Armor meshes

[Rikard86]

Hello, I don't know if this is the right section, but I've read the stickies and found no reference about it, so....

After exporting and examining a few armor meshes, I've come across a few doubts. I'm asking these because I am somewhat decent at modeling, but I am kind of noobish when it comes to boning/animating models (I can just put bones and a little skin, and that's it), and even if it's the first time I am trying this I want to look as best as I can.

 

Some of these may look pretty obvious to you, but I am posting them anyway for socializing's sake. :whistling:

 

Is there any kind of restriction when editing a mesh with a 3d editing application?

Do I have to leave the body mesh underneath my armor, even if I don't want the armor to show any skin at all? If so, to avoid clipping problems, will modyfing the body mesh underneath cause any problem?

To assign the armor to a part of the actor's body which was not covered by the original mesh (i.e. adding an armor 'skirt' to a leather armor), is modeling over that part and assigning bones the way to go?

 

 

Sorry if I wasted your time. :sweat:

[SickleYield]

Restrictions on editing depend on what program you're using and what the NIF scripts for it support. Mostly you can't export particles. Blender NIF scripts can export limited collisions now, and the Max ones definitely can.

 

You only need body pieces that are going to show - you can tell this if you look at an unpacked .bsa and examine Bethesda's armors. In fact, those are a good starting point - make sure you can successfully import and export one of those and have it still work in your game before trying new things.

 

When you're adding pieces to an armor, you do the modeling and then rig. It doesn't matter if you rig to the existing armor pieces or a body you've imported; they use the same bones and the game engine will treat them exactly the same.

 

This wiki has some modeling and texturing tutorials written by me and others:

 

Modeling and Texturing Wiki

[Rikard86]

Ah, I see. :) Thank you very much.

 

I've come across some collision meshes tutorials so I won't ask for the silly doubt that came across my mind and take a closer look at it. ;) Thanks again.