Before we get started, I want you to note: IT IS ILLEGAL TO RELEASE ANY MODEL YOU PORT!!!! Please, do not release anything you port, or else it will get taken down and legal action may be taken. However, it is perfectly fine for personal use.
For people who don't know what porting is, porting is taking a model from one game (let's say, a sword) and putting it in another (in this case, Oblivion)
Here are the tools we will be using
3D Ripper DX - The program we are using to capture the 3d geometry and textures from said DX9 game. This tool will ONLY work on DX9 games.
Download and read the quick guide to it here: http://www.deep-shad.../3DRipperDX.htm and when you launch the program, tell it to export as .obj as well. Ported models keep their standard UV mapping.
3dsmax (Blender should be fine too)
Adobe Photoshop (or GIMP, anything that can open .dds files)
A note about 3d Ripper DX: The meshes ripped may be incorrectly scaled along a certain axis if you don't set the FoV value correctly. Try to find out the default FoV of the game before you use this program, if the game has a console, I recommend using that. If not, try guessing and checking.
Okay, so find the game you want to rip said model from, and have 3d Ripper DX hooked up to said game's .exe. Launch the game, get whatever model you want to port in your sight, and press F12. The game will pause for anywhere from 10 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on your computer. Once it's done, exit the game, and launch your modeling program of choice. Import the .obj into your modeling program (default path is C:\Documents and Settings\(account name)\My Documents\3DReaperDX\Frames) and remove all the clutter that isn't what you want ported. When the model you want is isolated and is the only thing in your modeling program, position and scale it correctly. Let's say you're porting a weapon, such as a sword, go into nifskope, load up a sword .nif, and export as .obj. Then, get that in your modeling program as well, and position said model to the reference model. Once it's positioned, remove the Oblivion mesh you got into your modeling program, then export as .obj (if you're using max, make sure you give it a standard material! If you don't do this, your normal map will not look correct.)
Here's the time consuming part...finding the texture the model you ported is! (Default path is C:\Documents and Settings\(account name)\My Documents\3DReaperDX\Textures) look until you find it, and create a normal map for it.
Once you have found it, go into nifskope, and import your model as .obj, and give it its normal texture. I recommend making your normal map for it as well. Update the Tangent space, save your .nif, and use the CS to get it ingame!
I have ported lots of meshes, I put some of them in a thread in my forum, which can be found here: http://www.shsforums...showtopic=27277
If this makes no sense to you, I recommend learning how to get a custom model ingame first, and be sure to be familiar with whatever modeling program you're using. Thank you for reading, and have fun!
Oh, and, this tool can be used for more than just porting. You can make some pretty nice backgrounds with it, here's one I made just for fun. Clicky
Edited by jackmix69, 06 August 2007 - 06:12 AM.
