EDIT: Oi, Semory, list bullets don't work?
EDIT2: parenting hierarchy =/= naming hierarchy in XPS. Don't worry, you don't screw parenting by renaming bones.
To maintain alphabetical hierarchy bones need standardized XNALara naming. Exporting scripts can't do that, because every game has its own naming, and scripts can't simply cover every game out there.
In other words, you have to do renaming yourself, there's three ways to do it ((not including renaming within Blender of course)) I'm sure one of us made numerous of such posts on the forums already, but I'm too lazy to search).
1st way (the old way we did it) is to export your model from Blender in mesh.ascii format. It's uncompressed format you can open in any text editor, where you will see the bones table on the beginning of the file (
L2R breaks down its contents nicely here). You can rename bones there. You can hide useless bones by adding "unused" on the beginning of the bone name.
2nd way is to rename bones within XPS (via Modify>Rename bone names, then sloooowww double click on a bone on the list to rename). You can also hide unused bones. Remember to save your model after all that.
3d way assures you have a bones list saved for future models from the same game so that XPS will rename them for you on the fly.
- open your model in XPS and go to Modify>Create Bone Names List (or Ctrl+Shift+S). A window pops up for direction to save your bones list.
- open the file you created and you'll see name strings separated with ; symbol, the strings on the left are original names, the right ones are renamed by the program (lower case, no underscores, no special symbols, which is general rule for XPS bone naming). In other words the names on the right are the ones you want to change/mark as unused (the same way as in the 1st way).
An example of renaming from Japanese naming convention:
koyu1_l;arm left finger 5 a
koyu2_l;arm left finger 5 b
koyu3_l;arm left finger 5 c
- After you're done, open your XPS directory, you will find BoneDict.txt, open it.
- Paste your renamed bones into this document. You can place numerous lists there (I generally have all lists from every game I converted so far), if you need to comment out something, simply put # symbol on the beginning of the line. Save, launch XPS, open your model.
If all was done right, XPS renamed bones on the model, now you just need to verify for eventual misshaps and save it as .mesh or .xps again. You can always fix the BoneDict, but XPS needs to be restarted after every modification so the change can take effect.
As for the general bones names: download and open few humanoid models from this forum to see examples. I'm adding an absolute basic list below, but many models have adjusting bones or bones for attachments between main joints, many can not have bones listed below, so you have to be flexible here, but it's generally up to you and what you're comfortable with.
root ground
root hips
pelvis
leg left thigh
leg left knee
leg left ankle
leg left toes
leg right thigh
leg right knee
leg right ankle
leg right toes
spine lower
spine upper
head neck lower
head neck upper
head jaw
head tongue 1
head tongue 2
head cheek left 1
head cheek left 2
head cheek right 1
head cheek right 2
head nostril left
head nostril right
head eyeball left
head eyeball right
head eyelid right both
head eyelid right upper
head eyelid right lower
head eyelid left both
head eyelid left upper
head eyelid left lower
head eyebrow right 3
head eyebrow right 2
head eyebrow right 1
head eyebrow left 1
head eyebrow left 2
head eyebrow left 3
head mouth corner right
head mouth corner left
head lip upper right
head lip upper middle
head lip upper left
head lip lower right
head lip lower middle
head lip lower left
arm left shoulder 1
arm left shoulder 2
arm left elbow
arm left wrist
arm left finger 1a
arm left finger 1b
arm left finger 1c
arm left finger 2a
arm left finger 2b
arm left finger 2c
arm left finger 3a
arm left finger 3b
arm left finger 3c
arm left finger 4a
arm left finger 4b
arm left finger 4c
arm left finger 5a
arm left finger 5b
arm left finger 5c
arm right shoulder 1
arm right shoulder 2
arm right elbow
arm right wrist
arm right finger 1a
arm right finger 1b
arm right finger 1c
arm right finger 2a
arm right finger 2b
arm right finger 2c
arm right finger 3a
arm right finger 3b
arm right finger 3c
arm right finger 4a
arm right finger 4b
arm right finger 4c
arm right finger 5a
arm right finger 5b
arm right finger 5c