blender Brainstorming: How to get modern animated files backported to Blender 2.49b for its nif exporter

[dreamCloud]

So I've got quite a few animated files for creatures in .fbx format (and some modern .blends too, both bought and made by me) that obviously 2.49b can't read/open correctly.

If you've ever used Blender 2.49b's animation system you'll know how insanely difficult it is to work with so I'd rather skip the step of re-creating all the rigs, weighting, and animations frame by frame in 2.49b (which would also be weeks/months of work).

There has to be a file format that 2.49b can read (I'm using the portable version of X-Blender 2.49b that has all the import/export plugins that I know of already) that modern versions of Blender can export to. So here's the ideas I've been thinking of, not sure how viable they are since there's not a lot of documentation on these plugins on whether or not they support animation...:

- Collada .dae files can have animation in them. I noticed in Blender 3.6 it's still an export option and is also an import option in 2.49b. Although the only people seeming to use it are modders for other games like Doom 3 and they have tons of issues with the animations. Unsure if this is a possibility or not.

- I found a plugin for MilkShape 3D .ms3d for .fbx files that might be able to work. I have no clue what settings I would need to use or not though and it's in beta status from 2011 so... who knows? Basically import the fbx with animations into MilkShape 3D. Then export that as a Milkshape file then import the Milkshape file into Blender 2.49b then export into .nif/.kf from there?

- X-Blender 2.49b can also import .psk and .psa Unreal Skeletal Mesh/Animation files. There is an exporter for that for Blender 2.8, which maaaaay work in the newer Blender versions?

- Lightwave MDD might be an option by converting armature animations to mesh animations as shapekeys. Load up the fbx/blends in 3.6, export an MDD. Load up the mesh (from whatever export, obj maybe?) then apply the mdd using Load MDD to Mesh RVKs? I'm really guessing at the workflow here.

- The Sims 3 uses the .geom file type which can hold animation data. I noticed X-Blender 2.49b can import that and there does exist a plugin for exporting sims 3 .geom files for Blender 2.8-3.x.
|----> This might also work for .md2 Quake files since they hold vertex animation kind of like how a lightwave MDD does.

- There's also the possibility of converting .fbx files to DirectX .x files directly using an online converter or through Milkshape3D. Heard varying results with that and that it mostly does preserve animation data, but I have NO clue how Blender 2.49b's .x importer handles animation data. 

 

Has anyone tried any of these methods before?

 

Edited August 31 by dreamCloud