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ESV: Skyrim Modding
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3D Craftworks: From Blender To Skyrim
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3D Craftworks: From Blender To Skyrim
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By InsanitySorrow Find their other tutorials
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Submitted
October 19, 2012
Updated
November 4, 2015
As many of the Communities 3D Artists know, we currently don't have any Nifscripts support for Skyrim, so we can't export our creations directly into Skyrim. There is another way we can get our creations into the game, it's a little more involved than we are used too, but it'll serve us well while we wait for the Niftools team to work their magic!
Blender 2.49b - Download from Blender.org Nifskope - Nifskope 1.1.1 Blender Nifscripts - Nifscripts 2.5.8 Pyffi - Pyffi NifUtils - Forum Thread, Download
As I mentioned at the start Skyrim has no Nifscripts support, but thanks to some hard working members of the Community we have a way around this, and you know what?, It isn't as hard as you might think.
First thing we need to do is model our asset, I'm not going to walk you through this here as I'm sure you have something ready made you want to put into the game. So double check that you have everything done, Model, UV Map, Vertex Paint, Materials. This is one I made earlier
The set of tools we'll be using next are setup to make use of Morrowind NIFs as the input NIF, this doesn't mean Morrowind quality NIF, just the NIF version and the very basic setup they have. So what we'll do is export as a Morrowind NIF. Click on File and then Export to see your export options, if everything was installed correctly you'll see a NetImmerse option for our NIF files.
Click it and you'll be able to name your file, then it'll option open up our Export Options screen, what you need to do now is select Morrowind from the Games list, this will change all the options so it exports a Morrowind NIF, there aren't many options for this one so we can leave them all default.
Export it and we can move onto the next part, Nif Preparations
Out of the two files available for download, the one we'll be using first is NifConvert. As the name suggests this will allow us to covert our newly exported NIF into something that Skyrim can use. It takes a lot of the manual hardwork and headaches out of making a NIF file we can use in the game. Open up NIFConvert, you'll be presented with a nice, simple interface.
As you can see there are a few options here, we'll take a quick look at what they are before we continue. In-File - This is the NIF we want to convert, in this case our recently exported NIF. Out-File - This is what we want it saved as, pic a location and set a name. Template - A Template NIF that will be used for the NIF structure and data, this is needed to make our NIF a Skyrim one. Texture Path - This points to your Skyrim install so the texture paths inside the NIF can be correctly set. Those four are the only ones we need to touch, the others can be safely ignored as the defaults will work perfectly fine for use. You'll also notice there is a screen below all these options, that is a log screen which will show us what NifConvert is doing.
So now what we need to do is convert our NIF file, so with NifConvert open use the browse buttons (Ones with 3 dots) to select your newly exported NIF and to set where you want it saved and what you wanted it named.
Smarty Says: To avoid overwriting your file make sure it has a unique name, a simple way of doing this is by adding _Sky to the end of your source NIF's name. This way you know what it is and also the game it's intended for. For the next option what you'll need is a template NIF, easiest option here is to extract something from the game's BSA. For this I'll be using the FarmBannerPost.NIF in the Architecture>Farmhouse folders. The reason for this is I'll be making a static model, so I need a similar model for converting and later for creating the collision for the model. After that set your texture path, do this by navigating to your Skyrim root folder and selecting the TESV.exe, NifConvert will then populate the drop-down list with texture path choices. Select one of those for use in the NIF. Smarty Says: NifConvert will keep your texture names intact and will swap the old texture path for the new one. Hit the convert button and as long as there aren't any problems NifConvert will pump out a new Skyrim ready NIF for you
Last stop, Collision Creation
Before we can go ahead and give our NIF collision we first have to create it. The difference here compared to previous games is the collision is an actual mesh, by that I mean we create it like we would any other model, we'll just use less polys to create it. The reason for this is the tool we'll be using next, Chunk Merge, takes the shape information of the model and uses that for the collisions shape for our In-Game model. We could use our main NIF for collision too by making a copy of the NIF, but this isn't a good idea unless your model is low poly as high poly complex collision can have an impact on the games performance. So best thing to do is either make something new or do a little work on your current model and lower it's poly count down to something more suitable for a collision mesh. For architecture or statics I find the second way the better choice as you'll be wanting and needing the collision to fit closely to the mesh.
This is my Collision model, it's a reduced version of the main model I want to put in game. As you can see it has materials and has been UV mapped, these are only important for the exporting, so if you are making a new mesh you don't have to worry about making a good UV map, anything will do.
For the final part what we want to do is take our Collision Model and add it to our Game Model, to do this we use Chunk Merge. It's the second file available on the Download page. Once you start it up you'll be prompted to locate a NIF.xml file, one of these comes with Nifskope and it's a good idea to use the one from the latest version of Nifskope you would have installed at the start of this workshop. After we've done that UI will open up:
These are the options we'll be needing, the collision source option can be ignored if you're not having problems. NIF File - This is the file we want to add collision too, for us it's the NIF we created in Exporting Assets Collision File - This is the file Chunk Merge will use as the collision information for our NIF Template - A Skyrim NIF Chunk Merge will use for the Collision properties, we're making a Static NIF so we'll use a Static NIF template Collision Material - The material we want our collision to be, IE when hit do we want it to sound like Wood?, Maybe Stone? Okay so the next step is to select our files and then we select the material type we want to use for our NIF from the material type drop down option. The default value there is Stone, which in this case is what I want to choose for mine. Smarty Says: For this I am using the farmbannerpost01.NIF for the static collision properties. After doing all that click the Convert button and Chunk Merge will get to work, it'll add the collision information into the NIF File you have chosen.
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11 Comments donnato 626
Very good tutorial IS. I never thought of exporting for Morrowind. It`s a much simpler .nif config in alot of ways. Thank you for this.
donnato 626
Question: If I want my mallet to be usable in game could I use an item from skyrim which is usable for my template? I`ll have to find a 1 handed object, probably not a sword.The Pick , maybe?
grond 221
It's been my very short experience that I need to change the Skyrim Template .Nif with each use of either app.
Neither worked until I changed the template...
Great tutorial, doood
Hanaisse 569
Does it have to be a MW nif? I prefer to export as FO nifs.
InsanitySorrow 852
Wow I didn't know there were comments The application is setup to use Morrowind NIFs, but it should be able to make use of OB ones, not sure about Fallout as I've not tried those, I think they might work though. On October 22, 2012 at 3:08 AM, donnato said: Question: If I want my mallet to be usable in game could I use an item from skyrim which is usable for my template? I`ll have to find a 1 handed object, probably not a sword.The Pick , maybe? Weapons will work also, but the pick should work for you.
grond 221
Another 2.49 observation - if you leave 'double sided' selected, it adds a NiStencilProperty that NifConvert won't remove. ChunkMerge will work, but the collision it adds will NOT.
Vouivre 53
This works with 3ds max the only problem I've come across is trying to set up the proper collision to a model in question. It seems it maybe somewhat picky in how it does this. Or I may not be doing it properly.
grond 221
Another 2.49 observation: Make sure your two models - mesh and collision - have identical centers, preferably at 0,0,0 on the grid.
SilentSpike 0
Great tutorial IS, haven't checked here in ages and was pleasantly surprised to find this. Finally grabbed myself some time to get back into modeling too! Will you be updating this as new scripts/tools are released?
TAJocelyn 0
So to create a collision mesh from an existing mesh; I need to convert it to single sided and then reduce its poly count with reduce poly count script until its just a basic shape?
alt3rn1ty 10
IS - Something which may be useful .. http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/45355/? modified NIF Scripts
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ESV: Skyrim Modding
3D Craftworks
3D Craftworks: From Blender To Skyrim
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