NIF FAQ
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General[edit | edit source]
Q:The item i've created looks fine in NifSkope, but is invisible in game
A:This is usually seen with a missing normal map. The easiest way to make a normal map is using the Nvidia Normal Map filter, plugins available Here
A:This can also occur if there is a problem with your skeleton in your exported .nif, which entails deleting your old skeleton in Blender and importing a clean one from a vanilla .nif; or if your mesh has vertex colors assigned (may be co-dependent upon the material used with the mesh) which means clearing any vertex color layers that may exist in Blender.
Blender[edit | edit source]
The majority of this section has been lifted from the "Ask CuteUnit" threads of the Elder Scrolls Forum.
Q:Where Can I find some good Blender Tutorials?
A: First off, there is Blender Noob-to-Pro, which is very comprehensive, but quite intimidating. There is also a pair of tutorials from GameDev.net, Using Blender to Make Game Models Part 1, which leads you through the basics of making a simple game model, and Part 2 which leads you through creating a UV map and texture for your model. And Finally, for rigging your model to an Oblivion Skeleton, and importing into Oblivion itself, there is Rigging Cutely.
Q:I am working on a mesh. The body mesh contains references to 13 bones/twists. Now when you weight paint the mesh what are the best bones to use, to weight the mesh properly?
CuteUnit Answers: What you can do to make your life much much easier when modifying an existing rigged mesh's geometry is this:
Open up the appropriate riggable nif (fullhumanmaleimportready.nif for example) in NifSkope and remove branch the trishapes for the actual body parts if you're going to completely cover them.
Go to file>New Window in skope to create another skope window you can copy from, and open up the clothing nif ( the archmage robe in this case) right click and copy branch the nitrishape of the piece you want to change into the riggable nif. Parent that trishape to scene root so it's all together, and save that nif somewhere as a new file.
Import this nif into blender instead of the naked riggable, and it should import the geometry AND the skeleton properly, while retaining the weighting groups that the orignal mesh had! Can save you a lot of time and make doing edits to the weights and geometry much simpler.
As for good practices on bone weighting, just pay attention to your own body really.. when you twist your , what parts of your muscle and skin are moving with the bones in it? Very rarely will you ever find more than 3 large bones influencing anything.
Q: When i open the nif file in NifSkope i cant seem to find the option to add a texture to the mesh.
A: You skiped a very important step in "Rigging Cutely" an object must have both a UV map image opened and assigned, and a material texture image assigned or the nif will show it as a texture-less mesh. See "Rigging Cutely" step 17 of 31 on.
Q: I get an error that says my newly created Nif is version 4.0.0.8 and it won't work!
A: You need to configure your Blender Nif Plugin. Again, "Rigging Cutely" tells you how to do this, starting on pages 14 through 16.