Help with using XVI32

[megansunfire]

I was just wondering if someone knew of a tutorial or could explain how to hex off/on parts of the tom_versatile meshes using XVI32. I've tried the MeshEditor by Hex but it doesn't seem to work.

I can find the areas where an object is (eg. cape) but I don't know where in all the garble I'm suppose to change it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[JKCarrier]

Find the name of the piece you want to turn on/off.
Then look for a section called "Editable Mesh".
After the Editable Mesh should be a string of "FF"s, followed by a number, either 04 or 05.
04 makes the piece visible.
05 makes the piece invisible.

Good luck!

[megansunfire]

Hey thanks.  :D

I've managed to hex off some parts but now I seem to be having a problem with the guns. I've tried to make them visible but that don't show up in the guys hands. The rifle shows up but the guns don't. :(

Maybe I've missed something, any ideas?

[JKCarrier]

IIRC, the guns are only visible while he's shooting -- play one of the "ranged_gun" animations in the Character Tool and see if they show up. If that's not it, I'm not sure what the problem would be.

[megansunfire]

Yeah I tried ranged_gun animations, but the guns still don't show up.

I'll keep fiddling around with it and see what happens.

EDIT: I tried the tom_female_versatile and the guns on that one seem to show up. It's just on the male that it won't appear. :huh:

[JKCarrier]

Now that you mention it, I recall there was some issue with the pistols on Tom_Versatile. Maybe you could try one of the other TV meshes -- I think most of them have the same hidden parts?

[tommyboy]

Not that there is anything wrong with using a hex editor, but I strongly recommend using NifSkope.
It has several advantages:
1. you can see what you are doing, as you do it. Nothing worse than painstakingly hex editing stuff on or off then discovering it wasnt the parts you wanted. Also very useful when shrinking/growing/moving/rotating parts.
2. You can hide/unhide, but more importantly, delete very easily
3. You can copy parts from one mesh to another.
4. You can add alpha layers, glow, reflect, change UVmapping, assign different textures to parts all relatively easily.
5. You can change physiquing to linking (and vice versa)

And theres probably other stuff I'm unaware of.
And having dabbled with hex editors and nifskope I can say that personally I'd go with nifskope every time.
Yes, there is a learning curve, but I think that its less steep than hexxing, simply because of the immediate visual feedback.

[megansunfire]

Alright. Thanks for the help. I'll try another TV Mesh and I'll also give Nifskope a try.

Question: When you say that you can copy parts from one mesh to another, does that include extra limbs and stuff?

[tommyboy]

Alright. Thanks for the help. I'll try another TV Mesh and I'll also give Nifskope a try.

Question: When you say that you can copy parts from one mesh to another, does that include extra limbs and stuff?

Well, yes and no.
Your question is a little vague (as perhaps was my original statement).
You can copy anything from one mesh to another, from bootcuffs to guns, or capes or entire bodies.(you do need to have the correct "bones"/bips in the recipient mesh for them to work).
But you cannot, say, take the arms from a male_heavy and copy to a male_basic mesh, simply because the arms are attached to the rest of the body so you would copy the whole male_heavy over if you tried.
But, if a mesh has arms that are seperate from the rest of the body parts (like the extra arms in my six armed spider-man mesh for instance), you could copy those to another mesh (but for them to move you would probably need to copy over the relevant bips too).

I suggest reading the various threads here, and looking in the "lets see what you 'skoped" thread for examples of the vast possibilities opened up by nifSkope.