Buggy from Example folder in a blender format?
by Owen Brierley · in Artist Corner · 03/13/2005 (4:54 pm) · 3 replies
Hi all,
Anyone have or know a link to a Blender version of the buggy that is in the Torque Engine Example folder? Does such a thing exist?
I am trying to handle some rigid body animations in my model (a joint that is hydraulic piston actuated) and I am hitting brick walls left and right. The buggy.dts has all the components I need, but I can't figure out how the heck the thing is rigged.
Thoughts, suggestions and links are greatly appreciated, and once I get this nixed I am darned sure I will write a tutorial about it... (if there isn't one already) I have seen the truck example from BlendedPixel (nice tut! http://www.blendedpixels.com/torque/) and been successful but it doesn't really get into the rigid body animations in those shock absorbers. Also the tutorial at http://www.kitsuneaye.co.uk/out.blender/ch11.html falls short in the animation bits.
Here is what I know:
- meshes must be parented to the armature
- exported sequences must be actions in blender
What I don't know:
- what are the axes orientations required?
- each bone in Blender seems to want to have is own set of axes, how does this effect the exported animation?
If this is the wrong place to post this stuff, my bad, sorry. Point me in the right direction and I will go there.
Cheers,
Owen
Anyone have or know a link to a Blender version of the buggy that is in the Torque Engine Example folder? Does such a thing exist?
I am trying to handle some rigid body animations in my model (a joint that is hydraulic piston actuated) and I am hitting brick walls left and right. The buggy.dts has all the components I need, but I can't figure out how the heck the thing is rigged.
Thoughts, suggestions and links are greatly appreciated, and once I get this nixed I am darned sure I will write a tutorial about it... (if there isn't one already) I have seen the truck example from BlendedPixel (nice tut! http://www.blendedpixels.com/torque/) and been successful but it doesn't really get into the rigid body animations in those shock absorbers. Also the tutorial at http://www.kitsuneaye.co.uk/out.blender/ch11.html falls short in the animation bits.
Here is what I know:
- meshes must be parented to the armature
- exported sequences must be actions in blender
What I don't know:
- what are the axes orientations required?
- each bone in Blender seems to want to have is own set of axes, how does this effect the exported animation?
If this is the wrong place to post this stuff, my bad, sorry. Point me in the right direction and I will go there.
Cheers,
Owen
#2
When looking at the example buggy.max, there are 15 frames of animation. From what I remember reading somewhere, as well as parenting, there needs to be animated frames that show the moving parts at thier most extreme positions.
When scrolling through this frames in buggy.max, each frame differs from the previous by moving only one item (a wheel position, a suspension strut etc).
As to how the engine knows which frame relates to which item to change position I presume it is all labeled in script somewhere, or is a "standard" defintion somewhere like frame 1 will be the front left wheel etc. I really don't know and am yet to seek out how it happens.
If I find out more I'll post it back here.
If someone has the holy grail of a .blend file showing a vehicle with all the trimmings (suspension, lights etc) pls pls pls share it with us. Blender users everywhere will rejoice :)
04/30/2005 (3:11 am)
I too am hanging out for some info re blender and vehicles.When looking at the example buggy.max, there are 15 frames of animation. From what I remember reading somewhere, as well as parenting, there needs to be animated frames that show the moving parts at thier most extreme positions.
When scrolling through this frames in buggy.max, each frame differs from the previous by moving only one item (a wheel position, a suspension strut etc).
As to how the engine knows which frame relates to which item to change position I presume it is all labeled in script somewhere, or is a "standard" defintion somewhere like frame 1 will be the front left wheel etc. I really don't know and am yet to seek out how it happens.
If I find out more I'll post it back here.
If someone has the holy grail of a .blend file showing a vehicle with all the trimmings (suspension, lights etc) pls pls pls share it with us. Blender users everywhere will rejoice :)
#3
Taking a look at BraveTree's Car Pack in Maya, I can see some empty "nodes" which contain the frame information needed (start, end, etc). In Max, do you see something similar? Somewhere about some properties of the exporter or some empty nodes?
As for Blender, I believe the trick lies in creating the sequences for spring0, spring1, spring2 and spring3.
It really shouldn't be all THAT hard.
As an aside: Sorry the truck looks kinda crappy in the tutorial. I whacked it out pretty fast. I'd like to drop a better vehicle in later.
06/08/2005 (10:22 pm)
Hi, all. I'll work on updating the Truck tutorial on BlendedPixels. I'm moving houses right now (not much time), and my wife's been diagnosed with MS (no time from there, either).Taking a look at BraveTree's Car Pack in Maya, I can see some empty "nodes" which contain the frame information needed (start, end, etc). In Max, do you see something similar? Somewhere about some properties of the exporter or some empty nodes?
As for Blender, I believe the trick lies in creating the sequences for spring0, spring1, spring2 and spring3.
It really shouldn't be all THAT hard.
As an aside: Sorry the truck looks kinda crappy in the tutorial. I whacked it out pretty fast. I'd like to drop a better vehicle in later.
Associate James Urquhart
Offhand, i do not know of any torque vehicle models in .blend format with spring animations.
My best advice to you would be to look at vehicle tutorials for other torque exporters, and applying the basic concepts to the blender exporter.
As for your questions:
* They matter more for your camera/eye nodes; Remember that the "Z" direction is up in torque.
* This is all handled by the exporter.