I don't know man. ReplaceVertexWeights works for me. In the screenshot below everything was assigned to boneID 1, and after I run the script they are assigned to 2 and 3. I don't even have to normalize, because the results are normalized when they are applied.
If you need some tools to make your UV life easier.. You should consider Ninja UV. You can find it on Creative Crash. http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/marketplace/scripts-plugins/texturing/c/ninja-uv--2
Is the issue that you're running out of memory or just performance? If it's memory then what about just connecting a single set of animCurve nodes to all the skeletons/rigs? (you'd obviously want to script the process of connecting the existing curve nodes to the new skeleton)
I'm afraid I don't use Unity, frell. I'm a Blender user. I suppose I could try exporting to other file formats, but I know exporter scripts aren't always accurate, and tend to trash textures or something.
Yeah that's a bummer. A good workaround if you want to continue and do so by hand is (assuming you're using max) to use the Object Painter script by Neil Blevins. Then attach them all and bring it in as a static mesh. http://www.neilblevins.com/soulburnscripts/soulburnscripts.htm
Yes I think arrangemonk must be joking, that was a method used in the '90s and it was really error-prone and slow! Personally I do it all with Max's Relax, hotkeyed maxscripts for aligning horizontal/vertical based off Chuggnut's scripts, and eyeballing it all.
so i updated this ish. did some max script and was waiting for ocncept at work so i doodled some more on the bodeh. weee (rogue edited the image to update beforei went home. refresh if you saw it i guess)
Some more subdivision-modeling links I posted recently elsewhere, might help you out. Subdivisionmodeling.com Per's minitutorials Polycount - modeling hi poly weapons is painful, any tips? Polycount - technical highpoly workflow tutorial and scripts
I don't want to poop on your parade because we can always use more tools like this, but HCG Browser is now free and its pretty awesome. http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/hcg-asset-browser-pro
I enjoyed it a lot. I thought that the first 30ish minutes was some of the best well done scripted game stuff I have seen. It feel off a little bit at the end, but I loved the part when Alyx got the shotgun!