Saving/editing joint offset in Mlods

[BloomsBase]

How do you save or edit joint offsets in the Mlods.
I know Wes his plugin doesn't save the joint data on export and i can not figure out how to do it using s3PE's grid.

Does Blender saves the offsets on export?

I know how to do it with TSRW but im having some errors with it so i switched to s3OC.

[Inge Jones]

Trouble is you usually have to also edit the _RIG to match any joints you move, else the game doesn't really handle them right. And there is stuff in the RSLT that all ties in with it, so on the whole mostly the approach is not through the mesh editor but through coordinates and offsets in other resources.

caveat: my comments apply to objects. I am ignorant of Cas modding.

[BloomsBase]

The problem is cloning the cars/bikes and edit its wheel joints(offset).
I pulled this off once with a older version of TSRW but i cant remember how i did it.

Lets say i want to create a car wich rear wheels are more positioned towards the back.
I simply can move the rear wheel joints(translate joint) to the back in the rig file and the animations will be fine.
But when i also want to move the meshparts(wheels) in the Mlod file(so that the carwheels appear ok when it is on a parkingspot) things go wrong.
The animations then are messed up and there is no way to correct that because i can not move/update the joints in the meshfile.

TSRW does have the option to update the joint offsets in the Mlod files and for the lower lods this works fine exept for the high lod(wich has some matrix settings that seem to mess things up)

[Inge Jones]

Do you mean the wheels move back to their original position when they are stationary if you only move the translate joint? Is that why you're also editing the mesh itself? Because I think, properly done, or moving the right joint, you shouldn't need to move the position of the wheels in Milkshape/Blender at all.

I have just cloned a bicycle and I see a node called "rear_wheel_position". Is that what you changed? I think "rear_wheelTranslate" is too low in the hierarchy.

[cmomoney]

The updates need to made in the SKINs of the MLOD and MODL. The values are under InverseBindPose, and are inverted. You have to change them for each group that has the joint(s) you've moved referenced in it's Skin.

[BloomsBase]

The updates need to made in the SKINs of the MLOD and MODL. The values are under InverseBindPose, and are inverted.

Yes, TSRW does update those files with the correct values but it only works for the lower lods, not the high lod.
The high lod has some matrix settings on the rotation of the wheeljoint wich messes up the animations when trying to move the joint.
And i have no idea how to edit them with s3PE.

@ Inge,
The problem with editing only the RIG file is that the wheels stay on their original position when the car is on the parking spot.


But, i just found out how i once did it the first time :)
Used a EP car that does not have those matrix settings and that one works fine......
I still would like to know how to fix those wheels tho as the bicycles have the same problem when creating lets say a tandem bicycle :D
And there is no bicycle without those matrix settings.


Edit,
I found the inversebindpose, Thnx
But i doubt if this works.
Try creating a bike with one wheel moved ;)

@ Fresh-prince: your mailbox is full :)
For those who want to create cars, clone a car that does not have the Matrix settings on the Wheel joints!!
Eh, Oh, this means you can only use the Fast Lane EP cars.....and maybe the one from the store.

[Elexis]

I have the same problem. I want to create a lightcycle from Tron movie, but it's way out of proportion compared to other bikes in game. So when I tried to make it wider and longer, the wheels came out in totally different position. I was so glad when it worked in my game, until my Sims try to ride it, it looks totally invisible then.
I have created some bikes for GTA game series, it's a lot easier, because there I can move all positions (hands, legs, wheels), but in the Sims I have no idea where this data is and how to change it.
So my question is simple, is it possible to make fully working custom bicycle at all?
And does it will require Fast Lane to work? :blink:

[cmomoney]

I found the inversebindpose, Thnx
But i doubt if this works.
Try creating a bike with one wheel moved ;)

Well, normally that is how you would do it. It's how I created animated objects. But with bikes they have this weird hierarchy, so it'll probably take a little fiddling around to figure it out.

[BloomsBase]

Its those rotation matrix settings on the wheel joints that cause this.
With the Fast Lane EP EA changed those settings on all cars so they prolly knew it was going to give problems :)
And those work fine ingame.

@ Elexis
The bicycles and the motorbikes have the same problem, they all use the same (animation?) rotation joint.
I am trying to download a bicycle from the store now to see if those can be used. (exept installing throug Firefox does not seem to work :) )

Edit,
The bicycle i downloaded from the store uses the same setup as the basegame items so you can not use them either.
Cars created on a clone from Fast Lane EP miss the sound but you can add the orginal soundfile to the package.