Adding accessories to a model without having to reweigh it.

[Kualan]

Hi folks.

 

I've been looking at working on an extended range of clonetrooper skins expanding upon the excellent Clones Ultima pack we all know and love. Specifically, giving individual skins for specific clonetroopers introduced The Clone Wars TV show and other EU sources, as even frontline grunts customise their armour to an extent. Whereas most of these are fairly simple to do with some Photoshop magic, I would like to know if I can expand the ambition even further by adding accessories to existing models without having to weigh and re-compile them from scratch (as I don't have the skillset to do that).

 

For example, in the Clones Ultima pack, moreso with the Soldier Customisation mod for it, different .skin files contain a different set-up of accessories. For example, there are variations of the base trooper with/without pauldrons, skirts, holsters and these can all be customised by the player. So one .skin file will tell the base model to wear a pauldron and a gun holster, another will tell it to wear the pauldron but not have the holster, another will tell it to wear neither of those and have a battle-skirt on instead, etc. And if there isn't a combination a player likes, its an easy enough process to create a new .skin file with the right surfaces switched on out of the available ones in the model.

 

My question however, is it possible to add entirely new surfaces - a cape or cloak for example - to an existing model and feed it through to the model via a .skin file without having to make that change in something like 3D Studio Max, which would require the entire thing to be weighed and compiled all over again?

 

I'm hoping to be able to add something like this to the base Ultima model for one of the multiple additional skins I'm hoping to release in the future (once I get permission from the original model creators):

 

[Tempust85]

No unfortunately it's not. The .skin files only control what's already in the model.glm file. If you want to add extra objects, you have to re-weigh it.

[mrwonko]

My question however, is it possible to add entirely new surfaces - a cape or cloak for example - to an existing model and feed it through to the model via a .skin file without having to make that change in something like 3D Studio Max, which would require the entire thing to be weighed and compiled all over again?

No, but it is possible to import a weighted model into Blender while keeping the weights, then add some accessories, weight those, and re-export. I should write a nice tutorial on that (or film one), the ghoul 2 plugin is in dire need of good documentation. I have a lot to do though, I'll have to evaluate my priorities.

[MUG]

Aye, as said, it's impossible. However, I've been saying for ages that someone should make a mod which allows you to load multiple models at once, and use meshes from any of them. That would let you do just this. Sadly no one seems keen on doing it xD.

[Milamber]

Scoop showed me someone who'd done just that a while back MUG >_> Redsaurus or something like that.

[redsaurus]

hi there!

[Kualan]

No, but it is possible to import a weighted model into Blender while keeping the weights, then add some accessories, weight those, and re-export. I should write a nice tutorial on that (or film one), the ghoul 2 plugin is in dire need of good documentation. I have a lot to do though, I'll have to evaluate my priorities.

 

If you ever get the time to make said tutorial, you'll have at least one avid viewer here

 

Thanks for the replies everyone, I had a feeling it wouldn't be possible. Darn shame! I might have a go at trying to navigate Blender once I have access to a decent computer again after the holidays and see if I can figure out what mrwonko mentioned.

[Kualan]

Aye, as said, it's impossible. However, I've been saying for ages that someone should make a mod which allows you to load multiple models at once, and use meshes from any of them. That would let you do just this. Sadly no one seems keen on doing it xD.

 

 

Scoop showed me someone who'd done just that a while back MUG >_> Redsaurus or something like that.

 

 

hi there!

 

Could you share the secret, @@redsaurus ? That would be amazingly useful.

[redsaurus]

I hadn't really done anything on it for ages because I wasn't sure how to do a decent UI for it or the best way to transmit which surfaces were enabled on the different models...I'll do some more work on it over the next few days though.

[Kualan]

I hadn't really done anything on it for ages because I wasn't sure how to do a decent UI for it or the best way to transmit which surfaces were enabled on the different models...I'll do some more work on it over the next few days though.

 

Awesome, looking forward to it

[MUG]

I hadn't really done anything on it for ages because I wasn't sure how to do a decent UI for it or the best way to transmit which surfaces were enabled on the different models...I'll do some more work on it over the next few days though.

If you finish this you should get in touch with razor and try and get it built in to ja++ =P That would be incredibly awesome.

[Kualan]

Sorry for the bump, but wondering if anything had come of this?

[eezstreet]

I think redsaurus' mod was a code mod, not reweighed models. If I remember right, JKG uses a similar method to do its armor models.

[redsaurus]

oh, um, hi there again? i got a bit sidetracked, but i might do some work on this over easter.

[redsaurus]

I was thinking a bit more on how to do this properly. Originally I'd been planning to send the different model names and surface on/off lists hidden inside the color1 and color2 fields, as they get passed on by the server, but I'm a bit worried about the amount of data being sent due to the number of surface on/off options. That would allow anyone with the clientside part to see anyone else with a model constructed in this way provided they had the original models, which is good. The other option is to have .frank files that describe which parts of which models to use, which will cut down on the data having to be sent, and perhaps make more complicated frankensteins easier to handle, but will mean that people will need your .frank files to see your frankensteined skin.

 

Thoughts?

 

(sorry if this post makes no sense, I should be asleep really :/)