I know this has been talked about a lot, but none of the other posts seem to be helping.

I can't get custom .nif s from my brother to work. He is modeling them in 3DS max and using nifscope per videos, tutorials and fourm commentary. They just won't work. I constantly get the Red !. He's been uploading the .nifs and I have been downloading them and moving them to the Skyrim meshes folder. It's not working. Any ideas?

Do they acrtually work for your brother? Then the game most likely can't find the files, so double-check your folders.

If they don't work, the nif file is broken and there should be an error message in the CK.

Without seeing the models ourselves there's not much more we can do.

the red diamond with exclamation generally means the file is either corrupted or the BDdismember node is not set up correctly (if this is a skinned mesh)

Well, I can't say whether or not they work for my brother, we are separated by miles, and he doesn't have skyrim on his PC. I don't get an error message when I load the model into the CK, but I do get the red !. Figuring this out from a distance is really hard. He has been looking at video tutorials and things. The thing is, we don't know if it's something he's doing worng, or just an issue with the CK due to the fact that when I place the file in the skyrim-Data-Meshes Folder, I am cut and pasting it from my downloads.

http://www.box.com/s/yidq3x9pbmrdc1kds0f9

This is a link to the file that I am downloading from the internet. As uploaded by my brother. Is there a way, given this, that you guys can figure out if it's a broken .nif or not?

That's an untextured Oblivion Nif. Not one for Skyrim.

I've converted it to Skyrim: http://mods.jo-ge.net/sk/dl/newbin.nif

It uses a random texture (I used the treasure chest as template) so you still need to edit the Nif using http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope to pick your texture of choice.

What is the differece between the two, and what is the actual process for this. Like I was saying, I have nothing to do with the modeling process. That model was actually a model my brother made when we were trying to get models into the Unreal Engine for our main game project. He just converted it to .nif, and did a bunch of stuff in NifScope that I don't know of.

What I'm looking for is to see if anyone can help me with a list a steps for him to try, in order to produce .nifs that I can actually get into the CK.


EDIT: Also, JOG. The newbin.nif you linked appears to do the same thing upon entering the CK as my brother's Shiny Exclamation Point : |
EDIT EDIT: Wait... You're saying "so you still need to edit the Nif using http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope to pick your texture of choice." does that mean that my brother is failing to texture something properly using Nifscope?

EDITEDITEDIT: Just downloaded Nifscope on my PC. It apparently ""failed to load file header (version 14020007, 20.2.0.7)""
"failed to load nif from 'C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/skyrim/Data/Meshes/meshes/clutter/"(MODELNAME) *I use Model Name because i tried to load both newbin.nif (yours) and Waste Bin.nif (my brother's).

There are a lot of instructions to create Skyrim Nifs here in the forum you could have used the search function, you know.

1. Create the model in your favorite 3D-modelling program and save as .OBJ or .3DS
2. Take a somewhat similar Skyrim NIF (Search the forum to learn how to unpack BSAs) and open it in Nifskope 1.1.0 (or later)
3. Select the NiTriShape entry of the Skyrim Nif then click on file/Import and import either a .obj or a .3ds
4. Save under a new name.

If you want to make a static and used a static as template you're done. For an item or moveable static you need to choose a very similar sized Skyrim object, or one with a simple collision-mesh structure and manually edit the vertices. If you don't understand what that means, just use a similar item (i.e. a Skyrim bucket for your trashbin)


The NIF works fine here. You 're doing something wrong.
1. Copy the NIF into a sub-folder of the meshes folder
2. Create a new static object
3. click on the "Edit" button in the "model" line
4. click on "Edit" again and select your nif-file
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/171/nife.jpg/

Unless you're happy with that look, you still need to add a fitting texture, and for this you need to use Nifskope 1.1.0 RC6.
The old version 1.0.22 was released a year ago and doesn't work with Skyrim NIfs.

Still doesn't work.

Ty about tips about using nifscope import, not thought about it but made the nifs with 3d studio export.
I guess this is the way to make ground objects of armor?

Any way to make huge moveable statics? Working on craftable and moveable funiture.
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10045
But is unable to make proper placeholders. Yes I can probably resize on drop but that is a bit buggy.

I also have texture problems with self created meshes, either they show up to plastic or to dark, why should they look plastic then I copy BSLightingShaderProperty from clothing?
Any guides on material settings in nifscope and BSLightingShaderProperty?

@Gargion:
"Still doesn't work." doesn't help much. What doesn't work? The Nif in Nifskope? Then you still have an outdated version. The procedure to add the nif to the CK? well, then you're doing something wrong, why don't you write us a step-by step description of what you're doing, so we may find the mistake.

Another possibility: When you download the NIFs are you using right-click and "Save target as?" Internet Explorer is known to break file types it doesn't know when you just left-click to download.



@Zaria:
A moveable Static needs to have a bhkConvexVerticesShape as RigidBodyShape, the bhkMoppBvTreeShape/CompressedMesh that uses the main NiTriShape for collision data works only for static Statics.

I often used the DwemerCube/Lexicon for collision Data (I just copied the bhkRigidBody block, since the NiTriShape itself has vertex colors) The dwemer cube has a simple cube for collision, so there are only 8 vertices that need to be changes and they all have the same coordinates with +/- sign. So what I did was starting like above, then adding the dwemer cube RigidBody and Nitrishape to my new nif.

Then I rescaled my new shape until it had the same size as the dwemer cube, and remembered the scaling factor. Therafter I resized my Nitrishape back to its original size (or rather just reloaded) and changed the vertex-coordinates of the bhkConvexVerticesShape according to the scaling factor. The collision cube of the dwemer lexicon has all vertices at x/y/z-coordinates +/-0.038, when I want to use that collision box for an item that is 3 times as big as the dwemer cube, I change all values to 0.038 * 3 / 2 = 0.057. For some objects I changed the collision-cube to another type of rectangular form (i.e. used different factors for the x, y, z values.)

If a rectangular collision box would be really awkward (e.g. man-sized round object) then you need to find a vanilla object of similar shape and size. (or wait until a new version of Nifskope can finally create proper Skyrim collision data)