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[Klizmotron]

Hello everyone. I've been using WallWorm Model Tools for quite a while now and I'm extremally happy with it. But there are some things that I have to get around sometimes and edit QC files by hand, when it could be unnecessary. The thing is, when I use dummies with bodygroup properties applied to them, I always get "blank" automatically generated as the first bodygroup, but that's not always the thing you want to get. For instance, I have some viewmodel for HL2:DM, which uses a bunch of bodygroups of type "slot1: stock/custom, slot2: stock/custom, etc.". This requires the model to use the least posible unneeded options to stay under the limit of bodygroups combination (which is, for CBasesViewmodel in HL2:DM, pretty low and is equal to 8 bits). It would be a good solution to create a checkbox in bodygroup dummy settings which will deal with either adding or not adding blank bodypart for the specific group. All the time I had to edit the QC file manually and remove "blanks" where needed, and that forced me to lock the QC and do all the following changes to it manually, which is not convenient. WallWorm itself is meant to be a substitution for such technique. Thanks.

[wallworm]

Welcome to the forums :)

Ironically, that very idea was added to the next version of WW. It's already in the WW Pro Beta download. Even though I came up with the same idea as you, I realized after using a checkbox that it should actually be a spinner to set the index of the blank if you don't want it to be the first. Not sure I'll actually change it though. In any event, if you have WW Pro already, you can download the BETA zip from the store and get this function. If not, it'll be in the general WW after I have time to test all the pending changes in free WW. The next update is one of the largest WW has ever had in a single update, and I have done almost no testing in the free WW of all the changes... so it might be a couple weeks.

[Klizmotron]

That's pretty funny that we came up with this idea at the same time even though WWMT have been there for long ehough  :D. These are awesome news, thank you for your active development and support. Unfortunately, I haven't purchased the WWMT Pro yet, but seems like I'm moving towards  it as it has features and beta access. This would also be a good way to thank you for your great work  ;). So now I guess it's time to wait for the next update

[wallworm]

:)

Yeah I never really thought about it much until building the MDL plugin... and to properly be able to preview the bodygroups I had to accommodate the blank/not blank ... and it made me think about the fact that WWMT was always placing it. So the next version has the option.

[Klizmotron]

Finally bought the Pro version of WWMT, gonna install the beta version and check out the feature soon  8)

[wallworm]

Good stuff. Make sure to read the Readme for install. It's a little more involved than normal WW. Adding u to premium section too... which has some extra info (not a lot but some).

[Klizmotron]

Forgot to add one more things about bodygroups: I know that you're supposed to lookup bodygroups indicies by their names, but sometimes it's convenient to have them ordered the nice way, so like again slot1 could have index 0, slot2 - 1, slot3 - 2 and so on. There is no posibility to see the current order of bodygroups linked to a model or to change it unless you link the helpers in the needed order in Max. It would be nice if there was a scroll in the settings of the model which would deal with some bodygroups related sutff (where you could add BG dummies to the list, reorder them or remove, getting away from that arbitrary linking mechanics) just like you have now for attachments, sequences, collision and other.

Also it would be good to have an option in this scroll to either include "$body ..." key into the QC, as long as Source allows you to do not have an actually $body as long as you have bodygroups. Also not a super-important feature but would cut some time for that weird models makers like me  :P. So generally I think it would be good to migrate bodygroups into the main model settings as, they are pretty important (certainly not less important that attachments or LODs) and it would be good to have quick and easy access to these settings in the main WWMT menu.

[wallworm]

Thanks for the ideas. I'll certainly consider adding these. If I make the $body/$model optional with bodygroups, it would still require you to pick a mesh as the reference mesh. The reason being that there is a ton of logic in WW that checks against a WWMT helper having a mesh assigned to it. So the case would be, pick a mesh and then turn on the option to skip $body. Is that acceptable for what you intend?

[Klizmotron]

Yes, absolutely  :D

[wallworm]

The Skip $body option is now in WW Pro Beta as well as the list of bodygroups. Both are now in the WWMT Helper when selected: those settings are in the Modify Tab > Models, Attachments and Bones rollout. (This is not added to main WWMT UI floater, just the modify tab).

[Klizmotron]

Checked these out, that's just the thing I meant. Except the actual blank bodygroup, I think the current solution is usable but not perfect as long as you don't have any indication of wether your BG uses blank model or not, so you have to click these buttons again when you're not sure. Here's an example of how it could be organized a bit more convenient

[wallworm]

The checkbox for use blank is in newly created bodygroups. For existing bodygroups helpers, you need to select the BG helper and hit the Update BG definitions button in the BG floater. That's a little clunky but since the BG custom attributes are almost never updates (the blank function was first in a year) I doubt it will be major issue... and new BG helpers will just have the option.

Unfortunately, I cannot insert a blank into the list because the list is bound to scene nodes and only scene nodes can be saved in what is called a nodeTab. The checkbox is really the only option atm (and at this time, it will always save to the first in the list if used). I may make it into a spinner in a later update to insert a blank at a position # that defaults to first, but at the moment this is what you've got :)

[Klizmotron]

Yes, makes sense. Well, I (and probably other people as well) have got what was needed, so thank you again. It works fine and I no longer have to edit the QC manually to get around, yay  8)