add a static model to a creature

[Udun]

I made a nice teleport recall spell and used marker rats - so far so good. I had the idea of making the rats look like arwelkydclusterfx01.nif. After some discussion I tried this : the (rat's) head.nif has a block NiTriStips while the arwelkydclusterfx01.nif has a block NiTriShape - actually two - one is a child of a NiBillboardNode. I deleted NiTriStips and replaced it with NiBillboardNode, a NiNode containing particles and NiTriShape (in this order). I got an error in nifscope when I pasted the particle NiNode :

""infinite recursive link construct detected 17 -> 17""

""infinite recursive link construct detected 17 -> 17""

Was working fine though, till I realized that it crashes the game when reloading a save made in a cell containing a rat - although traveling to that cell after reload - via door or my spell - works fine. Namely, when the rat is not in view, the game does not crash immediately. It crashes when approaching the rat - however if I reload in the rat's cell but with the ratie out of view and then teleport to the rat no crash. No crash again if I enter the cell from a door from an adjacent cell. ???

I think it's an anim problem - I need a valid idle anim that does nothing. Tried deleting parts of the anim - CTDs even the CS. I do need an anim though - deleting the anim also crashes the game.

Actually I am very close - I even disabled havoc (not related to the crashes), and I was admiring my nice teleport markers ingame, till those strange CTDs manifested.

Help

[WindmillTilter]

Your likely getting the crashes from adding NiTriStrips to the NIF that don't have weighted vertices. (vertices rigged to move with the animated bones) It might be a lot simpler if you left the rats invisible and also moved an arwelkydclusterfx01 to the same location.

WT

[Udun]

Your likely getting the crashes from adding NiTriStrips to the NIF that don't have weighted vertices. (vertices rigged to move with the animated bones) It might be a lot simpler if you left the rats invisible and also moved an arwelkydclusterfx01 to the same location.

WT

Thanks for replying - the welkynd stone swings gently back and forth the way I do it btw.

Moving a arwelkydclusterfx01.nif there is not an option as it will probably snap back to original position : that is the purpose of using marker rats in the first place.

I pasted the nitristrips after some discussion and a suggestion from daMage. I also removed havoc as described in the same thread - setting the weights of the skeleton mesh to 0 in 3ds - (before I realized about the crashes) and was still fine. And the ratie-welkynd would stay in place when hit etc.

So how I go about creating a dummy animation ?

Or how do I weight properly in 3ds ?

Edited April 1, 2010 by Udun

[WindmillTilter]

Hmm weighting the vertices in 3ds might be your best bet. Since you don't really need your mesh to follow animations you should be able to get away with just applying a skin modifier. Adding Bip01, and weighting all the vertices 100% to it. I think that will cure the crashes and you shouldn't have to mess around with the animation at all.

EDIT------------

Hmm had a read through of your BGS thread. I hadn't thought about using the head, it's vertices aren't weighted which is helpful. The reason you're still having trouble though is that GeoMorph animations are applied to the head by the kf's. While it is a different and somewhat simpler process than skeletal animation it's still not going to work with a new shape in there with different vertices. Removing the 2 controlled blocks that refer to Head:0 may well fix it but it will be time consuming to say the least. I'll kick the idea around while I'm at work and post if I have a more efficient suggestion.

WT

[Udun]

Hmm weighting the vertices in 3ds might be your best bet. Since you don't really need your mesh to follow animations you should be able to get away with just applying a skin modifier. Adding Bip01, and weighting all the vertices 100% to it. I think that will cure the crashes and you shouldn't have to mess around with the animation at all.

EDIT------------

Hmm had a read through of your BGS thread. I hadn't thought about using the head, it's vertices aren't weighted which is helpful. The reason you're still having trouble though is that GeoMorph animations are applied to the head by the kf's. While it is a different and somewhat simpler process than skeletal animation it's still not going to work with a new shape in there with different vertices. Removing the 2 controlled blocks that refer to Head:0 may well fix it but it will be time consuming to say the least. I'll kick the idea around while I'm at work and post if I have a more efficient suggestion.

WT

Thanks indeed - the nifskope jargon sounds like Sanskrit to me

I 'll be googling it and see what I can do.

Basically there is no good tutorial on creatures, explaining things like weighting and rigging and all that, the reason being partly that nifs are not open source I guess. The other reason being that tuts are oriented towards a particular end - not the in depth analysis of a nif file. Same goes for animations - although there are some very good tuts explaining how to do some particular thing there is nothing like an anatomy of kf around. I 've been struggling with graphics for years - not my cup of tea. I 've read all the articles in the CS Wiki in case you are wondering - but it never clicked.

As for the particular issue - a creature has to have an idle anim - the CS grumbles otherwise - and I do not want anything like that in my mods. So a valid anim that does nothing would be ideal (rename it to idle and everyone is happy). Not sure if an anim issue though. Crashes a bit strange.

Removing havoc also a must, marker must be still - possible if setting all masses to 0.

Thanks again

Edited April 1, 2010 by Udun

[Udun]

Bump

Come on it must be really easy for some of you