Here's a quick tutorial on how to create some new armour variety simply by using Nifscope, and cutting and pasting armour, clothing and body meshes together to create some interesting new armours!
I'm not very good at communicating (since the tree hit me), but here goes!

STEP 1:What tools you need

You'll need this software....
Nifscope: https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=170735

and maybe this, if you want to use transparency to cut out pieces of armour.....
DDS Photoshop plugin: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photosh...ds_plugins.html (requires Photoshop to use)

BSA Unpacker: (to unpack the textures and meshes) http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=3117



STEP 2:Getting your workspace ready

It's a very good idea to put all your textures and meshes related to body, armour and clothing into the Oblivion Data folder. Usually pathed at C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data
Then you open up Nifscope and then at the top you go to "Render>Set Texture Folder" http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/9580/tut19ak.jpg and point it to the Oblivion Data folder. That way it won't have any problems finding the textures for meshes you are opening.



STEP 3: Playing with stuffz!

Now open a new peice of armour in Nifscope. I like to open the meshes
C:/Program Files/Bethesda Softworks/Oblivion/Data/meshes/armor/arenaheavyblue/m/cuirass.nif
C:/Program Files/Bethesda Softworks/Oblivion/Data/meshes/armor/arenaheavyblue/f/cuirass.nif
because they have alot of pieces in them already, and they have all the skeletal nodes that armour pieces may need to link to!

Now we need to go to "File > New Window", to load up another armour. If you open up another armour just by double clicking the icons, it won't save what you copy into the right clipboard and it can't paste the pieces from one file to another, so always use "File > New Window" to load another mesh.

Let's say I want to add those super cool Daedric Pauldrons to this arena armour!
First load up the Daedric Cuirass in the new window.
Now click on the Pauldrons and you'll notice the list to the left opens up and a NiTriShape gets highlighted.
Right click that NiTriShape and choose "Block > Copy Branch" http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/4697/tut20jx.jpg
Now go to the armour you originally opened and right click the left list and choose "Paste Branch" http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/4057/tut32of.jpg
Sometimes, it will give you an error when you try and copy the branch 'cannot link to node 'XXXXXX'. That's because the armours are using the same nodes, but they are named just a wee bit different. Just rename the most similar node in your original armour to the name it's looking for. ei: Biped Neck01 to Biped Neck1. It will paste the branch in properly now. And if you are paranoid you can always change the node's name back after you are done.
The armour pieces is in the file now, but that's not good enough. We need to make it part of the actual armour, by linking it to the skeleton. It's super easy, and we have 2 ways to do it.

1) To add the piece while removing a piece from the original
Highlight the NiTriShape of the branch you just pasted in, and right click and choose "Block > Copy"
Then click a piece of the armour you wish to sacrifice for this piece. The left list will expand showing the NiTriShape that piece belongs to. Just right click on that NiTriShape and choose "Block > Paste Over" (paste over only works if you are trying to paste over a block that's the same type as the block you copied. If you are trying to paste a NiTriShape over a NiTriStrip, just right click the NiTriStrip and choose 'Mesh > Triangulate' to turn it into a NiTriShape)http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/2840/tut46qj.jpg
Boom! You're new piece is in the armour and your original is Zapp'd!
See how my chest piece is gone and the pauldrons are on the shoulders? http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/8627/tut60cc.jpg I chose to replace the chest with the pauldrons. The pieces will always be placed in the right area when pasted in this way.
After the procedure you'll notice if you collapse the left list, there are all these blocks left at the bottom. http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/8627/tut60cc.jpg They aren't being used and to avoid clutter should be deleted. Just make sure to collapse the main NiNode so you don't delete anything in there by accident.

2) This is throttlekitty's way to add new pieces without sacrificing one!
Just like the above, copy the branch of a NiTriShape from a set of armour you like.
Now paste that branch in, just the same as above.
Now we need to show the block details. Go to "View > Block Details" to get a whole whack of info at the bottom.
Now click on the original armour's main NiNode and look at the details at the bottom. You need to find the name Children and right click on it, then choose "Array > Add Empty Link" http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/6170/tut73xe.jpg
You'll see that a list of indices expands and one at the bottom named 'none' is highlighted. Just double click 'none' and type the number of the NiTriShape's Branch you just pasted in. http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/5053/tut82yo.jpg
The piece is magically added into the armour! Super sweet! And there are no junk blocks left over!


You can also delete pieces you want from armours too. Just click the piece of armour you want to delete and you'll see a NiTriShape get highlighted on the list to the left. Right click that NiTriShape and choose 'Block > Remove'. This will cause a bunch of junk blocks to appear at the bottom. Just like the first method, collapse the main NiNode and delete those junk blocks. It doesn't need them anymore, they are just clutter.
After you have finsihed mixing and matching armour pieces, click on the main NiNode and go to the block details at the bottom. Remember the section in there called Children?
If we right click on that and choose 'Array > Remove Bogus Links' it will delete any bogus indices the main NiNode is looking for that don't exist anymore. I hope this helps with any crashing issues. I'm going to keep playing with that to make sure.

Not only can this all be done with armour, but it can be done with body parts, and clothing.
Each armour takes up a space in the game (ie: Cuirass takes up upperbody and arms.)
If your new armour doesn't have everypart of the upperbody and arms covered, you will need to add either the arms and upperbody meshes in, or you can open other armours and use little pieces of the body that they have to fill in the gaps. If you don't have all the gaps filled, your armour is going to have an invisible person inside of parts of it!
Don't worry about skin colour on the body parts you put in. The game will use the actors skin colour to colour those pieces properly!

Here is a simple armour I made by mixing and matching pieces.
http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/261/testingarmour5wp.jpg

Sometimes when you put different armour pieces together you will get parts clipping through other parts. You can use transparency to hide those parts poking out.


Transparency Time

Now to apply transparency to pieces that you either want to avoid poking through other pieces, or you just want to make a V-Neck Sweater or something silly.

First use the methods above to add a body mesh underneath, if your armour should have some skin under the parts you are going to cut out. Otherwise you're going to be able to see through the person in those areas.

This is how to apply transparency to a piece (you'll need photoshop and that .dds plugin I mentioned up top, in order to control transparency)

First click on the piece you want to add transparency. The left list expands to show it's NiTriShape.
Right click that and choose 'Node > Attach Property' and pick NiAlphaProperty.
Boom! A new block appears called NiAlphaProperty. http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/1032/tut99nw.jpg
Right click NiAlphaProperty and choose 'Flags'.
Set that so that 'enable testing' is checked off and 'Alpha Test Function' is changed to 'greater' or 'always'. http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7696/tut101gc.jpg
Now that piece has transparency properties which are controlled by it's texture map's alpha channel.
It's best to duplicate that texture map the piece is using and rename it. Then point to the new texture by opening up the block NiTexturingProperty within the NiTriShape of that piece. You'll see a place to point to a new file name there.

Now to apply transparency.
One good thing to do is right click on the pieces NiTriShape and choose 'Texture > Export Template'. That will give you a template map you can overlay onto the texture map to make it a little easier to figure out where to add transparency. http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/5205/tut116ib.jpg

Now open up the texture map and the template map (if you made one) in photoshop. Put the template map over the texture and set it's 'Layer Style > Blending Properties' to Overlay.
You may need to resize the template map to the same dimensions as the texture first. You'll get an image like this. http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/3967/tut128fx.jpg
Now you can select the areas you want to be transparent. Use whatever tool you like, I prefer the polygonal lasso, but I'm a nutcase.
When you've selected the areas you want to be transparent, click on channels and go to the alpha channel. It should be all white, you want to make just the areas that you want tranparent black, so use the selection you made to blacken those areas (you can use shades of gray to make parts semi-tranparent too).
Here's my alpha channel to cut the chest part out (I've overlapped it onto my texture map to show you better what parts are where... http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/3899/tut123ib.jpg

Here's what my dude looks like with no chest piece on his ebony armour!
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/6834/te...garmour29yj.jpg

It can be very tricky to do, but it takes practice and patience. Stick with it and it can be really fun!




BTW, if anyone knows of a way to make all the pasted pieces in your new armour use the same texture map file without overlapping areas, please post how. The problem I have is that each piece pasted is using a different texture map. If I point all those pieces to the same texture map, I may get a problem where the pauldrons and part of the chest piece will be using areas of the same texture map. That's not something I want!

w00t! good work!

Great tutorial! Need to go try some mixing now.

Oi, that took some work. I've never done that before.
Everytime I thought I might need a picture to show a step, I sighed because I'd closed all my windows down.

Hopefully someone out there can find out how to get all the textures to use one file without overlapping one another. Until then I'll have to use mulitiple texture maps for each new set of armour.

This is great RedFeather. Thank you for taking the time in putting this together!

After copying a block, when I go to replace another, I right click but I only get the Paste block and no Paste Over.

Thanks for the Tutorial! Works like a champ until I equip my new armor in game. Then I crash. Any idea why? All I did was take a robe removed the legs inside it. Put the real pelvis and legs inside and removed the front panel of the robe. I followed your steps to the tee. /sigh No talent I have

You are clicking "Copy Branch" , as you were supposed to EARLIER, as opposed to regular "Copy" now.

I think? That was what tripped me up for a sec.

oi i did the same and it crash for me too <,<
I tryed it on a robe & the db armor still crash..

After you copy your branch into the new armour, you just need to copy the NiTriShape block and paste over another one within the main NiNode. Copy and paste over only works if what you copied is the same type of block that you are pasting over. NiTriShape to NiTriShape. I think if a piece is NiTriStrips, you have to right click and choose Triangulate to convert it to NiTriShape before you can paste over it. I hope that helps!



I normally don't delete pieces. But mine is crashing when I delete certain pieces within the armour, instead of replacing them with pieces. I'm just going to test something I noticed to see if it works properly. I think it will! Be right back!

I'm back! Okay, I think I got the crashing thing worked out. After you are done mixing and matching armour pieces, click on the main NiNode and go to the block details at the bottom. Remember the section in there called Children?
If we right click on that and choose 'Array > Remove Bogus Links' it will clean up any indice references the main NiNode has that don't exist anymore.

It does not even give me the Paste or Paste Over options After I "Copy Branch"

Red,

To use the same texture map and not get the overlapping you're talking about you'll have to reUV map the various elements of your nif.

Perhaps the easiest way of doing this (and I can only really describe it for Blender) is if you bring in all the .obj elements and join them into a single object using the join objects function. You can now setup a UV map for the armour as a whole piece and lay it out.Then, to rexport all of the pieces separately again click on one vertice of the main body, select linked vertices, select inverse and delete the selected vertices. Then export the remaining cuirass. Control z to undo the last delete and repeat this for all the other parts. That way you should be able to setup a single UV map appropiately for the full set of armour. Remember to use a large .tga though because I presume the reason Beth didn't texture this way is because using a 512 canvas for the whole armour will give crap resolution.

For some reason I can't save my new armor as a nif. It says that I am saving it as a nif but then when I check it in my folder, it says that its just a "file." Anybody else have this problem before or know how to fix it. If so please....

i tried this and got a real nice combination of some mithril shoulder pads on a robe texture i did, yet the game crashes as soon as i equip the robe. Iv tried to remove bogus links from the children bit and i did the process exactly as stated so must there be something diffrent about the robe mesh that means it does not like extra bits attached?

Sometimes it does that. Renaming the file to have a .nif extension works wonders.



Maybe you have some extra property indexes that need cleaning?

i set my texture folder but then it still doesnt find the textures even after i unpack everything. whats up?

Ok i did the mythic Dawn/ DB rob and it worked fine in nifskope then i loaded it in cs changed everything then went to play ovblivion. When i equipted the armor it remained unchanged

Hey, anyone, I after I've unpacked the BSA's, do I need to keep the BSA's? Or can I just put the new folders into my data folder?

ok i remove the sleeves from mcsneakyshirt06 and i add arms properly but there is still a space in the armpits, how can i add a filler there without replacing the main chest piece?

anyone have any ideas on how i can fix these invisible armpits?

when they said clear gel deoderant they werent kidding!

sadly no, its the diffcult part of doing this is finidng comibnations that look good and go well togeather, without gaps ect. btw i tried clearing bogus properties too and i still get a game crash on equip. does the shoulderpads i put on my robe have to use the same texture file or something? i wouldnt have thought so as wizard robes and monks draw form 2 diffrent texture files.

plz someone help me!. when i save my armor i dont get a nif .. but just a file.. no specific file?!

IBM: read the reskinning tutorials on the CS wiki. You're definitely missing a step or two.

http://cs.elderscrolls.com

i do ThrottleKitty's add empty link and then type in the node method but when i load the armor in CS i get a bunch of missing bone errors, and/or crashes. tips?

I'm also getting the crash issue - I've done the cleanup, I've associated everything as a child of the main node, and I honestly can't think of anything else to do.

It couldn't be that the model is referencing multiple texture files at once, could it?

thanx man thats just what i needed!!

Hey

Ive been also having prob with crashes/errors .Got tired of trying but one day i picked it up again...did the steps and got fed up again lol.

Next time when i replaced the armor parts i just went to skininstance of the pasted part and put in the bone links manually to the nodes inside ur primary NiNode(root).(dont forget to assign it to the skeleton root (0) in the NiSkinInstance)
U have the original files anyway so u can check what bones r used in the skininstance of the part for reference.

Just to be sure do the children ...remove bogus links... step and ur armor should work now.
For some reason for me the armor only works when replacing parts so pls do take an armor with lots of NiTriShapes ...u can always delete what u dont need.

For the saving probs check if its rly says [ur driveletter]:/ whereever ur oblivion textures folder is next to the flower.
I always input the driveletter manually just to be sure.(for me for some reason niscope sometimes "forgets" my driveletter)
And when saving the nif include .nif.

Hope this helps
night76

maybe the problem is not multiple texture files being used, but the fact that they are both in diffrent folders? im gonna try putting them both in same folder see if it works

I'm pretty sure I've figured it out.

The problem is that you're adding pieces onto an item that doesn't have skeleton references for them, and when trying to load the item the editor is all "whoah crap" and crashes. Same for the game, probably.

Night76 was saying something about manually tying skeleton references to items; I haven't really found where or how to do that, seems pretty advanced. You might try copying the bits you want onto something like the steel cuirass or arena armour and discard everything you don't want - it's about five minutes of work, but it does work. Starting with something like the leather cuirass? Less likely to work as well.

Hi. Cool tutorial. I never planned on trying to make my own items until I saw this, and it looked easier than I thought. That said, I'm having a problem with creating my new armor. I used upperclass shirt 02 as my basis. I removed the sleeves, and added the leather cuirass sleeves. I also added leather greaves over-top of the goofy spandex legs that are attached to the shirt. And I threw the bandolier from the leather cuirass on for some style. My problem is that none of the leather peices show up in the game. I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong and was hoping you could help me out. Here is a screenshot of my nifskope window:

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/brwill14/customarmor.jpg

Briz9,
hard to be sure from your posted image. In my experience added parts of a mesh not showing in a game are generally the result of one (or both) of two things being missing; either:
a.) A relevant skinning data block: i.e. SkinPartition; NiSkinInstance; or
b.) The trishape data block is appearing below the bones in the children list.

- of course there could be: c, d, e, f, and so forth which added to this list (missing normal map for instance?) but I'm assuming you've done all the more basic part's right.

On the invisible armpits question, it's pretty unsurprising that the different elements of a mesh don't match up perfectly (infact it's always more of a surprise when it does work). You can fix the problem by exporting the two pieces involved in the offending juncture into a 3d modelling app as obj's and tweaking them from there. Provided you don't delete or add vertices, or otherwise break the surface of the mesh you should be ok. For instance to seal up armpits in Blender just select the vertices around the hole and reposition them on the relevant axis. You could even use proportional fall off and just focus on one vertex on either side, scaling on the z axis.

Finally, for those of you having crashing problems odds on (as sediment has observed) it's because your pasting in branches which refer to bones not on the scene root list, or you've renamed the bone references to be compliant (as Red suggested at the start of his tutorial) but the twists are different and so a simple rename won't work. That might put a hole in Night76's plan, but not necessarily. For those of you (like Sediment) who didn't understand what Night meant I'll try and explain it more step by step:

1.) Copy over the relevant branch (let's say the arms of one cuirass onto another) as Redfeather described at the outset.
2.) In a separate window, open an original version of the cuirass you're pasting into.
3.) In both windows find the NiSkinInstance block for the arms and in the details window for those blocks open up Bones. Now, the Bonescrossrefs for the arms you've pasted in should match up to the bones cross refs for the original arms. If they don't, then you have to renumber/rename the bones cross refs for the pasted arms so that they encompass all of the same bones.

I think that's what Night76 had in mind, if it's not hopefull he'll clarify.
In theory it should work. The problem is that if you go on to look at the NiSkinData and NiSkinPartition blocks (sub-blocks within the SkinInstance) you'll see that there is further data relating to the bones. If that is radically different from the data of the pasted piece then you probably won't be able to pull off the switch. Firstly it's too much to change, and secondly even if you could the vertices would be in the wrong place for the vertex weighing and so again it wouldn't work. In conclusion then, if you're getting crashes and the above technique doesn't sort if for you chances are it won't be fixable. You then have two choices: sit back and wait for improved Blender export scripts, or shell out for 3Ds Max 8.

a.) I didn't create a new texture for this peice. I just hoped that since it showed correctly in Nifskope, that it knew where to find the relevant textures. How would I create a new texture that uses the correct sections from different items?

b.) I don't even know what that means. haha.

As for the gaps in the armpits, I have downloaded the 3ds Max 8 free trial, but I have never used it so I don't really know how to do the things you are talking about. I loaded up that same upperclass shirt 02 to try and play with it, but I could only select whole sections. Not sure how to select specific points.

Briz9,
OK, I suspect you're more of a problem b, than a type case. What I mean by the solution to b is fully laid out at the start of this thread by RedFeather. In the block details for the Scene Root Node you'll find children and within that indices. When you paste in a new part the NiTrishape block of that part must appear towards the top of that list of children and not (as will happen by default) at the bottom. What you have to do is increase the number of indices by 1, update the array and then start moving all of the existing block numbers down one place, then go back to the top and put your new NiTrishape block number at the top. (Like I said, RedFeather covered this already, and this step is vital).

As to the Max free trial I wouldn't bother with it if I were you. I suspect it has restrictions on import/export and goodness knows what else. Besides which it's trial period will run out and then what have you got. Go download Blender - it's genuinely free and more than adequate to the task.

Cool. I will do that. Thank you.

A bump for a great tutorial.

I may have been at one time, but it isn't now. Or I'm blind and don't see it. Either are just as likely


When you paste in a new part using "throttlekitty's way" the NiTrishape block of that part must appear towards the top of the list of indices, above any bones (Bip01...) and not at the bottom so you have to reorder the Indices.

This is a revision to that part called "throttlekitty's way" of linking a pasted in NiTriShape branch to the skeleton.


You've got your block pasted in but haven't added a link for it yet:

- In the Block List select the block named "NiNode" with the value "Scene Root" (I think it's always the first one).
- In the Block Details expand "Children" and within that expand "Indices".
- Right-click "Children" and do "Array -> Add Empty Link" this makes a place to move existing links down to.
*- Double-click the new "None" link and enter the block number for the first block that is a bone (Bip01...). Now you'll have two entries that are the same.
- You should now have a list with parts at the top and bones at the bottom. Somewhere near the top will be a duplicated bone entry.
- The top one of the two duplicates is what you'll want to change to add in the new part you pasted in the "NiTriShape" for.
- This last step probably doesn't do anything but it can't hurt. Right-click the very first "Indices" (the one just under "Num Indices") and do "Array -> Update".

* If you have done this like it was originally written and you've read this far down the thread because it isn't working and you want to try this to see if it fixes it:
*- Double-click the one you added and enter the block number for the first block that is a bone (Bip01...). Now you'll have two entries that are the same. You don't need to make a new empty "None" link. Just change the one you added.

Thx for this great tut.

But there is a big problem in female chars: the armor is in the most cases smaller than the body!

I did a full body transplantation in Heavy Champion Armor (because of all included details and bones) with Eshmes legs and tail, No Blob Boobs and original arms/ hands, and must saw, that there are lots of clipping failures in boobs, arms, back and hands... I tested it, and found the same failures with the original body meshes.

A big programmers error in reasoning?

End of the dream of new erotic clothes and armor.

I can't get that one unpacker to download can you recomend any others?

I can't seem to find this function of adding an empty link. I have the data in the bottom window, I find the children and expand it. I right click children and my only option under array is to update. I have no option of adding an empty link in any of the children of any parts of my armor.

One other thing; the tutorial uses the words, 'put body meshes under the armor'. This is impossible right? Two things cannot occupy one spot. It is either going to be a cuirass, or a body torso. You cannot put the cuirass over the torso, right?

How does one divide the torso into multiple pieces? In the female arena cuirass mesh, the body's chest and armpits are separate for example, as is the stomoch of course which is missing. How can I make the stomoch of the torso mesh into one of these 'parts'?

Above the Children you'll see Num Children. Increase that by one and then on children update the array. One extra child link added to the array.



Kinda. You can have two meshes occupying the same physical space but you'd be likely to get clipping issues.



The meshes are all ready divided into separate trishape geom blocks. You can see where the divisions are by clicking them in the render window of Nifskope with highlight selected turned on from the render window. Changing the way the mesh is split up would require the use of a modelling application; currently the only one that can do it reliably is 3ds Max 8 (via the Civ4 exporters). It is hoped that it will become possible with Blender soon too - in fact it should already be possible with Blender it's just very very difficult and the methodology is still being refined. Keep an eye on Cuteunit's [WIP] Honest to god matching Biped thread on these boards for how far progress is getting.



And that is why I won't be helping you.

@ Drakonis: simply change the upperbody pieces with whe hole body from femaleupperbody.nif.

But there is the problem with clipping failures, because the armor is smaller than body.

That's what Darknel won't (or couldn't?) help.

No what I won't help with is the problem you said you were having with clipping when trying to make your erotic clothes. And note that IS won't NOT can't.

Yeah, but still need no further help - doing it myself with blender.

Just have done my first piece- and it works!

Ahh thanks darknel! Got it workin. And yeah..its clipping \= I do have 3ds 8 but I am no good with it and all the talk about skeletal nodes and what not is over my head.

Quite a lot of clipping issues can be resolved by a very simple rescale on obj export. If you make one mesh (the one internal to the armour) fractionally smaller than the other you can reduce the clipping problems. Provided you don't scale too much and don't rearrange the vertices the original vertice groups remain stable.

This is probably in vain, but please don't use this to make more erotica.

Of course seeing as you have Max you could go even further in changing the mesh...so envious...must resist urge to pirate...

What are "erotica"?
I don't want to make Oblivion to a porno, but some armor like Luis Royo created would be great especially for mage females.

The so called "female armor" in Oblivion for my opinion looks like a round iron stove.

Good idea making the body mesh slightly smaller. Now if I can just figure out how to get all of the data back onto my edited meshes. Perhaps you can help me with that. I export my mesh but all it has it NiTriStrips with nothing in it. It has no nodes, no material, and no texture. I tried copying the NiTriShape from the original but when I paste it, it tells me it cannot map bip01 clavicle which is the first one. The tutorial said to rename one of them, but my edited mesh doesn't even have a clavicle heh.

How do I get all of the original data back onto my edited mesh?

Thanks man.

Not what "are" but what "is" erotica. You'll find the answer here - don't worry it's a dictionary ref not porn




That's not so bad then. Your previous post definately mentioned the word erotic and I took that at face value. Sorry. It's just there does seem to be a fairly large phalanx of modders obsessed with ogling polygonal representations of the girlfriends they'll never have and I don't want to be actively assisting them in doing it.

Drakonis,

I'm not 100% clear what you're asking.

What I meant by exporting and reimporting for scaling issues was as obj not as nif. So all you have to do is right click the trishape in Nifskope : obj - export.
Import that obj into Max (sweet sweet Max....must acquire...*Darknel regains his focus*) and rescale it to be slightly smaller, then export as obj and in Nifskope click back on the same trishape obj - import.

If you've edited the nif directly in Max and then exported that and opened it in Nifskope then you'll need to have exported the armature too, reweighted, etc, etc. That's precisely what you want to avoid having to do.

Indeed I was doing it wrong. I don't even see what I need this civ4 exporter for if I'm just going to import and export .obj files. I thought I needed it to export nif files. Well anyway that worked, I got all the data, but it isn't lined up. Where does my mesh need to be in 3ds in order to always line up correctly? If I put it right smack in the center standing straight up will it always get in right?

I have another question! This is the most help I've gotten on this subject in like a month. Say I want to duplicate a mesh from the game but add my own texture to it BUT I only want one instance of it--not everywhere in the game. I want to use the same mesh but save it as a separate mesh with a separate unique texture. The original meshes in the game that I borrowed from should not be altered. How is this accomplished?

Question 1:
Best way to ensure correct alignment is to export the objs you want to align with aswell and then match them up in Max. So if say you're altering a cuirass import it twice; once is the pure reference you need to align to the other is your edited one which gets aligned to. That said, I use Blender and I have heard people using Max complaining about alignment issues (I don't know for sure because I've never seen the export scripts for Max but there could be something screwing up there). One work around would be to download Blender (it's free BTW) import your new model from Max into it as an obj and do the alignment in Blender, because I know for sure that it remains set.

Question 2:
Is your expanded BSA in your Data folder? It really shouldn't be IMO. But anyway all you have to do is copy the nif and paste it into a folder within your Oblivion Data\meshes folder (you can make any subdirectory you like and you can name the pasted nif anything you like). Then in the CS edit an existing weapon/armour/whatever give it a new ID and set the nif it's to use as the one you just pasted. When you go to exit the edit window it'll ask if you want to create a new FormID say yes, and then you can put that new item into the game the same way you would any other by drag and drop.

A question to RedFeather 1975 and Darknel:

Do you agree to a translation of your tutorial in german language for this users of german forums (for example www.tes-oblivion.de) which aren't able to read english?

It would be great. Thx.

Growlf,
As I've demonstrated on this board before my German is barely passable so I'm hoping this is an offer to do the translation work.

This tutorial is really RedFeather's I'm just troubleshooting here in his absence; but I honestly can't imagine he'd say no. As a good European citizen I'm very keen that my continental cousins shouldn't be excluded so if you need any help simplifying tutorials (either this one or the nif related ones on the wiki) I'd be glad to offer any assistance you require.

- edit -
BTW I never even clocked that you were German before; that's why I hooked you up to the dictionary link for erotica earlier; I just assumed you were another vocabulary challenged American . You're English is excellent,

Vocabulary challenged american lol. Well, you know the education here is...well, you've seen the outcome of it. It ain't always pretty.

You have been a tremendous help Darknel and I can actually say, at this moment for now, I have no more questions. You answered them all! It is truly miraculous

hmm... does anyone else think this topic should be pinned?

ok so im trying my hand at this and there is a certain male outfit that i want to use for a female as well as male, i think though since the male mesh is so different from the female version ( one is a dress female body and the other obvious enough is a male mesh with male clothing )that you cannot use it for both. in my round about way i think im asking, for example like the emperors robe, its for a male body, and if i put it on a female one the female body takes the male shape inside the outfit ( due to it being male) so if i make an armor from a male mesh it will make the female player character when wearing it look like they have a male body. am i correct in this? if this is so then to make my theives outfit for male and female then i guess i will just use retexturing and alphas. alas the one other question i have after a small amount of fiddling around with this editing stuff is this: if i successfully make a new set of clothes with nex textures, how do i save it out so it works in game? ( put it into my already near finished mod castle?) is it self explanitory and i should just keep going through the process on this thread?

also, how do i make one armor for both male and female?

male and female meshes are separate files, and are defined in the CS.

You can tell the game which one to use for male, and which one to use for female.

ok so you have to tell it which one is male and female? how? what am i in for? i assume its not an automatic process. also when i create new armor and such does nifskope create a plugin like the CS does? for the armor? how does this work? or do i have to somehow transfer the armor into the CS in order to make it a plugin?

It might help to play with the cs a little bit. Check some of the wiki guides to get started there, it's fairly easy to pick up

basically, when you create an entry for armor in the CS, you give it a name, tell it what armor rating it will have, etc.

There are a set of buttons that also let you select with model files to use. there are two columns here, one for male, and one for female.


Nifskope just alters the .nif file, and does nothing with the CS.

thankyou much to everyone who helps me out, i will mess with the program a bit more and see what i can do with it to fill my needs. at any rate im sure ill be back here for questions in the future!

thanks all for everything!

im having the same problem that draknel was having, im using the upperclass robe and adding pauldrons to it, but under children there is only update, how do i add another num child so that this works?

Bumbety bump. Great tutorial. Should be pinned

lil bump to awsome tut

how do i make it a nif file or dds file? I've got it open in photoshop.

k worked it out, but when i put my armour on my char becomes invisible???

Ok thanks to Sean_IX explaining how to easily move the models above the bones I got my armor working ingame, however I have one problem. It is a rather cosmetic problem. I have a special affection for the little skirt thingie on the female leather armor (also known as Pit Gear, models also used for arena armor, but in different blocks). And seeing how my character is male I want it on a male armor. After some trying around I found it fitting nicely onto the DB Shrouded armor, which fits me perfectly since it is one of the armors I enjoy the most in the game. So after alot of fitting and reskinning I felt I were satisfied with the look of the whole armor, I got it ingame (again thanks to Sean_IX). Now the problem occours, the thing that is hanging down between the legs both infront and back looks stretched. I figure this is because it is connected to the thighs and seeing how the male characters has a much wider stance than the females it gets stretched. I have no idea if I can get this to work or not, but I wondered if anyone (more skilled than me) would know for a way to disconnect the model from the thighs, having it hanging down instead of being stuck to the legs making it look stretched. I tried deleting the thigh entries under the model, but that just deleted the thigh bone entries alltogether and screwed up the game (hehe I had to try). Any input would be good, I am all up for trial and error, so I will keep trying however some brainstorming never hurt. Especially if someone more skilled than me is the one with the input to the brainstorming.

ok for a small update I removed alot of textures from the similar thing on the blades armor, and I found out it has nothing to do with females and males at all, this is just the way these armors work ingame... Just becomes alot more noticeable when not having anything around it as it is usally on the blades armor. I am still looking for brainstorming however seeing how I really want this type of thing in my armor a semi skirt if you will

Ok this thread seems to be dead, but I am gonna give it try anyways..
Playing around with Nifskope and textures I find one problem, or rather a variable.. Some armors and clothing in oblivion (or some parts) have mirriored textures on the inside of the model. Cutting things away from texture with alpha channel does so you can see through the armor at the area you cut away, because there is no texture there.. So I wonder if anyone of you know if and if so how to make the textures mirrior themself on the inside of a model, or how to aply textures to the inside of a model allready existing. If you would have to make your own mesh for this to work, please just tell me so I can stop looking.

How do i make the transparasy of a texture only for black in gimp? Whenever i try it makes the black totally transparent and everything else like 60% transparent or so...

Attach a NiStencilProperty to the NiTriShape node, and set the Draw Mode to 3.

Thanks alot DeathBane.. that totally fixed my problem

ok another thing I came over, the sound of world objects seems to be tied to the mesh, or nif file. Because if you retexture a heavy armor model and enter into the game as something light, it still ends up making a heavy metallic sound when hitting the ground in game. Now this is no serious problem, seeing how it is not often you throw around your modified or new armors. However I am a bit of a perfectionist therefore I wonder if anyone know where or how you assign or change the sound attribute. Thanks

Ok this might be a silly question, where the heck is the complete character model. Trying to compile a character inside your armor with what is on different clothing and armor is impossible. And I can't seem to find the models for itemless characters ingame.


Edit. Ok now I feel silly, found it. After skimming through the characters/_male only seeing kf's I thought it was animations only. Silly me

Being able to do alpha textures will do my fish some good, thanks a lot!

Regards!

The Stencil Property method works great in nifskope, but there is a problem ingame.. might not be related to this, but rather to the alpha settings.. Everything I cut something away by using alpha node makes everything beneath that cut away part that also have an alpha node invis as well.. this makes cutting several layers impossible.. it also makes my original problem return.. can anyone tell me why this is happening?

can you post this on the wiki?

I don't really get the wiki.. I was about to, but then slof returned my pm. She told me that this is a flaw in the game engine.. it does not work very well with alpha channels at all, so I have started doing custom meshes instead.. Wish me luck

I think I know what you mean... In the Flags property of the NiAlphaProperty, make sure the Alpha Test Function is set to "greater or equal".

Also, you can't have multilayered full alpha channelled textures without having glitches, but you can have a full alpha on top on a 1 bit alpha texture without problem.

I am not pretty good at this, but i managed to make a armor at last, but how to get textures on it? In nifscope the armour doesnt have any textures, in cs there is textures on some parts while the other are invisible, help?

great tutorials, not sure y i dont chck this area of the forums more often.

when u made that armor did u use armor already in the game? idk but u have to UV map your model to apply textures.

[Edit] Ahh also in Nifscope there are the different section for the different parts right, in each section there is a texture path, or so there should be make suer u have that too

[Edit2] Then again if u didnt have that part it would show up pink am i wrong? ok im just trying to help and dont know too much, better wait untill a pro can answer your question

Yes,Thanks! It worked! Now i just wonder if there is any way to make pieces larger/smaller? I managed to do that before but now i cant remind how i did...

This is both a bump for the tutorial, and a question:

I'm trying to add some pauldrons to a robe of mine, and I'm up to the part where you have to right click on children, and go to "array>Add Empty Link". When I right click on children, all I'm getting under "array" is the "Update" option. Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening?

I think this tut may be out of date.

@Cornicer1, Open up the children branch. Do you have any entries that say 'none'? If so change that to the number beside your stray NiTriShape. That should add it to the main NiNode. If there aren't any 'none's change the number in the block above the children branch to a higher number then right click on children then go to array update. Then there should be a spare 'none' entry in the children branch.

Thank you, Durgis! That worked perfectly.

A nudge up for a good tutorial, so it doesn't get purged.

I have two questions regarding the tutorial:

First, is this the easiest method to transpose one armor set over another? For example, if all I want to do is replace the graphics for the default steel armor (heavy) with the default chain mail armor, is this the easiest way to accomplish this?

Second, if I am successful in replacing the steel armor graphics with the chain mail graphics, are the stats for the heavier armor left intact (weight, protection, cost, etc.)?

My goal is to wear chain mail armor, but have the stats of a heavy armor like steel and have it add to my heavy armor skill.

Thank you, in advance, for your assistance.

No this tutorial is for something else.

to do what you want to do, you only need to solely use the CS.

You can just beef up the stats of chainmail armor so its equivalent to steel. Unless you want to rid the game totally of steel, In which case open the each peice of steel armor in the CS, and change over the icons and nifs to chainmail. And in game all steel armor will switch over to looking like chainmail but still effectively be steel in everyway besides the look.

Well this is an old thread but since someone brought it to the top I'll go ahead and add in that I have a video tutorial that goes through this process, just click the CS video tutorials link in my sig.

Darknel wrote May 27 2006, 11:07 AM:



And now I'm laughing about your childish refusal.

Sometimes, it will give you an error when you try and copy the branch 'cannot link to node 'XXXXXX'. That's because the armours are using the same nodes, but they are named just a wee bit different. Just rename the most similar node in your original armour to the name it's looking for. ei: Biped Neck01 to Biped Neck1. It will paste the branch




How does this go? I need a screenshot of the list to know what node he's talking about to change im tryn to attach a Hood to Helmet

nvm

Great tutorial but i am having some problem. I have made i piece in the upper chest of the darkbrotherhood armor invisible. When i look at the armor in game the body is also invisible at the same place. I have added a body mesh were the armor is invisible but it doesn´t show. In Nifskope it looks correct.
Nifskope picture

I figured it out..

I know this is kind of out of date, but it's still a good guide. Just keeping it alive!

Like Ninja Monkey's post above, I realize this topic is old but very very useful. I've been hitting some road blocks with my armor I'm adding to Oblivion. The armor I'm using is non-Vanilla/custom armor that currently has no assigned skeleton nodes. I simply have models and textures prepared. So, my question is this... Following this tutorial, can I cut and paste my custom armor onto existing Vanilla armor even though my custom armor has no skeleton nodes assigned? Would the Vanilla skeleton nodes automatically assign themselves to the custom armor if I follow this tutorial?

this tuturial sucks, sorry but u suck at giving instructions i cant follow u even wit the ss

Well ain't that a good example of constructive criticism...

I learned how to do this a while ago by myself, and it wasn't easy. You should have made it before then.

How did I not see this?

I was looking for something like this last night too.


Thanks!

If this tutorial is this popular it should be added to the CS Wiki, I sent the author a PM asking for permission.

This tutorial is now available on the CS Wiki, it's updated to work with the latest version of NifSkope.

Making new armor from cut and paste @ CS Wiki

Sweet. Thanks.

What version are u using in this tut?
Cause mine doesn´t look like the one on your pics.
And I don´t have an "set texture folder" -option in the render menu.
This is what my nifskope looks like:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o235/Zedzo/namnls.jpg

And btw, as u can see on in the pic. the armor is completly white, why´s that?

this tut is old.
look at the bottom of the render menu, try settings. the reason the mesh is white is because you haven't specified a texture folder.

Is it possible to actually use a single pauldron on another piece of armour? Say I wanted to get the right daedric pauldron of the daedric cuirass, and paste it onto an elven cuirass, and get rid of both elven pauldrons. Basically, so I get an elven cuirass, but with a single daedric right pauldron.

Cheers.

Hey Zedzo, like Ghogiel said, this tutorial is mega old!
I was probably using Nifskope v.0.8.x at the time this was written.
Sorry I can't be of much help as I haven't used Nifskope in a long time and am unfamiliar with the newer versions.
I kinda got hooked on Guild Wars and haven't played anything since. lol

Nice thanks for this, How do I get the armor I make O.o?

Has anyone thought about updating this and putting it on the CS Wiki?

I sure could have used this a couple of months ago.

LHammonds

That's what I did a couple of weeks ago:


Not the whole tutorial is on the CS Wiki yet, I left out the transparency part because that deserves a separate tutorial, but the rest is updated for NifSkope 0.9.8 IIRC.