Special dummy nodes (Empties in Blender) are used to indicate special location to the engine. Some of them need to set directly in the model file (mdl), other in the walkmesh files (dwk or pwk). The naming conventions need to be followed in order for them to be recognized by the game. These naming conventions differ depending on the model type (doors, placeables, creatures) and whether they belong to the model file itself or the corresponding walkmesh file.

---

Placeable Model

The dummies in the placeable models are mostly for spell targeting purposes and VFX location.

In 1.69 They are all optional, if not present the center (=location) of the placeable is used. It appears in EE this is buggy/fixed/something and doesn't default to the center of the model.

Suffixes

The table below contains a list of valid suffixes. These suffixes differ from the ones used in door models.

Examples

This tables contains a list of valid impact nodes for different placeable names.

---

Placeable Walkmesh

The only dummy in placeable walkmeshes are use nodes. They determine where a character will walk to, when given a use command. Up to two use nodes can be specified, the character will walk to the closest one. They are optional, if not present the character will attempt to walk to the center of the model. This may fail, especially for large placeables, in this case the placeable becomes unusable.

Suffixes

The table below contains a list of valid suffixes. These suffixes do NOT have a leading underscore and are case sensitive - they must be all lower case.

Examples

This tables contains a list of valid use nodes nodes. As you can see the prefixes are completely random, the only important thing is that they are four characters long. The preferred name is wtf_pwk_use01.

---

Placeable Transparency via .txi

It is possible to create a placeable that uses a texture which calls a texture information file (.txi) while maintaining the proper transparency of all meshes and how they interact with characters.  This requires the use of a special node ending in "a" inserted between the aurorabase and the mesh using the .txi, as well as ensuring that the extra node and subordinate text are the last occurring in the .mdl file.  The most common use case for this is water.

Examples

This tables contains a list of valid animation (.txi) nodes. As you can see the prefixes all match the model name and there is no space or underscore between that name and the "a."

This method is complex enough to warrant further information, which can be found on the Placeable Model TXI Transparency page.

---

Door Model

The dummies in the door models are mostly for spell targeting purposes and VFX location. They are all optional, if not present the center (=location) of the door is used.

Suffixes

The table below contains a list of valid suffixes. These suffixes differ from the ones used in placeable models. Note the lack of underscore as well.

Examples

This tables contains a list of valid impact nodes for different placeable names.

---

Door Walkmesh

 The dummy in dwk files determine where a character will walk to when interacting with a door. Doors may have up to three states. A closed state and two open states, as NWN doors may swing open to both sides. That means there may be up to may be up to six dummies - two for each state. As with placeables a character will walk to the closest dummy, when interacting with a door - depending on the state the door is currently in (open1, open2, closed)

Suffixes

The table below contains a list of valid suffixes. These are case sensitive, the DWK has to upper case, everything else is lower case. Doors may swing open to both sides, that means there may be two open states, each state having two dummies.

Examples

This tables contains a list of example Closed Dummy 1 nodes for different door names. The two leading characters are completely arbitrary alphanumeric characters, they HAVE to be followed by an underscore, followed by the suffix.

---

Creatures

These creature nodes are used for combat targets, animation purposes (e.g. equipped item positions), and floaty (floating) name.

Names

The table below contains a list of VFX special node names.  These two nodes should always be directly linked to the model base. They should have an orientation of 0 0 0 0.

The table below contains a list of other special node names. Depending on creature type (parts, full, simple, limited - which is simple plus some other limited animations) not all of these nodes are available.  These nodes should always be linked to the corresponding mesh part and usually are a dummy type. They are all optional (if not there it might default to root or just not show the relevant mdl/effect/whatever).

See capart.2da for which modelname for what MDL name. EG: "pmh0_neck001.mdl" loads into slot "neck_g" while the "pmh0_robe003.mdl" links to "root"

Hierarchy

Nodes should be children to the mesh part on which they apply the effect so that the applied effect follows the body part during animations.  The exception to this is headconjure, which should be children of (linked to) the model base, or aurorabase.  The z position (height) of headconjure is used to position the floating text that displays the creature name over the origin (0,0) of the creature model.  Omission or incorrect linking of the headconjure node makes the floating name text default to a set height of about 1m above the origin. The handconjure node, however, does not follow this rule and can be linked to a node if you wish for casting VFX to follow its movements.

Common Node Summary

Cross reference table in case you are changing, say, a placeable to a creature (eg a mimic!) or a door to a placeable or whatever.

Note that placeables and doors do not "conjure" or "cast" spells (it does so essentially instantly) so anything related to that isn't used.

If a particular node doesn't exist it should default to the "root" node (ie the "ground").

(Table needs finishing)

Shields

These creature nodes are used for combat targets - ie where arrows hit. It's random which one is used.

Names

These two nodes should always be directly linked to the shields dummy base. They can probably be any kind of node type but dummy is the best option (keeps it nice and neat and separate from geometry).

Tiles

These special nodes are for the main and source lights selectable in the area properties for each tile.

The Bioware documentation suggests it has to be named CAPITALMODELNAMEsl1 but this is incorrect, a lowercase name will work fine so modelnamesl1 is fine (and helps to be consistent, since filenames should be lowercase).