DAE2DTS.exe (dsq) sequence name bug?

#1 Which modeling app and collada exporter are you using? Most exporters do not support the collada <animation_clip> element, so the Torque importer ends up combining all sequences into a single clip with the default name 'ambient'.

This can be split up and/or renamed in the Shape Editor if required.

Is your animation named correctly if you load the DAE file in the Shape Editor?

#2 IMO..that dae2dts thing is a *not ideal* in it's current state.

Can you get this completed in the T3D shape editor ? ..or why not just export as DSQ from the cad app(a higher learning curve) ?

//edited a term out

#3 What specifically leads you to that opinion, eb? What is missing or broken in the dae2dts tool that would make it more useful for you?

It is basically a command line driven version of the T3D collada importer, so anything you can do in T3D (including all functionality in the Shape Editor) you can do with dae2dts.

#4 Chris, iirc ..
1. dae2dts ignores bat files exec'd by 3dsMax
There was something about it not liking .bat files executed from 3dsMax whereas the UnMessDTS.exe works fine in that scenario. Actually; every exe I have ever used this way, simply works..yet dae2dts.exe fails with no info. ..this struck me as odd.
//The point to this is I created a Maxtool to process files easily...and dae2dts failed to comply with my sorcery!
-I planned to give this tool to the community but seeing as how the dae2dts failed at every attempt in this style of use...I simply dropped the mini-project.

2. lackluster options
However, you stated: "It is basically a command line driven version of the T3D collada importer, so anything you can do in T3D (including all functionality in the Shape Editor) you can do with dae2dts."
- if all shape editor functionality is exposed, may I ask where the list of functionality and the options to call to use that functionality beyond the 5 or 6 that it shows at start ?
(I could possibly have overlooked this.)

3. the bloated filesize of DAE to DTS compared to files directly exported DTS.
(Not directly a fault of the dae2dts.exe but rather caused by the dae to dts processing.)

Don't get me wrong,
I think the dae to dts pipeline is great. It adds features to shapes that are welcomed. It allows anyone to jump right in to adding custom shapes.
- To me, dae2dts is just "ok". I picked it up, tried a few things and then put it back down. I'm really not bashing it, I am just disappointed in it.

I can't recall what else I may have had for a complaint..it's been a busy summer.

#5 Thanks for answering guys
I use Max and the opencollada exporter.
collada was suggested to me because the dts exporters crashed when I tried to export user specified normals on a multimesh character.
I'll try the dae in the shape editor later today...

#6 The sequence is shown in the shape tree as "run", along with the bip and the meshes (the list of green badges with a v in it)
in the animations tree it's shown as ambient.

When I OK this the file loads, and in the properties I can redo the sequence work once more, and save the shape. -But where do I get the dsq so I can use the sequence for another character?

EDIT: OK, I added hint RUN to add the sequence to my player.
I can see where this is going.
It seems this method require me to put all my animation data into one file and split it up in sequences.
Nice if you have a few short animations.
Otherwise it lacks somewhere to save it out in order to import it into another player.
I reallly hope this gets fixed in the final T3D for binary users...

#7 What I needed was to get the dae2dts to export my dsq and keep my original sequence name.
-Which it doesn't
This must be a bug - since a lot of standard animations in the engine will have to be renamed ambient... that's not going to please my programmer...

Otherwise the documentation needs to be updated to show how the sequence name, start, stop and triggers are set, please

#8 Peter, you may also want to look into this:
http://www.torquepowered.com/community/forums/viewthread/111741
- I know you lack the source but understanding this portion of the sdk, before you get pissed-off at it, is best IMO. As I can foresee this biting many people in the arse.

#9 Thanks EB
But I'm only going to use one size skeleton for each race of creature (both sexes) so I need the dsq's "out in the open" and not imbedded in one player model. -Otherwise some players will be able to reach further than others.

But well, guess I have to use the old tools and patch everything up when it get's fixed...

#10 @eb

Quote:1. dae2dts ignores bat files exec'd by 3dsMax
There was something about it not liking .bat files executed from 3dsMax whereas the UnMessDTS.exe works fine in that scenario.

Not sure what is going on there. Did you create a bug thread about that? I can't remember seeing one, but might have missed it.

Quote:2. lackluster options
if all shape editor functionality is exposed, may I ask where the list of functionality and the options to call to use that functionality beyond the 5 or 6 that it shows at start ?

I think I need to make this much clearer in the documentation, but using dae2dts along with a TSShapeConstructor script for the model being converted gives exposes all of the functionality in the Shape Editor.

For example, a common problem with DAE files is that all sequences are combined into a single sequence called 'ambient'. This is actually a limitation of the modeling app's COLLADA exporter not supporting the COLLADA <animation_clip> element, but you can easily split the animation up in the Shape Editor. When you hit 'Save' in the Shape Editor, it creates a TSShapeConstructor script in the same folder as your model like this:

function MyShapeDae::onLoad(%this)
{
   %this.addSequence("root", "ambient", 0, 23);
   %this.addSequence("run", "ambient", 24, 50);
   %this.removeSequence("ambient");
}

singleton TSShapeConstructor(MyShapeDae)
{
   baseShape = "./myShape.dae";
};

This script splits the 'ambient' sequence into the 'root' and 'run' sequences, then removes the unwanted 'ambient' sequence.

If you were to then run dae2dts on this DAE file, you would get a DTS model with the 'root' and 'run' sequences, since the DTS file is saved after the TSShapeConstructor commands have been run.

The Shape Editor provides a nice front-end to TSShapeConstructor, but you could just as easily create the script manually, or auto-generate it as part of your content pipeline. For example, you could invoke a script from MAX/Maya/Blender that: saves to DAE, generates the TSShapeConstructor script to split animations, add triggers, generate autofit collision details and so on, then runs dae2dts to generate the DTS and/or DSQ files.

Quote:3. the bloated filesize of DAE to DTS compared to files directly exported DTS.

This may have got a lot better since you last tried the tool. A change made to the collada loader in T3D 1.1b2 means it does a better job of identifying duplicate mesh vert tuples (vert, normal, uv) resulting in smaller, better performing models.

#11 @Peter

As I mentioned in my post above, the problem with many COLLADA exporters is that they don't support the <animation_clip> element to split animations into separate sequences. All the T3D importer sees is a single animation timeline. It converts this to a single sequence called 'ambient'.

The Shape Editor, via TSShapeConstructor, lets you split this single clip into multiple sequences. If you want to then convert to DSQ, use the dae2dts tool.

So your workflow will look like this:

1. Export your animations to COLLADA
2. Use the Shape Editor to split them up, or do it manually once you get familiar with TSShapeConstructor scripts.
3. Invoke dae2dts to convert the DAE to DTS or DSQ.

Of course, T3D allows you to share animations between models using DAE files as well as DSQs, but you'll need to use DTS and DSQ (with the dae2dts --compat flag!) if you want to use the models in earlier versions of Torque.

#12 Chris,
- I posted a thread in the Private T3D forum, but not a bug thread:
www.torquepowered.com/community/forums/viewthread/117603
..heh, and it turns out there was an error! (see image in that thread)

- the dae2dts.exe paired with the Tsshapeconstructor is not what I expected when reading your previous statement..but I understand your position on the point.

Extending docs ? who would ever argue against such a thing!

#13 @chris
Thank you Chris these are very valuable details (that would be good to know when your head is filled with colour magic rather than numbermagic
like mine)

I followed your instructions as best as I could, and I see the script file with the names, frame start/stop etc.

I'm still getting the forward_ambient.dsq with a sequence named ambient

-Is this because the TSShapeConstructor doesn't work in the binary T3D?

Please excuse me but this is my first scripting attempt, I'm just an artpipe ;-)

-I Better get some sleep now before I start learning more scripting...

#14 The TSShapeConstructor documentation in the Script Reference docs has much more information on this, including plenty of examples, but make sure that you:

1. Name the script the same as the model, only with '.cs' extension instead of '.dts' or '.dae'. That is how Torque knows which script to execute when importing the model.

2. Make sure that this line:

baseShape = "./myShape.dae";

Refers to the filename of your shape! The "./" relative path is recommended so you can move the shape+script around without having to change the path in the script.

3. The naming convention (not enforced, but good to follow) is to name the TSShapeConstructor object using the model filename. eg. myShape.dae becomes MyShapeDae.

#15 @ Chris
Ok this is what I do:
I have one collada file with one sequence in it called "run" (120 frames)

1 renamed my dae to myshape.dae (just to get things all simple)

2 made a textfile in the same folder, renamed it myshape.cs

3 pasted your code example:
01.function MyShapeDae::onLoad(%this)
02.{
03. %this.addSequence("root", "ambient", 0, 23);
04. %this.addSequence("run", "ambient", 24, 50);
05. %this.removeSequence("ambient");
06.}
07.
08.singleton TSShapeConstructor(MyShapeDae)
09.{
10. baseShape = "./myShape.dae";
11.};
Into the script file (removed the numbers 01. to 11. since I'm not sure if they are supposed to be there) like this:

function MyShapeDae::onLoad(%this)
{
%this.addSequence("root", "run", 0, 23);
%this.addSequence("run", "run", 24, 50);
%this.removeSequence("ambient");
}

singleton TSShapeConstructor(MyShapeDae)
{
baseShape = "./myShape.dae";
};

4 ran dae2dts.exe with --output shaped.dts
which gives me a dts called shaped.dts with a sequence of 125 frames named ambient, in the same folder.

5 ran dae2dts.exe --dsq-only --output shaped.dsq
which gives me a file named shaped_ambient.dsq in it is a sequence called ambient with 125 frames.

I followed your instruction carefully with the naming conventions, but as i see it dae2dts.exe does not use the cs file

Am I the only one unable to rename sequences by following these steps?
Does the binary T3D support the TSShapeConstructor objects at all?

#16 Also I found out that if I add sequences to the script and load the dae
the shape editor outwrites the sequences in the cs file!

When I write protected my cs file the sequences loaded correctly!
I think I saw another thread with this issue regarding a Gideon swap

#17 First - the script I posted when replying to eb was only an example, you should read the TSShapeConstructor docs if you want to write custom scripts. OR just use the Shape Editor to generate them.

The T3D script reference is an excellent introduction to TorqueScript.

For your specific shape, where the model contains only a single sequence and you just want to rename it from 'ambient' to 'run', your script should look like this (no line numbers, use the 'view plain' link):

function MyShapeDae::onLoad(%this)
{
   %this.renameSequence("ambient", "run");
}

singleton TSShapeConstructor(MyShapeDae)
{
   baseShape = "./myShape.dae";
};

If your model contains multiple sequences, the limitation of most COLLADA exporters means they are not separate (or even named correctly) in the DAE. In that case, you can use the 'addSequence' style to split the single 'ambient' sequence up as needed. Again, you can use the Shape Editor gui to do this for you. Just make any changes you like (rename, split etc) then save to generate the script.

#18 Thanks Chris

1) I put your script in a new folder along with the collada file.

2) I ran dae2dts.exe with --dsq

3) It gave me 1 dts named myshape.dts and 1 dsq named myshape_ambient.dsq

It still seems to me that dae2dts.exe does not look at the cs script at all.

The script should rename the sequence, but the squence in the collada file is already called run, I only have to get it out.

I tried to edit and add sequences to the cs via the editor,
but they are ignored as well.

The dae2dts.exe doc for artists shows an example with saving out dsq's, it does not mention any setup in a script, or that the sequences are merged:

Under
Exporters
Dae2dts:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Examples
A COLLADA model, player.dae, contains 3 animation clips: root, run, shoot.

# Convert to 'player.dts' (all animations are embedded in the DTS file)
dae2dts player.dae

# Convert to 'orc.dts', and generate 'orc_root.dsq', 'orc_run.dsq' and
# 'orc_shoot.dsq' (all files compatible with TGE, TGEA and ShowToolPro)
dae2dts --compat --dsq --output orc.dts C:shapesplayer.dae

# Extract animations only and store in 'player_root.dsq', 'player_run.dsq' and
# 'player_shoot.dsq'
dae2dts --dsq-only player.dae

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Im just an art guy and I'm looking for the button to push to get my sequence out. I really appreciate your help on this, but I'm going to spend a lot of time reading docs before I will ever get how advanced scripting works.

#19

Quote:It still seems to me that dae2dts.exe does not look at the cs script at all.

You are quite right - sorry to have wasted your time earlier. I had assumed this was working but hadn't checked it personally.

I've fixed this issue in SVN and the next release of dae2dts will fully support TSShapeConstructor (as it always should have). Contact me directly (email in profile, remove the NULL) if you can't wait for the next T3D beta drop.

#20

Quote:The script should rename the sequence, but the squence in the collada file is already called run, I only have to get it out.

FYI - that is the crux of the problem here. The sequence in the collada file is not called run, since the max collada exporter does not support the <animation_clip> element. The T3D loader just sees a bunch of un-named animation data, so gives it the default name: ambient. The TSShapeConstructor script lets you modify the loaded model in-memory to make any changes you need prior to saving to DTS.