Cerez

I'm not following. Windows 7 is a little more backwards compatible than Windows 8, and is less prone to breaking necessary libraries for programs. Mac OS X is a pain in the ass, don't get me started... Ironically Windows XP is still in many ways best for development and running all sorts of games. Win 7 has some workspace features which make it a little more convenient for work, and is more up to date, so you can run all of today's programs on it.

Some of JKA's animations are really strange. The way they treat the human body is really unnatural (upper spine split in half, etc.)...

Yes, that's what I'm doing. With clothing it gets difficult. Sometimes you have to weigh it to a different bone than what would be logical, so that it will deform well and stay clear of clipping...

I've managed to solve my problem using some trial and error. If you have tight clothes to match to the model -- and they need to be a separate mesh -- make sure you give them a few points distance from the body mesh (even if they are meant to be tight-fit on the body), as well as weighting them closely similar to the body parts underneath. JKA needs some room for deforming the mesh so that the meshes don't overlap. You have to count with the bone to vertex points distance/relationship. If you don't distance the clothes mesh too much, they still look close-fit, but you eliminate most of the overlaps. It's a very fine balance; it takes much trial and error. And you can move mesh vertexes even after they have been weighted. Just don't add or remove any. Of course that still means that I'm getting some clipping happening at the front of the legs, but I guess some clipping in the models is just unavoidable in JKA, especially where the arms and legs join the body. It's a bit annoying, to be honest. After so much work on getting a model to look right, JKA takes it and squishes it into shapes and positions you'd rather not see your model in... XD

Hahaha, you can't just fudge something that changes the game's design. We do a lot of great modding here, but no-one can make miracles happen. As I said, it's possible to achieve this, but all players involved will need to receive the change. The game's original code doesn't allow for loading any skin that isn't default_ into the MP character selection screen. I know of no workaround to circumvent this. That's how the game was programmed.

I've just checked, and 3DS Max 5 doesn't have the Skin Wrap modifier. I only have the Skin Tools interface to work with. To be clear, all that you're doing with the Skin Wrap modifier is transferring the current weight settings from the body to the clothing, right @@AshuraDX? Then you're tweaking that to make sure that the distance the two meshes are from the bone does not cause overlaps/clips when the model bends, right? I'm asking because I already have the same weights on the clothing mesh, but with extreme model bends, such as the movement of the legs, the two meshes still end up overlapping, no matter how much I assign the weight to the leg bone on my clothing mesh. The bends are just too extreme to keep them from clipping.

That won't work. If it's not icon_default, or icon_red/icon_blue, respectively, the default UI in MP will not show it as a selectable character. You can't change how the game works without applying a patch or a mod to it. If you do, you need to distribute the mod/patch to all players who you want affected by the change. The most that the base game allows is for you to select any model/skin you like using the command line interface. I presume your question comes after seeing this accomplished in JA+. JA+ is a client-side mod that all players who play JA+ have installed in their game directory. This is why they are able to accomplish the MP UI change necessary to display all the skins of characters -- not just default_. The game's code looks for default_. You can't change that without making changes to the code. You are going against the original design of the game in its programming...

This is a mod showcase and discussion thread, people. Please keep hidden easter eggs commentary to a new thread on KOTOR... I can't believe no-one else here has created a mod for KOTOR. Everyone's modding for JK, but not for KOTOR? Come on, that can't be true!

Seeing as I'm not alone in this, it's safe to say that Mac OS X, or its apps, are doing that bad a job at memory management... P.S. My spellchecker says "optimize" is not a valid word. I've had to teach my spellchecker a lot of words. You should, too. If you are into casual activities (web browsing, email reading, simple writing, simple office stuff), Windows 8 and 10 are okay. But if you are into developing stuff, programming, running advanced games, running old classics, really customising your computer to your liking, then Windows 8 and 10 are quite frankly a nightmare. Anything that's not in their app stores is a real pain to get to work with these new releases of Windows. It's the same situation on the new Mac OS X. On the Mac they even have a lockout system that initially prevents you from using any software that you haven't installed from their App Store. I've had many of my old games just stop working recently on Windows 8.1 due to a "recommended" system update. Yeah, thanks but no thanks...

Thanks @@AshuraDX! I didn't know about the skinwrap modifier. I hope this old version of 3DS Max has it. I've already weighted that section of the body, so I'll give this a shot. And thanks everyone for the great advices.

I think JA+ utilises a UI customisation to achieve this. It would be in the DLLs, in the coding. Not a beginner's course... And every other user would need to have the same (DLL) mod, once again. Your questions is understood, @@Spirit, but what you are asking for is not possible to achieve with the game the way you are expecting it to work. Everything is not as simple as it seems at a first glance.

Just type "model yourmodel/yourskin" in the MP game's console (Shift + Tilde key), and press Enter. This will change your current model to whatever model you like. (You don't need the "model_" part of the skin's name.) For example: model imperial/officer Others will see this change, too, on a server, as long as you are using a model/skin supplied with the original game (or they also have the mod you are using). The only way to get an alternative skin of a default game model to actually show in the MP selection menu is to create a PK3/mod where you change the model_default.skin file to the skin of your choice. But for others to see this change, they need to have your mod installed, too. While you're at it, you might as well create a new character out of the original one (duplicate and rename the "models/players/imperial" folder), and replace its default skin instead of the original game's character. You can also tweak the skin's textures anyway you like and customise it:

Any tips for avoiding/reducing clipping on garments laid over the model while weighting?

That'll be it. *nods* I'll try replicating the exact same weight settings for those vertices on both meshes. I can't hide them on a naked arm, and the game requires that I segment the arm... :/ I guess this is a game limitation I have to live with? Hmm... Could it be because I didn't weight the tags to a bone in the skeleton? Or is that for JK2 only? I might try moving the tags, since I did the hierarchy right, to the best of my knowledge...

Okay, I have two questions related to rigging. 1. How are the caps surfaces meant to be weighted? I thought I did the right thing by weighting them to the closest bones, but now my model has cuts (a break in lighting) where it's been segmented, and some of these cuts have a visible transparent space between them. I didn't move any of the parts of the mesh, so where are these empty spaces coming from? 2. When I tried my model out in game, I noticed that the tags for where the lightsabers/weapons are held in the hands are off. Is it possible to move these tags? How do I fix this alignment problem?

Oh my god! You're right!!! I forgot all about that! Love you!!! Edit: It's... going... I've still got a lot of weight refining to do...

Does it happen with the rest of the models in the game as well, or just yours?

I need expert help. I have detached a face from the already detached head mesh, and now it seems I've lost the textures on the face mesh for some reason. Modview shows the face area white now, and the face normals are not flipped. I've tried resetting the X-From on the mesh, but that doesn't seem to work either. Just when I thought things were finally going right... Is there any way to return the texture source parameters to the face mesh? I'm using 3DS Max.

So it was a game setting after all?

Oh, that makes sense! Thanks @@Psyk0Sith. So no tarsals in JK3. *makes a mental note*

It looks much like a shader issue. Either that, or the normal maps have been flipped or messed up. Which modeling software are you using? Edit: Make sure that it's not the game's settings, either. Turn off "Volumetric Shadows" in the settings, and see if the strange visuals persist. Check if other models in the game have the same problem.

I'm using an old version of 3DS Max. I can import the GLM models, but not with the weights, so I don't really have a reference... So it's just a matter of balancing the weights on the eyelids, then? (So that when they stretch they leave a clean-looking texture?)

What the situation with the tarsal bones in the JKA skeleton? Some skeletons have it, others don't. My recent model compiled successfully without it. Does the game make use of these bones at all? I've heard that it's for the Single Player game only, which doesn't seem to make much sense...

Thanks @@minilogoguy18. So adding the separate eyelids was not a good idea, then... But if the eyelids are stretched from vertices of the head/face, how does one achieve a proper and smooth texture on them? I've seen some models made for JKA that had a neat, separate texture on the eyelids. Or is that just my eyes deceiving me?