Nif Converter

[hmarrs]

There is a Nif converter from FF1 to FF2.
Howver is there a FF2 to FF1 Converter is there such a beast????

[Previsionary]

no, there is not.

[Randomdays]

As Prev says, there is no dedicated program to convert back, but Blender does it easily. All the fish meshes I've posted recently were v10 nifs (FFVTTR version) from WLP2, but were released as v4 nifs (FF version)

[hmarrs]

Not trying to sound dumb or arrogant but why not????

[hmarrs]

As Prev says, there is no dedicated program to convert back, but Blender does it easily. All the fish meshes I've posted recently were v10 nifs (FFVTTR version) from WLP2, but were released as v4 nifs (FF version)

How do you do it????

[Randomdays]

On the why not,

Don't know, butI guess no one had the need or ability. By the time FFVTTR came out, 3 years had gone by and there were a ton of meshes already out for FF. So if you needed them  for FF, they were already there. When FFVTTR came out with no meshes, it was easier to made a converter to add FF meshes to the game than to start from scratch. Some meshers still mesh for FF as that's all they have, and some for FFVTTR because that's either all they have or they like what the sequel added in capabilities. Personal choice.

I think also, by the time FFVTTR came out, it had a much smaller sales base than FF and a lot of people had already moved on to other things and there were few people left to work on making a converter..

For myself, I wanted to mod in FF, but ca'nt get the editor to work on any of my computers. the editor for FFVTTR does work, so I'll be modding with that. I've been releasing the converted meshes I've been working on for FF so that owners of both games can use them, but I could have just as easily relased the as FFVTTR meshes.

And, now that I know my way around Blender a bit more, I can easily import and export out to FF/FFVTTR in about a minute, so I can have them either way.

On how to do it, You install Blender 2.49b, python and pyffi. Then install the nif import export scripts for Blender. Open Blender, import the nif then just export back out. Blender has a nif export menu of about 20 games that use nifs (Oblivion, Zoo Tycoon 2, etc) and I just choose FF for my export choice.

Hit export, and you're done

[Randomdays]

Setup for Blender is here;

http://niftools.sourceforge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2603&start=0

[Randomdays]

As requested on how to convert FFVTTR> FF

Do you still have Blender setup and running? I saw you were having problems before. If so you might want to uninstall/ reinstall and start from scratch. You may know how to do a lot of what's below, but I'll go thru just in case and for anyone else who wants to try and are not familiar with Blender.

Install in this order;
1)Python
2)Blender
3)pfyyi
4)nif scripts.

Files found at above link, or check out Ewzzy's tutorial here;

http://freedomforce.ewzzy.com/Blender.php

After everything is installed and hopefully running, you should have the basic cube on screen, selected and highlighted purple.

click "x" and delete

Up top left of screen, expand "File" ,then "import" then "netimmerse/gambryo"

This will open an explorer window so you can locate your mesh. Find and select your mesh

This will open an import option screen. Hit the "default" button to set your options.

I turn off the "import animation" button which is for the kfs and is still beta last time I looked

You should see a loading bar at top loading the nif. when done, it will be on screen.

With your numlock turned on, your number pad wil give you;

7 - top view
1 - front view
3 - left side view
4 and 6 rotate on Z axis
2 and 8 rotate on Y azis

All mesh parts should be pink, meaning they're selected. if not, hit "A" to select/unselect all.

If you want to change the mesh any, select the part you want to change ONLY. If you want all to change, select the skeleton/armature and most if not all the mesh parts will change wth the armature.

Hit "N" to bring up the mesh stats.

Location X/Y and Z are the location of the nif compared to center, or where it will appear in the selection ring. IE increase Z and the mesh will float above the ground, decrease and it will sink into the ground. If you change the mesh size, you'll have to adjust Z to keep it at ground level.

Scale X/Y and Z will grow/shrink the mesh in that direction. Turn on link scale to keep the same diminsions and do all 3 at once.

The Rot X/Y and Z will rotate/spin the mesh in that direction.

To clear rotation back to start, hit "ALT" + "R"

To set new size and rotation as base, hit "CTRL" + "A" and select "scale and object rotation to base obj"

There's alot more you can do with the mesh of course, but I'll stop there.

To export the mesh, make sure all parts are selected and go back up to "File" and select "export" > "netimmerse/gamebryo"

This will bring up an explorer window again on where you want to save the new file and what you want to name it. make sure you rename it to something different so you don't overwrite the original file. hit the "export nif" button on upper right

This will bring up the export otions screen. Hit the "restore default settings for selected game" button. Make sure the "Freedom Force" button is selected.

Turn off the "force DDS extension" button again

hit "ok" and the mesh should export and you should have your FF mesh ready.

This is the way I do it and it works fine for me.

[hmarrs]

Awesome thanks it works except i'm having a problem with the Keyframes.
It tells me unable to load animation data.
Now I have noticed that the keyframes say.
character.kf unlike the usual keyfames.kf
I tried changing the name to no avail.
Can you think of somthing????

[Randomdays]

Replied in the PM, but for everyone else, character.kf is the way they're named in FFVTTR. The nif is ready for FF but the kfs are not. When I get home, I'll try converting them in Blender, but the kf part of the Blender scripts are only preliminary and may not work. While I can convert the mesh back, I've never had much luck trying to convert kfs back.

The other option, since you want to keep the mouth part working, is look at some of the FF meshes that do it and try getting them to work with the hulk mesh. There might be a Vxheavy or Vxhulking that can be used, adding some hulk anims to it to make it more "hulk like."

[Randomdays]

Tried converting the kfs and it didn't work. The mesh converted fine. Tried 3 different FF Hulk kfs and 1 transforming jekyl/hyde set, since this is a transforming Hulk mesh - no luck.

Tried what I could, but this ones different with the mouth and transforming. I can't give you the opening/closing mouth anim, but what i probably CAN do is rig it to an FF Hulk armature and give you everything else. Not sure, but I might be able to rig it to the jekyl/ hyde mesh and give you the transforming as well.

Let me know, sorry I couldn't solve it.

[hmarrs]

That would be great thanks.

[Randomdays]

Was not able to get it to work with the Jekyll Hyde mesh, but was able to rig it to Yellow Lantern's Male Hulking Kirby. Even then, it had issues with lighting and other things.

I've basically have gone as far as I can. It 's broken up in the character viewer but looks okay ingame except the hands are off for some reason, and without the moving mouth, it doesn't look good as it did in FFVTTR.

Let me know where you want it sent and I'll rar it up.

As a sidenote, both Yellow Lantern's and Karven's Hulk, as well as Gren's male_hulking_brute, will all work with Ren's skin, and his mesh will work with theirs.

Gren's is my favorite for FF, but check them all out if you haven't. They're all good in different ways.

[hmarrs]

What's the best way can it be PM'ed as an attachement???

[Randomdays]

I don't think so. If you don't want to do email, I can put in the yahoo group I made, temporarily, so you can grab it.

[Randomdays]

File sent. If anyone else wants a copy, let me know. It looks pretty strange in character viewer, and was very "neon" as well, but looks okay in game.

[Kenn]

Don't know, butI guess no one had the need or ability. By the time FFVTTR came out, 3 years had gone by and there were a ton of meshes already out for FF. So if you needed them  for FF, they were already there. When FFVTTR came out with no meshes, it was easier to made a converter to add FF meshes to the game than to start from scratch. Some meshers still mesh for FF as that's all they have, and some for FFVTTR because that's either all they have or they like what the sequel added in capabilities. Personal choice.

If only it were that simple.

[yell0w_lantern]

Keyframes are a complicated affair, in part because of the exporting differences. For instance, in order to use female basic keys on the 3R female_basic equivalent you have to rotate the mesh 90 degrees into the map surface? Even when you do that, there are still oddities despite the meshes being essentially identical.

[seraglio]

Can anyone confirm this is working for them? Its not working at all for me. I get a variety of results, but usually I can see the mesh in character viewer just fine (after converting dds to tga), but animations wont work. Even if I find original FF compatible keyframes, its like the mesh has lost its "skeleton" or rigging, it wont animate anymore. I've gotten some other bad results, but inability to animate with any keyframes is consistent result in a variety of meshes.

It would be helpful maybe if someone can post which mesh they were able to successfully convert so I can try it and make sure its not a setting problem on my end.

[Randomdays]

Not sure what you're having problems with, but if you're using Blender with the procedure I gave above, you will probably get the same results - nif viewable in FF character viewer, but not animated.

Just giving the nif FF keyframes won't work. Kfs animate by moving the bones in a sequence and then since the mesh is rigged to the bones, the mesh moves as well. The kf's move the bones by name - if the bones are named different, or if they're named the same but different material settings (not sure on that yet) it won't animate.

To get the Ren's Hulk for FFVTTR to animate in FF for Hmarrs above, I had to convert the mesh and then import a FF hulk mesh on top of it. After deleting the FF Hulk, I rigged the converted Ren Hulk to the FF skeleton. When done, it animated in FF. I don't know if you would have to do this if you were working from something like a FFVTTR male_basic to the same in FF, but from what I've read you might even then, as the FFVTTR mesh is turned 90 degrees compared to FF.

Summing up - 1) Convert the mesh from FFVTTR to FF in Blender.

                       2) Delete everthing but the mesh

                       3) import a compatable FF mesh

                       4) match the converted mesh to the FF mesh with size changes and pose mode as needed

                        5) delete the FF mesh and rig the converted mesh to the FF armature.


There's a lot more on this in the "Lessons" post I just finished, especially in Lesson 3

http://freedomreborn.net/forums/index.php?topic=55261.0