Issues with objects in NifSkope

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I'm in the process of creating a handful of reskins for Anno Domini, so that there can be a good selection of animated leaderheads. So far, my main success has been Calcagus, which I created from Caesar, adding plenty from Brennus. I think he looks sufficiently different to Caesar to be used in the same game as him. I just need to do a little tidying up with this one and he's ready to rumble.

What I'd also like to do is create a head with a Spartan helmet on. I've got such a helmet in poser format, so I basically loaded up a scene with just the helmet in it and saved it in .obj format. When I tried to load this straight into NifSkope, I was getting messages stating that the texture wasn't loading, so I added an extra part to the process, whereby I loaded my spartanhelmet.obj into 3ds max 8 and ensured it was correctly textured, saving it again in .obj format. This time, it loaded into NifSkope like a dream. I messed about centering the helmet on the head of Alexander and got it spot on. Viewable for sure in NifSkope (although only white - but pointing to texture jpgs) and saved as Alexander.nif. However, when this is loaded in-game, it doesn't show the helmet!! Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

It looks like kodzi's had some success with importing - I've asked in the thread for his "Kasimir" leaderhead, but so far have only had a reply stating that it is very,very difficult. Can anyone help at all?

 

[Saketh]

I think I figured out how to merge models...so I'll try helping you.

It's not supposed to look white in NifSkope. If your textures are in the right places, then the textures should show up in NifSkope on the model. If not, something's wrong (or you changed the default settings). EDIT: I'm not sure whether this is true for JPEGs, though.

Here's a screenshot of a slice-and-merge which I did for Stalin's hat:


If you exported the NIF file and specified a prefix for the textures, then the paths to the textures will all be wrong. Also, you should merge the models inside of 'max, and then open them in NifSkope. Otherwise the merged parts sometimes don't show up.

 

[C.Roland]

Can you send me your helmet (Both nif and obj files) please. I'll try it for you.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Can you send me your helmet (Both nif and obj files) please. I'll try it for you.

Thanks a lot!! I've uploaded to the forum : here it is! There's the Alexander.nif, which is just the basic Alexander with the helmet on (I've not amended any other files - which could be the problem) and the obj & mtl files for this Spartan helmet.

Saketh - thanks for your help too. I'll see what I can do, but I've very limited experience with anything other than Poser when it comes to modelling. I'm using 3ds Max 8 and seem to not be able to import the leaderheads into there. I've managed to import them into blender, but that program seems (to me) very hard to get to grips with.

 

[Saketh]

Saketh - thanks for your help too. I'll see what I can do, but I've very limited experience with anything other than Poser when it comes to modelling. I'm using 3ds Max 8 and seem to not be able to import the leaderheads into there. I've managed to import them into blender, but that program seems (to me) very hard to get to grips with.

You should be able to import using the Civ4 plugin for 'max 7+. I'm fairly sure NifSkope can do it, but it's more straightforward to do it in a modeling software.

 

[C.Roland]

Here Alexander with his helmet : The helmet is a bit big, we can reduce his size in the nif viewer. (But it make some colision problem with his laurier crown, but we can remove the laurier crown)

It doesnt have any texture. I do not know how texture work in maya or for obj files but in the viewer it reffer to a .jpg texture. Can you sen me thoses jpg ? We would need to convert them into dds and you spartan LH would work well.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Thanks a lot! However, can you give me some pointers so that I can import other items like this? Also, how can you remove the laurier crown - I didn't realise this could be done, i.e. that it was one item you couldn't remove from Alexander's head?

Here's the texture for the helmet:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/20480/1156275977.jpg

Here's the texture for the crest:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/20480/1156275880.jpg

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Here's a thought! I know that I can export Poser models in .obj format - including characters. If that's the case, I should be able to essentially import a new face made in Poser and place it onto the face of a Civ IV leaderhead in the same way that we're importing this helmet - plastic surgery at the extreme!! If it would work, then as Poser's the environment I'm most at home with, I'd not need to worry any more about, for example, too many Caesar skins all looking alike, as they'd all have a new face glued on.

Am I talking complete rubbish - or could this actually work?

 

[Prestidigitator]

Well not exactly Rob... I thought about that when creating my Hammurabi LH for 'Rhye's and Fall of Civilization: Warlords', you must remember that you're attaching an object to the LH, it could mess up the animation if it's in an area that gets extensive animation, ie: the face.

But you can get great results by just skinning and adding objects, here is my Hammurabi for 'Rhye's and Fall of Civilization: Warlords', in comparison with the original Cyrus.

 

[C.Roland]

Yes, it can work, I have already think of this method with morrowind face but i do not do it for three reason.

The first one : the most important is that bethesda do not like when modder from other game took his mesh to mod other game so i stop to use morrowind mesh.

The second one : Morrowind head are maybe not egnouh detailled for a LH. They do not have a lot of poly. Oblivion head would suit better but bethesda do not want.

The third one : It's the less important, the LH will not have any facial expression. The character will move his head, his hands but not his lips or his eyes but i think it can create a nice effect even if it will not change his facial expression.

So I think it will be quite easy to export your LH in part (head, Armor, Hand) and add it via the nifViewer on the right bone like I did for the spartan helmet.

EDIT : And we can even put your new head over an armature and link the mesh to the bone of an existinf leader in blender and then we will have the new almost leader. But I never did animation so I would have to learn it before and see if it can work. In fact i'm pretty new to 3d, im a better skinner thant modeler.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

@Presdigitator: great Hammurabi!! I wonder why we're all using that Hanging Gardens background for our Hammurabi leaderheads !!

@C. Roland: I hadn't thought about the facial expressions: you're right, it would work there. I'm experimenting with the NifSkope ability to alter certain parameters with the face, so I may be able to come up with some different looks. I'm finding that by reskinning the face with another face that came with Warlords, it can make the change look more pronounced, especially if there's a change in ethnicity.

Between us, we're learning and sharing info, so that's great. I expect to see some progress in LH making over the next few weeks!

 

[C.Roland]

@Presdigitator: great Hammurabi!! I wonder why we're all using that Hanging Gardens background for our Hammurabi leaderheads !!

@C. Roland: I hadn't thought about the facial expressions: you're right, it would work there. I'm experimenting with the NifSkope ability to alter certain parameters with the face, so I may be able to come up with some different looks. I'm finding that by reskinning the face with another face that came with Warlords, it can make the change look more pronounced, especially if there's a change in ethnicity.

Between us, we're learning and sharing info, so that's great. I expect to see some progress in LH making over the next few weeks!

Well, maybe if you take a model (maybe your helene of troy) and cut her in two pieces (the head/neck, the body) I'll make some test. You would have to send me the 2 nif.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Well, maybe if you take a model (maybe your helene of troy) and cut her in two pieces (the head/neck, the body) I'll make some test. You would have to send me the 2 nif.

Thanks for the offer; I can't quite seem to cut the model in half and send the two nifs - I'm new to all this and need to grasp the basics first. However, did you manage to put the spartan helmet on Alexander with textures? I would love to be able to use that in Anno Domini and would be extremely grateful for any help you can give.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

The problem with using anything from Poser is the insanely high polycount of any characters or imported props.

I personally have been trying to modify existing leaderheads in a 3D program and then animate them from scratch. So far I haven't actually devoted enough time to it to say whether it'd really be practical or not, but I can tell you right off the bat that while the leaderheads have a considerably higher polycount than the units of course, they don't even come close to a Poser model's count.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I have actually made some progress, but still no real success - sort of one step forward, one step back!

I've now worked out how to import the textures so that they show up in Nifskope and in the Nifviewer (hurrah !!), however, the object doesn't actually show up in the game - though at least it doesn't cause a crash. Here's the view of Agis in both the nifviewer and the game itself. I don't know if it's anything at all to do with what Dom Pedro II was saying about it being originally a poser item:

I'd like to thank C.Roland for offering via pm to do the leaderhead for me at the weekend. Whilst I'll take him up on the kind offer if I can't fathom it out by then, if I can find out how to do it for myself, so much the better!

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

CRACKED IT!!

I found out that the reason the helmet wasn't showing in-game was because I hadn't attached the helmet node properly. However, when I tried to move the node where it needed to be, the nif viewer crashed.

I then tried exporting it from the original leaderhead to a new leaderhead - and it worked!! Some fine-tuning was required, but it works!!

Ok, so I'm going to need to do some more texturing to put a shine on that helmet and sort some other things out - but the point is that I've managed to get the process to work (despite it being rather laborious). It was a matter of reading the tutorials over and over, not being frightened to try things out and sticking to the task.

The fact that I can save a poser model and essentially export it to a leaderhead opens up some new possibilities for the leaderheads I'm sorting out for Anno Domini. I'm going to have to keep on trying new things out to see what I can get to work. If I can work out how to modify leaderheads in either Blender or 3dsmax (even if it's just, for example, reducing the size of the crowns of Isabella and Hatshetsup) then that opens up even more possibilities.

Right now though, I'm just downright delighted with what I've accomplished today .

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Trust me to be thinking Iceni !!

Now if I could get Isabella without the crown (or with it virtually flattened to her head), and the same for Hatshepsut, I could do quite a bit with those two models....can anyone oblige?