Fallout Body Editing Engine?

[DxtirVoxx]

Fallout 3 Omni-Bod Engine (a proposed project)

 

Um? Forgive a noob for asking possibly a stupid question...

 

Fallout3 uses & supports Nif meshes for faces that are modified by data files (egm, egt & tri I think) to achieve specific, unique facial geometries for any character or NPC, that are already fully rigged & capable of preforming animations. So, technically ANY rigged mesh can be thus deformed in a similar way, having it's geometry "saved" AND still fully capable of animations.

 

So the question is: Has anyone thought of applying the same technique to the body mesh?

 

By this I mean creating & rigging a detailed "base" body mesh, possibly an "average" of the best existing static meshes out there, apply the deformations & constraints (the egm, egt & tri files I presume), scripting the body customization into the race menu with all the deformation sliders, set up several average to attractive presets (possibly including presets that conform as closely as possible to the body types that inspired this idea in the first place (Babe, Exnem, Type3, TypeV etc...), even set scale sliders for each axis for further variety. All so that anyone can play with precisely what they want & modders can use the tools to apply a great variety to their mod cast.

 

Of course this would mean that all the armor, clothing & equipment would have to be similarly rigged (with deformations & constraints) so that they would all fit correctly. This would possibly make a lot of the fantastic clothing, gear already available incompatible. But on the plus side ANY gear or outfits modified for this new standard would fit correctly ANY body & once the existing outfits & gear out there are modified with the appropriate deformations & constraints the results could be endless. This is possible, there are examples of face head accessories out there that make use of these deformations in assigning the coordinates of their parts (some of the facial piercings are the best examples. So that's the source of this line of thinking: If faces & piercings, then why not bodies & gear?

 

I have ALWAYS been totally dissapointed with the lack of customizability in videogames until Oblivion & now especially Fallout 3. Even their vanilla versions fell far short of my "ultimate" ideal, but I saw instantly the skeleton, the game beneath the game that to my eyes held limitless potential. The AWESOME mod work already done has only scratched the surface & shows a glimpse of Bethesda's masterpiece that lays dormant & sleeping in the under layers of the game we already enjoy. I simply want to wake it up a little.

 

Now if anyone has already thought of this & or are already working on something like this, please let me know as I would love to be a part of it's development. Or if anyone knows of detailed SPECIFIC reasons why this is impossible contact me, because I fully intend to set out to make it happen. So far I have been unable to find a topic similar to this in searching discussion strings & I hope I'm placing this in the appropriate topic strands. All I've been able to find is that it's hard, difficult & wold take too much time as arguments against attempting something like this. That's all I need to make me want to try.

 

Now, I realize this would Involve a LOT of work & talent, talent I have & I think the work would be worth it. The things I lack are experience & scripting ability. I am totally new to modding Fallout 3 & the tools available to do it (GECK, FO3Edit, NifSkope etc.) so any advice, hints, tips, links that would help me work with these tools would be greatly appreciated. I am almost totally useless with scripting (I know just enough to break things) so any help or assistance is respectfully requested. I am a very talented 2D/texture artist (I Can make software like GIMP & Photoshop do backflips & handstands) that is picking up modeling, rigging & animation very quickly (I can get around Blender fairly well & should have it mastered in a month or two). I hope to get a great deal of help & or support from Fallout Gamers & Modders (especially those who have built all the fantastic body replacer & gear mods that already exist. Whom I hope will support my effort to make their work interchangeable & more widely available)

 

So, if you have any advice & or tips, want to help or simply want to support a project like this pleas message me & let me know. In short I'd like to start a project/standard that would in turn host/support sub projects & mods compatable with it, with the sole purpose of allowing players/modders more freedom & versatility in their own creation processes

 

 

Also in a related topic, has anyone tried applying Tattoo & or scar textures as alpha channels (as seen in GTA SanAndreas), does the Fallout engine support alphas layered on top of the skin texture & if so how many (any reasons why this isn't practical let me know). This alone could multiply player customization manyfold.

 

 

Thanks D-Voxx

[Yoshh]

Well... OBSE has a plugin that let's you modify nif files on the run. Don't know if that would work though, as I never modified meshes with nifscope... Aaaaand you've got a simillar mod on Oblivion. You get fat if you eat a lot, if I remember well... I'll go search for it :P

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21451 (Found it :D)

 

As it seems this only changes the shape based on your strenght... :/

[DxtirVoxx]

Well... OBSE has a plugin that let's you modify nif files on the run. Don't know if that would work though, as I never modified meshes with nifscope... Aaaaand you've got a simillar mod on Oblivion. You get fat if you eat a lot, if I remember well... I'll go search for it :P

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21451 (Found it :D)

 

As it seems this only changes the shape based on your strenght... :/

 

Thanks, seems I'm registered on FalloutNexus but not TES & have literally been up for 26 hours searching the boards for info & or projects like this just to make sure my future efforts wont be futile or redundant. I'm too tired to register right now, but I'll be sure to check it out after a little nap.

 

Tanks again

 

D-Voxx

[DxtirVoxx]

Well... OBSE has a plugin that let's you modify nif files on the run. Don't know if that would work though, as I never modified meshes with nifscope... Aaaaand you've got a simillar mod on Oblivion. You get fat if you eat a lot, if I remember well... I'll go search for it :P

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21451 (Found it :D)

 

As it seems this only changes the shape based on your strenght... :/

 

That's better...

 

Thanks for the link, looks promising, the Youtube video clip in the page gives me a lot more confidence that I can get this done.

 

Do you know if FOSE has a similar on-the-fly Nif mod plugin?

 

Also I'm unsure of witch topic strings to post my proposal in, to ensure it gets seen by the right people, any Ideas?

[Skotte]

DxtirVoxx, Would the fact that the "Weight" variable is broken hamper this project or would a short stocky character be possible?

 

Shouldn't this really be in the mod request section?

[DxtirVoxx]

DxtirVoxx, Would the fact that the "Weight" variable is broken hamper this project or would a short stocky character be possible?

 

Shouldn't this really be in the mod request section?

 

If I get it set up the way I want, yes short & stocky should be possible (though some of the textures would be a teeny bit stretched/squashed, with radical changes to the body mesh I would think). And there's the fact that multiple deformers for several touching or overlapping vertex groups would cause grotesque deformations with "over-editing" (good example of this is a body creator plugin for Blender: Increase the size of the upper torso & everything's fine, do the same for the pelvis, still fine, go back to the upper torso decreasing it a little, all "seems" well, go back & mess with the pelvis then BAM! all the shared vertices & their neighbors become comically & ireversably mutated & you have to start over). One of the ways Bethesda compensated for this was that they linked several of the deformers so that there is some falloff & it reduced the chaneces of over-editing glitches (although it can still happen if you REALLY cant make up your mind, Ive been testing this with the standard facial controlls trying to "break" them & I've achieved some rather horrifying results (I've been meaning to take some screenshots)). As long as everything falls in line with my core concept & the controls I want, I don' see why virtually any body type could be reproduced

 

As far as posting this in requests, I'm not really asking anyone to do this. I'm sorta volunteering & asking for a little advice & help. If it really belongs in requests then I should see about having it moved (since I'm still a noob I don't really know how to contact an admin to move a topic to a different forum)

 

Thanks for the post, a valid question, but I don't think it will be one of my bigger problems & applying a working "weight" functionality was always part of my original plans.

[Dampfish]

I would support this project wholeheartedly! Although I don't really have any talents to contribute with (I could be the guy that makes the coffee, orders the pizzas and so on [in the spirit anyway]), but I'm usually full of ideas and can probably be of some help in that department.

 

I've actually thought about how something like this maybe could be done, and would love to see it realized :)

[DxtirVoxx]

I would support this project wholeheartedly! Although I don't really have any talents to contribute with (I could be the guy that makes the coffee, orders the pizzas and so on [in the spirit anyway]), but I'm usually full of ideas and can probably be of some help in that department.

 

I've actually thought about how something like this maybe could be done, and would love to see it realized :)

 

Thanks for the support, encouragement like this actually helps more than you know. A project like this is all about ideas & making them happen. If you know others who would like to see something like this happen & or would like to help in any way, let them know about it. That would be VERY helpful

 

 

D-Voxx

[bben46]

Moved at OPs request.

Bben 46, Moderator

[Tony the Wookie]

I am pretty skeptical on the idea of this even being possible... (it is the whole getting it scripted into the UI that I am unsure of)

 

But I am more than willing to donate my body to science, and by that, I mean the 3Ds Max file for my body mesh, not my real body...

 

But anyways, the mesh isn't quite done yet, but I can send it to you when I am finished. Just tell me if you are interested. I am currently working on trying to get different body types made from a single mesh and useing it to create 5 unique female characters for my mod.

 

 

 

A system like what you are proposing would make what I am doing much easier, because right now I am haveing to make a custom race for each female, and then make unique outfits for each one (because the outfits have to be made specifically for that body type) And then I am going to have to make it where that character cannot switch outfits with anything outside of the custom ones I fitted to that body....