Ripping New Vegas Models into something usable?

Garry's Mod modelling
#1

I work with 3D models in my spare time for fun (though I’m not up to snuff enough to make my own yet), and I have a deep love for Fallout and specifically New Vegas. I wanted to mess with the models, maybe make some art or even a comic I have been mulling over for literally a year and a half. I recently looked into using Nifskope to take the models from FNV, but there were two problems. One, they are mapped with the giblets or whatever they’re called when you blow off an enemy limb, leaving hideously janky polygons like bloody rings around the limbs, and two I couldn’t find any heads for NPCs.

To the first point, is there a way to remove these giblets and import them into a 3D modeling program? Preferably Blender, as it’s the one I’m most familiar with, but I’m flexible as long as I don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on an incredibly expensive program.

To the second point, is that because they are generated in the engine itself? I noticed generic male and female heads, but couldn’t find anything for some of the main characters like Veronica, Ceaser, Benny, etc. Is it just that I totally missed the location these are stored in, or do they literally not exist at all in any rippable format?

Thanks in advance for the help.

#2

  1. Use this to import the *.nif files into Blender: http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/Blender. It takes a bit to set it up to import correctly, but once you do, you get the models fully weighted.

  2. They’re embedded with the model. Once you import them, you can simply delete them off the model.

  3. The heads use Facegen, a middleware for generating heads. It’s been there since Oblivion. The heads are generated in-game, so there’s no way to get the heads unless you use Ninja Ripper, but that sometimes doesn’t work.

#3

Thank you for the fast reply. As to Facegen, I figured this was the case that there was something within the game that created the faces. I’m not familiar with Ninja Ripper. What exactly does that entail? And if this doesn’t always work, is there a way to, say, download a program that could generate the faces for me or allow me to edit them outside of editing the polygons making up the generic faces?

#4

Ninja Ripper basically hooks onto the game (like ENBseries in a way), and allows you to dump the geometry and textures of the current frame while running the game.

To answer the second question, I don’t think there is a program that lets you do this (Facegen is middleware that isn’t free). You’ll probably have to re-create it from scratch.

#5

I’ve used a similar program in another game for ripping models, Oogle I think it was called. It literally ripped everything visible on screen at the time. Does this do similar? I remember it being extremely aggravating as it ripped geometries that weren’t even visible and turned the HUD into a set of single flat planes that littered the area. Please tell me this one doesn’t do that.

Comparing using Ninja Ripper or editing the generic heads, which would you recommend for simple ease of use?

#6

I can confirm that ninja ripper is working on Fallout New Vegas faces, although you will have to rig it yourself.
Also i had bad time with using nif tools for 3ds max, so blender might be your best shot

#7

I assumed I’d have to rig everything anyway, including the bodies. Thank you both for your help, it’s really appreciated.

#8

In my case, imported NIF files had weights and bones, but hierarchy of bones was fucked up.
So, maybe you’ll have to re-rih em, maybe not)

#9

Skyrim keeps the skeleton hierarchy in a different file, usually called skeleton.nif.

You need to import the skeleton.nif first, and then import your target mesh overtop it. Or the other way around, I can never remember the order of operations.

I believe Bethesda’s other games use a similar process.