Category:NifSE

Using NifSE

With NifSE installed and operating, and the CS opened with OBSE, you may use any of the NifSE functions (below) in a script.

The first step to using NifSE is NifOpen. NifOpen has NifSE load a NIF file into memory so that you can manipulate it. This process be set to read-only or writable using an optional boolean argument with NifOpen; this argument defaults to false (read-only).

Example

As an example of using NifSE, consider this code:

ref playerWeapon
string_var filepath
short nifID

Begin GameMode

  if ( playerWeapon != player.GetEquippedObject 16 )
    if ( playerWeapon )
      let filepath := NifGetOriginalPath nifID
      SetModelPath $filepath playerWeapon
      NifClose nifID
    endif
    let playerWeapon := player.GetEquippedObject 16
    let filepath := GetModelPath playerWeapon
    let nifID := NifOpen $filepath 1
    let filepath := NifGetPath nifID
    SetModelPath $filepath playerWeapon
  endif

End

Every time the player equips a new weapon, creates a copy of the weapon's model that can be edited using NifSE, and sets the weapon's model to the copy. If a previous weapon had been affected, sets that weapon's model back to its original file, and closes that nif in NifSE. From here, one would presumably have further blocks dedicated to determining when to apply various changes using the other NifSE functions.

NIF Structure

NIF files are made up of a series of blocks, or NiObjects, which contain various different types of data. To understand NIF files and how to manipulate them, one must understand both the block hierarchy, and the structure of the NIF.

For the actual structure of NIF files, one starts with the root. The root is a NiNode block that is the first block in almost all NIF files (and therefore has blockID of 0, the default value of that parameter in NifSE functions). The root has a list of "Children" which are NiAVObject blocks. Since NiNode is a form of NiAVObject itself, these children can also be NiNode blocks, or other forms of NiAVObject. Further, since NiAVObject is sub-class of NiObjectNET, both the root and all of its Children have a list of Extra Data, which are NiExtraData-derived blocks.

For the rest of the NIF block hierarchy, start with the NiObject, the most basic block, and explore the hierarchy. For NifSE's purposes, only certain blocks are shown, since these are the only blocks that NifSE can interact with. To understand the full scope of NIF blocks, see the Niflib Documentation.