Help with DTS export
by University of Gotland (#0009) · in Torque Game Engine · 05/11/2006 (4:14 am) · 5 replies
I get this error message when exporting a certain DTS from 3dsmax: "An error has occured and the application will now close."
First, I want to tell you that I have read the previous posts about this subject. It should not have anything to do with bad drivers, hardware, plugin or other software, since I can export other similar models perfectly fine. (I am using Max 8 by the way, and the plugin for that version.)
I know the error is somehow caused by bones or skin, since the model exports fine without them - I just cannot find out where the problem is. It is an extremely simple bone setup, see this screenshot: http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/2971/3dsmax9dj.png.
If you are wondering why I use pair of bones, it is because I have had trouble exporting single bones earlier. The model is a door, and the two middle "blocks" will be animated sliding into the wall. I first tried animating en element of the model directly, without using bones, which worked fine in Max but not when opened in ShowTool.
In the dump file, I can see that the exporting stops in the middle of generating the skin. Which vertice number it stops on differs when I change the weighting in Max.
Again, I want to point out that the model exports correctly if I delete the bones and rearrange the nodes to work with that. None of my meshes are Editable Poly. I have tested deleting and readding the bones and skin in different ways without any result.
This has become more and more frustrating for each hour I spent trying to work it out, and now I am finally out of ideas.
Could someone please help me?
First, I want to tell you that I have read the previous posts about this subject. It should not have anything to do with bad drivers, hardware, plugin or other software, since I can export other similar models perfectly fine. (I am using Max 8 by the way, and the plugin for that version.)
I know the error is somehow caused by bones or skin, since the model exports fine without them - I just cannot find out where the problem is. It is an extremely simple bone setup, see this screenshot: http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/2971/3dsmax9dj.png.
If you are wondering why I use pair of bones, it is because I have had trouble exporting single bones earlier. The model is a door, and the two middle "blocks" will be animated sliding into the wall. I first tried animating en element of the model directly, without using bones, which worked fine in Max but not when opened in ShowTool.
In the dump file, I can see that the exporting stops in the middle of generating the skin. Which vertice number it stops on differs when I change the weighting in Max.
Again, I want to point out that the model exports correctly if I delete the bones and rearrange the nodes to work with that. None of my meshes are Editable Poly. I have tested deleting and readding the bones and skin in different ways without any result.
This has become more and more frustrating for each hour I spent trying to work it out, and now I am finally out of ideas.
Could someone please help me?
#2
I found no error with the STL check, but something must be messed up. Here you have the file: gate.max. I added the animation and a sequence node for it, so that you can see my intent with it.
I walked around the problem by splitting the model up in two different files (one for the base of the gate, and one for the sliding door), hence animating the door model directly without bones. It works, but the level designers are not going to be happy about pinpointing their relative positions each time the gate needs to be placed out in the level editor. If possible (and because I am curious), I would still like to understand what went wrong.
05/12/2006 (3:47 am)
I have linked collision meshes to bones in most of my other models, and it works fine. It is neccessary for them to follow the animation.I found no error with the STL check, but something must be messed up. Here you have the file: gate.max. I added the animation and a sequence node for it, so that you can see my intent with it.
I walked around the problem by splitting the model up in two different files (one for the base of the gate, and one for the sliding door), hence animating the door model directly without bones. It works, but the level designers are not going to be happy about pinpointing their relative positions each time the gate needs to be placed out in the level editor. If possible (and because I am curious), I would still like to understand what went wrong.
#3
05/12/2006 (4:49 am)
I'd have to echo what Magnus says here, AFAIK Torque does not support animated collision meshes. 
#4
05/12/2006 (7:46 am)
In either case; If you remove the collision meshes it exports fine without crashing.
#5
05/12/2006 (8:46 am)
So what node should I connect the collision meshes to? I tried linking them to the root node in the hierarchy instead, but the export still crashed. 
Torque Owner Magnus Blikstad
Something else I noticed in the schematic view though; you have the collision meshes linked to the bones? I don't think torque supports animated collision meshes...