- Limit Vertex Groups: Limit the number of vertex groups per vertex.
- Prune Vertex Groups: Remove vertices and vertex groups with zero weights.
- Apply Subsurf: Apply the subsurface modifier, maintaining shapekeys.
- Find Seams: Create seams based on existing UVs.
- Get Fingerprint: Get the fingerprint string for the active object.
- Add Pinning Groups: Add hairpin group to mesh hair.
- Make Multires: Convert HD mesh into a mesh with a multires modifier, and add vertex groups.
Limit Vertex Groups
This tool limits the number of vertex groups per vertex. This can be useful for exporting characters to games which have an upper limit on this number. It could possibly also be used to improve viewport performance in Blender, but tests were disappointing.
Press Limit Vertex Groups and specify the limit in the pop-up dialog. The default is four but we set it to one to better illustrate the effect.
Here is the ChestLower vertex group, before and after limitation. Only vertices were the ChestLower influence had the biggest influence remain in the vertex groups.
Prune Vertex Groups
This tool removes vertices from vertex groups if their weights is below a threshold. It also removes empty vertex groups afterwards.
When invoking the tool, you are prompted for the value of the threshold. The default is 0.001, so vertices are removed from vertex groups if the weight is less that 0.001.
Apply Subsurf
Modifiers are normally applied with the Apply button in the modifer context. However, this does not work if the mesh has shapekeys. The Apply Subsurf button does apply the subsurface modifier, even if the mesh has shapekeys. The shapekeys are also subdvided.
Find Seams
This tool generates seems where adjascent faces belong to different UV islands.
Get Fingerprint
The fingerprint of a mesh is a string that identifies the mesh type reasonably uniquely. It is used internally by the Daz Importer in order to recognize and distinguish between known character types, such as Genesis, Genesis 2 Female, Genesis 3 Male, etc.
The fingerprint of a mesh with V vertices, E edges and F faces is the string "V-E-F". E.g., the Genesis 8 female consists of 16556 vertices, 32882 edges and 16368 faces. Its fingerprint is thus "16556-32882-16368".
With the Aiko mesh or armature selected, press Get Fingerprint. A dialog is displayed with information about the active object.
Because the fingerprint belongs to a known character type, the plugin can determine that Aiko is a Genesis 8 Female.
The same information is also printed in the terminal window.
Add Pinning Groups
This is a utility for mesh hair. When doing cloth simulations we often want part of the mesh not to move, whereas other parts should move more or less. The extent to which a certain vertex is pinned down is controlled by a vertex group.
Select
the hair mesh (the scalp should already be separated as another object)
with the default settings, and press Add Pinning Group. We are prompted for four parameters Pin X0, Pin X1, Pin W0 and Pin W1. They affect the weight assignment according to the graph below.
A new vertex
group called HairPinning is created. The weight assignments can be seen
in Weight Paint mode.
If the default weight assignment was not satisfactory, we simply change the parameters and press Add Pinning Group again. The HairPin group is now updated with new weights.
Add Multires
When a HD mesh is imported, the plugin assigns a Multires modifier to it and tries to rebuild subdivisions by default (in Blender 2.90 and above). However, we can turn off this feature in the Meshes section of the Global Settings.
More information on HD meshes:
High resolution meshes
HD meshes and geografts
Baking normal maps
HD meshes and geografts revisited
