I want to reskin a flail, but I think there's gonna be some questions that will arise so I am going to send my post out in case I need help with anything.
I am going to be reskinning a flail with another model I found on nexus, the Tree Sentinel Hammer mod. I am no stranger to 3d modeling with blender, so I could definitely convert it to fbx then edit it to what I want in there. but some questions arise when thinking about the process, specifically, how does the physics of the flail chain work? I know how to rig physics in blender but I've imported models that should have rigs but don't. My worry is if I reskin the flail model to what I want, it'll T pose the flail since it doesn't have any weight painting data attached to the new mesh.
TLDR how does flail physics work and how can I import my own flail model and let it have the physics?
#Reskinning a flail SOLVED
tidal ginkgo
real parrot
You may find information about what you need here: http://soulsmodding.wikidot.com/tutorial:main
My experience using other people's mods, for weapons that don't have physics is to use Mod Engine 2, download some (any) weapon on Nexus mods, rename the file so that it matches the weapon I want https://github.com/MaxTheMiracle/Dark-Souls-3-Parts-Files/blob/master/Elden Ring and make sure its included with Mod Engine 2.
Not to say any of these steps will help you create your own model, but I think some of the aforementioned tutorial will get you started there.
bright vale
The way Flail works and with other weapon that has "physics" which is not physic on this case. Are just animations and yes for animations to work, you do need the model to be skinned and needs weights.
Basically you pass the weights from the flail to your custom model
tidal ginkgo
gotchaaa
bright vale
If you have any glitching part when the animation plays, then it's weight issues
tidal ginkgo
does the weight painting transfer properly? through conversion with flver editor dae export
like can I take a flail, separate its head, handle, and chain, then transfer weights to similar meshes?
bright vale
If you convert flver to fbx using Aquatool, then yes weights are perfect, but when you transfer them on Blender of course you might need to do some manual painting to fix the "glitch" parts
tidal ginkgo
thank youuuu!
bright vale
No problem. Just look at the OG model weights first to see what needs to be weighted with what and go from there.
bright vale
tidal ginkgo
I dont see any vertex data on this model? I wouldn't know how to transfer the weights if theres no vertex data or bones either?
tidal ginkgo
...i will now!!
I was using flver exporter to get the DAE
then putting it in blender lol
tidal ginkgo
where can I find it?
bright vale
tidal ginkgo
ill look for it in the aqua model tool unzip lol
bright vale
There on aqua
tidal ginkgo
thank you !! Ill look for it in there
bright vale
Found it?
tidal ginkgo
yes! when I Convert a model to FBX, it closes? is that a crash or am I looking in the wrong places for the file?
tidal ginkgo
ah
thats where im going wrong haha
thanksssss Ill try it
how can I get the flver file of a .parts file? if that question is even compatible
I have the wp parts file from the mod I downloaded
bright vale
No probs
tidal ginkgo
WHOAAA I now have the flver!
gonna put it in the model tool
it worked!
flail is next
the flail has weights!
yippeee
so standard process would be to transfer the weights from the flail head onto the mace, then remove the flail head and place the mace head into the right place. same thing with the handle.
honestly mostly writing this down for future people with the same problems. Ill keep things updated here in case my process has errors though
both the mace and the flail have their own armatures, but theyre probably compatible though as they likely serve the same purpose
might even be able to merge them with CATS haha
also heres a question that likely wont be an issue but if you have the insight pls tell me :3
why in the hell does the flail have 190 bones when theres only like a half dozen that control the chain
most of them seem to serve no purpose?
flail with hidden "useless" bones'
flaIl normally?
not sure what most of this is for tbh
weight painted/data transferred all the vertex data, kept the original flail chain cause I like it, it seems to bend properly too as you can see
now for textures
forgot about that lol
gonna look up how to extract textures and ill try my best to apply them to the materials
tidal ginkgo
dropping the flver into witchy gives the tpf which is the thing witchy can unpack for dds image files. now I gotta figure out how to convert them into images blender can use lol
several sites give me errors when trying to convert the dds image hmmm
it is openable in GIMP
luckily
textures slapped on
real parrot
Looking good!
real parrot
We could really use some decent looking flails in ER 😄
tidal ginkgo
its gonna be a "crucible greatflail" with the knights greatsword moveset and ordovis vortex ash of war. I know how to reskin the knight greatsword and there are mods to allow any ash on any weapon so lets hope it goes smoothly!
since its completely textured in blender, how can I convert the images back into the form the game reads? what file is the game looking for when its looking for the ways to detail/texture the weapon?
The unpacking of the original parts file shows a A, M, and N dds image. what are those? is it a alpha, mask, and normal? cause I can bake those and possibly repackage them with witchy, right?
or I suppose M would be metallic
ahh its albedo not alpha
oops
https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/mods/1546?tab=files
very helpful resource
tidal ginkgo
apparently you can use flver editor to completely model swap a weapon to whatever fbx youd like
pallid plume
Was it a success? I’m looking to do this EXACT thing with a whip and haven’t been able to figure it out?
tidal ginkgo
kinda...
Weapon was imported but I think I messed up some repackaging processes
Cause not only is the flail not animating physics but also no textures
tried repacking textures... didnt work
the guide Iinked says GIMP doesnt save dds files as sRGB which is why the textures are gray
so you gotta use paint.net
yeah dont use gimp I reopened the textures and they all saved wrong
had to re-bake my textures and use paint to convert them to dds now
or just an online converter lol
textures are stuill fucked
huh
it needs the _1 textures too oops
some weapons and armor seem to have 2 parts that need coloring and witchy didnt like my repackaging cause I didnt have it
even after all that
textures are still messed up
huhhhhh
replaced the _1 dds files with a copy of the original texture files and renamed them appropriately, since they had gray textures and probably needed something. nope, the textures are still messed up
ah
so the game islikely trying to use its internal uv maps and pasting my image files onto it which is why the texture is fucked
maybe
I probably have to find a way to load a different uv map in so the texture skins right
wait this viewport shading is exactly what loads in game
now im really confused
the uvs are fine probably
its just the material isnt being rendered???
wha
or something like that
I wonder if its possible to pack the materials into the flver editor viewport to confirm it works
okay so material was named wrong
but I also forgot how to import fbx into flver editor lol
tidal ginkgo
oh theres literally a button that says import model lololol
ok model is swapped in flver editor again
time to pack it up with proper textures
omgggg the textures work
the physics still dont though
hmmm
tidal ginkgo
I instead just replaced the flail model with my own flail, and reparented the armature onto the original flail model since the weights are already transferred
it works but now I have to change the moveset
bright vale
Textures can be named whatever if I'm not mistaken
It's all about the ID inside the tpf
Which you can see on the xml generated
Use fbximporter to import your custom model
It has to be imported with the skin option cuz you need it for animations to work
If animation doesnt work, then it means you didn't do weights well or you didn't import it skinned
Make sure to add the armature of the flail to you custom model on blender
tidal ginkgo
hell yessss I got it working
Reskinning a flail SOLVED
mostly
gotta fix that chain
lol
but I reskinned the ordovis greatsword and it works!
ash of war spins the flail and everything its great
pallid plume
So it confirm, I need to convert the flvr into an fbx, import them into blender, transfer the weight and armature, import it into flvr, apply textures, done? Are there any important details or pitfalls I missed?
tidal ginkgo
So it confirm, I need to convert the flvr into an fbx, import them into blender,...
I would love to help you in vc to walk you through it sometime (I’ll be pretty busy today tho)
But yeah. Get the parts.dcx of the weapon you want to reskin, convert it using the souls model tool (found in the unzip of aqua toolset) which will give you (something, I forget, but I think it’s the fbx, which has) the armature and weight painting of the weapon. Now import the weapon you plan to reskin this weapon to. Align them as best you can (might have to manipulate the armature a bit since you’re using a whip, you can clear your modifications with alt+r, alt+s, alt+g) then go into the modifiers tab on the right (green wrench) and find the Data Transfer in the edit dropdown. Click vertex data, switch it to nearest edge interpolated, and generate data layers and apply modifier. if the models are closely aligned they will get the same weight painting. I, personally, to reskin the flail, separated the head so that it doesn’t get the rough painting that this modifier can apply. I then painted it manually to its corresponding bone so it has a hard edge which doesn’t blend with its chain. Now, you need to give your mesh the armature modifier and set the armature to the one the original weapon uses. That way, when you manipulate the armature, both weapons should move. Export the model now!
That’s all you need to do for reskinning a weapon but if you made a custom model like mine then that requires extra steps for texturing.
Now that you have a model that’s weight painted properly, open the original flver model of the original weapon and Import Model into there, select your fbx. Delete the original mesh by going into meshes and selecting the appropriate mesh names and hitting the modify button when the delete column is checked. Rotate the mesh as necessary but now your mesh is taking the place of the original. Now, you can close that up, and pack up everything with Witchy. That’ll give you the parts file which means your job is done
pallid plume
I’m gunna give it a go but if I can’t get it I would definitely appreciate some help in a vc
Appreciate it!
tidal ginkgo
❤️
pallid plume
Alright so my first attempt was a total failure... not sure why
When I tried to import the .fbx back into the flvr I got an unhandled expection error. I'll try again
pallid plume
Alright well this time it didn't crash, but nothing is appearing in game 
pallid plume
Alright I tried it on the flail and I had the same thing...