Blender Question

[ratrace]

I've been doing a lot of Skyrim mesh editing and overall learning about Blender 2.49b lately, and I know how to fix dismemberment partitions in it and how basic rigging of non-rigid meshes works. Just wanted to say that in advance so that you guys know you don't have to explain the very basics.

 

However Blender is annoying me to death. Problem is the Nifscripts. Blender divides a dismemberment partition that contains more than 18 bones into two partitions on export, thus ruining the mesh setup. That's what I found on the net as a proposal for solution:

 

 

However, the problem when exporting is actually very simple. The script is made to export maximum 18 bones pr partition and Skyrim use 22.

This cause error correction to occure and create new BP_TORSO partition with messed up data.

The only reason this works for some meshes is that it is small enough not to impose the limit but if you try to apply it to the whole body it will fail.

Solution is to change the export script limits.

Look in the blender application folder, in .blender\scripts\bpymodules, you will find nif_common.py.

Change

EXPORT_BONESPERPARTITION = 18

to

EXPORT_BONESPERPARTITION = 25

 

and

min_val = 4, max_val = 18

to

min_val = 4, max_val = 25

 

This will make the BP_TORSO export correctly

No, it doesn't, unfortunately.

 

Mesh Rigger can solve this problem, but you have to mess around with its settings and sometimes that is very annoying, very much trial and error (still it's a useful tool). Nevertheless I'd like to do the partitioning manually.

 

I'd like to know about another way to fix that problem in the above mentioned quote. Anyone willing to help?

[Guest Ragna_Rok]

sorry, gotta pass... im quite good at blender, but never had this bone-problem... just popped in to say "hello"

[ratrace]

 

sorry, gotta pass... im quite good at blender, but never had this bone-problem... just popped in to say "hello"

At least some kind of answer. I've had that prob in the standalone package of Blender, in the normal install, no matter what I try. Did you ever edit body styles in Blender? The reason that many people just don't have that prob is that they're converting (skimpy) armors, ending up with an amount of bones that doesn't impose the nifscript export limit at all.

 

BTW: Which version of the nif nifscripts do you use?

[JohnHead444]

I don't understand exactly what your asking. But if your exported mesh has more than one partition you just need to set them all the same. So if its for the body and you have 3 partitions then set them as

 

32

32

32

 

This works just fine for me. If you are changing game armors or clothing then you need to go into the ck and tick the calves or forearms or what ever other partitions the standard armor was using.

 

Wait now I see in blender you have bp_torso set up like fallout 3 had. Which worked for every thing but skyrim has a lot more crap for you to go through to get it out of blender named and set up correctly. You would need to open up nif scope and go to the partitions then copy down the names of all or the ones you want to use. Blender in edit mode in the vertices groups highlight all the vertices groups you want for a partition. Then create a new vertices group and assign them to the new vertices group which would be named SBP_33_HANDS or which ever ones your using. Then when you export it it will probably still screw up the naming. There is a way that I can't remember to highlight the vertices groups in nif scope to figure out which ones where which. Any ways that's all I've's got's. Hope this helps a little bit.

[ratrace]

The Problem is that a body or an armour that covers the whole body is supposed to have three partitions: BP_TORSO (aka SBP_32_Body in Skyrim "language"), BP_RIGHTARM (aka SBP_34_FOREARMS) and BP_LEFTLEG (aka SBP_38_CALVES). The Skyrim names have to be set after export and other edits in Nifskope have to be made. That's not the problem. All perfectly understood. I have done a few armour conversions and already have them in the game, so the Nifskope-post-export-cleaning process is clear to me. But until now I had to use Mesh Rigger to do a perfect partitioning of the final mesh. But I want to be able to do that manually. Blender doesn't let me though:

 

When exporting a body mesh for example I end up having four instead of three partitions: BP_TORSO is divided in two parts, and that is because the Nifscripts allow only 18 bones per exported partion. Obviously not all people have that problem. Thus I guess there are other versions of the Nifscripts than those I use which are Version 2.5.8 (30 Oct 2011).

 

So if I get you right, you say that ending up with the BP_TORSO partition chopped in half is no problem? If so, that would be the best solution. Because I like problems that can be safely ignored.

 

Or is there a way to make Nifskope merge these two BP_TORSOS into one?

[JohnHead444]

I've had no problem just naming them all 32 or want not. The only use I've seen for having different name partitions is lets say your pants go down to your feet. Then a calf partition would make the top of the boot invisible. But if your not worried about any of that then there's really no use in it. Try making gloves you will end up lots of partitions and always just number them all at 33. Hope this helps and make meshing a lot easier. Some times you have to ignore what blender does. Its a cranky old cow at this point but still gets the job done.

[ratrace]

The problem is not the names of the partitions, it's about the Body Partition being fucked up. Or in other words: Does it matter to the game if the body partition is not in one piece but divided in half (more or less, but the vertices of the two parts would equal one perfect body partition)?

 

Forget about the names, though I always try to set them correctly, as well as the flags. But nevermind, this seems to be quite a particular prob, I guess. Anyway, thanks for the answer!

[JohnHead444]

Ok this is going to bug me. Don't go. I'm not wording this right. If you took cbb body and parented it the the skeleton.nif in blender and started adding extra bone. You add 2 butt bones 4 virgina bones and 2 breast bone. Then you add 8 new weights to the body for your new bones. When its done and you export the body mesh as one single mesh it will have 3 partitions in total on one single mesh. You then name them all 32 to be seen by the game as a body mesh. The game does not care how many partitions there are as long as they are all named the same. If the body mesh had 50 partitions on one single mesh but they are all 32 then the game will see them all as one partition. Sorry if I wasn't clear and i hope this answers what you wanted to no. 

[ratrace]

Ok this is going to bug me. Don't go. I'm not wording this right. If you took cbb body and parented it the the skeleton.nif in blender and started adding extra bone. You add 2 butt bones 4 virgina bones and 2 breast bone. Then you add 8 new weights to the body for your new bones. When its done and you export the body mesh as one single mesh it will have 3 partitions in total on one single mesh. You then name them all 32 to be seen by the game as a body mesh. The game does not care how many partitions there are as long as they are all named the same. If the body mesh had 50 partitions on one single mesh but they are all 32 then the game will see them all as one partition. Sorry if I wasn't clear and i hope this answers what you wanted to no. 

 

Aaaaaaaaaaah, so I got you right. Any partition of the body can be chopped up to a bazillion parts - as long as they have the same name, f. ex. "SBP_32_Body", the game will treat it as one partition.

 

Oh man, then all is cool.

 

Here is a pic which I uploaded to clarify what I mean. It's just been exported from Blender as an example, so no Nifskope cleaning done at all, but it illustrates what I mean:

 

http://pic-hoster.net/view/57418/example1.JPG

 

 

Thanks again for your answer, and I apologize in case I made your hair go grey.

 

Ratrace