the weapon trick was made for two reason(two that I know)...one for "faking" the attachment..it's actually baked from the 3d package software, as vertex animation. Two, as md2 can't have more than one skin (skin is texture in this case, there's confussion if refering to the weights info) , so, u were forced to do all in a single mesh, welded, and also save texture space in the already -usually- tiny md2 texture of 256x256...
As u'r actually outputing (doing as I mentioned in previous post) one md2 for weapon, and amnother md2 file for character, each has its own texture. I made in a kind of joke an md2 dwarf. The character texture was 256x256, while weapong didn't worth to use a texture of more than 64x64, as was very simple/small(size of weapon model will make it be less/more seen) weapon.
Character Fx is quite a good tool for this: better than Milkshape, as Milkshape don't have weights. With weightsin ur package u actually bake that anim smoothness in joints. You wont be able to do that in ms3d even if use b3d format. You'd be able to do so if export as b3d or md2 in Cfx. But as mentioned, md2 will be much better for performance for your type of game. Blender rocks for md2 too, but u really need to know it quite deeply.
md2 only pair of things to be really aware of are...that it looks ok for a warcraft3 or whatever "from a distance view", but you see some vertex trembling if aproach the camera for a very near shot...(not in these games(NWN style, etc))
Second, and probably more important, is that like md3, it can't have duplicated Uvs per vertex. It actually then breaks smoothing there(as breaks mesh duplicating vertices and leaving em unwelded), generating an unwanted seem in an smooth surface (worst case: in the middle of the face) .Only workaround for this that I know is...hide the seams while uv mapping. Make ur uv islands so that the uvs get put in places like bellow the chin, in the interior side of arms, in interior of legs...not that bad when u plan it when start uv mapping. this issue does not happens with x or b3d format, but yes with md3, md2, 3ds.
There's a third advantage for doing my mentioned weapon trick...u can load animations without the weapon, like walk, etc.
Anyway, you'll use with all sure b3d, reading your last posts. But thought I'd give u more info.
As u'r actually outputing (doing as I mentioned in previous post) one md2 for weapon, and amnother md2 file for character, each has its own texture. I made in a kind of joke an md2 dwarf. The character texture was 256x256, while weapong didn't worth to use a texture of more than 64x64, as was very simple/small(size of weapon model will make it be less/more seen) weapon.
Character Fx is quite a good tool for this: better than Milkshape, as Milkshape don't have weights. With weightsin ur package u actually bake that anim smoothness in joints. You wont be able to do that in ms3d even if use b3d format. You'd be able to do so if export as b3d or md2 in Cfx. But as mentioned, md2 will be much better for performance for your type of game. Blender rocks for md2 too, but u really need to know it quite deeply.
md2 only pair of things to be really aware of are...that it looks ok for a warcraft3 or whatever "from a distance view", but you see some vertex trembling if aproach the camera for a very near shot...(not in these games(NWN style, etc))
Second, and probably more important, is that like md3, it can't have duplicated Uvs per vertex. It actually then breaks smoothing there(as breaks mesh duplicating vertices and leaving em unwelded), generating an unwanted seem in an smooth surface (worst case: in the middle of the face) .Only workaround for this that I know is...hide the seams while uv mapping. Make ur uv islands so that the uvs get put in places like bellow the chin, in the interior side of arms, in interior of legs...not that bad when u plan it when start uv mapping. this issue does not happens with x or b3d format, but yes with md3, md2, 3ds.
There's a third advantage for doing my mentioned weapon trick...u can load animations without the weapon, like walk, etc.
Anyway, you'll use with all sure b3d, reading your last posts. But thought I'd give u more info.