Changing default skeleton/rig

[johauna]

I am working on a personal mod, that basically aims to be able to play as a female character (don't judge, duh) & I'm stuck on as to how to force the game to use/load a female skeleton (rig) for your player character. As this seems to be baked by default, even though my own models are re-modelled/re-weighted and use the female skeleton/bones that is in game, as that's how I've redone them in Blender, the game ignores it & loads the default CSkeleton file anyways.

Using Ciri's player entity (.w2ent) won't work, as that way, you don't see things you equip (among other issues & restrictions) and all my work to re-model and reshape the original meshes of armors would be in vain. And I'd rather not have that, as I've already sunk many hours into this, heh. As a side note, I can't script for the life of me, so that makes it considerably harder - although I believe that the main culprit, that tells the game as to which skeleton/rig to load is player.w2ent file, based on me skimming it in Wolvenkit. I'd rather not go trial & error on that one though, as there's a lot of stuff... uhhh.

If anone can help, I'd be extremely happy.

That, or point me to Witcher 3 Modding Discord. :D Any help is appreciated.

TL;DR - How do I force the game to use the female skeleton & animations without swapping to Ciri?

PS: I am aware that a mod with similar functionality )as in, playing as a female) exists. I wanted to do my own, that will work more seamlessly, without T-pose bugs, lack of visible equipment that your character wears, so please don't tell me to use that. :D

 

[CichociemnyPL]

Hi. How cool that someone came up with such an idea. I have also been thinking since the last time that it would be interesting to play with some "female character" (The Witcher 3 is a good game, but after many hours in the default form the game gets boring). Honestly, I dont have a lot of experience in making modifications, I can do a simple retexture and used a blender exactly twice (with big problems). I am very interested in such a mod. If I can help you, write to me in a private message.

PS: Sorry for possible mistakes but English is not my native language.

PPS: What is this mod you mentioned and where can you download it?

[johauna]

 

Hi. How cool that someone came up with such an idea. I have also been thinking since the last time that it would be interesting to play with some "female character" (The Witcher 3 is a good game, but after many hours in the default form the game gets boring). Honestly, I dont have a lot of experience in making modifications, I can do a simple retexture and used a blender exactly twice (with big problems). I am very interested in such a mod. If I can help you, write to me in a private message.

PS: Sorry for possible mistakes but English is not my native language.

PPS: What is this mod you mentioned and where can you download it?

 

If you're interested in the existing mod, that lets you change Geralt into something else, there's an easy solution for you - Check out Geralt Doppler mod here on Nexus - https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3645

 

The mod I've been working on is not published, as it's unfinished & unlike Geralt Doppler mod, where you essentially pick premade female characters and their body parts, I want to make my mod in a way, that just like when you play as Geralt, you see your equipment & everything. Which involves redoing the armor/outfit meshes, so they look more proportionate for a woman, for one thing. I actually have two versions of my own mod already (yep, I sunk a lot of time into it, haha), the first one using Geralt's rig/animation bones (and subsequently, his height/size), where I reshaped about every armor already in game and other one, where I wanted to go a little further with the mod, and basically use female rig/skeleton (comparable to idea, as if you played as Ciri, but with ability to equip stuff, that's visible and do other things, like when you play Geralt).

The second version is nowhere near complete though, as I hit a snag with it, hence why I asked here, if anyone knows how to get around the game using Geralt's skeleton/rig by default. I've been stuck with playing Mass Effect: Legendary edition, but I'll be digging into this a bit more soonish, hopefully to find a solution for this, so I can go back to Blender and having fun with it. :smile:

 

I /think/ that fiddling with identity files (.w2ent files) might do the trick - there was someone who created an entirely different player character, supporting different animations/skeleton, purely by editing/creating their own .w2ent files (see: https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?threads/playing-as-other-entities-actually.10751651/), but I'm worried that may be above my own current skillset. I learnt basics in Blender and changing the models/redoing the base weights is easy in comparison, but it probably won't be enough to get this fully operational, unfortunately.

 

PS: Don't worry about your English, it's not my native language either. :D

Edited May 19, 2021 by johauna

[CichociemnyPL]

Hi, I've seen this mod before and I honestly dont like it, I missed being able to use the Geralt armor.

[johauna]

Hi, I've seen this mod before and I honestly dont like it, I missed being able to use the Geralt armor.

yeah... uh, that's why I began working on my own mod. Using mostly female character animations where possible (as sadly, not all animations in the game have a female equivalent & I currently lack knowledge/skills to redo the animations for female rig), with a woman character, while your equipment is visible. It's a lot of work (mainly due to sheer amount of armor models/meshes to rework), though and it's going to take me a while to figure this out. My biggest struggle to figure out to date, is really to have the game to use the female skeleton, rather than the male one... without necessarily overwriting anything, if possible.

[CichociemnyPL]

Hi (I know its been a few days since my last post). recently I test different mods and found "Ciri's Dodge At Geralt" mod. Apparently there is nothing unusual in this mod, but I noticed that under its influence there is a bug consisting in temporarily replacing the male skeleton with a female one. (See also comments.)

I dont know if it will be of use to you, but its better to let you know about it (maybe you can do something about it).

PS: If I were to do a similar large and complex modification, I would ask the best modders for help. I do not know whether to ask for help, if not, it is worth asking for it (in a private message ofc).

PPS: If you havent seen the modification, I can "somehow" provide you with screenshots of the mentioned bugs.

PPPS: Sorry for the possible mistakes (ahh... my english...).