Quote Originally Posted by GrumpyOldMan
Thanks for the information. I've noticed that as well as Attachment groups there are Equipment type groups - is there any difference? Also (probably getting ahead of myself) but with the shields some are shown as shieldpassive and some as shieldactive.
GrumpyOldMan
I don't think there is a difference for equipment. You can have upto 4 different attachment types.

For example:

gunpowder pouch (attachment)
sword shieth (attachment1)
jewlery (attachment2)
quiver (attachment3)

Each of these attachment types can have multiple variations. There is no limit on variations for any of the meshes. They are simply marked as thier mesh type (attachment, attachment1, head, body etc etc) and then the individual variation meshes are named with a sequential numbering. Head01 head02 head03 head04, pouch01, pouch02, pouch03 etc. The engine then knows to choose one of each variation by its numbering.

Passive and Active shields are exactly what they state. However, I really don't think it makes too much difference. Passive shields are supposed to be for being attached to the back and active attached to the fore-arm. (if they are around the other way it probably doesn't matter)

There are no hard limits on variations. You can have 50 variations or more if you really wanted to but you would have a hard time fitting them onto a texture. It's possible to up the texture size to allow for more variations but you will be increasing memory usage a fair whack as you need to do this with normal maps too.

You can get an .SMD importer/exporter for 3dsmax here: http://www.chaosincarnate.net/cannonfodder/cftools.htm
Created by Cannon Fodder, this tool allows you to import the .smd mesh and then the .smd skeletal file. It will automatically rig the skeleton upto the imported mesh. It's probably alot more complete than the milkshape importer/exporter. Autodesk also offer 30 day trials on 3dsmax if you need to have a play around with it: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...112&id=5972446