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Skyrim Meshes and Blender ~~~~~~~ Importing and Exporting A couple of caveats before we start; 1. This tutorial is necessary due to the Niftools nifscripts not being current and up to date with Skryim information. This is understandable, it takes a team of volunteer developers time and effort to get there. We need to be patient, and use workarounds such as this for now. 2. For that same reason, Blender v2.49b is used. The nifscripts for the latest 2.6x are not yet up to par and would require extra workarounds. 3. There are other ways to import/export meshes, this is my preferred method. This tutorial is specific to static meshes. Working with armor/clothing is a whole different ballgame and can be found here. Step 1: Preparing the Nif file. -------------------------------------- Open a mesh in NifSkope. Again I'm using clutter\carts\handcart01.nif as an example. In the Block Details, expand the NiHeader arrow. Change the following values; User Version - from 12 to 11. User Version 2 - from 83 to 34. What we're doing here is changing the values from a Skyrim mesh to a Fallout mesh so Blender will recognize it. In the Block List, right-click on the line BSXFlags, go to Block > Remove to delete it. In the Block List, right-click on the line bhkCollisionObject, go to Block > Remove Branch to delete the entire block. Expand the NiTriShape block. Right-click on the line BSLightingShaderProperty, go to Block > Remove Branch to delete the entire block. The mesh will lose all it's texturing but don't worry. Repeat for ALL NiTriShape blocks. We've removed all those lines because, as mentioned above, the nifscripts to import into Blender currently does not know what those blocks are and will throw errors. When done, we have left a very bare bones mesh. SAVE the mesh under a NEW file name. DO NOT OVERWRITE THE EXISTING FILE. I can't stress this enough. I like to prefix my "Skyrim ready" meshes with Sky so I know immediately what it is. So in this example, I've saved it as skyhandcart01.nif. Step 2: Import into Blender ------------------------------------ Import as nif into Blender like you would any other mesh. If you receive an error, double-check you've done everything in Step 1. As this is NOT a Blender tutorial I am not going into detail of what to do once you're there. Do whatever you like to the mesh. The only important step to point out here is to apply a material and texture to the mesh. Step 3: Export from Blender ------------------------------------ When you're finished editing the mesh to your liking, export as nif like you normally would. The only difference here is to export the mesh as a Fallout mesh, not an Oblivion mesh. Remember above where we changed the User Version of the nif to equal Fallout? This is why. Default settings are fine, don't worry about the Collision options, there is none. I prefer to save under a new file name again. Step 4: Clean-up in NifSkope -------------------------------------- Open the newly exported mesh in NifSkope. Expand the NiHeader block in the Block Details. Change the User Version back to the original values for Skyrim. Make sure to do this first as it changes options in the NiTriShape to what we need and will cause errors in later steps. User Version - from 11 to 12 User Version 2 - from 34 to 83 You'll notice, as mentioned in the Dissecting Skyrim Meshes tutorial, that Blender exported the mesh as a NiNode block, but we need a BSFadeNode block for our purposes. Not to worry, this isn't our final mesh so it can be left as is. Expand the NiTriShape block. There's a lot of garbage here we don't need. Highlight the NiMaterialProperty line, right-click and go to Block > Remove to delete it. Highlight the NiSpecularProperty line, right-click and go to Block > Remove to delete it. Highlight the BSShaderPPLightingProperty line, right-click and go to Block > Remove Branch to delete it (make sure it's Remove Branch to get all the sub-properties associated with it). All we want left is the NiNode with a NiTriShape and NiTriShapeData, just like before we imported to Blender. We now have a clean edited mesh. But wait ... it has no collision, material options or textures, so it's next to useless. There are several routes you can go here, again, this is my preferred process. I've learned that trying to copy collision data from one nif to another doesn't always work as planned. So it seems best to copy a mesh from the stripped down version we have now, into a vanilla mesh. Open a second window of NifSkope and load the original handcart01.nif. In our modified mesh window, highlight the NiTriShape line, right-click, go to Block > Copy Branch (make sure it's Copy Branch so the NiTriShapeData is also copied). In the original mesh window, right click on the BSFadeNode line in the Block List area, go to Block > Paste Branch. Our new modified NiTriShape mesh is now added to the bottom of the blocks and you should see it in the render window (it'll be greyed out because we've not added textures to it yet). Repeat if you have more than one NiTriShape to add. Close out the modified mesh window, we don't need it any more. In our original mesh window, expand the original NiTriShape branch and the new modified NiTriShape branch. With the modified NiTriShape highlighted, scroll down in the Block Details to the BSProperties line at the bottom. Expand it. In the first property line, change None to the line number of the BSLightingShaderProperty of the original existing NiTriShape. Our modified NiTriShape should now be properly textured and ready to go. Repeat if you have more than one NiTriShape to change. Highlight the original mesh NiTriShape line, right-click, go to Block > Remove Branch. (Repeat for any other original NiTriShapes you don't need). We're left with our final modified mesh, complete with proper original options, textures and collision. Save with a new file name (it's a new mesh!) and add to CK. As a final word on this tutorial; anyone who knows meshes will know that our collision is not going to exactly fit this new mesh in my example. The collision will still have the cart sides and prevent the player from walking into the side of the cart. But it works for this purpose and will work for anything that's not heavily modified. Collision for Skyrim is a huge messy issue and will be detailed in a separate tutorial for anyone who wants to redo collision from scratch.

Dissecting Skyrim Meshes (De-mystify the mysterious nif) This tutorial uses the latest version of NifSkope as of the time of writing - 1.1.3 - unless otherwise stated. Download at the Niftools website. First off, forget everything you know about any other TES game meshes. Now, let's look at a Skyrim mesh. We'll start with an ordinary static object - clutter\carts\handcart01.nif In the NiHeader we have the important User Version information. Each game is different and you'll understand why I point this out now when it comes time to import any Skyrim mesh into Blender (see Import/Export tutorial) User Version = 12 User Version 2 = 83 Export Info: This is not important but it's a little known field that anyone can change. Made a new custom mesh? Why not put your name on it as the "Creator"? Num Strings and Strings: This is the number and the names of each node in the mesh. It's best to keep this tidy and clean. If you remove any nodes from a mesh you may want to remove it from here too. Note: It really makes no difference to how the mesh works. Returning to the previous picture, in the Block List we have; BSFadeNode - this is the same as a NiNode block, and is Skyrim specific for static items. BSXFlags - a previously existing block type for animation/collision flags bhkCollisionObject - collision block that holds all collision information NiTriShape - a previously existing block type that holds all mesh information So far, the blocks seem familiar to other TES game meshes. Once you dig down deeper, that changes. Any block or option starting with "BS" is a new Skyrim-specific block/option. You'll find them listed in NifSkope if you right click > Block > Insert. All new types are added at the top of the list under "Bethesda". Sorry, I'm not going to explain them all. BSFadeNode: - this block acts just like any other NiNode - this block needs to be manually added to any mesh freshly exported from Blender, as the current Nifscripts will still label it a NiNode - contains all the high level information about the mesh; Number of Children, Collision object, Extra Data Properties, Controllers for animation, etc BSXFlags: - this block is the same as previous games, containing the basic collision and/or animation information required for static objects. bhkCollisionObject: - details the type of collision used on the object, same as previous games - unlike previous games, the Nifscripts is currently unable to export collision data from Blender for Skyrim meshes - a 3rd party tool - NifUtils - is required to 'make' collision objects, or simply re-use collision from an existing mesh - more on collision in a later tutorial NiTriShape: - this block is the same as previous games, but does contain different Skyrim-specific information - this block contains all information regarding the mesh itself - links to NiTriShapeData for specifics - links to new block type BSLightingShaderProperty, which contains all the options for mesh settings - the BSLightingShaderProperty links to the BSShaderTextureSet which directs the mesh to the texture to use Now to dig down deeper into the NiTriShape, as it contains the most important information. You'll notice the new block details line "BS Properties" in the picture above (at the very bottom). There will always be two properties to identify here; the BSLightingShaderProperty is always first, and the second line is for a NiAlphaProperty if required on the mesh. Looking closer at the NiTriShapeData block, there's also a new Skyrim-specific property called "BS Num UV Sets". This is a unique property that has 2 option choices. I honestly don't know what they mean but it is very important. A wrong value can cause the mesh to not work or even crash the game. The definition given by NifSkope is "denotes whether UV's are present" which is odd because everything is UV'd. The values are; 1 for anything that is skin (character related) 4097 for everything else Another important line is "Has Vertex Colors". Skyrim meshes make liberal use of vertex coloring (applied in Blender or 3DS Max) and this line tells the game whether vertex colors are applied or not. Directly below that line you can expand "Vertex Colors" to see on a per vertex basis which vertex has color applied. BSLightingShaderProperty This block contains information regarding what type of mesh this is and what render options to apply. There is a LOT of information in this block but most of it is default. Let's go through the important options; Skyrim Shader Type: There are many options here but most statics are "default". Other values will require additional options. Shader Flags 1: Default options listed. Does not usually require any changes, except for armor/clothing to add a "skinned" flag, and other values for skin data. Shader Flags 2: Default options listed. The SLSF_2_Vertex_Colors option depends on the value of the NiTriShapeData "Has Vertex Colors". If no vertex colors are being used this must be removed. Another common option one might add here is "Double-sided". UV Scale: Should always equal 1.0000. Must be added manually. Texture Set: Links to the BSShaderTextureSet node. Must be added manually. Emissive Color: Should typically always be 0.0. Must be changed manually. Emissive Multiple: Should always equal 1.0000. Must be added manually. Texture Clamp Mode: Should always equal WRAP_S_WRAP_T. Must be changed manually. Alpha: Should always equal 1.0000. Must be added manually. Glossiness: A general setting is 80.0000. Higher is less gloss, lower is higher gloss. Specular Color: Typically equals 1.0000 across the board but can be changed to add color if required. Specular Strength: Typically equals 1.0000 but depends on the object. Must be added manually. Lighting Effect 1: Typically equals 0.3000 but depends on the object. Controls the strength of lighting options in Shader Flags above. Must be added manually. Lighting Effect 2: Typically equals 2.000 but depends on the object. Controls the strength of lighting options in Shader Flags above. Must be added manually. The best advice I can give for these options is to open a mesh similar to what your mesh is and how you want it, and copy the same values. BSShaderTextureSet This is where the mesh points to the texture. Each line is for a specific type of texture (and is explained more in the Texture Types tutorial) That's the most important aspects of a Skyrim mesh explained. More details will be explained in other tutorials that focus more on certain activities.

http://www.bethblog.com/2013/04/15/moving-to-our-next-adventure/ In case y'all missed the blog post, it looks like they're done with Skyrim, other than the possibility of more minor patches. I have to say I'm kind of pissed and also sad to see this. Especially after they made it sound like we'd get more than this since well before 11/11/11. I'll be less annoyed though if they can cook up at least one or two good patches to plug up more bugs officially. Hopefully when they decide to stop patching the game they'll make sure to tell us so that we won't be left hanging on that. On the off chance people think there's wiggle room in the blog post: https://twitter.com/DCDeacon/status/323837011591036929

So yeah. One thing I've been looking for is a blank road sign resource, preferably in a higher resolution than the blurry mess the game ships with. Even better if it's just a dedicated road sign blank and not a mish mash UV mapping hack like the vanilla ones. Part of this required the font that the game used for the signs. Someone found that: http://www.dafont.com/kelmscott.font Would anyone be up to the task of making a blank road sign mesh plus texture? It doesn't even need collision for all I care I'm pretty sure village modders would appreciate being able to have ready access to such a thing.

I am by no means an expert, lets make that perfectly clear to start. While thinking up a new solution to get an LOD version of the Gildergreen into the game, without the side effects of disappearing trees or duplicated trees, I tested the method described here under Generating Object LOD. I created a new static tree object, gave it an LOD suffix file name and placed it in the correct folders. I also created an LOD texture file for it. And it worked. Well, at least partially. There's an issue with it not showing the proper textures. It came out as stone, but I'll figure that out later. Point is, the method works. What it's done is re-generated the Meshes\Terrain\Tamriel\Objects bto files. All 678 of them. However, the USKP does not want nor need to impose all the new object LOD's on everyone's game. What we want is just the files specific to this area of Whiterun. That's not easy to figure out with the file naming convention. They appear to be named by quads... example; ----------- Tamriel.4.0.0.bto Tamriel.4.0.4.bto Tamriel.4.0.-4.bto Tamriel4.0.8.bto etc.. In addition, there are already a couple of reports of incorrect LOD in Dragonborn (Miraak's Temple, Skaal Village). The above method will work with new LOD meshes but again we run into the task of figuring out the correct .bto files specific to those areas. (If only we had a TES5LODGen to automate the entire process and where people could do this themselves)

Open Cities Skyrim is a comprehensive project that aims to bring back at least part of the feel of Morrowind - specifically how most of the cities were a natural part of the world and you could just walk in without loading screens. The added immersion and realism goes a long way, probably a lot more than you might think. Ever wanted to ride your horse into the center of Riften? Well now you can. Need to get some help from the city guards to vanquish a foe? Run toward the gates and the guards will do their duty while you can seek safety within the walls. The town guards make for some very interesting interactions this way. This will also make running dragon battles that much more interesting since the flow of the battle won't be interrupted by the loading screen and all of the city guards can be involved at the same time. Downloads AFK Mods Open Cities Skyrim Bugtracker Installation Requirements Official Skyrim patch 1.9.32.0.8 or greater. Requires Official Dawnguard DLC. Requires Official Hearthfire DLC. Requires Official Dragonborn DLC. SKSE 1.6.9+ and SkyUI 3.2+ are required in order to use the in-game configuration menu. They are NOT required in general for the mod itself. SKSE 1.7+ is strongly recommended if you are having trouble with ILS/CTD issues. See the troubleshooting section. Installation - Wrye Bash BAIN Drop the archive into your Skyrim Mods\Bash Installers folder, then install as usual. Make sure the mod is active in the Wrye Bash mods tab. Installation - Manual Drop the Open Cities Skyrim.esp and Open Cities Skyrim.bsa files into your Data folder. Activate the mod using whatever management tool suits you. Post Install Configuration Set the mod's load order using whatever management tool you feel most comfortable with. LOOT should set the proper load order, and is the recommended method for doing so. It may also be necessary to rebuild your Bashed Patch if you're using one. Once the game loads, you need to allow 24+ game hours to pass for AI to fully update in each city. You can configure three options using the in-game menu if you have SKSE and SkyUI 3.2+ installed. Option 1: Oblivion Gates. The menu will now allow you to toggle them on or off as desired, on the fly, with no external patches necessary. If you have any such patches, uninstall them. They'll crash the game now. Option 2: Gate Attendants. The gate attendants who open the city gates when you approach on horseback can be toggled on or off as desired. Yes, some people despised them enough to ask for this. Don't ask me why. Option 3: Outdoor Lighting System. You can toggle the state of the outdoor lighting system as desired. Nobody asked for this, but I figured what the heck. I was messing with MCM anyway so why not. These optional configuration elements will not be supported through any other mechanism, so if you're one of those people who irrationally hate SKSE and SkyUI, you'll have to live with using external patches for the gates, and you won't get to turn the other two things off at all. Uninstalling Open Cities Skyrim Due to the nature of Skyrim mods, especially those adding scripts, it is strongly discouraged to attempt uninstalling a mod from your active game. Any mod that is more than pure mesh or texture replacements has the possibility to leave behind permanent changes to your save that you may not want. This is not something modders can correct for. It is how the game was designed by Bethesda. No support will be provided for anyone who uninstalls this mod from an active game and continues on with that save. Load Order Open Cities Skyrim should be loaded as late as possible in order to preserve changes to navmeshes and other exterior city data. LOOT should be used for optimal placement. Compatibility Patches Official Dawnguard DLC - Available in the patch archive at the Open Cities Skyrim download sites (except Steam). Official Hearthfire DLC - Available in the patch archive at the Open Cities Skyrim download sites (except Steam). Skyrim Sewers 4 - Available in the patch archive at the Open Cities Skyrim download sites (except Steam). CL Cities - Whiterun - Available in the patch archive at the Open Cities Skyrim download sites (except Steam). Drinking Fountains of Skyrim - Available in the patch archive at the Open Cities Skyrim download sites (except Steam). Atlas Map Markers (scroll down the files tab a bit). Inconsequential NPCs Interesting NPCs Dawn of Skyrim Collection Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul - Included in Shurah's installer. Compatibility Mods which strictly replace vanilla textures or the vanilla meshes are 100% compatible. Expanded Towns and Cities has been confirmed to be 100% compatible since it does not affect the 5 walled cities. Generally speaking, any mod which adds things to the closed cities will be incompatible. City mods that add some details to the open worldspace will be partially compatible. Alternate Start: Live Another Life - Fully compatible. No patches needed so long as AS:LAL is loaded after Open Cities. The Last Defeat of the Dragon Cult - The mod hasn't been updated since March 2012. It's navmeshes are partially corrupted and must be repaired. More Dynamic Shadows & Striping Fix - Numerous dirty edits that cause some interiors to cease functioning. Mods which edit the following scripts will not be compatible unless patched: QF_DialogueWhiterunArgueScene_00037CC2 SF_MS11OpeningCrimeScene_000206AE SF_MS11SecondMurderCrimeScene_0002422C Known Issues The Civil War battles which take place in Whiterun, Solitude, and Windhelm will be fought within the closed city worldspaces. This had to be done due to complications that were not possible to overcome with the scripting involved in the war and how it relates to several other quests. Expect load door transitions when a city battle is underway. Troubleshooting Problems If you have a problem with an Open Cities mod and wish to report it, I'd appreciate as much information as possible, preferably in the form of a screenshot with console data showing if it's something that can be screened. The FormID of the affected object would help greatly to narrow down any problems that might result. Post this information along with your load order. Reports with less than detailed information may result in delays in getting it fixed, or result in being ignored entirely. It helps everyone to provide details. I am especially interested in verifiable conflicts, as I wish for Open Cities Skyrim to be as conflict-free as is humanly possible given the circumstances. If the situation requires a patch, I can only work something out if I know what to look for. Help! I'm experiencing Infinite Load Screens (ILS) and/or Crashes to Desktop (CTD)!!! In March of 2013, Bethesda released their final patch for Skyrim. Version 1.9.32.0.8. Prior to this, Open Cities Skyrim had little trouble operating in the available memory the game provided. It has since been found though that Patch 1.9 changed something about the way Skyrim allocates its initial pools of memory, likely due to trying to get the DLC to work on the PS3 and then not bothering to make sure the PC had, you know, PC specific code for that. The end result is that when traveling, either on foot or by fast travel, it becomes possible for you to run into problems with ILS/CTD issues. This is especially true in Windhelm and almost guaranteed to happen when trying to get back from Solstheim. It's also likely to happen when fast traveling from one city to another, and CTD may result when trying to enter some interiors after you arrive. Fortunately the community has devised a solution to this problem in the form of a pre-load memory patch. There are several options for these now, but the one I most strongly recommend is shipping as part of SKSE now beginning with SKSE 1.7. In order to configure SKSE 1.7 to resolve this problem, you simply need to make sure your skse.ini file in Data\SKSE contains at least the following lines: [Memory] DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768 ScrapHeapSizeMB=256 This should resolve the problem on all but the heaviest of load orders. If you still have issues, then you can try either raising the 768 value to 1024, or install ENBoost which will help further reconfigure how RAM is used by the game. There are limits to this, so be careful. Skyrim can only have a maximum of 4GB even on a 64 bit system with boatloads of RAM. Allocate too much to either of the two SKSE settings and you'll be right back where you started with the ILS/CTD problem. My own load order has 96 active mods, and the SKSE settings alone turned it from totally unstable to fairly rock solid reliable. The doors inside Warmaidens (in Whiterun) are missing, what have you done with them! The More Dynamic Shadows & Striping Fix mod makes a bunch of dirty edits in Warmaidens that will cause the doors to disappear. This mod has several other problem locations as well and it isn't recommended to be used in general until the author fixes the problem. I am getting unexplained CTDs when using Open Cities with other mods. What gives? Open Cities Skyrim requires the latest version of Skyrim, Patch 1.9.32.0.8 as of the writing of this document. Many mods have not been updated since their creation. The most likely causes of issues will be from mods that have navmeshes but have not had them properly redone using CK 1.6.89 or greater. These mods need to be updated by their authors or they will simply not be compatible with the updated navmesh formats and will cause CTDs in any configuration that includes updated mods. When a mod is reported and confirmed to suffer from this problem, it will be listed in the Incompatible Mods section until such time as it is updated by its author. Locations of AI Doors The AI doors are entry ways into the closed wordspaces should it become necessary. Not everything that is placed in a city by a mod is worth the time it takes to create a patch. Mods that drop items for a one-time pickup are a good example of this. It's much easier to just go through the door, get what you need, then exit the city as normal. Riften: East of the main city gate, next to the alley gate. Markarth: Enter the city gate, turn immediately to your right. The small rock in the grass patch next to the ivy. Whiterun #1: East side of the bridge into the city, right next to the brazier that is closest to the guard shack. Whiterun #2: North side of Jorvaskr, on the side of the path up to the Skyforge. Solitude #1: In the rock pile between the city gate and the executioner's platform. Solitude #2: In the rock pile across from the Bard's College, immediately to the south of the manhole cover. Windhelm: As you enter the city gate, turn immediately to the right, then immediately right again. It's in the bushes right next to the wall. Performance and FPS Open Cities Skyrim should not produce a significant change in your frame rates and performance. Due to the liberal use of occlusion planes in the mod, the game will not render anything on the opposite side of the city walls in any given location. So your viewing content will be limited to roughly what you'd see if you were in the closed city worldspaces. The closed city worldspace system was NOT devised by Bethesda to improve frame rates. It was devised to conserve system memory on the XBox 360 and PS3. You're playing on a PC. Or, at least legally speaking you ought to be anyway. Anyone who insists that this mod is a framerate destroyer is already experiencing other problems with their game. Do keep in mind, Skyrim is not one of those silly shooters that requires 60fps at all times in order to be playable. Dropping from 60 to 55 would go absolutely unnoticed. Even playing with 30-40 frames would go unnoticed to those folks who keep those dumb little indicators running while they play. If you're seeing a massive frame rate drop, point the finger somewhere else. This mod is absolutely not the cause of your problems. I know this may seem harsh, but this sort of disinformation was rampant with the Oblivion mod and wasn't true then either and I absolutely will not stand for this sort of disinformation being spread now either. Credits Throttlekitty - Help with the Riften city gate collision sizing. BassEX - Corrections made to the Markarth dam mesh. Hannaise - Oblivion Gates in Skyrim jonwd7 - Fixing the collision on 6 Whiterun wall pieces without normal collision height. pihwht@Nexus - For having the patience and dedication to dig deep into the civil war and ferret out problems causing it to fail in Solitude. Dwip - For numerous improved meshes at the various city gates. No more crappy fake collisions! nonoodles - Riften southeast gate mesh plus the animated dock gates. Nico coiN - Cut back version of the Whiterun drawbridge mesh as well as numerous other cleanups and fixes for the mod. Disclaimer This mod is not made, guaranteed, or supported by Microsoft, Zenimax, Bethesda Game Studios, or any of their affiliates.