B3d Pipeline question

Community Forums/Developer Stations/B3d Pipeline question

Pongo(Posted 2003) [#1]
Ok,... I've finally started using the .B3D pipeline tools, and I really like how good these are, but I'm having one small problem.

When I look at my scene in the viewer everything seems to work ok, including skinned objects. (I am using rigid vertices with no weighted vertices) When I load the .B3D in blitz, the skinned objects do not animate properly, but everything else looks fine. I know the info is in the .b3d file, because the pipeline viewer can load and play the file correctly.

Also,... I am having some issues with some skinned objects where the skin does not move properly with the bones (it seems to work with bone rotation, but not movement). Anyways,... just seeing if anyone else has encountered this.

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Thanks.


Beaker(Posted 2003) [#2]
You might find (as I did) that you have to animate a sub-object ("Object1"?).


Pongo(Posted 2003) [#3]
could you clarify that a bit? Do you mean within the blitz code?

Also,... I figured out why the skin was not working properly and I hope someone has a workaround. Typically I set up an animation rig and never directly animate the bones, only helper objects that the bones are linked to. Unfortunately, this method does not seem to make it through the pipeline (for position, rotation works fine) so it looks like I will need to animate the bones directly. Does anyone know another way to get around this?

Thanks again


Rob(Posted 2003) [#4]
you should not need to. just animate the first getchild() instead.

my own exporter had this problem with the animated version, that is, I couldn't work out a way to support both animations and static geometry in the same file without nesting it as a 'child'.

A lot of issues came up during the development of the plugin and b3d file format, and this is one that remains unresolved. just animate the first child in blitz and it should work (fingers crossed).


IPete2(Posted 2003) [#5]
Try using the exporter plugin for Ultimate Unwrap export/import from Max and save it to Ultimate Unwrap format, then save in B3d format from Ultimate unwrap.

Don't use B3d materials or brushes unless you are using B3d Pipeline as UU doesn't understand them, use standard to be safe.

Animations work really well this way, this week I have a made my first animated character which I am half pleased with, but being able to figure the process to export out of Max and import into b3D with everything, textures, animations etc. in place was what my goals were.

Sorted! :)

IPete2.


Binary_Moon(Posted 2003) [#6]
Try using the exporter plugin for Ultimate Unwrap export/import from Max


but that involves spending more money - seems a waste since b3d pipeline works fine.

Pongo - When you export the file look for the root option and try turning it off (or on if its off at the moment). Just play with the options, takes a bit of fiddling but it does all work. Also if you are previewing your exported model in the blitz media viewer then it won't play back properly since the media viewer "fitMesh's" the model to make it fit on the screen which screws up the bones. Also there may be problems if you try to scale the mesh yourself.


IPete2(Posted 2003) [#7]
Er..well,

I must be doing it wrong then cause Physique and Biped do not export well (if at all), of course I'm pretty new to this, but I have been through all the options a few times and eventually (having been frustrated) came back to the forums to find someone was using the Max exporter for UU3 - I tried this and it all worked first time, I just had to change the B3d Pipeline textures back to standards and it was all lovely.

I'm interested to try again in case it was just me, I'll report my findings next week sometime, once I'm back at work and have time to try a few variaions.

And I should add that I prefer to use B3d for static stuff as it is far less fiddly.

Ipete2.


Binary_Moon(Posted 2003) [#8]
physique doesn't work. that would be your problem. Try using skin instead. Also hide the biped before you export else the biped mesh will get exported as well.