blender exporting not working

[kpetti11]

i am new to modeling, and for my first one i was trying to take the hat off of the civilian male. I'm using the skin from  in Blender. All the scripts are installed properly, i've exported other nifs, but this one model isn't exporting.

This is the mesh:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XMJT85VN

This is the error log it says to check:

[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   niftools.blender.export:WARNING:Bad bone extra matrix for bone noclod.
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   Attempting to fix... but bone transform
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   may be incompatible with existing animations.
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   niftools.blender.export:WARNING:old invalid matrix:
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   [0.555620, 0.788798, 0.275370, 0.000000](matrix [row 0])
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   [-0.483409, 0.572793, -0.666832, 0.000000](matrix [row 1])
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   [-0.683232, 0.237416, 0.696709, 0.000000](matrix [row 2])
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   [-0.000000, -0.000000, -0.000000, 1.000000](matrix [row 3])
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   niftools.blender.export:WARNING:new valid matrix:
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   [0.553098, 0.786543, 0.274652, 0.000000](matrix [row 0])
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   [-0.481325, 0.570765, -0.665247, 0.000000](matrix [row 1])
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   [-0.680007, 0.235750, 0.694271, 0.000000](matrix [row 2])
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   [-0.000000, -0.000000, -0.000000, 1.000000](matrix [row 3])
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   Blender NIF Scripts 2.5.3 (running on Blender 249, PyFFI 2.1.4)
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]   Traceback (most recent call last):
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]     File "nif_common.py", line 1227, in gui_button_event
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]     File "nif_common.py", line 1579, in gui_exit
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]     File "/Applications/Blender/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/.blender/scripts/export_nif.py", line 4518, in config_callback
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]       exporter = NifExport(**config)
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]     File "/Applications/Blender/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/.blender/scripts/export_nif.py", line 407, in __init__
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]       root_block, root_object.getName())
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]     File "/Applications/Blender/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/.blender/scripts/export_nif.py", line 1158, in export_node
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]       self.export_children(ob, node)
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]     File "/Applications/Blender/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/.blender/scripts/export_nif.py", line 3121, in export_children
[0x0-0x3fb3fb].org.blenderfoundation.blender[74509]       assert(False) # BUG!

and i just exported with the standard  settings


Thanks

[GogglesPizanno]

Were the other things you edited static objects or character meshes?
Were you trying to export the animation as well?
Animation and exporting from Blender don't really work for character meshes.
I would have to go through and check my settings because it was a lot of trial and error to get it right, but you just need to export the mesh, and provided the setting are right, it should retain all the connections to the biped object.

I do know that when you import the mesh, it imports everything together (bones, biped, bounding boxes etc...). You need to just isolate the mesh and do your edits on it. I usually move just the mesh to its own layer and keep everything else lumped. If you try and reapply vertex weighting or attaching things to bones etc... it will break.

Then when you are ready to export, select everything (bones, biped, bounding box etc...) and export it as just a nif object (no animation). If i remember correctly you basically need to turn off almost all export options.

If everything went ok, it should still animate just fine with its original keyframes.

[Symon]

IIRC, Noclod is a flag (no cut level of detail), text in an Niextradata node. I suspect that Blender doesn't like to import/export it.
I usually remove extraneous nodes from a mesh before importing into Blender. Then I export and cut and paste my export back into the copy of the original to restore the stuff I removed.

You could try that.

[kpetti11]

ok, so i fixed the skeleton, and its exporting now, but its not animating in the creatortool. I tried attaching it to a citizen skeleton, and dropping the proper animation .kf in the folder too, but that not working, and i tried the nocapehero skeleton and its not work either. I also copied the animation manager from the nocapehero folder as well, figuring that was the missing key, but no luck...

[GogglesPizanno]

As I mentioned in my post, if you export it and don't have the settings just right, it breaks the animation and in essence just exports it a static Object. Also when you say you are attaching it to a skeleton, do you mean you are doing that in Blender, cause that will break the animation. You have to just edit the character mesh, and leave everything else alone.

The settings that seem to work for me are:

IMPORT: disable everythign except "Apply Skin Deformation" and "Import Extra nodes"
EXPORT: I export as Freedom Force (Not FFvTR) and turn off all options except "Export Geometry Only"

You also have to make sure you are selecting and exporting Everything (Biped object, bones, bounding box etc...) Not just the mesh object. This is what works for me, but like i said it took a bit of trial and error to get it right,

[kpetti11]

ok this is getting kind of frustrating... i redid the mesh from the original mesh, using your import recommendations, to make sure that the skeleton and the other structures were correct. I exported with your settings, and then when i put it in the custom folder, along with the original keyframes, the list of animations showed up, which is more than what had been happening. However, it still is not animating. I noticed that in the hero files, like nocapehero, there is an animation manager file, but there isn't one in the original citizen male mesh. Is this important? how do i get the animations actually running now that they are being recognized? thanks for the help, i bit off more than i could chew i think, but i'm determined to see this through

[GogglesPizanno]

One simple thing you might check, if you update a mesh while character tool is open, it wont update. Once a mesh gets loaded, it stays cached, so to make sure you are viewing the current export, close character tool and re-open.

I just tried a quick experiment.

- I extracted civilian_male from the art.ff file, and copied it into the custom character folder with the name civilian_male2.
- Imported it into blender
- Isolated the main mesh onto its own layer, switched to Edit mode and edited the hat so that it was squished, his chest so that it stuck out, and removed his arms (to test deleting of verteces).
- switched back to object mode turned on all the layers (so i could see all the other pieces of the nif file) and hit "a" to select everything and export the nif back out.
- Opened it up and character tool and it animated fine.*

The only thing I can figure is that someplace in the editing of the mesh, you are breaking something.

* The nif does however have a lower poly LOD mesh, so you'd need to either edit both at the same time, or remove the LOD one in Blender or Nifskope.

[kpetti11]

can you remove the briefcase? i think that might be whats breaking something.... and thank, i'll try getting rid of the LOD. I wish this process was as easy for me as it was for you haha...

[GogglesPizanno]

I just tried removing the briefcase and that isn't the issue... it still worked.
And I went through a whole lot of failure before I got any successes. Most people around here did. Its just a lot of trial and error and practice.

One thing you might try to help isolate the issue, is to import the mesh, and then immediately export it with no edits to see if works at that point. If it doesn't than you know its an import/export issue... If it does work, just keep doing things one step at a time and export after each step to troubleshoot where the breakage occurs.

[kpetti11]

so importing and exporting the unedited worked fine. I then went in, unjoined the hat and then parented it to the mesh. Now in the tool, the only thing that animates is the briefcase. Could my problem be that in the modified one that had the animations but wasn't moving was that i didn't join my new head with the old body? instead i just merged the points

also, are you certain the LOD isn't important? I have a mesh that is edited, but the lod is the original. When in the character tool, the mesh doesn't move, but the briefcase does.

[kpetti11]

finally got this working. I guess i just had to edit the LOD, and then in nifskope i just deleted it. Thanks for the help!