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[Envoy]

Hi there, I've gotten everything to work swimmingly with exporting and getting the models in the source engine. But for some strange reason the bones of the model seem to be places off center. Like so:


The origin seems to be on the correct place, at the base of the feet. But the bones are lowered, and rotated funny. In 3dsmax the animations work fine, so somewhere exporting it it skews them.

Any ideas?

[wallworm]

The main reason you will see things like this is that the root mesh needs an XForm modifier applied to it. Generally speaking, you should always do this for your models before export. Also, you may find that it is best to do this before skinning.

I will share more tips later but I am preparing for bed. The next video I have lined up is on making animated models using bones and skin... so hopefully that will clear a lot more up. Maybe I can address that this week. If you send me your model, I may be able to use it as an example for the video.

[wallworm]

I have added a new update today with a new tool for bone systems. Here is info on the update: http://www.wallworm.net/index.php/topic,596.0.html

In any event, you may want to take these steps:

In WWMT, Turn OFF the Use Local Origin option. Also, Turn OFF the Rotate Origin. Generally speaking, those two options are best used with $staticprop AND/OR animated props that are not using Bones/Skin.

Then, you should probably assign the root bone for your bone system as the $origin node in the WWMT helper.

I suggest that you do this when you have the model assigned to the WWMT UI. Click Wall Worm > Wall Worm Model Tools > Bone Tools. Select the root bone in your model and click the Root button in the Bone Tools UI. This will swap the mesh out as the origin node and use the root bone instead.

Then re-export.

Please let me know if this fixes your model.

[Envoy]

Not quite sure what you mean by assign a model to the WW UI.



I have the model selected and ready to export, but still get that.

[wallworm]

So that message is appearing even when Wall Worm Model Tools (WWMT) is open and you have the animated model set in it? The function currently only works on the WWMT model that is in the opened WWMT UI.

[Envoy]

Okay I got the bone tool to work, guess I just had to restart my 3ds for whatever reason. But after setting the Root, for some reason I get this if I try to hit the export model button:

[wallworm]

Sorry about that error. You can avoid it now by opening the WW Settings and turning on the option "Give New Models a Material if None" in the Material Options group. That is because all meshes in a model need a material for the exporter... but bones should not export as meshes. I'll fix that in the next release. Anyway, change that setting and then try to export again.

[wallworm]

Version 1.8971 fixes the cryptic material notice from bones not having a material regardless of the global settings for materials.

[Envoy]

Hrm... I tried using the bone tool to set the root, doesn't seem to change much, if at all.



The root-transform seems to be on the correct place, but the bones still seem to just be off center for whatever reason. I have the rotate origin and other options besides calculate origin in smd turned off, so idk why it's doing that. It plays the animations perfectly fine in 3ds. And I doubt the scale would have anything to do with it, though I don't really know a whole lot about 3dsmax.

[wallworm]

Send me one of the models you are using that is causing this problem and I will discover the exact issue. To make it easier for me to track down, send me a version where you have created the WWMT helper already so I can see both the rig and the WW settings.

[grayback]

Hello, I have the same problem, even with the reset Xform applied. I'm using a model that is supposed to be export and run for Source (can't recall the name of the game it was made for).
I will attach it here.

http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=ga9df5c74ed402dd4999299070af77be130ac21f12

Also, i have difficulty knowing what the exact steps or how to proceed to get my animated model into source, are there any special steps to do compared to a regular model export, only with staticprop turned off? I have to add the root of the biped? (i know it is mentioned but i just want to be sure)

Just a bit of info to know where your time is going : We are a small team of 3D artists working on 3D shorts and other byproducts, and we think that filmmaker is going to be great for this. :)

Thanks a million, during next week I will be very present to give you some feedback on the problem as much as you need.
:)

[wallworm]

I have a few topics lined up for videos... and among them is one about skinned meshes and animations. I'll try to prioritize some time for this soon.

[grayback]

Excellent!

[grayback]

A little update,
I found the ressources needed to export my model into source engine, but a weird thing is that the rig is flipped verticaly, and has a small offset.
I applied a reset Xform to the model, with a fresh skin, the model is at 0,0,0 coordinates, and so is the root of the rig, using the settings mentioned earlier in this thread :
''Turn OFF the Use Local Origin option. Also, Turn OFF the Rotate Origin.''

I also found out that when i tried using the biped to export my character, it did some pretty wacky results in the source engine. (wrong scale on some bones, wrong positions and rotation.)
So as a work around i export my biped rig with the character into the fbx format, so they would become regular bones and use the wallworm tool from there.

Thanks!

Edit : here is the .max file
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=gd6186ef0839f7f46999302929b431e4ba3d2e8b2c

[wallworm]

Thanks for the feedback.

Are you saying that once converting to FBX and back it is exporting perfectly for you or it still has an offset or Rotated?

At the moment, WW does not support exporting Biped or CAT because those systems do not have normal parent/child hierarchies that are easy to map. I had hoped to add support for both natively, but just don't have the time to delve deeply into that and have really only used native bones successfully.

PS. If still rotated incorrectly, try the rotate origin command ... but the various origin functions in WW do have finicky issues with skinned meshes if not set up in particular ways.