I recently started modding weapons in Fallout 3, first just by using Bethesda Softwork’s G.E.C.K. to modify the behavior of the weapons without altering their models. Then I started making minor cut/past alterations to models with NifSkope, but with that I could only go so far, which is what led me to Blender.
So I started importing .nif models to Blender editing them and then I export them.
I have blender’s export setting set for Fallout 3 and the models work in Fallout 3 but the textures are all off. They’re much to glossy and lose a lot of resolution apparently? I’ll post examples next. If anyone know what might be causing this, or how to properly export the models I really need some help with this one because the messed up textures are driving me nuts!
As you can see the texture is blurred, the sticker on the back of the rifle in the first frame is legible and it’s not in the second. Also I forgot to get screens of the computerized scope on the original model I pulled it from, but it is supposed to have a much more reflective glass like texture for the scope lens which is lost after the model is edited in and then exported from Blender.
You’re using an ancient version of Blender with which virtually no one is working these days (“virtually” because there are nostalgic people and someone like yourself having to use it due to lack of scripts for modern versions).
You’re playing in a very narrow field, to which the term “Blender Artists” doesn’t really apply. Better try your luck with the authors of NifTools (that’s what they’re called, right?)
Only advice I can think of in this situation is check your texture resolution in Blender to possibly find out which part of the pipeline to blame.
That ‘ancient version’ is what I’d be using exclusively if I had the choice; the recent Blender UI has lost all of the elegance and efficiency of the 2.4 branch UI (yes I’m serious). Of course I still keep 2.49b installed for serious projects; the 2.6 branch has some very neat tools, but the UI is a joke [IMO], and the app has become an unstable toy that I use for the sculpt tool mostly.
I do understand that the recent tool editions cannot be easily ported to 2.49b, but I sure wish they were. I’d gladly drop the 2.5/6 branch despite all its ~genuinely very cool~ couple of new features. And yeah, it’s getting some really neat additions that are very cool, and it’s a shame that it’s tied to the new version… It’s like having v8 engine inside a pepto-pink pinto or gremlin body and with Cheetos adverts immutably decaled all over it. Under the hood it’s great, but the things’ an embarrassment; and stalls a lot.
As to the texture problem, it’s probably more to do with the DDS compression settings than any Blender issue. The Nif scripts export the model and the material names, but it usually needs cleaned up in Nifscope, and I’d suggest saving your textures using Paint.Net [free & very good native DDS support]. If you are baking Normals in Blender, make sure that you make the image a comparable size to the official textures, and also Blender Normals have the red & green channels reversed; so you’ll need to swap them out manually in your image editing software.
1)Yeah, what’s up with that lack of scripts? This is no good. Why can’t the old scripts just be applied to the new version?
2)Of course it applies, anyone who makes things with blender is a blender artist. And who would know more about blender than the blender artist community? Though I do see part of your point, that this is very specific and there might not be as many people on this forum using this program specifically to make mods for Fallout. But then again, I’ve already started out on the Fallout mod forums and most of them don’t seem to be using blender?
Yes, the models are saved in the .nif format for Fallout, so maybe that is the next logical place to ask.
3) Thanks for the advice! Though I’m new at blender and know the least about texturing… but I’ll give it a shot…
Well, if it works for armor it has at least a good shot at working for weapons! Thanks again Nathan!
I notice you have a power armor helmet on your avatar. You might be just the person I’m looking for to help me with this stuff!
I don’t know how to do any of that stuff you just said! But it sounds like Stan was on the right track with NifSkope. I’ve never baked a normal before. So how do I clean it up in nifskope. The first time I edited models with nifskope I was using the scope from the Infiltrator rifle and the tutorial I was using made a point of making sure you copy/past the string index name or something like that I don’t quite remember. But that had something to do with the texture for the scope lense and I never found out exactly what that was or how it worked or why it was so important. But maybe that’s what I need to do to these models in nifskope now to get their textures working right. I’m just using the original texture files that come with the game data, does that require saving new copies too?
