Animated static NIF works in NIFskope, crashes CS

[syscrusher]

I needed a version of Korana's mill wheel mechanism that has a longer shaft, and created what I need using a combination of Blender and NIFskope. The file I ended up with looks perfect in NIFskope, but trying to render it in the Construction Set causes a crash-to-desktop (CTD) of the CS.

If someone who has more NIF expertise than I do could please download this and help me troubleshoot, I would be much obliged. I didn't want to post the file here on TESA, because I was afraid people would mistakenly download this buggy version for actual use. So it's on my personal web site, in the following folder: http://www.4th.com/tes/ (this is a directory, but the file in question is the only one at the moment).

Thanks for any assistance.

[Meo]

Im no nifskope expert, but a quick look i can see it needs optimization. Theres only one animation, so you could have everything in one NiNode. The collision of the log could also be simpler. Why does it crashes the CS? No idea.

[WindmillTilter]

Hmm the NIF really is a bit of a mess, I don't see anything obvious either. I'm headed for bed but if someone else hasn't spotted the problem when I get off work tomorrow I'll play around. It's bound to be something simple, it always is. There's just a million simple things it could be.

WT

[syscrusher]

Thanks, all. Point granted that this is a messy NIF. I didn't create it; I'm just trying to modify one particular branch of it (the shaft).

If this can't be made to work, I have a workaround in my mod that avoids use of this geometry at all, so don't spend a huge amount of time on it.

[syscrusher]

Side question: Is there a tutorial somewhere about using Blender to create or modify animated statics, or activators? That is, I want to learn to animate things that are *not* creatures or NPCs. I've found lots of tutorials for importing/editing/exporting skeletons, but I can't find a single thing for how to make animated doors, moving platforms, traps, etc. This business of cutting and pasting branches in NIFskope is really painful. I've successfully used the technique to make several animated doors using existing animated NIFs as a base, but that's far from the ideal approach.

[Tamira]

Hey, here is a working Nif:

http://www.file-upload.net/download-4222683/MyMillWheelMech.nif.html

I downloaded the original and replaced your NiTriStrips for the log as well as your collisions (which I adjusted )

Don't know what caused the mess, it said "Links point to wrong block" when I tried to save your nif.

Edited March 29, 2012 by Tamira

[WindmillTilter]

OK turns out the problem was just that there's an incorrect entry in the children array for NiNode Ambre00:00 (22), which points to a collision object. Just change the Num Children entry to 2 and refresh the array and it doesn't crash the CS. If you want I can clean it up a little after work and send it back to you.

I don't know of any tutorials like that off hand, but once you get used to working in NifScope it's actualy pretty painless. When I'm doing the kind of animations you're describing I usually just build them straight in NifScope.

WT

Edit----

Ninja'd by Tamira. Glad you guys got it worked out.

[Hanaisse]

Basic animating tutorial, covers the basics really.

P.S. Using the Construction Set Extender will help you troubleshoot crashes, with better error reporting. Plus it fixes a lot of the CS's instability. It requires OBSE to run, but does not make your mods dependent on it unless you write OBSE scripts.

[syscrusher]

Folks, thanks so very much for all of this! Specific responses below:

@Windmill Tilter: Good catch! I didn't notice the child count was wrong. I know how to fix that, now that I'm aware of the error.

@Tamira: Thanks, I'll download and test that ASAP. I may not get to mod tonight, because a friend is coming over to have me teach him how to install Linux on his laptop.

@Hanaisse: What a great tutorial! I have used NIFskope extensively to modify NIFs, starting with retextures (where everyone starts, I think) and recently to copy nodes from one to another for simple animations. It had never occurred to me to try actually *building* the animation directly in NIFskope, from scratch. I will definitely give this a try. Perhaps in trying to find a Blender solution, I was overlooking a tool that can do just as well, albeit less user-friendly about it.

Again, thanks to all for the informative replies and troubleshooting!

[syscrusher]

Update: I have actually learned how to animate looping statics and controllable animators in Blender! This is *so* much fun! The tutorial I used as a base was here: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/index.php/Morph_Animations_in_Blender . The title caused me not to try it before, but it turns out the export techniques are applicable much more broadly than just morphing animations.