the Loc/Scale/Rot on the objects in Blender and then remove the reloading animation nodes so that they wouldn't mess with OB.

Edited February 22, 2012 by JosefGrey

[_echo]

This may be silly, but are your texture paths correct? The nif is looking for them in textures\weapons\1handpistol.

[JosefGrey]

This may be silly, but are your texture paths correct? The nif is looking for them in textures\weapons\1handpistol.

Yeah, I went ahead and made a path in OB to match that (that's the default for pistol textures in FO3). I did discover that some of the file names for the textures aren't acceptable for OB, as it looks for an underscore when it's looking for normal maps... so the texture names have to have the underscores removed (except for the normal maps' _n of course). That said, it is still crashing =/....

[Hanaisse]

If you believe the normal map is the issue, open it in Photoshop or Gimp, and resave it. Or recreate a new one.

(DXT5 if it has an alpha channel, DXT1 if it doesn't)

[JosefGrey]

If you believe the normal map is the issue, open it in Photoshop or Gimp, and resave it. Or recreate a new one.

(DXT5 if it has an alpha channel, DXT1 if it doesn't)

Thanks for the suggestion! I did test that last night and after some more examination I don't think it's the normal maps themselves, but rather an issue with applying them correctly (after looking at another conversion I saw that the normal maps used were the exact same files for both games). I tried to convert another mesh as a test (this one didn't have normal maps), and made my own maps only to find the same thing happened. I've been through the nif a dozen times looking for inconsistencies with the proper Oblivion structure and can't come up with anything. Very frustrated at this point >.<

[Hanaisse]

Ok, going back to the nif then, compared to other Oblivion back weapons this nif is missing a second NiStringExtraData line.

Open any back weapon such as a claymore, warhammer, battleaxe and you'll see what I mean. Copy the node into your mesh.

*fingers crossed*

[JosefGrey]

Ok, going back to the nif then, compared to other Oblivion back weapons this nif is missing a second NiStringExtraData line.

Open any back weapon such as a claymore, warhammer, battleaxe and you'll see what I mean. Copy the node into your mesh.

*fingers crossed*

That was also an observation I made but found after reading up on the extra data block that it isn't necessary, and provides additional physics info for the mesh.

The good news however is that I have made progress I think! It appears Oblivion doesn't like it when a material doesn't have a name, whereas Fallout doesn't care (and in this case it bit me in the butt, because all of the materials were un-named). I don't know if this is actually documented anywhere, so I'm going to make a mention of it to the Niftools guys to see if they could implement a method of giving un-named materials a generic name on export for Oblivion settings.

What I'm still trying to figure out is why this didn't work when I tried it last night (6 hours of troubleshooting earlier). The possibilities are that I either missed a material or that I had to, for whatever reason, use the Update Tangent Spaces spell after renaming the material (which is what I did this time). Now that I have a good lead on the problem I'm going to take a break and try to get the full mesh working later (I stripped it down to just one NiTriStrips to test on).

EDIT: So, after getting the full mesh working, I noticed that it seems every object in the mesh is using one normal map. Is this a limitation of Oblivion? To allow only one normal map per mesh? Here's a picture -- defects are apparent on the grip and cylinder:

Edited February 23, 2012 by JosefGrey

[WindmillTilter]

No Oblivion allows the use of multiple normal maps. I had a quick look at the Nif and noticed that both the grip and cylinder use textures with underscores that you had to fix, any chance you forgot to rename the _n files when you did it?

WT

[JosefGrey]

No Oblivion allows the use of multiple normal maps. I had a quick look at the Nif and noticed that both the grip and cylinder use textures with underscores that you had to fix, any chance you forgot to rename the _n files when you did it?

WT

Bingo! On the money you are. Thanks for that~!