Animal Race Request

[prancer]

I've returned to this project again, I was still not happy with the previous versions. I've made a completely remeshed head that looks a lot better, but having neck gap issues that I can't seem to overcome. The skin weighting is done exactly as vanilla heads are, no problems with BDdismember, object space map, etc. everything seems fine. All nif settings match what a head should have, and it behaves as it should.

 

And yet, a neck gap is constantly there. Control+F4 does not fix this.

 

I've added a morph so I could create 0, 50, and 100 weight versions of the head for testing, but all of them inherit a neck gap that becomes noticeable when the character crouches or stretches. I have to assume that the different number of verts in the head requires a different ratio of weighting around the neck to account for this, and I'd have to experiment to find out what works.

But thats not all.

Even if I eliminate the gap, it still does not scale with body scaling at character selection, so aside from creating 3 or more versions of the race to represent some basic weight choices, this represents a problem.

 

It might be worth trying to use a completely custom body mesh, but that presents some issues of its own, and there is no guarantee that the neck gap issue won't still be there.

 

I've scoured the net for days, weeks and months, and everyone from NIF forums on down appears to have given up on the subject of custom heads. They feel its not a problem that can be overcome on account of Skyrim's quirky neck gap issues.

 

So, if anyone can tell me how to fix this in a way that works, I will finish and release this race. Otherwise, I just can't publish this in good conscience with a glaring issue like that.

 

[CFU]

I think I remember that old Cellan race thread had a problem with custom heads too.

Not sure if it was completely fixed, but there was some progress at least? You could ask GDelscribe

[prancer]

I think I remember that old Cellan race thread had a problem with custom heads too.

Not sure if it was completely fixed, but there was some progress at least? You could ask GDelscribe

 

I fixed the neck gap, something changed a few of the bone weights - no idea what, but I corrected them and now there is no gap.

 

The last issue that remains is head/face morphing at character create (chargen morphs). I'd have to create a fully customized set of TRIs, this head is completely custom and has no TRI file, therefore it cannot have any morphs. It is nothing like a vanilla head, and can't simply adopt an existing TRI file.

 

All I can do currently is generate heads with fixed sizes based on weight. Not acceptable. A lack of face morphs is probably tolerable for an anthro race, but not being able to scale the head to any desired body weight would be the first complaint of any player.

 

So that is the status of this project.

 

-update:

This race is working, but only using an entirely customized body to fit the head. It does not resize, any character of this race is stuck at 50% weight. Not really a completeable mod at this rate. Generating a tri file that permits morphs for this custom head is just not working, with any of the available tools (Conformulator, etc). I don't know why. If anybody knows a way that works, please let me know.

 

-update 2 (9-11-2015):

I have made trishapes for the custom head, and while it does resize with body weight scaling, the neck distorts as it moves toward zero weight, and no longer fits the neck seam. This is may be a weight issue, but I doubt it. All my neck vertices and weights work properly on their own. I think this has to do with the position of the trishape obj files when the morph is created - either it is generating the rate morphing based on a human shaped head, or there is something odd with how the objs need to be positioned when they get conformulated.

I'm using the same technique I see with other models, centering the meshes together at the same center point. Perhaps this should be done another way? Anyways, I just wanted to post the latest work on this. It isn't my primary project, but I'm still trying to move it forward. Animated tail is done, textures were reworked for lightness, shininess on nails, etc.