Skyrim questions

biggest_kid

Hey guys not really sure if this fit into the Skyrim Master Thread so i decided to create a new thread and post it here.

So im rather new to the Elder Scrolls modding scene, and have a few noob questions.

Im currently in the process of modeling some weapons and armour for skyrim, and was wondering what a good triangle limit is for a low poly weapon? Also for low poly armour? Also for environment meshes? Also for characters? (Just to make sure, Skyrim uses normal maps right?)

Does skyrim make use of a 1st person and third person weapon view system? What i mean is is the first person model of a weapon higher poly then say if you were viewing it on an npc or something?

Does skyrim make use of LoD?

Also what are good texture sizes to use for Skyrim?

As you can see im a little overwhelmed by it all, but it shouldnt take too long to get the hang of it and get up and running.

Thanks,
big

Scruples

Importing custom models for Skyrim is a pain in comparison to other engines available.
Here is a tutorial for armor if you don't already have it http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3746

Yes it can use different third person models but only if you specify it to, and only for weapons/shields afaik. Should be able to find the flags by browsing around some unpacked files.

Yes it uses LoD meshes

Good texture size depends on your model, you could model a needle and put it into the game but you don't really need a 2k size map for that do you?. You could get away with 512x for something like a dagger, but might make more sense to just use a single 1k-2k size map and put multiple meshes on it (as long as they have similar material properties).

Good luck

Lennyagony

Extract some of the Skyrim assets yourself and checkout the polycount and texture sizes of similar assets. Its a good way of familiarising yourself with some of the tools your going to need for the modding process and give you reference to boot.

biggest_kid

Lennyagony wrote: »

Extract some of the Skyrim assets yourself and checkout the polycount and texture sizes of similar assets. Its a good way of familiarising yourself with some of the tools your going to need for the modding process and give you reference to boot.

I wouldnt have the first clue how to do that unfortunately

Ive only ever dabbled in modding Morrowind, and that was a long long time ago, so its not of much help anyway.

Lennyagony

biggest_kid wrote: »

I wouldnt have the first clue how to do that unfortunately

No problem biggest_kid, im not sure how things have changed with the release of the creation kit, but prior to that I was able to extract assets with the help of NIFtools.

Skyrim nexus often has good info

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?c=409,411,419,415

and this thread looked promising at a glance

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/522532-skyrim-tutorials/

failing that try plugging exporting Skyrim models, extracting skyrim assets or something similar into google and it'll get you started.

biggest_kid

Yeah i was actually referred to a really good thread on another forum, and i followed the tutorial there and now i can extract and view current skyrim models.

Now to learn how to import my own into the game haha, i was looking at a tutorial earlier today, it looks so unneccesarily complicated.

Anyway thanks for the help guys