Working on a new "beautiful people" head pack

[Tchos]

A lot of the face choices for NWN2 are (to employ litotes) not excessively pleasant in appearance. I went through the main campaign using Oblivion to NWN2, but there's still not much variety in there, and I end up using only 1 or 2 heads. So, since a couple of days ago when AurianaValoria1 asked about better heads, I've been working on a new head pack with just a few good head models for most races, but maybe 4 or 5 texture variations for each, in both male and female.

 

I had to finish the other UI mod I was working on before I got much more into this, but now that I've released that, I can resume this one. I'm thinking I'll do one race at a time and release them in packs like that. Humans, elves, half-elves, and halflings.

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uim7eEp7lk0/T2NSC7F-wTI/AAAAAAAADAc/U2pa-KHnGec/s320/nwn2main%2B2012-03-16%2B03-49-11-98.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mtTc83rms2A/T2PWMBXXfJI/AAAAAAAADAw/Es-rQIPY7FI/s320/nwn2main%2B2012-03-16%2B16-33-48-74.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FAlw4RMmqiI/T2PWL9UEAwI/AAAAAAAADAo/EippoKfMAwY/s320/nwn2main%2B2012-03-16%2B17-05-55-90.jpg

Reposted from the other thread, this is a human female, a halfling male, and a half-elf male.

 

Most head packs seem to start numbering around 80, but I would personally prefer to just replace the existing character head choices entirely so I don't have to click through all the ugly ones. Any preferences on that matter?

[Tsongo]

That's good news as I've had enough of the "same old faces" and I've pretty much exhausted the whole lot so keep up the good work I can guarantee you my download already !

 

I'm not sure about swapping them directly, however it would help builders in that they could just Strongly Recommend using your mod with theirs rather than making a hak pak. Is it possible to do both by just switching numbers and having two folders that you can swap in and out your overrride ? I'm not being greedy I just haven't got a clue how this stuff works.

 

Whatever you decide it's good to hear about "new faces" arriving but can I request that you make sure the lipflappers work as they don't with some of the heads on the vault, and if you can't then please don't swap them directly.

[bealzebubb]

As a builder, I would like to see them added and not swapped. That way there would be more options, not just different ones.

And I second Tsongo's lipflapper request.

[MokahTGS]

Yes, swapping is a big NWN2 No No, as many builders use heads for different NPCs and need them. Also, why deny players content? Always add if you can, never take away.

[Tchos]

Well, if the consensus is to add and not replace, I can certainly do both. Does it make a difference that I was making these just for player characters, and not to replace NPC heads? I most certainly want to replace the player heads in my own installation, because I really don't like most of the original ones. In any case, it's no problem to do both, since just switching the numbers of the MDB files, and leaving the rest alone seems to be all that needs to be done.

 

I didn't expect builders would want to incorporate them into mods, and I had heard some people say that there seems to be a limit to how many heads can appear in the player selection menu. I have no idea how many heads have already been numbered, as well, or if there are numbers that would replace heads in the game that wouldn't otherwise appear in the player menu.

 

I'm glad you brought up lip flappers, because that was not on my agenda at all, as I've never seen my PC speak, and I prefer the non-cinematic dialogue. What do you usually use to test something like that?

[Tsongo]

I don't know how to test models but I know how to add them to NPC's and all mine have them, even the "non cinematic style" talkers but they don't work on one line bark string conversations ..

 

There's a hak for lipflappers I'm pretty sure it was Rogue Dao that made them, they're 12 different "sounds" running from 1 to 12 seconds that you add in the conversation node. You open the sound section and hunt them down then select the one you want depending on the length of dialog. They all start with huma so if you type that in it will search for similar names and you'll be able to see all 12, double click one and off you go. They don't make a noise just move the lips.

 

They work well on all the original style altered heads and blueprints, even on dragons ! But I have downloaded a few head packs not based on the original ones and discovered they didn't work, so I soon removed them from my override as I can't remember what's what and didn't really want to select the wrong head and turn an NPC mute.

 

As for the ammount of heads you can see from the character creation screen I don't know about that there are a lot in mine and I can see them all.

 

If you just want to change the PC I can't see it mattering I was just saying this from a builders point of view but if they don't have moving lips then I'd definitely recommend making them separate and not replacing files as something nasty could happen with mods that include lipflappers.

[Tchos]

Hmm, what you're saying sounds like it's beyond my knowledge or understanding at this time. I read the information on Rogue Dao's lip-flapper page, and it was describing things about which I have no knowledge. I will not have had any experience in NWN2 with creating NPCs or applying different heads, or experimenting with dialogue until this summer. And really, using these heads for NPCs is beyond my intended scope. I just want better heads for my player characters, and I was going to release it for other people who want that same thing.

 

I doubt that these will work as lip-synced NPCs, and I wouldn't have the ability to animate a skeleton to make that happen. Personally, I wish all dialogue in NWN2 and modules were delivered in the NWN1-style conversation box, and not in that cinematic style, and lip-synced models are simply a waste of time from my perspective, both for the builder and the player. But despite my strong preferences, I would not be opposed to including a lip-sync capable skeleton with these heads, if one could be made available to me by some volunteer. I just want to spend my time on my intended goals to make my play experience more pleasant. I know from experience that anything beyond that will greatly increase the amount of time before it can be released, if it doesn't make me lose interest in finishing it at all.

 

I hope you find these sentiments understandable.

[Tchos]

Ah, here's an idea for a separate pack that I could do, which could include lip-sync. If there is, or if someone could make, either a texture converter which can take a texture map designed for one set of UVs, and distort it to fit another set of UVs, then I could simply retexture the best of the stock heads and make them actually look good. Or, if someone could take the better stock heads, and remap the actual UVs to match a different standard texture mapping, then I can use those. Either way, I could create a selection of variations.

[Tsongo]

I understand you completely, turning something you do for fun into hard work is pointless and the thing with these heads is that most people are going to use them without the lips moving anyway so people building can just stick with the old ones, just their NPc's will have to get used to being the ugly ones. So don't worry about the lip flappers if it's loads of grief ( which it sounds like ).

 

With your other suggestion of re doing the originals I don't really know what you're on about with UV's etc but I'm sure the lips would work fine as there are a couple of other packs that have done this and I use them but the choice of good looking ones is pretty limited. There is also an Orc one that works called Orc Spoiled and I don't know what he did there possibly squished and stretched an original orc but they look good ( for orcs ) and talk very well.

 

So to sum it up go for it and good luck make as many "beautiful people" as possible they wont be left on the shelf for long. You could stick a question on the custom content section over at the Bioware forums about the tools required/ availabilty/ what is needed for the others.

Edited March 18, 2012 by Tsongo

[Tchos]

Hey, Tsongo, earlier you said you removed some non-lip-rigged head models from your override so that you didn't accidentally use one in a module. I was just trying something in the toolset, and I couldn't get a piece of custom content to appear in the blueprints, even though it was in my override folder. I eventually figured out that it's because I have the NWN2 game set to use a different user directory via the -home property switch, and so although the game itself loads all my override material that I keep on a second (larger) hard drive, the toolset is still looking in the default Documents\NWN2\override folder. I had to copy the material I wanted the toolset to find into the default directory before it would see it. A setup like that would probably prevent you from building with something accidentally.