I am working on quest-companion mod and she (companion) should change faces several times. NPC cloning is not an option because of the scripting complexity that I have already as well as of obvious transition problems. So, I have tried to use heads nifs as closed helmets (head body/biped part). Everything works fine but these "head-helmets" are continuously opening mouths and blinking eyes.
So, what could be a compromise from your point of view:
1. to block facial animations completely or
2. to "live" with those "fish on the air" animations?
Any other solutions on the nif level are highly appreciated (I have tried to change node tree without any reasonable results).

"Composite" heads. Original MW heads have only one NiTriShape node (animated with morpher) in their nifs; ears and other head accessories are added via hair nifs. I have two different head models that are composite:

I. A skull with animated jaw (morpher, I tried also to use NiKeyframeController) ? NiTriShape #1 and eyes (NiTriShape #2) that are animated with material NiAlphaController. Eyes should be separated: the entire head model should not have NiAlphaProperty (I failed to find a reasonable in-game combination of alpha flags for the skull and Ren's hair wig nif (yes, skull should be not bald)). Eyes can be morphed together with the jaw but without transparency that looks very odd in the game. Moreover, I tried to use NiFlipController for the later variant and faced another problem ? it is not possible (in my tests) to synchronize it with NiTextKeyExtraData keys and NiMorphController. In the game the jaw is animated correctly, eyes are not at all (NiKeyframeController, NiAlphaController, and NiFlipController). Of cause eyes can be flagged with cycle (clamp at the moment), but in this case they would be not "linked" to game events.

II. Female head (NiTriShape #1, morpher) with animated transparent lashes (NiTriShape #2, morpher), facial piercing (optional, NiTriShape #3-x, no animation controllers). Problem: eyes are blinking together with mouth opening and are "leading" the animation ? so blink (eyes and lashes) is happening in the correct game moments but together with mouth opening, mouth is not opening at all when NPC talks. NifScope manipulation of the node tree causes desynchronization of eyes and lashes movements.

From my point of view it is possible to play the game with such "composite" heads but it is preferable to find a better solution. Does anybody know what that could be?

Thank you.

I have absolutely no knowledge with this kind of model messing, but wouldn't just blocking the whole animation be most logical thing to do? I mean they are helmets, they aren't supposed to move, right? :shrug:

They're not really supposed to be helmets though. That's just the method of changing the face. I do agree though, that blocking the whole face animation would probably look the best. How often is the PC really going to be looking at the face while the lips should be moving, or the eyes blinking. The looping face animation though, is very distracting. Sometimes I stop just to watch the mouth drop and then snap closed.

It is a head: NPC companion should look differently on different quest stages. Therefore it is better that these "helmets" should behave as regular MW heads. I am using head nifs set as closed helmets in the TESCS.

Great! Thank you.
This NPC is talking a lot, and kissing option with a closed (helmet) mouth is also odd. I agree that original heads "behave" not better during this "operation".

You could try an export with the official exporter. Heads do need those note track entries to function correctly though I have experienced problems before when exporting composite heads even with track entries. It's always worth a try!

They were exported with original TES Max plugin.

I will search for a compromise.

This blinking must be a bug. A helmet, which was made of a head should have the excact animation sequence as a normal head as morph keys and frames are exactly the same. Try to add some textkeys and export as nif, xnif, kf instead!!! I will test this too.

If it is still blinking, you could try to keep the morphings and just slow down the animation sequence.


TheDaywalker :rock:

Of cause. correct head text keys/note track were added. I have also tried to parent NiTextKeyExtraData node to different NiNodes. This does not help.



That has no sense because kf files store only NiKeyframeController/ NiKeyframeData nodes (Rotations/Translations/Scales). Heads are animated with morpher. x.kf files of creatures that have morpher animated heads (e.g. wolves) do not contain any morpher related animation data.



That's what I did for the skull's eyes NiAlphaController. I am OK with this model now: mouth opens more or less synchronized with "say" functions; eyes are occasionally blinking (no control by the game engine).

"Head-helmets" are really problematic: the nifs contain ? helmet(tiara) itself, animated head, Ren's hair, ears, earrings, etc. :banghead:

Perhaps, original head nif might work correctly when used as a closed helmet, but I have to deal with the complex nifs described above. Interestingly, the same model set as head body part or as a head armor part behaves differently in the game as if the game engine differentiates body from other models.

I know morphs need no nif, xnif, kf, but I have fixed many animation bugs concerning morphs this way. Sometimes it happened to me, that my morphings wouldn't work ingame, although everything seemed fine in Blender. I exported all 3 files and morphing did work. Can't say why!!!


TheDaywalker :rock:

Than that's a Blender bug.
I have used original Max4.2 TES exporter. It ignores kf with morpher. I will try again.
I suspect the problem is MW game engine.