Confusion with exporting

#21 Danny,

My problem with QuArK probably has more to do with my own limitations than the software. For some reason, I couldn't figure out how to do even simple things with it. I've read other comments about QuArk being very user un-friendly and I felt the same way. But maybe some tools fit better for different people. Fortunately, Cartography Shop just feels right to me -- so that's what I'm using now. But I'm very curious about the new Constructor product that gg is coming out with.

As for animation in gS, I'm still trying to figure it out. All of the characters I've exported from gameSpace end up walking backward on broken legs -- even though they animated perfectly in gS. Once I get some of my characters to animate properly in Torque, I may be able to help.

Aaron E.

#22 Aaron, are you postioning your character properly? Meaning, the axis orientation of gS and Torque are different.
In gS up is Y axis.
In Torque up is Z axis.

#23 @David Stewart

Er, are you sure of that? Cos I'm very much in disagreement...

#24 Hmm... so I guess I'm not the only one having problems as such with gameSpace (I just thought I've been doing something very wrong this whole time).

I haven't been able to successfully test any animation, as my mesh and skeleton are separated after exporting, even though I normalized both of the objects' locations...

I haven't really been able to start my game because of this, either, which is rather disconcerting. If I find something as well, I'll try and post something.

#25 Here is a simple example file that uses skeletal animation.

The only issue I run into with skeletal animation is that if you use animation clips in gameSpace or trueSpace (non linear animation) animate the your player or object and then create a DTS hierchy to export the objects. After you save the scene and then reopen it the skeleton and mesh are some times either completely or partially separated.

This is because clips in gameSpace have some kind of bugged dependence on their original hierchy or being at the root, I'm not sure which. You can fix the problem by moving your bones and mesh back out to the root and then save the scene and reopen it. Its annoying but it fixes the problem. (Rex and dealt with this on another thread here in the forums.)

Also if you are getting strange mesh deformations make sure that all of the vertexes are attached to the rig. I was thinking that there was an error message that the exporter kicks out if not all the verts are attached to the rig but it is probably still possible to export an animated object that has detached verts. This can cause all sorts on animation weirdness.

#26 @David Stewart

Craig is right the axes in gameSpace are the same as in Torque. ( ie Z is up )

#27 @David
As long as I export my character locked in the default pose, without any animations, he is positioned correctly in Torque. When I try to animate him and export, he turns on me. I'm going to start from scratch today and see if I can get him working right -- or at least figure out what's going on. At this point, I'll take any little victories I can get. :)

@Danny
I've been using Caligari products for over 10 years and gameSpace feels very natural to me now. But sometimes, trying to get my gS characters into Torque makes me want to invest in Max and start learning the interface/tools. Static objects work great for me -- but I just wish animating gS -> Torqe was easier somehow.

#28 @Danny Bourque

Another thing to consider is to make sure the your bounds is created properly and that its axes are at the bottom of the bounds object. Its not it can cause offsettting issues since the locations of bones are calculated based on the location of the axes of the bounds object. If the bounds axes are in the wrong location your bones can be shifted to odd locations.

#29 @Matt
From what I've read, gameSpace has lots of frustrating animation quirks. I read a post from Rex the other day that just made my heart sink. It seems that the trueSpace/gameSpace animation system is fundamentally flawed. That's kind of a bummer.

Anyway, your description/suggestions make sense. I'll give it another try or two and see what happens.

BTW: Thanks for everything you've done on the exporter -- it's been a big help so far. When I got my first static object out of gS and into Torque, it felt really cool.

#30 Good to see your still around Matt (I just bought XSI, hehe:)

@Aaron- Yeah Rex has gotten a player model out into Torque so gS isn't fully hopeless, just frustrating at times and with a few limitations. Rex gets to vent on me about gS in msn, that helps lol... As far as statics and simple animation/IFL's goes gS/tS has been golden with Matts exporter.

#31 Sorry, I messed up. I've been playing with other modellers and thought that gameSpace was one that had the different coord system.

#32 @Eric
Yeah, knowing that Rex and others have gotten good things to work in gS is encouraging. But I can't wait until my first animation success. Still no luck yet, though. :<

#33 I agree, gS's IK group animation system is fine, even great! It's the Bones and Skinning and how it relates to the Scene; where issues begin to surface. I have grown quite fond of the IK group[rigid, in my 'mindset'] method. With proper axis location and alignment, GameSpace animates non-boned & skinned objecs quite well; even multiple Clips within the Scene, all good. This is one of the more outstanding features of the application. It's NLA-based and works as TGE's schema does, well, very close. It's constructing the rig for a deforming mesh where it can become an ordeal; also without the constraints set up properly, things can get messy very quickly. Keep at it... sharpening those skills and you'll be cuttiin' wood in no time. It rarely happens overnight; it's taken me a solid year of hacking thru the program to get comfortable with it's 'quirks'. Try to follow the Buzz video and my gS2DTS guide as closely as you can. I've not had anyone come at me with corrections; so I'm taking that as a good sign about it's validity, "...no news is good news." I followed along with the rig building portion['with' Buzz, etal] to arrive with the rig I included with the Resource.

Rex

#34 @Aaron
I have been using Max for years (3D Studio Max for a few in high school, gmax about half a year ago, and gameSpace for a couple months now), and I personally found it a lot easier to work with. I haven't run into a whole lot of problems with gameSpace (usually minor problems for the most part), except with trying to export it (which is why I'm having trouble right now).

@Matt
I'll try messing around more with the bounds, and see where I can get with that.

#35 I have messed around a little bit more with my mesh, and it was indeed the bounds that were causing the problem.

Thanks, Matt. :D