Blender texture problem (Oblivion).

[Thorham]

Hi,

I've been playing around with Blender trying to import and export meshes. Works, except for one thing: Body textures. What happens when I export an armor with visible skin, is that the texture that shows up in the game is the one that's defined in the mesh (in this textures\characters\imperial\female\footfemale.dds) instead of the skin that's defined by the race (in this case a texture from Xeo).

The original armor has exactly the same skin texture reference as the exported armor, and the game substitutes that texture for the one that's specified by the character's race, but this doesn't happen for the exported armor.

Anyone know ho to solve this annoying problem? It's probably quit easy, but I don't have a clue

Another small thing: The exported armor only shows up in the game at all if I load it up in NifSkope and use the transform/apply function on one of the armor's parts. Very strange. Anyone know why and how to solve this? Not that important, but still very strange.

[gregathit]

You never want to have a body texture with anything other than the one you described above. If you do then "only" that custom race will have it and any other custom race (or the vanilla ones) will be all jacked up.

If the visible skin on the mesh has the default imperial texture specified then any race will be properly displayed just fine when they put the armor on "in game". Just one of the quirks of the oblivion coding\engine.

[Thorham]

If the visible skin on the mesh has the default imperial texture specified then any race will be properly displayed just fine when they put the armor on "in game". Just one of the quirks of the oblivion coding\engine.

And that's exactly what's not happening. The original armor and the exported one both have that same texture specified, but only the original armor shows up right in the game, while the exported armor shows the imperial female skin, instead of the race's skin. It's very strange.

[gerra6]

If the visible skin on the mesh has the default imperial texture specified then any race will be properly displayed just fine when they put the armor on "in game". Just one of the quirks of the oblivion coding\engine.

And that's exactly what's not happening. The original armor and the exported one both have that same texture specified' date=' but only the original armor shows up right in the game, while the exported armor shows the imperial female skin, instead of the race's skin. It's very strange.

[/quote']

Check the name of the material. If you want race-specific textures to be applied, the material name needs to be 'skin'.

In Blender, select the skin mesh and look at the Shading pane (F5) in the button window. Then select the Material button. In the panel Links and Pipeline, there should be a drop down box labeled "Link to Object".

This should be MA:skin (skin.00, skin.01, etc are fine).

If it is not skin, your best bet is to borrow the material from another mesh (or you can create one from scratch if you really want to). Just import a mesh and its materials will appear in the drop down.

You *might* be able to just get away with simply renaming your material to "skin" but if any of the settings don't match the standard skin settings, you'll get some truly ugly seams.

[Thorham]

Check the name of the material. If you want race-specific textures to be applied' date=' the material name needs to be 'skin'.[/quote']

No wonder it doesn't work properly, the name is Arms.

You *might* be able to just get away with simply renaming your material to "skin" but if any of the settings don't match the standard skin settings' date=' you'll get some truly ugly seams.

[/quote']

I just tried to rename the material to Skin in NifSkope and it works completely properly

Thanks, it's much appreciated, and the problem is solved

Now the next little thing is exporting the armor properly. Unless I do some editing in NifSkope, it just refuses to show up in the game. Not a big problem, because it's easy enough with NifSkope, but it would be nice if it would just work straight away.

Anyone have any ideas?

[gerra6]

Now the next little thing is exporting the armor properly. Unless I do some editing in NifSkope' date=' it just refuses to show up in the game. Not a big problem, because it's easy enough with NifSkope, but it would be nice if it would just work straight away.

Anyone have any ideas?

[/quote']

My guess would be an armature (skeleton) issue.

Import the nif using some variation of the default settings

That will import both the meshes and the skeleton. If you're planning on doing any editing, it is usually a good idea to delete the skeleton at this point.

Right before you export, from object mode hit 'a' until all of the meshes that you wish to export together are selected.

Now go and import a skeleton

Once that is done, export everything

Note, some of your available options may differ slightly from mine. But that's OK. If you decide as some future point to start modifying vertex normals (handy for making seams disappear), I run a modded version of Blender 2.49b with a modified version of Nifscripts (from http://www.loverslab.com/showthread.php?tid=12264).

[Thorham]

Thanks for explaining so extensively gerra6, much appreciated

My first try failed. Don't remember the exact error, something about something being a duplicate. I'll take a look later. Even if I don't get this to work, helping me with the skin problem is already enough for me to start editing meshes properly, so thanks again.

[gerra6]

Thanks for explaining so extensively gerra6' date=' much appreciated

My first try failed. Don't remember the exact error, something about something being a duplicate. I'll take a look later. Even if I don't get this to work, helping me with the skin problem is already enough for me to start editing meshes properly, so thanks again.

[/quote']

You'll get that error if you try to export more than one skeleton in a single scene.

Rather than sorting out what is parented to what and trying to untangle the whole mess of spaghetti, it's usually easiest to just delete all skeletons and import a fresh one.

[Thorham]

You'll get that error if you try to export more than one skeleton in a single scene.

Right' date=' makes sense.

Rather than sorting out what is parented to what and trying to untangle the whole mess of spaghetti, it's usually easiest to just delete all skeletons and import a fresh one.

Thanks, I'll try that