Questions About Making Resource/Improvement Graphics

bouncymischa

Synthetic Genie
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I've been doing a lot of dabbling in trying to make some more various science fiction and fantasy resource and improvement models, and have made a fair bit of progress. (Expect updates in my thread soon!) But I've gotten to the point I'm hoping some of the modders more skilled with the various programs and techniques used to create such things can help me out.

a) How can I combine models I create with an existing .gr2 file? I've made some custom resource/improvement models I'd like to put on Pazyryk's blight texture for him to use, but while I have the .nif, .blend, .fbx, and .gr2 files for my own models, I only have the .gr2 for his blight. Is there a way I can add my own files into the blight's .gr2? Or to unpack the objects from the blight .gr2 so I can combine them in Blender?

b) How would I attach the "holy light" effect from the Holy Site to a different model? I'm guessing it would work much the same was as I'm currently using to attach the pillaged smoke effect to my models -- using the corresponding TimedTrigger file, attached to the bone in my model (in this case, blend_root), and putting in the appropriate Bone Name for the FX. In the case of my pillaged smoke, I've been using "FX_Triggers_PL_Fort_MID.ftsxml" and "FX_PillagedSmoke". But I'm not sure what files I'd need to achieve the holy light effect from the Holy Site. I tried looking at the base .fpk files, but it's still pretty confusing to try and navigate my way around them. I found some references to possible .ftsxml and FX files I might need, but if someone more familiar with those files could help me out it'd be appreciated!
 
a) Yes its Possible. See my Tree resources, they use the plantations gr2 with the Lumbermill Model. Ya will have to ask Ekmek about how it was accomplished since he as very kind enough to do it for me.

b)fx_triggers_holy_site.ftsxml is the Trigger. I think fx_religion_holy_site_01.psb is the actual effect. The bone name is still the same, FX_PillagedSmoke (I have found the devs were fairly lazy in their renaming of thing's in gr2's, and simply didn't bother in most cases)
 
a) Yes its Possible. See my Tree resources, they use the plantations gr2 with the Lumbermill Model. Ya will have to ask Ekmek about how it was accomplished since he as very kind enough to do it for me.

Hmm... Ekmek doesn't seem to have been too active lately, but I can try to message him and see how he responds. There is Deliverator's tutorial about extracting .gr2 files into Blender through the NB2 format, so I'll have to give that a try...

b)fx_triggers_holy_site.ftsxml is the Trigger. I think fx_religion_holy_site_01.psb is the actual effect. The bone name is still the same, FX_PillagedSmoke (I have found the devs were fairly lazy in their renaming of thing's in gr2's, and simply didn't bother in most cases)

The files I've got for pillaged graphics don't reference a .psb file, so I'm guessing that information is contained in the corresponding fx_triggers file. I'll try swapping the fx_triggers file in and see what results. Very odd that the bone name is the same... X3
 
b)fx_triggers_holy_site.ftsxml is the Trigger. I think fx_religion_holy_site_01.psb is the actual effect. The bone name is still the same, FX_PillagedSmoke (I have found the devs were fairly lazy in their renaming of thing's in gr2's, and simply didn't bother in most cases)

Bah, simply substituting the fx_triggers file didn't work, so I must be missing something else. I suppose I will have to try poking Civitar or Nomad or What about it, since they're probably more familiar with what's necessary to incorporate effects into models like that...
 
It's hard to make guesses about what you might have done wrong. Post your files.

I always seem to forget to do that... The file for the improvement I'm trying to get the holy site effect to work with can be found here.

The improvement itself works fine, and the pillaged version works fine so there isn't an issue with the bone. But the holy glow, which should be linked to the unpillaged version, isn't appearing:

 
Hmm... I'm not sure if it's possible to make a unique .ftsxml file? I suppose my options are to either try and make a version of the fx_triggers_holy_site.ftsxml that references the bone I use, or add another bone to the model named accordingly to what the .ftsxml file is looking for. I really should learn how to do the latter, because I think it'd be a lot more useful for making models -- if I could tag various visual effects to improvement models it'd be a step towards making them a lot cooler.

However... I'm not really sure where to start... >__<;;

EDIT: According to DarkScythe, you can upload .ftsxml files as VFS=true, so I tried editing the fx_triggers_holy_site.ftsxml file and managed to get this:



EDIT 2: So, experimenting further in an effort to add bones to my model, I was able to duplicate the existing bone and position it at the top of the model, but the effect doesn't seem to be appearing properly:



I've included the current version of the mod here , if anyone wants to take a look at the models I'm using.
 
I suppose my options are to either try and make a version of the fx_triggers_holy_site.ftsxml that references the bone I use, or add another bone to the model named accordingly to what the .ftsxml file is looking for. I really should learn how to do the latter, because I think it'd be a lot more useful for making models -- if I could tag various visual effects to improvement models it'd be a step towards making them a lot cooler.

However... I'm not really sure where to start... >__<;;

Adding an original .ftsxml should be fine so long as you get the syntax right - I haven't played with them too much myself.

The high-level process to add another bone to an improvement would be as follows:

1) Export the improvement model you want to use as a base to Blender via NB2 from Nexus Buddy 2.
2) In Blender, add in your extra bone to the armature(skeleton).
3) Also import whatever mesh you want to use and make sure it is rigged to the armature.
4) Export from Blender to both FBX and BR2, FBX to get the updated skeleton and BR2 to get the mesh.
5) Open the FBX in Nexus Buddy 2 to make a .gr2 with the extra bone included.
6) Overwrite the meshes from the BR2 file.

That might seem a lot, but it wouldn't be too difficult once you learn the basics of Blender.
 
Adding an original .ftsxml should be fine so long as you get the syntax right - I haven't played with them too much myself.

It's been a bit since I dabbled with it, but I think I managed to get custom .ftsxml files working... except the bone I'm linking the effects to is in a poor position for some effects. For example, the Holy Site effect appears in the middle of the model, when I'd rather have it appear at the top. Still, it works for some things -- I've linked the gem sparkle effect to models and it works fairly well.

The high-level process to add another bone to an improvement would be as follows:

1) Export the improvement model you want to use as a base to Blender via NB2 from Nexus Buddy 2.
2) In Blender, add in your extra bone to the armature(skeleton).
3) Also import whatever mesh you want to use and make sure it is rigged to the armature.
4) Export from Blender to both FBX and BR2, FBX to get the updated skeleton and BR2 to get the mesh.
5) Open the FBX in Nexus Buddy 2 to make a .gr2 with the extra bone included.
6) Overwrite the meshes from the BR2 file.

That might seem a lot, but it wouldn't be too difficult once you learn the basics of Blender.

To be honest, at some point I need to find a good tutorial on how to set up Nexus Buddy 2 properly, since I haven't had any luck exporting to Blender via NB2. Now that Nexus Buddy has been updated to handle BE files I'm hoping I can figure out how to do it properly...

In the meantime, what I have been doing is importing models from NifSkope into Blender as .obj files. So I get a model in Blender that has only one bone assigned to it. So what I'd like to figure out now is how to add a new bone to the armature in Blender (which I think is your step 2). It's been hard to find a good tutorial for Blender...
 
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