New Clothing Body Style Converter Beta v0.89f (10-26-2014)

[Monsto Brukes]

The basic idea is this...for a given piece of armor or clothing, this setting will allow you to decide whether the material between the breasts should be stretched between them after the conversion, or whether it should follow the contour of the body.

 

I hate cleavage cling. IMO it means a lazy modeller. 

 

This . . . much cooler.

 

 

But it's kind of a slippery slope. It's the kind of feature creep that defocuses a tool.

 

As much as I'd probably like it, it's a content manipulation for a tool that has tried very hard to be "content agnostic". 

 

IMO i don't think you should pursue that angle.

[ger4]

 

The basic idea is this...for a given piece of armor or clothing, this setting will allow you to decide whether the material between the breasts should be stretched between them after the conversion, or whether it should follow the contour of the body.

 

I hate cleavage cling. IMO it means a lazy modeller. 

 

This . . . much cooler.

 

 

But it's kind of a slippery slope. It's the kind of feature creep that defocuses a tool.

 

As much as I'd probably like it, it's a content manipulation for a tool that has tried very hard to be "content agnostic". 

 

IMO i don't think you should pursue that angle.

 

Well, a tool like that would be useful in some circumstances, like where there is an object between the breasts.

 

Like Sinblood's velvet rose

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/23088/?

 

If the contour of the body is followed during conversion to a larger cup size, the ribbon in the middle is crushed between the breasts.

[gerra6]

The goal is to handle 'cleavage crash' and X-Axis artifacts in a fairly content agnostic way. As long as I'm doing that anyways, I should be able to add some end-user accessible controls that determine how the algorithm behaves.

 

On the back-end, the idea is to manipulate directional search bias to cause a vertex that meets a particular set of criteria to be more likely to find a match along the YZ plane, or along the X-axis. (Criteria will probably be within a certain range of the X-Axis and within range of nodes with a substantial movement vector)

 

And then have some sort of user-customizeable controls that manipulate that behavior.

[gerra6]

This is a substantial improvement. The quality and precision of the UV Map search has increased by several orders of magnitude. I'm actually a bit amazed at how much better it is with this update.

 

Clothing Converter Release Candidate 0.81.a

 

This update brings several improvements to both performance and precision compared to v.0.72 - v.0.80

 

Note: Please generate new Lattices for use with 0.81.a

 

Download:

 

Portable Package 81_a Upgrade (upgrades Portable Package vv.0.7x, v.0.80 to v.81.a): Convert Clothing RC_81_a_Upgrade.7z

Light Download 81_a (scripts only. Recommended if you intend to use 64 Bit version of Python): Convert Clothing RC_81_a_Light.7z

 

 

ChangeLog

 

v.0.81 to v.0.81.a

1. Removed performance profiling code.

 

v.0.80 to v.0.81

1. Degenerate triangles will no longer crash the tool

2. Search behavior near X-Axis has been reverted to v.79 behavior

3. Inter-Mesh ankle, wrist, and neck seams should now be perfectly replicated

4. UV Search accuracy and precision has been substantially improved. This should improve overall conversion quality, reduce UV stretch, and reduce clipping when using lattices generated using UV search.

5. Vertex search speed and vertex search precision have been substantially increased.

 

 

***Edit***

 

Whoops. Accidentally uploaded the version with some of my performance profiling code running (0.81). I've removed the offending code and uploaded a cleaned version. (0.81.a)

[zippy57]

IMO i don't think you should pursue that angle.

I disagree. There are quite a few armors, even if they don't have an object between the breasts, that just shouldn't be form-fitting like that. Some, like the Fallout vault suits, aren't to begin with but currently end up that way and it just makes the converted versions look weird.

[gerra6]

Just a note about the potential consequences of this increased UV precision.

 

Flaws in the UV maps of the nifs used to generate the Lattice will be perfectly preserved by the lattice.

 

Here's an example.

 

After conversion, the waist seam of this mesh showed a noticeable seam along the waist (Oblivion mesh with separate upper and lower body meshes)

 

 

However, comparing the converted waist seam to the UV map in the 'From' template shows that the bad seam is in fact an accurate reflection of the bad UV seam in the template

 

 

So, for best results, ensure that your From and To nifs are high quality and without flaws.  Because their flaws *will* be preserved.

[myuhinny]

I have a question I converted this armor which is the Tifa outfit.  Converted one.  How do I get the spot below the chest the V spot smoother and the belt holes looking like actual belt holes? I do like how the nipples formed in the top though. I have 2 others that I am having a bit of trouble with. This one is a DRMA I used your DRMA and TGND template but when I convert it the sides of the outfit are not close to the body.  last one is the international titty bikini set yes I embellished the name some I think it sounds better.  The bikinis are DRMA I used your DRMA and TGND template. The ribbon comes out weird and the front of the bikini looks like it hit a wall.

 

DRMA to TGND Mecha armor.  Thanks again for this great tool been testing it on many thing! Tried it earlier on earlier on a fallout new Vegas armor but it kept crashing the converter even just trying to convert one body to another. So I am back playing with oblivion.

 

I did notice and I'm not sure if it has been mentioned before but if anyone converts any of Krista's armors and they have those claws in them you will need to delete them out or the converter will crash. They look good in game but in nifskope they have one claw that has stretching.

 

I had one body come out funny it was I think DRMA GUTS it converted the whole body but the V shaped muscled stomach so everything was TGND but the that area it was pretty funny looking.

[gerra6]

Both the DMRA and TGND templates that were uploaded before are part of my test bed...they were fine before, but...

 

Well, they both have significant issues in their UV maps.  So it's possible that you are seeing some artifacts.  Now, you could try some of the Setbody Reloaded Meshes.  They should be *mostly* good.  I spent quite a bit of time 18 months back cleaning the nifs and ensuring that the UV maps all conformed to each other (it was more or less what got me started learning Blender and Python and writing tools).  Unfortunately, it was such a huge pile of meshes that I can't guarantee that all of them are good enough.  Plus, the Setbody Reloaded waist is not compatible with the HGEC default waist seam.

 

Anyways, I can't really give too much advice based on the images.  I think I need to look at the meshes.  Please send me the nifs that you had questions about and I'll see what I can recommend.

 

Also, please send me any nifs that crash the converter.

 

Nothing *should* be crashing the tool, so I need to take a good long look at anything that does.

 

***To Clarify***

 

If you have a conversion that isn't working quite right, please send me the From and To files used to make the lattice as well as the nif that you are converting.

[myuhinny]

I'm using set body 2ch-edition. But many times if the armor/outfit already has a body under it I will just make a copy of the armor paste it into the from folder delete the armor/outfit out update tangent space then save and use that as the from body I have only ran into one where there was something wrong with a HGEC D cup for some reason it was getting 2 stretching holes in the middle of the breasts that was going towards the feet but replacing the top body fixed it.  I sent the nifs for the three. 

[ger4]

Could you take a look at this?

 

When it converts using the included lattice (made using latest version) the straps become slightly distorted compared to the original version (as well as the complementary under-boob clipping ).

 

VelvetRoseBra.zip

[orgs1n]

Working great so far, I'm happily using converted outfits!

 

Trying now to convert the Vampire Cuirass, but after its runs a while, it reports a memory error. I assume this is related to the sheer size of the meshes. I've PM'ed you the files.

 

I also tried converting some piercings. They're properly relocated, but come out distorted.

 

 

(The nipple ring is supposed to be round.)

 

 

 

Of course, jewelry isn't the same as clothing. Jewelry's shape isn't to be converted at all. I was just trying to get it repositioned on the new body. Maybe you can add such a feature at some point in your mod?

[gerra6]

Hmm.

 

In general, the tool doesn't really pay attention to the shape of an object, per se.  Instead, it essentially matches vertices to surfaces and then copies properties from that point on the surface.  For the most part, vertices don't really care what their neighbors are doing.

 

However, I could probably add an option similar to what I did for Mesh Rigger, that tells the tool to apply an averaged transformation to every *connected* vertex in a given mesh.  No idea if the results would be good or crappy though.

[ger4]

Hmm.

 

In general, the tool doesn't really pay attention to the shape of an object, per se.  Instead, it essentially matches vertices to surfaces and then copies properties from that point on the surface.  For the most part, vertices don't really care what their neighbors are doing.

 

However, I could probably add an option similar to what I did for Mesh Rigger, that tells the tool to apply an averaged transformation to every *connected* vertex in a given mesh.  No idea if the results would be good or crappy though.

Only one way to find out 

[orgs1n]

if the armor/outfit already has a body under it I will just make a copy of the armor paste it into the from folder delete the armor/outfit out update tangent space then save and use that as the from body

 

Would you describe that a little bit more for those of us with zero experience in modding?

 

I have a similar situation with the Nocturnal robes, which are tied to the Angrim's Apprentice mod. When my PC equips the converted robes, her body snaps to another model, with rail-thin legs and texture distortion at the hips.

 

If only I could get such wide hips and thin legs in UNP Bodyslide...

[gerra6]

At some point in the future, I'll release my Mesh Replacer tool which will handle this automatically.  For the moment, it's a buggy POS.

 

In the meantime, this is something that you can generally do by hand in Nifskope with a minimum of swearing.

 

 

 

 

1. Open the nif you want to copy from.  Left Click on the Scene Root to expand it (note, in Skyrim nifs, the Scene Root might have a completely random name...silly Skyrim)

2. Open the nif you want to copy to.  Left Click on the Scene Root to expand it.

3. Copy To nif: Select the niTriStrip or niTriShape block that corresponds to the body mesh that you want to *delete*

4. Copy To nif: hit <control><delete>  That should delete the block and all of its children.

5. Copy From nif: Select the niTriStrip or niTriShape block that you want to copy

6. Copy Fron nif: hit <control><c>

7. Copy To nif: Left click on the Scene Root

8. Copy To nif: hit <control><v>

 

Now, if you're very very lucky, the block will copy over and every one will be happy.

 

*If* the block doesn't copy, you'll need to start over, with one big difference.

 

0. Use Mesh Rigger to rig the 'To' nif with the skeleton from the 'From' nif.  You can also use my Clean Nif utility to do the same thing.  The basic idea is that you can't copy over a skinned geometry block unless the nif you are copying to already contains every bone that the geometry block is skinned with.

 

 

 

*However* with the latest version of Clothing Converter, I think that for most purposes the converted body should be close enough to the 'To' body style that there is probably no need to replace it in the majority of cases.

[myuhinny]

@orgs1n

 

If a armor has a body under it meaning if you delete the armor piece out in nifskope with the right click armor piece go to block and select either remove/remove branch you can see if a body is underneath. If you don't save but instead just go to load and reselect the nif it will reload it back with nothing changed you can use this option to see what's under the hood so to speak without hurting anything. This will show if there is a body underneath the armor or not or if there are any body parts missing holes in breast or chest or back.

 

If the body is complete I then right click the armor/outfit nif and paste it into my from folder then I load it back up in nifskope and right click all of the outfit/armor pieces 1 at a time and go to block and select remove branch *always* use remove branch if you are deleting something out of a nif otherwise everything else that was attached to that piece will still be in the nif so use remove branchso that it removes everything that is attached to that item piece which can also lower the nif size as well.

 

So remove branch and repeat till the body is naked and there is nothing left then use spells batch update all tangent spaces then save as to overwrite the nif. Now I have my from body ready to go without having to guess as to what body is being used. 

[orgs1n]

Thanks, myuhinny and gerra6, for the info.

 

With these clarifications, I was able to figure out what to do, using Clean Nif to replace the skeleton after the conversion. The proper body sticks around now! There is some clipping, but that hardly matters for a transparent affair.  Solved!

 

 

 

[gerra6]

You know...with the recent updates to the way that my search engine operates, I wonder if some of these meshes with messed up UV maps might get better results with UV search disabled.

 

Now that the default search performed by Make Lattice are 'precise nearest point on surface' instead of 'average of nearby vertices', the *major* source of distortion when using the basic search has been eliminated.

 

It still won't do anything about breasts with significant differences in size and position, but might work for some of the other types of transforms.

[gerra6]

I have a question I converted this armor which is the Tifa outfit.  How do I get the spot below the chest the V spot smoother and the belt holes looking like actual belt holes?

OK, I've played around a bit with the belt holes and the suspender buckles. It appears that those artifacts occur when my tools recalculate the Normal vectors.

 

I'll post an update to that in my next patch, however in the meantime, simply open those nifs in Nifskope and do the following.

 

1. Right click on the mesh you want to mend

2. Select 'Face Normals' You should see an immediate improvement in the way the mesh is rendered.

3. Save the nif.

[myuhinny]

Cool thank you very much. I went ahead and turned that option off in the converter.

 

*Edit

 

I now have a new question. What causes this and how can it be fixed? 

 

I have seen these marks before but this is the first time that I have tried to convert a armor that has them. When rendered you can still see those spots as they are darker then the rest of the outfit. I can Run a lattice great and it seems to do good when trying to convert till I think it tries to make those parts as the converter says something quick and then closes.

 

 

I will send 2 of the nifs for you to look at and see if there is a way to fix it maybe they are dirty not sure.

[gerra6]

No idea. They look like they might be flipped vertex normals. If they are, they can be incredibly tough to fix.

[orgs1n]

This one I can't figure out. I'm trying to convert the harness in Devious Devices'  Expansion (CBBE based) to my custom UNP body. The conversion completes, but the legs of the baseshape inside it are horribly distorted.

 

Swapping the body as per your earlier trick works, but there's major clipping all over the harness.

 

Attached are the lattice, target and output files. (Version 81a.)

dd_expansion.rar

[gerra6]

Could you send me the bodies you used to make the lattice?

 

I *suspect* that the from nif and to nif got swapped when the lattice was made. At least, every time I ended up with results like that in my testing, that was the cause.

[orgs1n]

Bodies attached. From = CBBE, to = UNP Bodyslide.

expansion_bodies.rar

[gerra6]

Yep

 

Take a look at your From nif and the body in harnessBodyFull_0.nif

 

They don't match.

 

Unless I'm very much mistaken, your To nif matches the body in harnessBodyFull_0.nif