Sticky: Biped+Extra Models

#1 1. Just link your mount node to the head bone, animate the head bone appropriately, and when you mount the head geometry to the mount node it should work. I don't know why you would need to mount the head instead of just skinning it like the rest of the body though.. or even just linking the head geometry to the head bone without skinning it, which would be more efficient than skinning it. Do you need your heads to be interchangeable?

2. If the outer mesh is just a copy of the inner mesh, you can save out your skin info of the inner mesh by going in the modifier panel under "advanced parameters" and click save. Then skin the outer mesh and go back to advanced parameters and load the saved .env file. The reason it needs to be a copy of the other mesh is that the env file works based on the vert numbers and order, so as long as you don't delete any verts or anything it should work.

It looks like you meshsmoothed the model..... I would avoid doing that if I were you. I don't know what your polycount is but I would guess it's too high for such a simple model.

#2 @Jeff

He doesnt need to go that far.

Mounting to the head biped can be done in code without the need for a new mount# node, though the end result is the same it just keeps down on the clutter or need to use and keep a specific mount node for this task/purpose.

Tossing skin modifier data about is actually relatively easy. If he is running Max 7 he can use the Skin Wrap modifier to rip the data off of the "inner" model in about 3 seconds. If he is running Max 5 or 6 he can use the Skin Tools utility to do the same thing in aboug 15 seconds. These are both far better methods to use since they don't rely on vertex ordering or counts being the same.

Logan

#3 Thanks for the advice!
@Logan: Just to be clear you mean code or script?

I'll check out the SkinWrap mod.

@Jeff:
In this case the outter is siilar to the body, but we will tweak other so no, in general you wouldn't find them to have the same vertex order and count.

And I'm not using a meshsmoother as this is just viewport smothing.

Cheers!
Toby.

#4 @Logan: Interesting. I've never used the Skin Wrap modifier before. Seems like I should do some experimenting with it. :)

#5 Jeff its one of the plethor of great new tools that were added to Max 7 that are beneficial to game artists (a more thorough list can be found here).

One of the things I forgot to mention if you use Skin Wrap is to use the little "Convert to Skin" button found on the modifier when you are done as it will conver the Skin Wrap into a more usable Skin modifier for games work (and obviously make the DTS exporters happy).

Logan

#6 The SkinWrap technique works like a charm - Cheers for this!

Toby.

#7 OK - This technique works to attach the biped to the second model and it's nice -- However, the second model doesn't export at all.

Weird.

Any thoughts on this?

Toby.

#8 Curious if anyone had tried to have two models attached to the bones... As this technique works in max, but breaks with the exporter.

Thanks,
Toby.

#9 Try skinning them both with the same skin modifier... select both meshes and apply the skin to both at once. might work.