[Hostile]

I'm binding the vertices to the bones of an infantry. Do I:

A) bind all the forearm vertices to the elbow bone?

or

B) Just the vertices closest to the elbow? Than do the same for the upper arm vertices?

Also is it easier to keep the body parts seperate, bind them to the skeleton, than move and reattache the meshes when your done?

That way to can isolate the body part to make it easier.

Lastly, how useful is the auto link feature of the WW skin to bone binding?

[key0p]

Well, if its anything like generals, then no verts get bound to the elbow.

I wouldnt recommend auto-link, unless you are happy with a cheap and nasty solution.

You can test a models vert binding by importing a skeleton, animating all the bones forward or outwards or where-ever, and then export them one at a time.Open these single bone animations in w3d viewer with the relevant model and observe.

You cant attach individually WWSkinned objects.You cant even stick an Edit Mesh modifier above the WWSKin modifier in the stack

[Hostile]

Ok, then I'll tried to understand better. I have:

bones:

shoulder, elbow, hand

If I'm looking at the vertices of the fore arm, don't I have to bind ALL of the vertices in the arm to something? Maybe I'm making this harder than I have to. I assumed a bone was there to have vertices bound to it to move it.

is it possible to bind the the vertices of the whole arm to the hand bone?

Great tip on testing the binding also. Thnx I also caught on quick about the wwskin only being able to be one mesh.

I also wonder who do I know what vertices are bound and which aren't. On a complex model that could get lost pretty quick.

[key0p]

They are all bound, or else the unbound verts will stay rooted in world space while the rest of the mesh deforms around it

In generals, hand and wrist verts are bound to the forearm bone, and elbow/upperarm verts are bound to upperarm.

The elbow/knee bones seem to be there for IK purposes.

[Hostile]

[quote="key0p";p="117109"]They are all bound, or else the unbound verts will stay rooted in world space while the rest of the mesh deforms around it
quote]

I am refering to in Renx itself. Not the game. You might be referring to Renx also.

Is it possible to save a model halfway through binding cause Renx closing on me is killing me and wasting alot of time? It doesn't appear to work, but I could be doing somthing wrong. Cause the WWSKIN object isn't there when I reopen the model.

[Kelso]

You can save part way through. The RoR infantry have 3 bones in the arm. Upper arm, forearm, and hand. Upperarm is the shoulder where the arm hits the torso down to the elbow. The elbow actually has 2 sets of vertices one below the other. The lower set down to the wrist is bound to the forearm bone and the last 4 vertices that make up the "box" that is the hand are bound to the hand bone. I hope I made that clear. I can attach RenX screenshots for you if it helps.

And I have had pretty good results with Auto-Link. Every now and then you have to go back in and touch up some places that are linked incorrectly, but by and large I think it does a pretty good job. (Except for mounted units, it binds parts of the riders leg to the horse and vice versa.)

[Hostile]

Well it Auto link is useful for some items. I think I'm learning what I think is an elbow bone is actually a forearm bone that starts at the elbow. So all vertices from the elbow to the wrist is bound to the forearm bone.

*singing*hip bone connected to the leg bone...

Actually this has been a huge help and I appreciate the words of guidance. Now if I can figure out why when I save a halfbound model, that is not editable after I reopen it. Then I should be able to get past Renx closing on me when 2/3 done!

[key0p]

Originally Posted by Hostile";p=&quot

Then I should be able to get past Renx closing on me when 2/3 done!

Hehe save OFTEN! Use the incrememntal save feature(the '+' in the save as dialogue)

As for auto-link...just scratch me up as an obsessive perfectionist in that regard Especially when its quite easy to check how the in-game models are bound

[Hostile]

how do you check that without having to load the game each time? Even if I animate a part and open w3d viewer, I can't see any animation for infantry.

I finally finished binding a rather complex model. Time to code it ingame and see how it works...

[key0p]

Originally Posted by Hostile";p=&quot

how do you check that without having to load the game each time? Even if I animate a part and open w3d viewer, I can't see any animation for infantry.

Well, I jsut animate the skeleton forward, and then export one bone at a time as 'pure animation'(using the correct reference skeleton of course), and then open up the model, the skeleton, and the exported animations in w3dviewer.THis works for BFME infantry too, but because of the skeleton import issues, the bones dont go where you moved them in RenX.

The reason for the error, is that for some reason the quaternions for the skeletons bones are totally messed up.I dont understand why yet, or what to do about it even(I dont have enough understanding of quaternion rotation)but there is another way to check linkage.

Run Wdump located in C:\Program Files\RenegadePublicTools\WDump.Open up the skeleton in Wdump, and under W3d_CHUNK_PIVOTS, note the ParentIDdx assigned to each bone.Next open up the model, and under W3D_CHUNK_VERTEX_INFLUENCES you can see exactly which verts are bound to which bones by referenceing the ParentIdx.You can also find out heaps of other usefull info from wdump, such as material settings

*EDIT: After trying a couple of things, I do know what to do about the messed up skeletons, just import them, then export them with the same filename, and use this new exported skeleton with your new animations.THe new skeleton also works with the old animations.