MeshWeightRemap
Make a skeletal mesh safe to leader-pose off another one.
| Plugin | Role | Licence | Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| MeshWeightRemap source | coreThe subsystem. Install this one. | Open | 0.1.2 |
| MeshWeightRemapToolset source | toolsetThe same subsystem as typed MCP tools, for an agent. Adds nothing of its own. | Open | 0.1.1 |
The problem it solves
SetLeaderPoseComponent does not copy a pose.
The follower reads bone transforms straight from the leader's component-space array, and the leader only ever writes the entries it actually evaluates — leaving every other bone frozen at its reference pose.
So a follower vertex weighted to one of those un-evaluated bones is pinned at the reference pose while everything around it moves.
That is the bug where a garment's collar stays put while the character walks, and it looks like a skinning mistake rather than what it is.
What it does
Moves skin weights off every bone the leader will never drive, onto the nearest ancestor it does drive. Weights on already-driven bones are left untouched.
It knows nothing about MetaHumans, Narrative Pro or any other character system. Two meshes, one posing the other, is the whole precondition — which is why it is a standalone tool rather than part of MeshForge.
Three definitions of "driven", reported side by side
The choice is made on evidence rather than by a default nobody understands:
| Definition | Breadth | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| LOD Required Bones | The default | Smallest honest answer. Errs toward moving weight unnecessarily rather than pinning anything |
| LOD Active Bones | Narrower | Only bones with actual skin weight |
| + Physics Asset | Widest | Adds bones with a physics body |
All three are reported together, so you pick after seeing what each would do.
Measure, then remap
Two explicit steps.
- Measure is read-only.
- Remap edits in place with no undo — removing a bone rebuilds the LOD model.
The report is verification-first:
- Total weight before and after must match exactly. Weight is moved, never created or destroyed.
- Which bones were emptied, and where their weight went.
- Which bones a previous run already removed — because removal accumulates on the asset rather than resetting.
How to run it
Content Browser right-click ▸ Remap Weights to Leader… → pick the leader → Measure → read the report → Remap.
Also available from Blueprint, C++ and its own toolset.
What it actually contributes
The redistribution uses the engine's own bone-reduction call — the same one MetaHuman's assembly pipeline uses when optimising a body.
This plugin's only real contribution is building the inverse list: the bones that have weight and should not. The engine's own list-builder only ever removes bones with no weight, which is the opposite problem.
Worth stating plainly because it sets expectations: this is a small, well-scoped tool wrapping an engine facility correctly. It is not a skinning solver, and it will not improve weights that are simply bad.