Tutorial: 3ds Max Skinned Meshes Into Game

[Ghogiel]

ways of creating an entirely new morph state for totally custom armor would be to create it by hand in an edit poly or use the somuchmorpher. That's pretty much it right now, there is no magic bullet besides somuchmorpher.

 

There are things you can do that might make the hand creation of a morph less painless, it all depends on the mesh itself.

 

BUT, I do see that it appears you actually HAVE both the morphs made already... it's just they are not working for some reason. A few pages back I mention some stuff about snapshot and using the morpher modifier in max to ensure that when the meshes go to be exported they will surely be intact, it's a bit of a juggle, but it should be fool proof in that the morph is intact as soon as it hits the exporter. http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/478312-tutorial-3ds-max-skinned-meshes-into-game/page__view__findpost__p__4453594

 

Now the first thing to do is set up a morpher on one of the meshes (say _0) and input it's _1 morph state to see if it is actually intact, if it is then carry on making the snapshot clones and that particular workflow and see how it fairs. If it doesn't morph.. well that is where that textools or somuchmorpher would come in as those are not reliant on a matching vertex index.

 

The text tools thing is straight forward enough, you essentially make a clone of the base one. flatten both that and the other one you want it to eventually take the shape of, by swapping the xyz to the uvw coords, done by pressing a button in textools. Then you stack those flattened meshes on top of each other and then use skin wrap to link your clone to the morph you are trying to create, then swap the one you are trying to create a working morph of back to xyz, done by pressing a button on textools, and your clone will follow.

 

It's limitation is that it is UV dependant, meaning stacked UV islands are probably going to make it go to s***, so you will probably have to offset those properly. if you don't dilly dally about it doesn't take very long, but you might have to do it twice to figure out how not to make a mess.

Edited March 17, 2012 by Ghogiel

[iceburg]

I've discovered that I can obtain 3ds max through my school... Hopefully that will fix my problem. :D

[CanisRex84]

Hey Ghogiel, thanks for the reply and info..

 

I loaded up _0 & _1 in the same scene and added a morpher modifier to the _0, but when I tried to pick _1 as an object from the scene it would let me.. Just didn't even give me an option..

 

I'm guessing its because you cannot pick a morph target that has a different number of vertices? However as both were made during the same sitting I.e. I made _1 and then used edit poly (without adding a modifier) & soft selection to shrink _1 into _0 they should have exactly the same no of vertices (I didn't add or remove anything)..

 

So this is where the snapshot cloning comes in is it? so there is a problem when it comes to export? Changes the vertices? They even show in Nifskope as having the same amount though..

 

Again, I am embarressed to say I am lost when it comes to making the clones :confused:

 

This is what I will do now though.. Start with my pre-made custom mesh(s) _1, export straight away.. then add an edit poly modifier and then shrink it to _0 and see if that works again..

 

When I cloned the mesh, I dragged the one I wanted to edit to the side (just to experiment otherwise I would have just hidden the original) but when I made changes to the clone it automatically duplicated the changes on the original!? Is this supposed to happen?

 

Sorry if I am missing the point, but this whole morph business is a real double edged sword for me, whilst I love having varying weights for NPC's and the PC its causing me a real headache to get my custom models in-game, whereas creating just the _0 or _1 I find startlingly easy for someone so new to Max..

 

I realise I should buy some DVD's (tuts on Max in general) and will, and I apologise for being so impatient, but when my SoMuchMorpher just stopped working out of the blue it was a real kick in the nuts and I booked the whole of last week off work to really get stuck into creating some new armours for my WIP..

 

Its quite horrible (of course not blaming anyone) that the only video tut on how to get custom armours into Skyrim is Joe Pikops one using his great script which now doesnt work for me..

 

Edit.......................................

 

I loaded _1... made a clone... hid _1 and added an edit poly to the clone... made the clone _0 and added morph modifiers to check that it had the same verts and the morph worked... everything worked fine, exported the new _0 and _1 and this still happened...

 

http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j398/ActusReus/2012-03-17_00001.jpg

 

:(

 

I used the console command showracemenu and it didnt even show up on skinny or heaviest.... I really dont understand how I can find this so difficult... and really done understand why SoMuchMopher has just died on me when I can find NOTHING like that happening to anyone else when I google it...

 

Does anyone know how to repair Max scripts when they go wrong? I have deleted the 2 files that come with the DL and replaced them, but is there information stored somewhere so there is a clean install so to speak?

 

Edit again..

 

the custom armour even shows up in the preview window in the CK, which NEVER happened when I had morph problems the 1st time round... It makes even less sense...

 

I really dont like to ask this but do you think someone could check out my files and see where I went wrong?

 

:unsure:

[Ghogiel]

Well the nifs look alright, except the rather large file size discrepancy and vertex count between the 2, the order the strings are listed in the string index, and thus the block list order, but I dunno if the engine cares about that, I half assume it is useing flagging node names, but possibly block list order might come into the equation :unsure: .

 

I can't do anything with those, I don't think it is your nif set up anyway, I was more thinking the issue is your set up for export in max/ the meshes in max.

[CanisRex84]

Yeah I noticed the difference in file size.. I don'y understand how that can happen when it was exactly the same mesh I exported..

 

I was pretty sure I exported the model the only way I have seen how to on Joe's video tut, but I guess I must have done something majorly wrong..

 

Im going to try a system restore and give SoMuchMopher another bash..

 

Went round my brothers toady and tried the script on his machine and it worked fine :confused:

 

Thanks for the assistance anyway Ghogiel and for taking a look at the Nif's

[PrometheusTS]

Hi I am still haveing some times morph problems , this time I created a new mesh , edited , I created a box polygon attach to it the new mesh then I delete the box to make sure is like a new totally from scratch and clean vertex ordered polygon , then I rig, skin and add the bdsmemberment modifier as usual export and all is fine ingame in the _1 shape ... then I just slightly move the vertices of the armor to adapt to an imported _0 body model , that I won't use in the final nif but I use as reference in max to model the armor .. so I move the vertices with a soft modifier to adapt to the _0 shape and I export .. I test the _0 model and all is fine ... the problem is for the in between moprhs , sometimes they are totally crazy other times they are just a few verices scattered around , anyway the morph is not % 100 perfect ... any idea what can be the cause ? I have tried the latest 3dsmax plugin but it didn't import the bone links so I removed and I reinstalled the 20 .7 version and since then I am having problems ...

 

any idea ?

[PrometheusTS]

Anyone? I have tried even the latest exporter on tesnexus download link but it just gets messy in morphs , 1 and 0 are fine and actually are the same file exported , even just moving a bit the vertices of a few causes the morphing issues ..... but the problem is it is the very same model!!!

[diego4fun]

Hey guys

I've started modding skyrim a few days ago, watched tons of tutorial before i get starting!

I got good mods ingame without problem( helmet, swords etc) even a entire model like this storm trooper from star wars:

Storm trooper

I replaced the darkbrotherhood clothes without problem!!!Everything goes fine untill i want to replace/mod any model that shows parts of the main base body:

Imperial armor, steel armor etc!

I got my custom model ingame, bugged like this:

bug

My custom model/dress is there without bugs as you can see but the body got bugged as hell =\

I tried many many methods, like replace the body from original armor with another one, replace only clothes/armor and delete the trishape from nif file!

Dont know what else i can do, any help here?

I'm using the Niftool method not the CK one.

Edited March 20, 2012 by diego4fun

[Ghogiel]

Hi I am getting those strange shadows artefact ingame on the nif and i have no idea where they can come from ... anyone coudl provide me an idea why the nif generates those shadows?

 

I checked the model source and there are no floating vertices or planes or other stuff that may cast those ....

 

 

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2159/weirdshadows.jpg

Ok I think I know what this is now. This looks the the weird shadows that appear to float on the surface of the mesh, randomly about, if you have assigned more that 4 bones to any vertex in skin. even if you have 1 vert hidden somewhere on your mesh that is skinned to 5 verts these things show up.

 

It is also related to the odd bug were parts of the mesh will render in front of other parts that it is actually behind. Yeah pretty weird. Those bits of the mesh that bleed to the front are actually the same verts that have more than 4 bone weights assigned, so you can roughly track them, though they are really annoying.

 

and yeah this will be far more common to those who do not manual skin but use skin wrap. I just spent far longer sorting those few verts than it would have taken me to skin an outfit from scratch, so just be careful there.

 

Also if anyone knows a script or max tool that wil go through the weight table and reduce the max bone weights per vert to 4, like knocking out the lowest weighted bone and redistributing those vert weights between the 4 remaining bones, they are awesome as it should be the magic bullet, the alternate is scanning over selections of verts in the weight table looking for those 3 out of maybe a batch of 100 that has 5 bones assigned to it.

 

 

And no the niftools exporter skin options for num bones per vert doesn't help, in fact it might be the actual cause, once it finds a vert with 5 bones it could be f***ing it up so it renders through everything, the bug appears in BOTH nifskope and the engine, and seeing as these renderers was worlds apart in design, I think it likely that it's not just the renderer not liking 4+bones per vert, I think the exporter doesn't and screws up the mesh, well the skin block actually. If you unlink the skin partition from the shape the error is nulled.

[PrometheusTS]

Hi I am getting those strange shadows artefact ingame on the nif and i have no idea where they can come from ... anyone coudl provide me an idea why the nif generates those shadows?

 

I checked the model source and there are no floating vertices or planes or other stuff that may cast those ....

 

 

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2159/weirdshadows.jpg

Ok I think I know what this is now. This looks the the weird shadows that appear to float on the surface of the mesh, randomly about, if you have assigned more that 4 bones to any vertex in skin. even if you have 1 vert hidden somewhere on your mesh that is skinned to 5 verts these things show up.

 

It is also related to the odd bug were parts of the mesh will render in front of other parts that it is actually behind. Yeah pretty weird. Those bits of the mesh that bleed to the front are actually the same verts that have more than 4 bone weights assigned, so you can roughly track them, though they are really annoying.

 

and yeah this will be far more common to those who do not manual skin but use skin wrap. I just spent far longer sorting those few verts than it would have taken me to skin an outfit from scratch, so just be careful there.

 

Also if anyone knows a script or max tool that wil go through the weight table and reduce the max bone weights per vert to 4, like knocking out the lowest weighted bone and redistributing those vert weights between the 4 remaining bones, they are awesome as it should be the magic bullet, the alternate is scanning over selections of verts in the weight table looking for those 3 out of maybe a batch of 100 that has 5 bones assigned to it.

 

 

And no the niftools exporter skin options for num bones per vert doesn't help, in fact it might be the actual cause, once it finds a vert with 5 bones it could be f***ing it up so it renders through everything, the bug appears in BOTH nifskope and the engine, and seeing as these renderers was worlds apart in design, I think it likely that it's not just the renderer not liking 4+bones per vert, I think the exporter doesn't and screws up the mesh, well the skin block actually. If you unlink the skin partition from the shape the error is nulled.

 

 

Sorry Goghiel but I alreayd wrote here ro somewhere else how to fix this problem ...

 

you do fix in the skin modifier , you go to the number of bones and set it up to 4 then you go down to the affect vertex etc and set it to a lower number then remove unused vertices and stuff there ....this fixed onec and for all those weird problems for me , now I have another big problem that is coming from nowhere and I cannot manage to fix....

 

I made a model , I have attached it to a polygon box to be sure it is a custom made polygon , as it was a redition of a vanilla piece , so I do my edits after on that export as _1 and works fine ...... I then do some other minor edits and export as _0 ..... works fine ... the problem is tough on the morphs , when using an in betwen morphed status the mesh gets messy and looks messy , I dunno why this is happening as I never had so far befoure but this model there is no way I can fix .... the only think I may be guessing is that eventually coudl be due to a doubled face ?

 

The sheet of the armor that covers one side I have cloned and flipped and then attached to the other side ... they occupy almoust the same space tough ... could be this the problem?

 

Hi I am still haveing some times morph problems , this time I created a new mesh , edited , I created a box polygon attach to it the new mesh then I delete the box to make sure is like a new totally from scratch and clean vertex ordered polygon , then I rig, skin and add the bdsmemberment modifier as usual export and all is fine ingame in the _1 shape ... then I just slightly move the vertices of the armor to adapt to an imported _0 body model , that I won't use in the final nif but I use as reference in max to model the armor .. so I move the vertices with a soft modifier to adapt to the _0 shape and I export .. I test the _0 model and all is fine ... the problem is for the in between moprhs , sometimes they are totally crazy other times they are just a few verices scattered around , anyway the morph is not % 100 perfect ... any idea what can be the cause ? I have tried the latest 3dsmax plugin but it didn't import the bone links so I removed and I reinstalled the 20 .7 version and since then I am having problems ...

 

any idea ?