Maya NIF Plugin — DCCStudios Fork

A Maya plug-in for importing and exporting NetImmerse / Gamebryo NIF files used by Bethesda games — Skyrim LE / SE / AE, Fallout 3 / NV / 4.

This Fork	DCCStudios/Maya_NifTools_Plugin
Upstream	Alecu100/maya_nif_plugin
Target	Maya 2025 — Windows x64

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Table of Contents

1. What's Different in This Fork
2. Building from Source
   • Prerequisites
   • Step 1 — Clone
   • Step 2 — Build
   • Step 3 — Load in Maya
3. Troubleshooting
4. Project Structure

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What's Different in This Fork

The upstream repo (by Alecu100) was last updated in May 2017 and targets Maya 2012 – 2017. It relies solely on niflib for NIF I/O — a library that does not understand Skyrim SE/AE's BSTriShape geometry. Importing any SE-era NIF with the upstream code would crash or produce empty meshes.

This fork (by TheShinyHaxorus / DCCStudios) modernizes the plugin for Maya 2025 and adds a second NIF backend — nifly — for full modern NIF support.

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1. Maya 2025 Support

Change	Detail
Build config	New Release - 2025 | x64 configuration targeting the Maya 2025 devkit
C++ standard	C++17 enabled (/std:c++17)
Defines	WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN, NOMINMAX to prevent Windows header conflicts
Deployment	Post-build step auto-copies .mll, DLL, and MEL scripts to Maya 2025 user dirs
Options UI	Import scale option wired through to the importer

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2. Nifly Importer — Modern NIF Support

nifly (the same library behind Outfit Studio / BodySlide) is added as a submodule at extern/nifly.

A new NiflyImporter class auto-detects modern NIFs (user-version ≥ 12, BSFadeNode root, etc.) and routes them through nifly instead of niflib.

Imported Features

Feature	What it does
Mesh geometry	Vertices, normals, UVs, vertex colors, triangles
Materials & textures	Creates Maya Phong shaders — diffuse, normal, glow maps
Texture path resolution	Uses the search paths configured in the import options dialog
Skeleton & skinning	Builds joint hierarchy, applies skinCluster with per-vertex bone weights
Weight normalization	Optional — controlled by the importNormalizedWeights setting
Reference skeleton	Loads bone transforms from an external skeleton NIF when the mesh NIF has names only
Dismember partitions	Reads BSDismemberSkinInstance → creates nifDismemberPartition Maya nodes

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3. Nifly Exporter & Resave Bridge

• NiflyExportingFixture — native nifly-based geometry export for Skyrim meshes.
• ResaveWithNifly() — bridge utility that re-saves a niflib-exported NIF through nifly for format consistency.

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4. Updated niflib Submodule

The niflib submodule was changed from Alecu100/niflib → DCCStudios/Mayaniflib, which adds BSTriShape stub support so the legacy code path no longer crashes on SE NIFs.

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5. Fallout 4 Code Removed

The upstream's Fallout 4 classes (NifImportingFixtureFallout4, NifMeshImporterFallout4, BSSegment, BSSubSegment, etc.) were incomplete and non-functional. They have been removed — modern Fallout 4 NIFs are now handled by the nifly path.

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6. Code Cleanup

• Skyrim fixtures renamed to NifSkyrimImportingFixture / NifSkyrimExportingFixture.
• NifMaterialImporterSkyrimFallout4 → NifMaterialImporterSkyrim.
• Removed .vcxproj.user with hardcoded user paths.
• Added .gitignore for build artifacts.
• PDB output redirected to $(TEMP) to prevent file-locking.

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Building from Source

Everything you need to compile the plugin is included in the repo — no external SDK downloads, no CMake, no extra tools beyond Visual Studio and Git.

All dependencies are either bundled or build automatically:

Dependency	Location	How it's used
Maya 2025 SDK	extern/maya2025/	Headers + import libs — committed in repo
nifly	extern/prebuilt/nifly.lib	Pre-built static lib committed in repo (source in extern/nifly/ submodule)
niflib	niflib/	Builds automatically as a solution dependency

The build produces two runtime files:

Output	Role
nifTranslator.mll	The Maya plug-in
niflib_x64.dll	Runtime library loaded alongside the plugin

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Prerequisites

Requirement	Details
OS	Windows 10 or 11 — x64
Visual Studio 2022	Community / Professional / Enterprise. Install the "Desktop development with C++" workload. Uses the v143 platform toolset.
Git	Any recent version — submodule support required.

Note

That's it. No Maya DevKit download, no CMake, no vcpkg. The Maya 2025 headers, import libraries, and pre-built nifly.lib are all committed directly in the repo.

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Step 1 — Clone the Repository

git clone --recursive https://github.com/DCCStudios/Maya_NifTools_Plugin.git
cd Maya_NifTools_Plugin

Important

--recursive is required. It pulls two submodules the build depends on:

Submodule	Local path	Source
niflib	niflib/	DCCStudios/Mayaniflib
nifly	extern/nifly/	ousnius/nifly

Already cloned without --recursive? Run:

git submodule update --init --recursive

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Step 2 — Build the Plugin

1. Open maya_nif_plugin.sln in Visual Studio 2022.
2. Set the Configuration dropdown to Release - 2025 and Platform to x64.
3. Build → Build Solution (or Ctrl + Shift + B).

The solution compiles two projects in dependency order:

Order	Project	Output
1	niflib	niflib\bin\niflib_x64.dll + niflib\lib\niflib_dll.lib
2	maya_nif_plugin	Release - 2025\nifTranslator.mll

niflib builds automatically — no manual steps. nifly.lib is pre-built and already in the repo at extern/prebuilt/nifly.lib.

The post-build step automatically deploys everything to Maya:

Plug-ins → %USERPROFILE%\Documents\maya\2025\plug-ins\

File	Purpose
nifTranslator.mll	The plugin itself
niflib_x64.dll	Runtime library (must be next to the .mll)

Scripts → %USERPROFILE%\Documents\maya\2025\scripts\

File	Purpose
nifTranslatorOpts.mel	Import / export options dialog
nifTranslatorMenuCreate.mel	Creates the NifTools menu in Maya
nifTranslatorMenuRemove.mel	Removes the menu on plug-in unload
AEbsLightningShaderTemplate.mel	Attribute Editor template for BS Lightning Shader
AEnifDismemberPartitionTemplate.mel	Attribute Editor template for dismember partitions

Note

If the post-build step fails (different install paths, etc.), copy the files manually. The two critical files are nifTranslator.mll and niflib_x64.dll — both must be in Maya's plug-ins folder.

Tip

Targeting a different Maya version? Change the folder name from 2025 to your version and compile against the matching devkit.

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Step 3 — Load the Plugin in Maya

1. Launch Maya 2025.
2. Windows → Settings / Preferences → Plug-in Manager.
3. Find nifTranslator.mll in the list.
4. Check Loaded (and optionally Auto load for future sessions).
5. A NifTools menu should appear in the menu bar.
6. File → Import to open .nif / .kf files. File → Export Selection to export geometry to .nif.

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Troubleshooting

"Cannot find niflib_x64.dll"

Make sure niflib_x64.dll is in the same folder as nifTranslator.mll (the plug-ins directory), or in a directory on your system PATH.

"Cannot open include file: maya/MFnPlugin.h"

The Maya SDK headers should already be in extern/maya2025/include/maya/. If the folder is missing or empty, make sure you have the latest version of the repo. The headers are committed directly — no devkit download needed.

Plugin loads but no NifTools menu appears

The MEL scripts are missing from your Maya scripts directory. Copy them manually from the repo root to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\maya\2025\scripts\:

• nifTranslatorOpts.mel
• nifTranslatorMenuCreate.mel
• nifTranslatorMenuRemove.mel

Import produces an empty scene

Check the debug log at:

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\maya\2025\scripts\nifTranslator_debug.log

Common causes:

• The NIF is pre-Skyrim LE and falls through to the legacy niflib path.
• The file is corrupt or uses an unsupported NIF version.

Rebuilding nifly from source

The pre-built nifly.lib should work out of the box. If you need to rebuild it (e.g. after modifying nifly source), install CMake 3.10+ and run from the repo root:

cd extern\nifly
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF
cmake --build . --config Release
copy build\src\Release\nifly.lib "..\..\..\prebuilt\nifly.lib"

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Project Structure

maya_nif_plugin/
│
├── NifTranslator.cpp / .h              Main Maya translator entry point
├── maya_nif_plugin.sln                  Visual Studio solution
├── maya_nif_plugin.vcxproj              Visual Studio project (all build configs)
│
├── niflib/                              Submodule ─ niflib DLL (legacy NIF I/O)
├── extern/
│   ├── nifly/                           Submodule ─ nifly source (modern NIF I/O)
│   ├── prebuilt/                        Pre-built nifly.lib (ready to link)
│   └── maya2025/                        Bundled Maya 2025 SDK
│       ├── include/maya/                544 Maya API headers
│       └── lib/                         Foundation, OpenMaya, OpenMayaAnim, etc.
│
├── include/
│   ├── Common/                          Shared types, options, utilities
│   ├── Custom Nodes/                    BSLightningShader, NifDismemberPartition
│   ├── Exporters/                       Export fixtures (Default, Skyrim, Nifly, KF)
│   └── Importers/                       Import fixtures (Default, Skyrim, Nifly, KF)
│
├── src/                                 Implementation files — mirrors include/ layout
│
├── nifTranslatorOpts.mel                Import / export options dialog
├── nifTranslatorMenuCreate.mel          Creates the NifTools menu
├── nifTranslatorMenuRemove.mel          Removes the NifTools menu
├── AEbsLightningShaderTemplate.mel      AE template ─ BS Lightning Shader
├── AEnifDismemberPartitionTemplate.mel  AE template ─ Dismember Partition
│
└── README.md                            This file

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Original Project

The original Maya NIF File Translator by Alecu100 was documented at: http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/Maya