[3ds Max] Skeleton Controller Rigs - Draugr v0.13.2 (2015-09-22)

[pornphile]

Hey pornphile,

 

Is it possible to scale the rig without breaking it?  Playing with the draugr rig and the model is a bit larger in Max than it is in game which causes alignment issues.  It'll be nice to be able to scale the entire rig via the global control or NPC Root [Root]_Ctrl_M controller.

Made draugr NPC Root [Root]_Ctrl_M controller scalable but it's not perfect. Looks good enough to me for alignment purposes.

 

You can also scale the human rig up instead. I can put up instructions if you need.

 

[Leito86]

I may have been incorrect about the size difference.  Have to do a few more tests...

[pornphile]

I may have been incorrect about the size difference.  Have to do a few more tests...

What I meant in my previous post was that I've updated the draugr rig to have NPC Root [Root]_Ctrl_M be usable for scaling. See Draugr v0.13.2

if the scales are correct, I'll just delete scale issue descriptions.

[Leito86]

Oh, I misread...just woke up when I posted it...

[wishnot4]

Just wanted to throw out a heads up.  I'm very, very close to having my centaur mod work in game.  Won't bore you with the details, but the horse body and human body are animating - and no I didn't write a new behavior(couldn't figure that out).

[pornphile]

Just wanted to throw out a heads up.  I'm very, very close to having my centaur mod work in game.  Won't bore you with the details, but the horse body and human body are animating - and no I didn't write a new behavior(couldn't figure that out).

I'd be interested in the details. Could be useful for future modders.

 

[wishnot4]

Well, still got some bugs to work out, but what I did was.  I took the beast skeleton (xp32's maximum) and duplicated the pelvis added some spine and put the dupped pelvis back so that it looks like a centaur's skeleton.  Then I took the horse body mesh that I tweaked(removed the head) and instead of bringing in the horse nif to get skeleton and weight paint, I brought in the human body.  I took out the bones that wouldn't be used in the horse body duplicated it and positioned it for the legs and then removed the top half of the human body nif and weight painted the horse mesh.  Like I said there is still some work to be done, but it's starting to animate.

[Leito86]

So after little more testing, it looks like the draugrs are scaled properly in max...sorry about the false report

[wishnot4]

Hey pornphile, while my tinkering is getting the horse body of my centaur to look and move better, it still messes up quite a bit.  Do you think it's because I'm still using the default human skeleton.hkx file?  If so, do you think there is anyone who could help me decipher that file.  Becaue even after all I've researched and tore into that file, I still can't make heads or tails of it.  I'm pretty sure (if I need a new one for the current version of my centaur) that it would just be a matter of adding(duplicating) the pelvis chain in the regular skeleton.hkx file.  Any thoughts you have on this would be greatly appreciated. Btw here is the media fire link to my centaur alpha files.  https://www.mediafire.com/folder/s7l1wh1dh7hy5/Documents

[pornphile]

So after little more testing, it looks like the draugrs are scaled properly in max...sorry about the false report

No worries. Thanks for being my unwitting rig tester.

[pornphile]

Hey pornphile, while my tinkering is getting the horse body of my centaur to look and move better, it still messes up quite a bit.  Do you think it's because I'm still using the default human skeleton.hkx file?  If so, do you think there is anyone who could help me decipher that file.  Becaue even after all I've researched and tore into that file, I still can't make heads or tails of it.  I'm pretty sure (if I need a new one for the current version of my centaur) that it would just be a matter of adding(duplicating) the pelvis chain in the regular skeleton.hkx file.  Any thoughts you have on this would be greatly appreciated. Btw here is the media fire link to my centaur alpha files.  https://www.mediafire.com/folder/s7l1wh1dh7hy5/Documents

Not much else I can help you with. Have you tried https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.rizon.net/LL? Some high profile modders hang out there, like Groovtama.

 

[wishnot4]

Thanks, I'll check it out, see what I can find out. 

[D_ManXX2]

Still using blender but here is my first attempt at animating skyrim:

 

 

 

I may have to build new rigs to make use of the newest blender. like i did for oblivion or fallout.

Not sure how this will pan out. since i am still figuring out how too effectively export when the animation is done in blender 2.73

 

 

 

 

[wishnot4]

Hey all, it does look like I need to add bones to the skeleton.hkx for my centaur mod to work.  I edited the xml file and added the bones to the parentindices and the array but I still haven't been able to figure out the referencepose part.  I know that I have to add that as well or the skeleton will glitch the game out.  The thread that pornphile so kindly pointed me to says that you can export the skeleton.xml with the reference pose from 3ds max, but my verison of max is 2014 and I can't even get it to import the nif skeleton so that I can get the reference pose.  Any ideas how I can get these?

[Groovtama]

Hey all, it does look like I need to add bones to the skeleton.hkx for my centaur mod to work.  I edited the xml file and added the bones to the parentindices and the array but I still haven't been able to figure out the referencepose part.  I know that I have to add that as well or the skeleton will glitch the game out.  The thread that pornphile so kindly pointed me to says that you can export the skeleton.xml with the reference pose from 3ds max, but my verison of max is 2014 and I can't even get it to import the nif skeleton so that I can get the reference pose.  Any ideas how I can get these?

Node position, rotation in quaternion, scale, index in bone list and index in the reference pose part need to match.

[wishnot4]

Thank you Groovtama.  One question, where do I get those to put in the skeleton?  Is it something that I can get from the skeleton.nif I made?

[Groovtama]

Thank you Groovtama.  One question, where do I get those to put in the skeleton?  Is it something that I can get from the skeleton.nif I made?

Nifskope inspect function on the node, shows relative pos data, quaternion, and scale, or you use 3ds max and the havok tools to generate the parent tree, bone list and references position data and merge the original xml and the new xml data together, the second thing is what I do/did.

[wishnot4]

Thanks again.  I'd love to use the 3ds max and havoc tools but my version of 3ds max won't load my skeleton.nif.  And I'm completely ignorant about max.  I'll try the nifskope inspect function.

[wishnot4]

Groovtama I pulled up the node postision and the rotation in quarternion from the nifskope file.  But I didn't see where scale was listed.  I looked at all the bones in the translation edit and it showed them all at scale 1.  But since all the bones are listed with sets of numbers in the skeleton.hkx, I'm not sure what to write for that part.

[Leito86]

 

Thank you Groovtama.  One question, where do I get those to put in the skeleton?  Is it something that I can get from the skeleton.nif I made?

Nifskope inspect function on the node, shows relative pos data, quaternion, and scale, or you use 3ds max and the havok tools to generate the parent tree, bone list and references position data and merge the original xml and the new xml data together, the second thing is what I do/did.

 

 

Is there a tutorial on how to go about doing that?  I wouldn't mind adding a few bones to some creatures.

[Groovtama]

 

 

Thank you Groovtama.  One question, where do I get those to put in the skeleton?  Is it something that I can get from the skeleton.nif I made?

Nifskope inspect function on the node, shows relative pos data, quaternion, and scale, or you use 3ds max and the havok tools to generate the parent tree, bone list and references position data and merge the original xml and the new xml data together, the second thing is what I do/did.

 

 

Is there a tutorial on how to go about doing that?  I wouldn't mind adding a few bones to some creatures.

 

Tutorial about editing skeleton.hkx files? *Groovtama starts laughting insanly and walks into the dawn*

 

No kidding, there are like 3 threads where xp32, candy or others talk about it (most of the time non-sense from the "others" faction). When you want to edit that file get 3ds max 12/14, get the XPMS\E Modders resource and look at the havok export routine for the half assed skeleton.xml which I use as data export from the skeleton (parent tree, bonelist, reference pose) for the new skeleton.xml. Compare the orignal skeleton.hkx and the xpmse one as xml file, and look how I transfered the data, and how it should look like. And try to understand what the edits do. then use your knowledge on a creature skeleton.hkx. Skeleton.hkx editing is pure self-learning.

 

BTW, straight max export of skeleton.hkxes is useless and produces bugs even with 3dsmax 10, you basically work with a texteditor\textcomparer the whole time.

[wishnot4]

Thanks again for your help Groovtama.  Okay, I've got 3ds max 14, I've got the XPMSE modders resource, but I'm not sure what you are referring to with the havoc export routine.  Is that a way that 3ds max exports or is it a havoc thing I don't have?  I've got the HCT on my computer, but I can't understand that thing at all.

[Groovtama]

Thanks again for your help Groovtama.  Okay, I've got 3ds max 14, I've got the XPMSE modders resource, but I'm not sure what you are referring to with the havoc export routine.  Is that a way that 3ds max exports or is it a havoc thing I don't have?  I've got the HCT on my computer, but I can't understand that thing at all.

skeleton.HKO are export profiles for havok

[wishnot4]

Groovtama, would you be willing to look at the skeleton.hkx I've made and see what I've done wrong.  The one I made without the referencepose only crashed the game if I tried to ride the centaur.  But the one I made with the referencepose crashed the game out right.

[Groovtama]

Groovtama, would you be willing to look at the skeleton.hkx I've made and see what I've done wrong.  The one I made without the referencepose only crashed the game if I tried to ride the centaur.  But the one I made with the referencepose crashed the game out right.

Not today, my brain is currently not capable to sit on the pc for hours and look at xml files and 3ds max.