So I've been trying to teach myself how to use blender to model stuff, and predictably enough I've hit snags which I can't seem to google my way out of. I thought I'd make a single thread which I (and anyone else) can use to ask blender-related questions rather than spamming the forums with lots of questions.

First issue!

I want to create a version of the vanilla MW Daedric pillar mesh with a flattened head (see the second screenshot below to see which mesh I'm talking about). I go into blender 2.49, drag the vertices around as needed and it looks like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ss6y_pJT86eldSOElIcU5SLXc/view?usp=sharing. I don't know what the lines hovering above the flattened mesh are, but they aren't edges because they don't select with edge mode and they don't seem to have vertices of their own (in the top left side), so I can't move them. Since the mesh looks ok in blender with texture view, I figure those lines are just weird invisible things like collision and export the nif. I selected the 'no animations' and 'morrowind' options on the export menu.

When I opened it up in the editor, it looked like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ss6y_pJT86REZ2VTdXTGZsYlE/view?usp=sharing. I.e. the same as the normal vanilla mesh, as if my transformations had been completely nullified. I don't know why -- was it those weird not-edge lines which refused to move? Did I screw up while exporting the mesh? I don't know -- please help! I've tried google, but I don't know what those line things are called so no use so far.

I'm also trying to build a sword model from scratch -- I'll post it up for feedback later.

Hello lad! Here is the BRILLIANT http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/18979/? by EXELLENT Mr.Siika, I hope it will help you! Glad to see blender community growing!

Ps-s, this lines are separate collision mesh.

I highly recommend doing all the modelling in an up to date version of blender. I know some people still like to use exclusively 2.49b, but workflow using the newer versions is so much better/easier.


From looking at your screenshot, the lines are indeed most likely the collision object. I'm not sure why your mesh didn't show up in game though. Was your export successful? Perhaps try opening up the mesh in Nifskope and seeing if the changes were actually saved.

It was indeed the collision mesh! I feel stupid. Thanks for the advice and the tutorial suggestion.

Everything worked fine the second time, when the only thing I changed was flattening the collision mesh along with the object, so I guess it was that?

Yeah, even from watching youtube videos I get the impression that 2.7whatever is a lot handier than 2.49b, but are there limitations with backwards compatibility? I remember trying to use http://wiki.theassimilationlab.com/mmw/Creating_Morrowind_Meshes_Using_New_Versions_of_Blender to get meshes from 2.72 to 2.49b and it completely bugged out when I tried something with an animation. I don't remember the specifics, though.

Not sure about that process. All I do on my end is import with 2.49b, save as .blend, then open it with newer blender. After I'm done editing, I simply save it with the "Legacy Mesh Format" option checked and export as needed with 2.49b.


The only time I'll stick with 2.49b for editing is if I'm working with animations. BTW there is a https://www.dropbox.com/s/1eq92fafri46oui/blender_nif_plugin-2.6.0a0.dev4.zip?dl=0 nif import/export plugin for newer Blender versions. I tried it out a little and it seemed to work, so that might be worth looking into as well.

Yeah, there can be animation incompatibilities but for static meshes you should not get any trouble. Just make sure that no face has more than four edges (n-gon), because the older version does not support them and cannot import them.

Really, it's a pity that after all this time there is still no stable nif plugin for newer Blender versions. I understand that they changed the mesh format faster than the NifTools developers could keep up, but it would be great if they finally got around to finish it.

But the developer of the beta version posted by Greatness7 http://niftools.sourceforge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6323#p32034, so yeah... fat chance I guess.

You have to tab out of editing mode, select the collision mesh and go back to editing mode to separately edit the collision mesh. Also, from personal experience, meshes you're exporting have to be highlighted (just hit a to select all/both), otherwise it will export only some parts (what's highlighted), or an empty nif (if nothing is highlighted).


Also, again- from personal experience which means there might be a way to do this properly, but saving as a legacy mesh and opening it up in in 2.49b only keeps edges. Faces are deleted, and so is unwrapped UV. Not sure why, and I suspect there's a workaround for this, but Uv is what bugs me because 2.49b is completely stupid when it comes to unwrapping.