Mesh Rigger (Skyrim, Fallout, Oblivion) Beta.89.f (10-26-2014)

[zzz72w3r]

This tool is pretty amazing, no more searching for weight painted mods.  Just added belly to DreamGirl and it looks right.

 

Q1: The output mesh is still DG and not the reference mesh looked like DG, right?

Q2: What would be the best/feature-complete body and cloth templates for weight and bones used for HDT PE and XPMSE2.06?

 

Thanks

[gerra6]

1. Depending on the options, Mesh Rigger only copies bones, weightpainting, and partitions from the template mesh to the target(s).  It won't change the base shape of the mesh.  Clothing Converter, on the other hand, basically just changes the shape of the mesh.

 

For 2, I don't know.  Hopefully someone else in the thread could make a recommendation. 

[Cattpride]

That looks good.  That *should* work.

 

*edit*

 

Would you be willing to send me the template and target files.

 

I need to figure out what's going on.  That error message makes no sense in this context.

 

I was just about to target the files individually and give it another go, but yeah, here you go.

The template is 7b Bombshell. Target is the (frighteningly non-bouncy) Vampire Dark Knight set by newmiller.

target.rar

template.rar

[zzz72w3r]

1. Depending on the options, Mesh Rigger only copies bones, weightpainting, and partitions from the template mesh to the target(s).  It won't change the base shape of the mesh.

 

Maybe it's just me because I know nothing about how deformation occurs but after using Mesh Rigger to transfer belly my DG character appears to have the same deformation as the template I was using, UNPB redux.  The whole point of using DG is because it deforms like no other body.

 

[Supierce]

 

1. Depending on the options, Mesh Rigger only copies bones, weightpainting, and partitions from the template mesh to the target(s).  It won't change the base shape of the mesh.

 

Maybe it's just me because I know nothing about how deformation occurs but after using Mesh Rigger to transfer belly my DG character appears to have the same deformation as the template I was using, UNPB redux.  The whole point of using DG is because it deforms like no other body.

 

I was about to post something similar. Adding buttock bones to an oblivion skirt mesh causes the butt skin to clip outside the skirt.

 

I have another problem. On that same skirt, I can add thigh bones or buttock bones to the skirt portion of the file, but not both. Adding either one causes mesh rigger to remove the other. Is this a known problem?

[gerra6]

Not a known problem so much as a limitation of nifs.

 

The nif format only allows each vertex to be influenced by a maximum of 4 bones.

 

One consequence of this is that sometimes adding additional bones to a given mesh doesn't work very well. In those cases, it can sometimes be better to replace the entire rigging of the target mesh with the weighting of a working template, instead of just copying over one or two bone influences.

 

As far as the deformation is concerned, that *sounds* like a bone is getting copied over that that has a different bind position in the template nif you are using than it has in the skeleton that you game is using to animate. Basically, if a given bone in a nif has a different bind transform than the matching bone in the in-game skeleton, that bone ends up pre-animated in game. The net effect will look like a distorted mesh.

 

One thing that might work is to select the in-game skeleton as the template skeleton, and select the nif that you want to copy the weightpainting from as the rigging template.

[gerra6]

 

I was just about to target the files individually and give it another go, but yeah, here you go.

The template is 7b Bombshell. Target is the (frighteningly non-bouncy) Vampire Dark Knight set by newmiller.

 

 

Thanks.

 

OK, I figured out what's going on.  Basically, the cuirass_0.nif and cuirass_1.nif are not fully compatible morph meshes.

 

Basically, cuirass_0.nif  contains a mesh called 'eyes.006'

 

While cuirass_1.nif  contains a mesh called 'eyes.009'

 

In-game, this probably exhibits as a minor bug where the 'eyes' mesh does not respond to weight sliders even as the rest of the meshes in the nif behave properly.

 

In the context of my tool, it looks like I need to beef up the error handling of that particular subroutine.  It's probably OK for the tool to crash on this, but not for it to provide such a useless error message.

 

So.  What's the best way to fix this?  Well, It really depends on whether or not the only bug between cuirass_0.nif and cuirass_1.nif is the block name difference.

 

If the name is the only bug, then simply renaming the offending block in Nifskope should fix the problem in both Mesh Rigger and Skyrim.

 

If not, then the best bet is to probably rebuild either cuirass_0.nif or cuirass_1.nif using Clothing Converter.

 

To do that, I would start out by generating a lattice to convert cuirass_0.nif into cuirass_1.nif.  Enable UV search.  Enable all material types.

 

Once that lattice is generated, use that lattice to convert a cuirass_0.nif into the shape of cuirass_1.nif.  Rename the new cuirass_0.nif to cuirass_1.nif.

 

That should generate an entirely new cuirass_1.nif that is an exact copy of cuirass_0.nif, except for the vertex locations and vertex normals, which have been copied from cuirass_1.nif.

 

Once that's done, Mesh Rigger should be finally willing to get off its ass and do its job.

[Supierce]

One thing that might work is to select the in-game skeleton as the template skeleton, and select the nif that you want to copy the weightpainting from as the rigging template.

Thank you... I'll give it a try!

[Cattpride]

 

 

 

 

I was just about to target the files individually and give it another go, but yeah, here you go.

The template is 7b Bombshell. Target is the (frighteningly non-bouncy) Vampire Dark Knight set by newmiller.

 

 

Thanks.

 

OK, I figured out what's going on.  Basically, the cuirass_0.nif and cuirass_1.nif are not fully compatible morph meshes.

 

Basically, cuirass_0.nif  contains a mesh called 'eyes.006'

 

While cuirass_1.nif  contains a mesh called 'eyes.009'

 

In-game, this probably exhibits as a minor bug where the 'eyes' mesh does not respond to weight sliders even as the rest of the meshes in the nif behave properly.

 

In the context of my tool, it looks like I need to beef up the error handling of that particular subroutine.  It's probably OK for the tool to crash on this, but not for it to provide such a useless error message.

 

So.  What's the best way to fix this?  Well, It really depends on whether or not the only bug between cuirass_0.nif and cuirass_1.nif is the block name difference.

 

If the name is the only bug, then simply renaming the offending block in Nifskope should fix the problem in both Mesh Rigger and Skyrim.

 

If not, then the best bet is to probably rebuild either cuirass_0.nif or cuirass_1.nif using Clothing Converter.

 

To do that, I would start out by generating a lattice to convert cuirass_0.nif into cuirass_1.nif.  Enable UV search.  Enable all material types.

 

Once that lattice is generated, use that lattice to convert a cuirass_0.nif into the shape of cuirass_1.nif.  Rename the new cuirass_0.nif to cuirass_1.nif.

 

That should generate an entirely new cuirass_1.nif that is an exact copy of cuirass_0.nif, except for the vertex locations and vertex normals, which have been copied from cuirass_1.nif.

 

Once that's done, Mesh Rigger should be finally willing to get off its ass and do its job.

 

 

 

I opened up the nifs and simply removed the eyes.006 and eyes.009 blocks. I don't know what they were but I doubt deleting them has any impact on the impact or functionality of the armor, since the head/eye area of Skyrim characters isn't affected by items worn on the body.

The tool seems to have finally worked.

Thanks a ton for all the support you've given me with this. You've definitely earned an endorsement from me, whatever the LoversLab equivalent of that is

[zzz72w3r]

As far as the deformation is concerned, that *sounds* like a bone is getting copied over that that has a different bind position in the template nif you are using than it has in the skeleton that you game is using to animate. Basically, if a given bone in a nif has a different bind transform than the matching bone in the in-game skeleton, that bone ends up pre-animated in game. The net effect will look like a distorted mesh.

 

One thing that might work is to select the in-game skeleton as the template skeleton, and select the nif that you want to copy the weightpainting from as the rigging template.

 

I was referring to the reappearance of noodle-arm on DreamGirl body using UNPB redux as reference.  I must have done something wrong when trying to copy over the belly node.  I got the belly node but also the pose deformation I haven't seen since switched out of UNP to DG. 

 

EDIT:

The only two options I select are copy weight and select bone.  When asked to select bone I chose belly node. 

[xarathos]

Current version seems to work absolutely great, and it's quickly become an indispensable part of my workflow, even with 3DSMax in my toolkit.

 

Lately I've been doing the following:

1. Reshape outfit in 3DS, adjusting polycount of particular areas using meshsmooth as needed to get the shape ideally matched to the new body type.
2. Skinwrap, dismember, export, all the usual Max steps. Copy original BSLightingShaders as usual. Tweak anything about the mesh that seems 'off' in Outfit Studio.
3. Use mesh rigger to delete the rigging from 3DS/etc, replacing it in its entirety with the rigging from the original version of the mesh (hopefully using the UVMatching search). Collapse transforms, etc...
4. Run mesh rigger again, copying any appropriate BBP/TBBP/etc bones from the new body shape.

Results, so far, have been consistently good with this process.

[gerra6]

Awesome.

 

I've been wondering how well my 'Flatten Skinning' feature was working in the real world.

 

I don't like the fact that you are having to run the tool twice.

 

I'll need to take a look at the back-end flow to see if I can spot why it needs to be run twice.

[xarathos]

Oh, the running twice thing is because I'm using two different templates. It's not a limitation of the tool as far as I know.

 

I've been doing Copy-> Delete for the first step; this gets the rigging from the vanilla/original mesh and ONLY that rigging. All bones.

 

Then for the second operation, Copy the specific bones from the actual body mesh I'm converting to.

[gerra6]

Ah...that makes sense.

 

It might be possible to do all of that in a single run selecting one mesh as the skeleton template (bones only) and the other as the mesh template, but it's hard to say.

[myuhinny]

I have a question would a improper rotation matrix cause this to happen. I added TBBP to the outfits but saw a improper rotation matrix when doing it. 

 

In nifskope the outfits look like this  in game they look like this. For awhile I was having trouble with getting mesh rigger to work but then decided to download this one and see if it is a newer version then the one contained in the .85 build of the clothing converter. Once I placed the files for the mesh rigger into the correct area stuff I tried before were now working even the stuff that I converted from a skyrim body to a oblivion body. Here are some pics od the outfits with the improper rotation matrix warning.

 

 

Skyrim oblivion body now with TBBP.

[gerra6]

Send me the files.  The latest version of Mesh Rigger is 0.89.g

 

Available on my dev site here: http://kgtools.org/mesh-rigger/download/

 

Short answer, improper rotation matrix means that the skeleton that you are using has one or more bugged bones that do not contain proper rotation matrices.  This means that whenever that bone gets animated, it will subtly distort the mesh unless the animation or game does additional work to counteract that distortion.  It's a big giant mess.

 

Meshes with this problem can be a real beast to work with on the back-end in my framework.

 

Unfortunately, the most popular universal skeleton in Skyrim has *multiple* bones with improper transformation matrices as well as a ton of other bugs and problems.  Meshes that have been rigged with it are seriously my nightmare at this point.

 

OK...so...*hopefully* my latest build can work properly with meshes rigged with these bugged skeletons.

 

If not, send me the offending files and I'll poke and prod them until I figure out what the latest source of ugly and nasty transform distortion is.

[myuhinny]

Cool I will check it out tomorrow once I get up. I used a TBBP body to add the TBBP to the outfit I haven't tried using a skeleton for adding TBBP yet. 

[Supierce]

Send me the files.  The latest version of Mesh Rigger is 0.89.g

 

Available on my dev site here: http://kgtools.org/mesh-rigger/download/

I only see "e" and "f" there.

[gerra6]

I only see "e" and "f" there.

I dum. Bad brane bad.

 

Latest version is .f

 

I'm working on some updates to clothing converter that will push the package version up to .g, but it probably won't affect the funtioning of mesh rigger.

[AnnaFly]

Greetings.

 

Hi Gerra6 .

Thank you for your new link , now i can post it without problem on some topics at " That site Over There "  ...

 

Cheers.

[gerra6]

I saw your avatar over there and said to myself...I should post my new site.

[myuhinny]

Well it looks like it works though I forgot to make copies of the _0 meshes and then rename them _1 so the body was a bit discombobulated then I tried another outfit that I added TBBP and the game crashed. I tried redoing my race as I think it was causing save errors but after removing the body and skeleton meshes and then reinstalling the race and placing the meshes and skeletons back in I was CTDing trying to select the race so I nuked the game last night and reinstalled it. Will have to search for a good UNP/7BASE TBBP body and a skeleton to go with it can't remember which skeleton I had used. I saved the oblivion to skyrim outfit conversions but forgot about the dress one so I will have to do it again.

 

Are there any bad body meshes out there? The one that caused the CTD I added TBBP to it and it crashed the game the armor set I converted using the body as a template caused a CTD when TBBP was added and I even tried converting the a 7BASE TBBP body to it and it also caused a CTD. Or do certain bodies need a certain skeleton when you add TBBP to it? The body was from the DIMONIZED UNP female body mod UNP slim.

[myuhinny]

Well it seems the bad body mesh wasn't as bad as I thought it was. But maybe it is because I am using one of Groovtama's skeletons this time. I got everything working then decided to try the body out again. I was like alright get ready for CRA-CRASHY CRA-CRASHY save loaded up and no CRA-CRASHY and I was like huh weird. Maybe a different race got into my race and changed something or maybe it is because of Groovtama's skeleton. There is all kinds of jiggle now I think it is even more jiggly then my last build.

[gerra6]

OK. I've uploaded a new version of Mesh Rigger to my development site

 

The tool no longer turns stupid if the number of skinned bones doesn't match the length of the skinned bonelist. Tested on the Beltgirl nif. Looks like solid results.

 

http://kgtools.org/

 

v.0.89.f to v.0.89.g

1. Improved error handling. Crashes should now be properly recorded in log file.

2. Console pause added. Console should now wait for user input before closing at completion of tool or during error out. (Thanks Movomo for the implementation)

3. Excess skinned bones on a single skin instance will no longer cause distortion or other problems.

4. Vertex Index search reset to 'strict' mode.

[Supierce]

Is there any way to use Mesh Rigger (or something like it) to add breathing and/or bbb to idles that don't have them? Or do I basically need to learn how to use Blender?