Creating a Weapon Node

[BentonGrey]

What goes into creating a new weapon node in Nifskope?  Are there any tutorials?

[SickAlice]

What are you thinking? Myself all I do like if I have a specific thing is just make a node or copy one and delete anything like a model that's in it, rename it, go into the Edit pop-up window and move it around into the position I want. Like Duella for example I wanted to have a spraying Joker flower on the shirt. So I just made this blank node named flower, stuck it the same part of the mesh the flower (weapon) was on then moved the little dot around until it was resting in the center of my flower model. In most cases the easiest way regardless is to take something similar to what you're intending, copy it and change what you need to about it. I pull that with melee type weapons all the time.

[Tomato]

Yeah, it's pretty simple, honestly. As SA says, you can just create a new node anywhere you want, and name it "weapon" and it'll work. Only thing is, if you're creating multiple, you need to name it something else (weapon01, dun, visor, etc) because ff will just pick the first one it comes across in the name tree.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks for the responses, guys!  I'm just trying to do some cleanup on the DCUG, and I've got some meshes that don't have weapon nodes and some that have them but which don't seem to be used by appropriate FX.  For example, I've got an Evil Star (GL villain) mesh that has a weapon node on his right hand, but FX don't seem to use it like I would think they would.  I'm wondering if I'm missing some kind of formatting, but apparently not.

[Cyber Burn]

A lot of times with FX, it doesn't matter where the weapon node is, or even if there is one. What matters most, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, is where the "Node Attachment Points" are located, and whether or not the "Track Rot" box is checked.

For example, Beta Ray Bill's Weapon Node is about a Hammer and a half's length in front of his Pelvis, and the "Electro_Beam_M_Bolt" FX has the "Node Attachment Point" start on the "Bip01 R Hand" with the "Track Rot" box checked. So in theory, the "Electro_Beam_M_Bolt" FX is going to start and follow the Right Hand, until the Core.Nif takes over.

So, for your Evil Star, it's just a matter of making sure that the FX is starting where you want it to, which may mean, as you stated in the other thread, creating a duplicate FX strictly for that effect. It could be something as simple as copying your FX in FFEdit and changing the Start Point from Weapon Node to Left or Right Hand, or it could mean, copying the actual FX Nif in the Generic folder and making a change there.

[SickAlice]

My exact go to to be up front though make note I am notorious for cutting corners and any time saving tricks I can use is to take the same weapon node and copy into the same weapon node and rename then delete the extra 3d model. So if it was a a trident like Aquaman uses and I wanted it to fire lighting or something from the tip I would copy said "trident", Copy Branch, Paste Branch into the trident node. After deleting the extra Editable Mesh rename it to say "trident_tip" or "fork" if wanted something shorter. Then making sure the Nodes were visible in skope as well the Axis for a guage move the little dot until it lined up with the tip of the 3d model of a trident, a short hike considering it will now be in about the same place to start with. Then over in FFEdit say make my lightning beam for Aquaman with start point being "trident_tip" and viola.

[BentonGrey]

Okay, cleary I came to the right place.  Ha, so I know how to do the work arounds, like editing the FX or creating copies, but I'd like to understand how the nodes actually work so I can be more self-sufficient, if possible.  From what you're describing, CB, I was right that there is more to this than just HAVING a weapon node.  It's also got some specific settings that I didn't know about.  So, where is the 'Track Rot' box? 

Is the attachment point just referring to where the node is nested, or are there settings that need to be changed?  In other words, is it enough to simply 'paste branch' under the right bip, or do you have to edit something (other than the above) after you've done that?

Thanks for the explanations, guys!

[Cyber Burn]

Ok. so this is where I learned the basics.

Spoiler

Then I'll try to answer any questions you have left.

[BentonGrey]

Ohh, you meant in FFEdit!  I thought you were talking about a setting in the nif itself!

[oktokels]

Is the attachment point just referring to where the node is nested, or are there settings that need to be changed?  In other words, is it enough to simply 'paste branch' under the right bip, or do you have to edit something (other than the above) after you've done that?

I think a node in nifskope can have whatever name you want. The important thing is that in FFEdit the attachment point has that exact name. Cyclops_skope_podmark has a node called "glasses" which is located right on his visor, so all of his beams in FFedit are attached to "glasses".

Perhaps the only thing to worry about adjusting in nifskope is that the node is tied to a skeleton point like biphead, bipspine, etc. or the scene root, and that it's positioned where you want it to be.

I have a similar question as Benton about weapon nodes. It is possible to have two weapon nodes with the same name but in different parts of the body so that two simultaneous projectiles come out from both his hands?????

[SickAlice]

@oktokels: No. At least not just manual entering it with what's available, I don't know if someone could script something. I think this one is hardcoded into the game though. I asked this earlier and messed around, I wanted the Spider-Mobile to have two webshots for each webshooter. Same thing came around with Shriek again. You use an optical illusion in the game for this, an FX that has two beams in it roughly the space apart from the models hands. Your FX say then comes from the weapon node placing it sort of center creating the illusion. Say your standard male_basic would use ranged_3, the animation where both hands are held out.

I'm not a hundred percent an the exact reasons but round about, I did a test just now to see if my theory played out. When you say make a nif and put a node in that the keyframe calls for if you do it twice with the same name what ends up happening is it just selects the first in order and disregards the second (or you end up in glitch territory). "May" have to do with the FX itself also having a point in it that's called up to line up with/stretch from/pivot that node as it's Start point. So in this test I made two nodes, each in male_basics hand nodes, L and R respectively. I named the node "doublefx" for our test. I copy a shield throw, something easy to see and changed it's points from weapon to doublefx and saved it as a new FX. Made the character using our ranged_3. In game when I used the move it defaulted to the L hand node, one instance of the shield FX only. In fact mine came out goofy and was way outside the left hand node, much further to the left of the character. Anyways test two, I changed the characters ranged attack to spawn two instances during flight. Same exact thing, left hand node only, two instances of the FX spawn and angle from that left hand point.

There's a checksum or something at any rate when the game/CTool runs through strings like this. Off the top of my head as well there's no way given the same name the game would be able to distinguish that second node then as different. Someone with the coding skills probably knows this part better. The answer is no though but you can create the illusion well enough in game to present the appearance it's happening by working with model in the FX nif itself.

[oktokels]

Thanks SickAlice, You saved me from having to do those tests. 

[SickAlice]

It is "one of those things" as I put it that I already to do with a lot of times. The easy view and to understand limitations of these two game engines and programs is to think about how the game makes any of this happen. Anything we are shown is an optical illusion that works with geometry, a set of numbers being all the program sees. It's frustrating, there's little things I see and know maybe if I were better at programming I could patch that issue (add a needed parameter) yet I think I'm good enough at math to know I would be better off than just using a different engine anyways. Though I still push the idea of a fresh updated Netimmerse engine that's cross compatible for content creation in this community, A "Neo-Freedom Force 3" if you will. Understanding what that needs is simple for me, I have lists of course. Programming it? Eh? Well I can do Hello World. That's about it.