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None BiPed Bone Structure Export Error?

by Byder · in Artist Corner · 12/22/2006 (12:49 am) · 3 replies

Hey Everyone!

I have been looking around and there is not much info on animations in DTS files from a none-biped bone structure.

I am trying to make a tree 'sway' in the wind, with a simple 3bone structure where only one bone is animated.

I get that the mesh must not be part of the DTS Hierarchy, and that the Sequence Node must exist etc etc.

Am I going mad, coz I get 2 errors

1) First time I click export (after opening max!) --Unknown System Exception
2) Now trying again (without restarting max!) --One export at a time:- Export coed not re-entrant

Could someone maybe post the 'schematic view' of a successful animation export of a none-bipedal setup?!

Along with any inside tips?! Speaking of which I have also included a .cfg file and saved my sequence to a file just in case these were things the exporter required?!

Thanks a lot

C
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Torque Owner Thak
#1
12/22/2006 (1:25 am)
www.spellcraft.biz/test/hier.jpg
Tree2 is the mesh it is has a skin modifier with Bones A,B,C However it is not linked in the hierarchy.
Detail2 is linked to the root node, which is the first bone in the heirarchy. The Bounds is separately encompassing the tree.

your cfg file needs to be in the same directory as the max file and contain all the bones you want to export.

Hope this helps Otherwise you post your setup and we can see if we spot a troublemaker in there.

Cheers

Torque Owner Byder
#2
12/22/2006 (2:08 am)
Hey Thak!

Interesting! Well I tried a similar setup to yours, without much success. Grrr! Why don't you have the base and start nodes? I thought that those are crucial for DTS export Heres my setup! :D

i86.photobucket.com/albums/k111/byder/treesetup.jpg
I am very glad to see it is potentially possible to make a custom bone rig! Once the DTS Hierachy is setup, where do we go from here to export the animation correctly?

Thanks

C

Torque Owner Thak
#3
12/22/2006 (2:49 am)
Hi Byder

Righty first presumable problem I see are the trailing numbers on the bones. This can cause the exporter to think they are meshes at detail level 2. So Never number Bones (I know Biped is numbered, but better to not use them on custom rigs) So BoneA - C

Start and Base are only needed for static objects. Skinned Objects always have the Parent Bone as the Root. So loose those and link Detail2 (I would remove all the underscores as well, not sure if they cause trouble) to the Bone A.

Make Sure all three Bones are in the SkinModifier of Tree2.

And Lastly SORT:: I think does not work on Skinned meshes. So remove that as well.

Export whole shape.

You should get a tree dts which also has its sequence (oh remove the number there as well ya can name it "sway" or something) inside so in Showtool you should be able to load it and play the animation without exporting a .dsq

Now if ya want it separate. Just delete the sequence and "export whole shape". Then undo, so the sequence is back and "export sequence". You should get a tree dts without animation and a dsq which can be loaded in TSP.

Cheers