Maya rig to torque- help needed
by Sid Kantalis · in Artist Corner · 08/01/2007 (2:19 am) · 11 replies
Me and some other students have been working on project using the torque engine for a game idea. for the past few weeks my friend and i have been banging our heads against the walls. weve been getting problems of the mesh not sticking with the rig as it goes to export, and were not sure whats exactly sure whats going on. we think it might be the cfg file. If anyone has time to look over this it would be greatly appreciated. If anyone has any ideas please post. If i could throw my files up here it would be good, but i suppose i can show you the config file to just make sure.
AlwaysExport:
eye
cam
mount0
root
spine1
spine2
spine3
right_hip
right_knee
right_ankle
right_ball
right_toe
left_hip
left_knee
left_ankle
left_ball
left_toe
neck
head
right_shoulder
right_elbow
right_wrist
right_hand
right_thumb
left_shoulder
left_elbow
left_wrist
left_hand
left_thumb
-Param::CollapseTransforms
AlwaysExport:
eye
cam
mount0
root
spine1
spine2
spine3
right_hip
right_knee
right_ankle
right_ball
right_toe
left_hip
left_knee
left_ankle
left_ball
left_toe
neck
head
right_shoulder
right_elbow
right_wrist
right_hand
right_thumb
left_shoulder
left_elbow
left_wrist
left_hand
left_thumb
-Param::CollapseTransforms
#3
08/05/2007 (9:17 am)
What does your hierarchy look like?
#4
08/21/2007 (6:03 pm)
Make only your joints are in Start01 and all your skinned Polys are parented to the World. And also make sure your detail markers are right
#5
I have exported data and looked at it in ShowTool, only to discover that most of the joints don't have those blue lines between them that describe their hierarchical relationship.
Other times, animations won't play for meshes that weren't present in the Maya scene when the animation was exported. (I have to re-export the animation with the meshes present in the scene.)
Worst of all, it exports data for attributes that haven't even been keyed. Before exporting an animation, try translating a joint with no translation animation on it. Play the animation in-game, and you'll see that it's out of place, even though it never had any animation on its translation.
I would love to get my hands on the 8.5 code. It needs a lot of work.
-- M. Cooper
09/03/2007 (10:40 am)
The Maya exporter (I'm using 8.5, 32-bit) definitely has major issues.I have exported data and looked at it in ShowTool, only to discover that most of the joints don't have those blue lines between them that describe their hierarchical relationship.
Other times, animations won't play for meshes that weren't present in the Maya scene when the animation was exported. (I have to re-export the animation with the meshes present in the scene.)
Worst of all, it exports data for attributes that haven't even been keyed. Before exporting an animation, try translating a joint with no translation animation on it. Play the animation in-game, and you'll see that it's out of place, even though it never had any animation on its translation.
I would love to get my hands on the 8.5 code. It needs a lot of work.
-- M. Cooper
#6
09/15/2007 (1:08 pm)
If I'm not mistaken only the rotation of joints is exported. it is baked in per-frame I believe. 
#8
Similarly, I have two characters, one male and one female. The female's skeleton is, as one would expect, smaller and proportioned differently from her male counterpart. When I apply male animations (in which only rotations have been keyed) to the female skeleton, the female character's body conforms to male proportions, exactly as though I had keyed all of the translations of the joints.
I suppose I could be doing something wrong; if so, I'd love to know what.
-- M. Cooper
09/28/2007 (8:14 pm)
Quote:James Brad Barnette: "If I'm not mistaken only the rotation of joints is exported. it is baked in per-frame I believe."I seriously doubt it. I exported an animation with no translation keys on anything in the scene, but with one of the character's elbow joints moved far away from his body. When I exported the animation and played it back in the engine, the character's arm stretched way off his body, despite the fact that I hadn't keyed the animation to do that (only rotations had been keyed prior to export).
Similarly, I have two characters, one male and one female. The female's skeleton is, as one would expect, smaller and proportioned differently from her male counterpart. When I apply male animations (in which only rotations have been keyed) to the female skeleton, the female character's body conforms to male proportions, exactly as though I had keyed all of the translations of the joints.
I suppose I could be doing something wrong; if so, I'd love to know what.
-- M. Cooper
#9
hmm.
It is a fenicky process don't get me wrong but, I have successfully exported characters and animation out the exporter for 8.5 does work.
How big is your scene file perhaps you could post it or send it via email. I can have a look and see if I can figure out what is going on.
09/30/2007 (7:16 pm)
What is keyed in maya is irrelavent. It just notates the rotation of each joint on each frame and exports that. Of course from what you have said here, It sound like the translastion may be exported as well.hmm.
It is a fenicky process don't get me wrong but, I have successfully exported characters and animation out the exporter for 8.5 does work.
How big is your scene file perhaps you could post it or send it via email. I can have a look and see if I can figure out what is going on.
#10
One thing to note about cfg file is that you ahv to use a text editor that supports unix line ends. I use SuperEdi. Crimson Editor is a good one too both are free. I spent a week or so fighting with a config file before I found this out.
wordpad and notepad are of the devil lol.
10/04/2007 (12:56 pm)
I have my .cfg file in the scenes folder under my maya project. One thing to note about cfg file is that you ahv to use a text editor that supports unix line ends. I use SuperEdi. Crimson Editor is a good one too both are free. I spent a week or so fighting with a config file before I found this out.
wordpad and notepad are of the devil lol.
#11
Almost all of my other problems were resolved by meticulous modification of my .CFG files.
10/17/2007 (10:33 am)
For the record, I managed to track the majority of my problems down to having underscores in my joint names. That really messed things up.Almost all of my other problems were resolved by meticulous modification of my .CFG files.
Torque 3D Owner Affectworks