Help with Bone limits? constraints?

[delilah]

its kinda hard to explain what im trying to do here, but here goes...

 

i have an armor piece i want to add HDT Physics to. because of its size and shape, a single chain of bones down the center wont work.  2 chains running down the edges seem to work, but, if the bone chains swing away from each other, the armor piece stretches in a way it should not.  i', trying to find a way to link the 2 chains together so the motion of one effects the other.

 

for instance...  imagine if you had shackles on your legs.  you could move your legs in different directions  so long as they stay close together.  move your left foot too far to the left and the chain will tug on your right foot pulling it to the left.

 

does anyone know how i can do this? or is there another method that would provide the same effect?

[blabba]

Spring constraints.

 

Or limited ragdoll constraints.

 

Or limited general constraints. (Only accessible via manual manipulation of xml or using JFF)

[delilah]

so i can constrain the bones on the left to the bones on the right with a spring?

 

might be easier than what im trying right now...  used bone chain down the center, and added branches like a tree coming straight out from the center.  testing with ragdolls atm but was thinking hinges would be ideal for the final

 

 

[blabba]

yea, except your not constraining the bones, your constraining the actual Rigid Bodies.

[delilah]

ok.  i will try that out once i get a decent rigging.  the tree concept was utterly fail.  i may try it again with a different tack another time.  the double bone chain setup looked passable, but the default bone rigging was ugly as hell.  i will need to better blend the center area... or, maybe, graduate the weights from top to bottom, then 50% them to each side.