Trying to use kort's animations with my character
by Lisa · in Artist Corner · 12/02/2008 (8:14 pm) · 2 replies
Hi all,
I made a player character in Maya and I made the skeleton exactly the same as the skeleton in the hypergraph of the tutorial which shows how to export animated characters as dts files, and then I replaced the torque character's dts file with my character's dts file. My player character showed up in game with all her eye and cam nodes in the proper places, textures just fine.. but no animations. She just slides around when I run her around. I read that if you set up two characters with the same skeletons, you can use the same dsq files for both. So what gives.. why isn't my character using Kort's animations? The only thing I can think of is that somehow I got the skeleton wrong. Does anyone have an outline of Kort's skeleton or if anyone has successfully done what I'm trying to do please give me some tips! I'm trying to do this project for a college class to show off the character I modeled. Thanks!
I made a player character in Maya and I made the skeleton exactly the same as the skeleton in the hypergraph of the tutorial which shows how to export animated characters as dts files, and then I replaced the torque character's dts file with my character's dts file. My player character showed up in game with all her eye and cam nodes in the proper places, textures just fine.. but no animations. She just slides around when I run her around. I read that if you set up two characters with the same skeletons, you can use the same dsq files for both. So what gives.. why isn't my character using Kort's animations? The only thing I can think of is that somehow I got the skeleton wrong. Does anyone have an outline of Kort's skeleton or if anyone has successfully done what I'm trying to do please give me some tips! I'm trying to do this project for a college class to show off the character I modeled. Thanks!
#2
DeObject::setCurrentThread: thread index out of range.
DeObject::getThreadSequence: index out of range.
What are threads and why are their indecies out of range? How do I put them back in range?
The only sequence which is showing up in ShowToolPro is Anim0 which was a sequence node I created in Maya before I exported it, becuase the tutorial told me to. It's just an animation where she moves her arm. I was told that if you didn't export your character without a sequence node like this it would crash Torque. I wish someone would make a tutorial on how to make a character that uses the default animations. I don't see how the game engine can use the default animations if she already has her own dummy animation.
The tutorial I followed didn't talk about datablocks, but I opened up the player.cs file and took a look at the datablock and it appears to me that all it's doing is assigning sequence nodes to actual animation files. Is there something I'm supposed to change?
Thanks!!
-Lisa
12/19/2008 (12:02 pm)
Thanks for your responce! I've been a bit busy with other projects but I'm ready to get to the bottom of this now. When I load my character in ShowToolPro and open up the console the only lines in red are these:DeObject::setCurrentThread: thread index out of range.
DeObject::getThreadSequence: index out of range.
What are threads and why are their indecies out of range? How do I put them back in range?
The only sequence which is showing up in ShowToolPro is Anim0 which was a sequence node I created in Maya before I exported it, becuase the tutorial told me to. It's just an animation where she moves her arm. I was told that if you didn't export your character without a sequence node like this it would crash Torque. I wish someone would make a tutorial on how to make a character that uses the default animations. I don't see how the game engine can use the default animations if she already has her own dummy animation.
The tutorial I followed didn't talk about datablocks, but I opened up the player.cs file and took a look at the datablock and it appears to me that all it's doing is assigning sequence nodes to actual animation files. Is there something I'm supposed to change?
Thanks!!
-Lisa
Torque Owner Rex
BrokeAss Games
I would first check ShowToolPro to see if your new DTS shape is 'loading' the stock sequences; it 'sounds' like to me, that this is NOT happening. For some reason, and I have a few 'thoughts' on this....the sequence[s] are not loading into your new shape.
To check this, view the shape in ShowToolPro[if you don't have it, I suggest obtaining a copy, it's free and should be in your SDK] and then try to 'load' your sequences into the DTS shape. If you see no DSQ loaded in the shape, it probably means the 'load' did not happen and thus no sequence/motion data is stored in the DTS shape.....
To check this, open the 'console' in ShowToolPro, by activating the "Tilde"/~ key, and the standard TGE console will open, exposing the engine working away behind the scene. If there is an issue with the 'loading' process of the DSQ into the DTS file, you will receive a warning, in RED about why this did not happen. "Usually", this is due to a node in the DSQ file, that is NOT in DTS file or not finding the right file/path in the Constructor[another reason why no load??]. So, somewhere along the modeling/export process, your files are not matching in their skeletal/node structure/hierarchy.....
There are only around 28 nodes in the SDK skeleton...and DSQ files....get to know them by 'name', lol....you'll become quite familiar with them after a few exports, good luck!
Also, the DTS and DSQ files need to be 'constructed' with a datablock, to 'load' the motion into the baseShape, look in the /data/shapes/player folder for a 'second' player.cs file, this file is the TSShapeConstructor datablock script that does the 'heavyLifting' of the loading of the DSQ's into the DTS shape.
Note to ShowToolPro Team....ah, it would be nice to not have to open the console to find out about mismatched skeletons...eh? Thanks!