Installation of Blender

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Overview

Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

Blender is used extensively for modding games

This tutorial will show you how to install and configure Blender.

You can download Blender from NexusMods or the Blender homepage, however, it is recommended that you download the package from NexusMods. The NexusMods package contains all the software that is compatible and works with each other.

Installation

!!! Some SourceForge links are outdated. The actual installation algorhytm of NifTools newest versions(edit 17.02.2016) is totally altered. See the discussion tab!!!

NOTE: If you experience a crash during startup of Blender and you're not running Windows Vista, you may need to download and install Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package

Install Blender and the required support files per the following instructions.

This was documented on a Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) machine but is designed to work well for Vista, Win7, WinXP in either 32-bit or 64-bit editions.

NOTE: You must use the 32-bit versions of all the software until all components have 64-bit editions. You cannot mix-n-match.

Install Python

Required for PYFFI; not for Blender itself.
Source: Python.Org (If you download from Python.org, do not install versions of Python that do not match what Blender requires. If you install newer versions, you may have problems getting the older versions to work right)

  1. Run Python-2.6.5.msi
  2. Setup - Select "Install for all users" and click Next
  3. Select Destination - Click Next to accept default of C:\Python26\
  4. Customize Python - Click Next to accept defaults
  5. Setup Complete - Click Finish

Install Blender

Source: Blender.Org (download from Blender.org only if you want to experiment with new versions which may or may not even work with the necessary files to produce NIFs)

  1. Run Blender 2.49b.exe
  2. Welcome - Click Next
  3. License Agreement - Click I Agree
  4. Choose Components - Click Next to accept defaults
  5. Choose Location - Change from C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender to C:\Apps\Blender and click Next
  6. Specify User Data - Select "Use Installation Directory" and click Next
  7. Required System DLL Check - Click OK
  8. Setup Complete - Click Finish
  9. Make sure Blend starts up correctly and then close Blender.

If Blender fails to start, install MS Visual C++ 2008 runtime

Install PyFFI

Requires Python. Not required for Blender itself. Check your need for this package.
Source: SourceForge.net (download from SourceForge only if you want to experiment with new versions)

NOTE: If you do not have Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Runtime installed, do so now.

  1. Run PyFFI-2.1.5-windows.exe
  2. Select Language - Click OK to accept default of English
  3. Welcome - Click Next
  4. License Agreement - Click I Agree
  5. Choose Components - Click Next to accept defaults of Documentation, Python 2.6 (32 bit) and Blender 2.4x (Python 2.6, 32-bit)
  6. Choose Install Location - Change from "C:\Program Files\PyFFI" to "C:\Apps\PyFFI" and click Install
  7. Setup Complete - Click Finish
  8. Delete the "QSkope" shortcut on your desktop.

Install NIF Scripts

Source: SourceForge.net (download from SourceForge only if you want to experiment with new versions)

  1. Run blender_nif_scripts-2.5.5-windows.exe
  2. Welcome - Click Next
  3. License Agreement - Click I Agree
  4. Choose Install Location - Click Next to accept default of C:\Apps\Blender\.blender\scripts
  5. Choose Documentation Location - Change from C:\Program Files\NifTools\Blender NIF Scripts to C:\Apps\NifTools\Blender NIF Scripts
  6. Installation Complete - Click Next
  7. Setup Complete - Click Finish
  8. Review the Readme and then close the file.

Install NifSkope

Source: SourceForge.net (download from SourceForge only if you want to experiment with new versions)

  1. Run nifskope-1.0.22-windows.exe
  2. Welcome - Click Next
  3. License Agreement - Click I Agree
  4. Choose Install Location - Change C:\Program Files\NifTools\NifSkope to C:\Apps\NifTools\NifSkope and click Install
  5. Installer will check for required DLLs - Click OK
  6. Installation Complete - Click Next
  7. Setup Wizard - Click Finish
  8. Review the Readme and then close the file.

Configure NifSkope

  1. Start NifSkope
  2. Click Render, Settings
  3. Click the button called "Auto Detect Game Paths" which should add Oblivion's Data folder.
  4. If you extracted Oblivion's BSA files with BSA Commander, also add that path by clicking Add Folder
  5. I also like having a 3rd path which always gets changed each time I download and extract a mod to a temp folder such as C:\Downloads\.
  6. Click Render, Settings and make sure "Startup Version" is 20.0.0.5
  7. Change the background color to match Oblivion's menu color by clicking Render, Settings, Colors tab, right-click on Background, click Hex Edit, type in RGB values of E6 CE A4
  8. On an as-needed basis, toggle the display of the collision box by clicking Render, Draw Havok.

E - X - T - R - A - S

Install YafaRay - This is an additional render program for use with Blender. Source: YafRay.org

  1. Run YafaRay-0.1.1.exe
  2. Installer Language - Click OK to accept default of English
  3. Welcome - Click Next
  4. License Agreement - Select "I accept the terms of the license agreement" and click Next
  5. Select Destination Location - Change from "C:\Program Files\YafaRay" to "C:\Apps\YafaRay" and click Next
  6. Installation Complete - Click Next
  7. Setup Complete - Click Finish