Helpful Links



Modeling
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Portal:Modeling - Has a few tutorials to get you started modeling for Oblivion.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/3ds_Max:_Custom_Creatures - Get a creature you modeled and rigged in game and working properly.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/BSA_Unpacker_Tutorial - A tutorial for http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3311 that allows users to unpack and package BSA's. Useful to see what meshes/textures the official Oblivion assets use.

Texturing
http://www.invision.tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/topic/1139-guest-workshop-texturing-101-by-vince/page__hl__Texturing__fromsearch__1 - An informative introductory tutorial by Vince Bly explaining the use of the different maps in the Oblivion game engine.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/DDS_Files - Describes what a .dds file is as well as the .dds settings Oblivion uses in its game engine.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/DDS_Tools - Contains applications and plug-ins to edit and create .dds files. In other words tools to make textures for your objects.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Creating_detailed_Normal_Maps - A very good tutorial on how to effectively use the http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html for Photoshop.

Animating
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Portal:Animating - Contains tutorials to get you started animating for Oblivion.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/AnimGroups - Groups of animations that can be played on actors and creatures as well as some objects.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/SetAlert - How to set the actor to the alert state to play more animations.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Basic_Animation_Tutorial - A guide that aims to enable modders to create very simple animated objects by applying pre-assembled basic animation files.
http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=11103 - An animation tutorial by our very own nick_op and Razorwing.
http://saidenstorm.googlepages.com/stormfrontstudiostutorials - Step by step animation tutorials by SaidenStorm. Create a King's Field Slime and learn about particles.
http://qixiang.chen.googlepages.com/oblivionanimationnotes - Notes on animating for Oblivion.

Nifs General
http://sourceforge.net/projects/niftools/files/max_plugins/ - The latest NifTools plugin for 3ds Max.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Working_With_Nifs_101_:_An_Introduction - Guides about creating custom graphics for Oblivion, meshes and textures, and how to put everything together. Looks important!
http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/3ds_Max - NifTools guides and settings in relation to 3ds Max.
http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/Oblivion/Oblivion_Bhk_Constraints - Collision constraints and adding Havoc physics.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/NIF_Importers_and_Exporters - This is a NIF exporter for 3D Studio Max, designed for use with Civilization 4, that can be used to export models for Oblivion. Get http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=496 to update the Nif file formats. Is known to have better animation support than NifTools.

FAQs

Q: What unit setup should I use when modeling for Oblivion?
A: "Oblivion units are exactly the same as the generic units in Max." - nick_op

Q:What are some general naming conventions that the Construction Set uses for its models, textures and animations?
A: "Models always have to be placed in your Data\meshes folder. You can create your own folders within the model folder, which I'd recommend to keep things organised.

Textures always have to be placed in the Data\textures folder. As with models you can create your own folders within the textures folder.

Your diffuse texture name should not have any underscores in it (there are exceptions to this rule, such as having multiple diffuse textures share a normal map, but you have to be careful what you put after the underscore). Your normal map should have the same name as your texture with an suffix of _n (e.g if your diffuse texture is called mytexture.dds, the normal map would have to be called mytexture_n.dds). Glow maps use a _g suffix. Specular map resides inside the alpha channel of the normal map." - nick_op

Q:How exactly do I export an official Oblivion object so I can use it as reference in 3ds Max?
A: -Use a BSA unpacker on the data/meshes folder and uncompress the package to desired destination.
-Open your 3d program, make sure the NIF plug-in has loaded, and import the .nifs from the meshes folder.

"When I import from .nifs into Maya the scale is way off (huge, like a hundred times too big) and the rotation, but this isn't uncommon when exporting/importing from program to program. I usually correct it to my liking, but make a note so I can put back in the same place for when I export it back again." - Mordin

Q:Where would I find the male/female player body and head meshes along with their skeletons or bipeds?
A: "Off the top of my head, you'll find them in meshes\characters\_male (yes, even the female ones)." - nick_op

Q: What steps would I take to add my custom race to the game engine?
A: "You are actually unable to easily add a new body mesh for a race, as all races are hardcoded to use the same body mesh. There are two options as far as I know:

1. Set up the body mesh as several pieces of clothing/armour and script them to be equipped when there is no item equipped in the corresponsding slot. Does not allow new animations, though, you're stuck with the ones in the meshes\characters\_male folder.

2. Create a new folder for the skeleton (e.g. meshes\characters\yourrace) and copy the skeleton.nif and all of the animations across. Then in the CS, you can assign the new skeleton on an NPC by NPC basis. Doesn't work for the player, though." - nick_op

This is a convenient time for this topic to appear!

I'm finding it difficult to get a model created in 3DS Max 2009 to turn into a .nif. Currently, the process works (Max -> Export as .3ds/.obj -> Import to Blender -> save as .blend -> export as .nif), except the texture/UV map which is applied doesn't go with it. It's annoying, because if we can't get that to go with the file we need to reapply the UV map etc in Blender.
Any ideas as to what I should do?

Thanks. And great idea for a topic!

What unit setup should I use when modeling for Oblivion? (1 unit = 1 inch? or 1 foot?)

What are some general naming conventions that the Construction Set uses for its models, textures and animations?

@JDFan - no, I haven't tried that as I was told it didn't work with 2009, I'll give it a shot, though.

Whoo, things got in the way of me modding for Oblivion way longer than I expected. Now I'm back and with two questions since the information I found through search wasn't clear.

Q:Where would I find the male/female player body and head meshes along with their skeletons or bipeds? I ask this because I want to model a custom mesh for a custom race to use in Oblivion. I understand that the new meshes would only work for the race if naked unless I make custom armor fitted to the new meshes.

also

Q: What steps would I take to add my custom race to the game engine?

Again, thanks for all the help that has come before and again for all the help that is on its way.

@ Prestige: Could you edit the part in the first post about Oblivion/Max units so that it doesn't include the 1 unit=1 inch part? 1 unit in Oblivion = 1 generic unit in Max (the default), which are not inches.

Playing off of what Ragnos and nick_op wrote then a script to equip the new race with his naked clothing/armor will give the illusion of having an entirely new mesh (http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Portal:Modeling has information on creating custom armor or in this case "body meshes"). Perhaps you know nick_op, and anyone else please answer if you are knowledgeable, if I can't introduce new animations for PCs to use is it possible to replace the standard animations with new ones?

As for heads would one physically model a head/hair and import it into Oblivion (ala Morrowind)? If so where would the original head meshes be located and how would one import them into Oblivion?

I just corrected the information, my mistake. Other game engines, Unreal 3 in particular, must have their System Unit Setup changed to centimeters rather than inches for correct scaling. What I wrote hung over from all the short term lingo my peers used in classes.

great topic :goodjob:

are there any tutorials on creating .tri and .egm files?

What I can't do is find a one-room house exterior and interior. I tried the "Lowerclass" house from I believe Waterfront area of IC; the interior scale doesn't match the exterior scale.

Now, I want the dinnerware on the table -- do I parent it to the table? or leave it alone and just position it -- the way you would, for instance, "grab" and "move" a plate in an existing Oblivion house.