Questions on Modeling

Post by **Swiftoak** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 1:42 pm

I've been looking around on this thread and I have found some of the awnswers I've been looking for, and some I havent found on making new models. Because I'm looking to at least make a decent mesh by the end of the week.

1. What is the ABSOLOUTE best program to use to make NetImmerse Models for Free, and textures?

2. What is a NIF exporter, and what is its puropse?

Vernon · Post by **Vernon** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 3:22 pm

Swiftoak Woodwarrior wrote:I've been looking around on this thread and I have found some of the awnswers I've been looking for, and some I havent found on making new models. Because I'm looking to at least make a decent mesh by the end of the week.

1. What is the ABSOLOUTE best program to use to make NetImmerse Models for Free, and textures?

2. What is a NIF exporter, and what is its puropse?

1: There is only 1 free program that can export NIFs, and that is Blender3D. All others cost money, though Milkshape is 'only' $25, compared to 3D studio max, which starts around $3500. Make textures with The GIMP. That is the only free program that is really any good for making textures, unless you're a crazy pixel ninja.

[url=http://www.blender.org/]Blender3D[/url]

[url=http://www.gimp.org/]The GIMP[/url]

2: A NIF exporter takes a model, its materials, its bones and other properties and cuts out all of the crap that isn't required by the game engine, then puts of all the mesh properties into a format compatible with the Net Immerse 'engine.' For example, if you have a model with three textures on it, the NIF format will tell Morrowind exactly where to get the three textures from the hard drive, where to put those three textures on the mesh, and how to do it in the most efficient manner. Basically, it lets you put custom meshes into Morrowind. Not all games use this format. For example, Half-Life used smd, Ikaruga uses .obj, Quake uses .spr for sprites etc. NIFs are used by Morrowind, Freedom Force, Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich, some flight sims and a few others that I forget.

kaffeend · Post by **kaffeend** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:12 pm

Vernon, I've downloaded and installed Blender3D, but I have no idea what to do with it. :/ Do you know of a good intro tutorial please?

The_Warder · Post by **The_Warder** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:22 pm

you can just google but here is one i did.
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article2251.asp

also they have some on there web site.

is gimp any good i havent used it.

Vernon · Post by **Vernon** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:24 pm

[url=http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro]Try this.[/url]

Post by **Swiftoak** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:33 pm

The thing is that my school has milkshape 3d (educational purposes only). What do I do? Can I make models on both and submit them?

Post by **Swiftoak** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:26 pm

Sorry for double posting but i have to bump this to get your attention again.

Where do i get this nif exporter, blender doesnt have one.

Vernon · Post by **Vernon** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:33 pm

[url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=7938]Near the bottom of this thread.[/url]

You will also need Python 2.3.5. 2.4 will not work. Get it [url=http://www.python.org/]here[/url].

The_Warder · Post by **The_Warder** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 3:12 am

i have used it some but its hard without a read-me

Vernon · Post by **Vernon** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:22 am

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro

Gez · Post by **Gez** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 12:45 pm

How hard would it be for a complete newbie to export a static morrowind mesh (like in_dwrv_hall4_00.nif) to Blender, cut off a part of it (the central pillar), and re-export it then as a new nif? The end result is something I'd like to have (and if it's already in OoT, it doesn't change anything, I want it for a mod unrelated to TR).

Teli · Post by **Teli** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 3:10 pm

I don't think there's any NIF importer for Blender (correct me if I'm wrong), so your best shot would be to get someone with 3dsmax to either do to it for you, or convert the model into 3ds so you can import it into Blender.

Vernon · Post by **Vernon** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:11 pm

There is a script, though it is rather unstable. About 15 posts down [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=7938]here[/url].

Morgoth · Post by **Morgoth** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:01 pm

If you want a good starter program for 3d, try Gmax. It's made by discreet (the makers of 3ds max) but it's free. It uses the same interface as 3ds, except you cant export or texture.

[url]http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax[/url]

I got it from here before I got 3ds. Just click the green "Download now" in the corner.

Edit: I beleive there was a NIF importer download seperate from this, search on google for it.

Tamriel Rebuilt

Questions on Modeling

Questions on Modeling

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