error : bone missing from shape

#1 What version of Max are you using? Did you happen to delete a bone from your scene? Did you replace a bone in your scene? Are you telling the exporter to ignore a bone that you are using though a CFG file?

Logan

#2 "//Did you happen to delete a bone from your scene? "
Yes , I deleted some bones and put another ones.What does i have to do ?
(im using max 4 and there are no CFG files.)

#3 Make sure that all of the current bones that exist in your scene are the same ones that your skin modifier uses to perform the deformation. I suspect that they are not, which is why you are getting the error (because the skin modifier is looking for a bone that you turfed).

Logan

#4 I checked the items list in max .There are only 3 bones in the scene.And theses 3 bones are in the "skin" list.The names are the same ,too.
Do you know what is the problem ??
thank you.

#5 Removing your bones and then adding them again (or destroy the modifier and redo). I feel pretty confident in saying that the problem was probably caused when you started to delete bones that the skin modifier needed and then replaced them with ones that are named the same.

Logan

#6 I tried to things :
put out the bones from the skin modifier , rename them , then re put them in the skin modifier.
I tried too to delete the skin modifier , rename the bones , then recreate the skin modifier , then add the bones.It does not work .always "error : bone missing from shape"
Have you another solution or idea?

#7 Perhaps you should upload your file somewhere for me to look at? I am curious to see just what you did to cause this error to generate.

Logan

#8 I cannot access the FTP server of my site since a week.Can you give me your email , so i can send the model in ? Thanks.

#9 I just found what was wrong .
I don't know why , but if there are bones "alone" in the model it will give the error message.
The 3 bones in my model were "alone" . I replaced them by 3 pairs of bones , and it is working !

#10 You all are going to die

#11

Quote:

I just found what was wrong .
I don't know why , but if there are bones "alone" in the model it will give the error message.
The 3 bones in my model were "alone" . I replaced them by 3 pairs of bones , and it is working !

I wonder what he means by this.... I'm having the same problem. What does he mean by bones "alone?". All of my extra bones are parented to the various bones in the biped, and I'm having the same problem.

#12 Nevermind, I had accidentally included mount0 in my skin's bone list.

#13 Well, this thread is a little old, but I am having the same problem. I get "bone missing from shape" DTS export error whether I am using biped or bones.

In my bones example, I have made it super-simple, just 17 bones, all are declared to "Always Export" in the cfg file, all are valid and being used by the skin mesh. I also tried using the cfg file that comes with Player. BTW I am using TGE 1.5 and Max 8.

Thanks for any ideas!

#14 Hi Brad

A picture of the setup would help. All I can think of offhand is that while vertex weighting you deleted or added a bone. That messes things up. So be sure to convert the model to mesh. Create the skin modifier. Add all the bones needed. Vertexweigh the model and do under no circumstances change the bones. Otherwise remove the skinmod again create a new one and start over. Also check you do not have both Exporters installed at the same time and/or try the old and the new one separately.

#15 Thanks Thak.

I am not messing with any of the bones besides setting weight via envelopes. I've gone through several iterations trying to find a way to get a good export.

Also, I did have both exporters (the one from dark industries and the old classic one for release 8) loaded, so I unloaded the d.i. one and still get the same problem.

This is pretty frustrating, as the TDN has a decent tutorial on how to a Simple Character DTS export (just a sphere and a box), but the Complex Character DTS export is empty; there is an old Character Export tutorial, but it has so many holes there is lots of guessing to do. This is an area with a big need for additional tutorials, IMHO.

#16 Hrm... *thinks*. The model must not be linked in the hierachy tree to anything.
Bip01 must be the rootnode of the hierarchy do not use start01 or base01... hrm... what else Never Export Bip01.
If you have a custom skelly then the same applies to the root of the model, whatever you called it.
Also check capitalization in your CFG file, never had a problem but it may just be something like that.

Check out the player.max file that comes with TGE or try the adam model.

Here's the old tut, dunno if you meant this one:
www.garagegames.com/docs/tge/general/ch08s04.html

And if all is to no avail, up a screeny of your hierarchy tree for us to look at, maybe we can spot the offending bone.

#17 Thak, thanks again, but I don't think I'm making any of those mistakes. I did see the tutorial you mentioned, but it does have some pretty big holes in it I've been dropping through.

I don't want to be guilty of going off into too many directions since this thread is about a specific error message, so I have put some more overview at the link below. Please check it out and make a comment when you get a chance. In short, I've been trying bones and biped, and I've tried starting with the player.max file. All are roads with plenty of potholes in the absence of one decent step-by-step tutorial on how to export a character mesh from Max.

www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=54829

#18 The 'bone missing from shape' usually happens when a bone has been renamed or deleted after it has been added to the skin list in the skin modifier.

the skin modifier in max does not rebuild the skin list array when a bone gets deleted, so when it hands off the bone list to the exporter, it can have a name for a deleted bone that does not exist in the scene. I am not sure if this has been fixed in 3dsmax, but it was an issue back in the day.

since the exporter is getting what the modifier is handing it, there is no way around the issue.

that would be the first thing I would check.

this is mentioned (though not in detail) in the 3dsmax docs

fosters.realmwarsgame.com/maxdts/section2.html

#19 Joe,

No I haven't renamed or deleted any bones, I left it completely pristine as I have reviewed the doc you mentioned.

But I appreciate the effort, thanks.

#20 Same problem here. I havent renamed or deleted any bones and i'm getting the same error as Brad is.