Creating a Whip

[jeeohn]

Hello Nexus Forums, I'm trying to create a very Cowboy-like experience for the player in Fallout 3, and one thing I'd really like to see is a whip or lasso of some kind.

 

Would anyone know where to start with this? Like would I use Blender and manipulate something like the baseball bat (make it elastic etc) or do something else? Thanks.

 

Also, I'm having a lot of trouble with hats for some reason. Every time I create a unique version of any kind of hat, it appears beside the player's head instead of on top--any fixes? Thanks again. :)

[Ghogiel]

I know this is going to sound annoying, but if you are asking how to do this, then its probably way out of your league. yeah you could use blender. If you are interested, there is a Uber modder, but low key, who goes by the nick- Xmarksthespot. He worked in oblivion getting whips working. he actually had it happening. Except the whip would be straight like a sword in the inventory menu if you have it equiped. iirc he was using bones in and rigging the whip.... i bet you could uncover something about his research if you ask the right people or troll the net/forums...

 

I learned a lot by asking questions from him when i started in the oblivion days. XMS FTW

 

the hat thing- in the geck character>update facegen model availability.

[jeeohn]

I know this is going to sound annoying, but if you are asking how to do this, then its probably way out of your league. yeah you could use blender. If you are interested, there is a Uber modder, but low key, who goes by the nick- Xmarksthespot. He worked in oblivion getting whips working. he actually had it happening. Except the whip would be straight like a sword in the inventory menu if you have it equiped. iirc he was using bones in and rigging the whip.... i bet you could uncover something about his research if you ask the right people or troll the net/forums...

 

I learned a lot by asking questions from him when i started in the oblivion days. XMS FTW

 

the hat thing- in the geck character>update facegen model availability.

 

Hey thanks for the reply, whatever help I can get I'll use. Yeah this is probably out of my league but best way to learn something is to just do it. Thanks again. :)

[BarryTGash]

Thinking purely from a workflow perspective here:

 

Treat the whip as a typical melee weapon that has a finite range/reach. Just copy an existing melee weapon and replace the model with an animated nif (via blender/nifskope). Of course, FO3 probably doesn't have separate animations for melee weapons before click and on click (the swinging motion is probably tied to the character animation - might be wrong ofc!), So maybe a ranged weapon with a very limited range?

 

Anyway, not really trying to offer a solution, rather an attempt to help you think about solving a problem by breaking it down a little.

[bben46]

The whip has been tried - several times, I don't know about the lasso though. The whip didn't work out too well due to the limitations of the game engine and I imagine the lasso will suffer the same problem. The game engine just doesn't know how to handle a non rigid weapon. I saw the same kind of problem with the flail. There is also no known way to put in a new weapon type without replacing one of the other types.

[Ghogiel]

The whip has been tried - several times, I don't know about the lasso though. The whip didn't work out too well due to the limitations of the game engine and I imagine the lasso will suffer the same problem. The game engine just doesn't know how to handle a non rigid weapon.

if you are unaware of XMS, as i already stated. from what i had seen, he actually had something working. the only issue is that in the oblivion inventory screen the mesh would be straight rigid. like a stick. aparently other than that, it worked.

of course this is ob not f3...

 

There is also no known way to put in a new weapon type without replacing one of the other types.

with a melee weapon, you can just add additional controlled blocks into the vanilla animations, these can control anything animation wise that you want the weapon to do during each of those animations. With both 1h and 2h melee weapon animations already in vanilla... unless you for some reason you needed to change the actual attack swinging motion, you'll likely be able to get a decent result.

 

in the case of a whip, not entirely sure, but a good few of the 1hm anims would be suitible if the weapon was actually doing the right thing during the anim.

 

I also believe a scripting solution could also be used to force anims to play at attack, so if adding controlled blocks weren't your cuppa, then

you can probably force a completely custom one for the attack.

[BarryTGash]

Probably a little more complex than the OP thought, but good to see some more technical perspectives here.

 

Having the coiled whip as the main static mesh, with the unfurling/whipping animation on attack ... is that what you mean?

[Ghogiel]

no, but you could do that, you could also make it curl up on being sheathed, so when you had it on your belt it would be curled up. I would just have had it loose in a ready position when in the ready equiped idle. the attack anim would be easier and more fluid that way i expect, or just easier.