[Nel] Need for a guideline to create sets of clothes

[phlam]

Hello NeL apostles

 

Is there a guideline to create sets of clothes for the characters ?

Say I want to be able to change parts of the Gnu's clothes in Snowballs. What will I have to do ?

 

I suppose that, in 3DSMax, I have to split the Gnu mesh into different parts, say { head, shirt, hands, trousers, feet }.

I should assign to each of them the same modifier skin or physique.

Let's call them original parts, or first set of clothes.

 

Now I create new objects, like trousers, shirts, and so on, assign them a modifier skin or physique with the same list of bones and setup the influences.

I suppose that the new parts must have the same open edges as the original ones, for the vertices to be welded when we swap clothes.

 

I think there must be NeL properties to be set, like the 'Mesh interfaces' group in the "Misc" tab, and maybe 'Instance name' or 'Instance group name' in the "Instance" tab. These properties don't speak by themselves.

What does the magic button 'Test Interface mesh' ?

 

The only things to export are the skeleton animations and the parts (shapes) ? Is there a need for a .ig file ?

Are there additional data to be added to the Max objects ? Are there additional data to be added to the exported objects ?

 

Now what should a (kind) programmer modify in the snowballs sources to get the Gnu change a part or the full set of his clothes at the press of a key ?

 

 

Thanks in advance

phlam