Okay. See, I'm planning on submitting the Alloys from Brawl.
I'm with you on the intentions as far as UV-mapping goes, and I'm a detail nut like that myself. However, there was one half of the mapping that was in-bounds, and I just used that for my reference. I'll assure you that they look just like they did in the game.
As far as the 'useless' bones I'd remove, I'd be taking out: TopN (game's root), TransN (used for repositioning a character after an animation like Captain Falcon/Red Alloy's FSmash that moves him after it ends, or walks to reposition the character when it loops), XRotN, YRotN and ThrowN (a bone that controls where to place the character when, well, being thrown). I'd leave HipN as the new root, as this is where the weighting data starts.
As far as point #4, I did plan on making them a single mesh, or at least as much as possible. The reasoning behind this is that along with the bone data, the BRRES viewer also exports the weighting data. Combined with the skeleton in the .dae, I don't see how making it a single mesh would cause any issues. Anyone with the model could still pose it as they like.
Also, I appreciate the encouraging responses. This will let me work on 'em secure in the fact that I'll likely see them made available.
Edit: Here is a test export. Blender seems to choke on reimport, but I don't know if that's because it's errored, or if it is just Blender acting up.
I'm with you on the intentions as far as UV-mapping goes, and I'm a detail nut like that myself. However, there was one half of the mapping that was in-bounds, and I just used that for my reference. I'll assure you that they look just like they did in the game.
As far as the 'useless' bones I'd remove, I'd be taking out: TopN (game's root), TransN (used for repositioning a character after an animation like Captain Falcon/Red Alloy's FSmash that moves him after it ends, or walks to reposition the character when it loops), XRotN, YRotN and ThrowN (a bone that controls where to place the character when, well, being thrown). I'd leave HipN as the new root, as this is where the weighting data starts.
As far as point #4, I did plan on making them a single mesh, or at least as much as possible. The reasoning behind this is that along with the bone data, the BRRES viewer also exports the weighting data. Combined with the skeleton in the .dae, I don't see how making it a single mesh would cause any issues. Anyone with the model could still pose it as they like.
Also, I appreciate the encouraging responses. This will let me work on 'em secure in the fact that I'll likely see them made available.
Edit: Here is a test export. Blender seems to choke on reimport, but I don't know if that's because it's errored, or if it is just Blender acting up.