blender: cant export smoothened object

[Saschkin]

Hello, im new here

..i stumbled across this site a few days ago and started making my first own unit.. ..now as the title says, my blender doesnt export it smoothened.
I already have a solid version of it working in civ, tested different models, different skins and different nif scripts.
It has around 800 vertices and 1200 faces, i can render it without any problem smoothened or not, but if i try to export it as .nif my blender just freezes.
Any ideas what i should try etc would be very welcome.. (or im doomed to make boxy units.. )
Thanks: Saschkin

 

[woodelf]

First, welcome to the CFC.

Second, follow my sig to the Tutorial thread index. There are some blender tuts there.

 

[Saschkin]

Thanks for the welcome

..as i am a complete noob with 3d modelling i needed those tutorials to even come this far... ..but there isnt any hint there concerning my particular problem, i didnt find anything in the niftools forums either..
..unless i missed something of course

 

[Refar]

What exactly do you mean by "Smoothened" ?

 

[Saschkin]

Theres this option under Object Mode/Editing/Link and Materials ..set smooth and set solid, it hides the edges of the object and make it appear round.. ..as far as i understand it...

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

What's the version of blender you use ?

 

[Saschkin]

its 2.45, just downloaded it for that purpose...

 

[Refar]

And exporting not smoothed models work ? Do they look "edgy" then ?

 

[Saschkin]

..yep (..need 10 characters so i can post this message.. )

 

[Ekmek]

havent heard of the smoothing feature ...

 

[Refar]

I am not a blender user, (Cant find my way around the interface, i need CTRL+ALT+DEL to close it...) but...

From what i read here, you tried feature that does apply some method of smoothing which is not supported by the nif exporter. Probably adding some extra data to the mesh.

There should be something like smoothing groops - you assign faces into groups - the edges between 2 faces in the same group will be smothed away (by normals alighnment), while those between different groops remain visible. This kind of smoothing should be exported properly and will work in civ4 (and most others).

This way you can have you meshes look nice, without using the "bad"-modifier.

@ Ekmek: How do you prevent your leaderheads from looking like this:

 

[C.Roland]

Smoothing isn't suppose to be a problem. What the consol did say when the export fail ?

 

[NikNaks]

Refar, try the 'Subsurf' modifier.

I think trying Subsurf might be a good idea for you, Saschkin. If that doesn't work either, try re-installing the NifScripts.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Nik, subsurf will increase the polycount drastically while mesh smoothing can do same effect without any additionnal vertex.
I'm suspecting a python's issue but I can't confirm on the problem Saschkin has.
By the way, what's the blender console saying ?

 

[Saschkin]

I tested a bit more today and to keep it short the problem is gone..(more or less)
Imported some other comparable models, added random stuff and exported them again, all worked, finally tested my own most up to date model(which i modified in nifskope) and that worked too..
(however for some reason you didnt really see the smoothing effect this time)
..then tested one of the old saves and it froze again..
..no idea what happened there or how to recreate it but it seems its a problem of the model(s)..
..i guess ill just start another one and see if i happens again
Thank you all for your help
...and the console says nothing, blender just completely freezes...