disoriented faces in show tool pro
by Julie Petrisot · in Artist Corner · 06/02/2009 (5:27 am) · 7 replies
Hello everybody!
I Am exporting a complex character from max 2009 (32bit). I have done this before, but max keeps throwing surprises at me.. as you can see in the screenshot show tool pro shows the hands, feet and head in the correct way and all the faces of the body are screwed up..
info: My character is one single editable mesh with and unwrap uvw assigned to it(attached head mesh to body mesh previously)I did and stl check and there where no errors there... It makes no sense to me that some faces are correct and some aren't in the same mesh. All faces and polygons are flipped and unified in the right direction.
When I am in the edit unwrap uvw window and klik select inverted faces, the hands and feet and mounth cavety are selected (as you can see in this screen shot). This is the only clue left (I think)so what can I do about these inverted faces? or is there an other source for my problem?
Hopefully someone can help me to make some sense of it all.. Thank you
#2
I looked into the scale transform values (thanks for the tip), but couldn't find anything there... I took a step back by deleting everything that is not a mesh (exept base01, start01, ...). The result is the same only now triangulated polygons are not showing in the shape... If it helps I could provide you the max file I am working in so you have all the information. Or maybe you know someone that can help me understand?
Thanks in advance,
greetz,
Julie
06/03/2009 (9:21 am)
Hi Logan!I looked into the scale transform values (thanks for the tip), but couldn't find anything there... I took a step back by deleting everything that is not a mesh (exept base01, start01, ...). The result is the same only now triangulated polygons are not showing in the shape... If it helps I could provide you the max file I am working in so you have all the information. Or maybe you know someone that can help me understand?
Thanks in advance,
greetz,
Julie
#3
One note, in the screenshot you had the UV modifier above the skin modifier in the stack. I'm assuming you just did this for the purpose of showing us that the normals where flipped on those polys in the UV. Because you shouldn't be exporting with the UV above the Skin modifier...
So, if you havn't tried this, make sure you test out exporting the character without the skin modifier. If that works fine, then its probably something with your weights or bones. A quick way to see if you can fix it, is to create a new bone structure and attach your mesh to it. Don't bother paying much attention to the accuracy of the weights, just test out that it exports the mesh properly with it skinned to your bone structure.
Also, you might want to read the dump file. In there somewhere is a Hierarchy list. This should list out your bone structures hierarchy, if its not, then your problem is that something is not exporting correctly from your bone structure. This would mean your mesh and skin is fine, its something with the bone structure. Which could be that it's trying to export a bone as a mesh or something like that, which would be in the dump file also.
Also, quick question. In your screenshot in showtool, it looks like you have a bunch of nodes in the face. If your trying to create facial expressions that is the right way of doing it, but you should test out exporting the mesh without them just to test out if something about them is causing your problem...
Hopefully something in this mess of stuff helps you out, i would look at the max file, but i have max 8 here at work...
The key is to go through each possible step to test out what part of your export is causing the problem. Then you can address it.
06/03/2009 (10:33 am)
It sounds like it something to do with your skinning it to the bone structure. Though, you just said you deleted everything else, im assuming that means you deleted the skin modifier and the bones and it still did it... One note, in the screenshot you had the UV modifier above the skin modifier in the stack. I'm assuming you just did this for the purpose of showing us that the normals where flipped on those polys in the UV. Because you shouldn't be exporting with the UV above the Skin modifier...
So, if you havn't tried this, make sure you test out exporting the character without the skin modifier. If that works fine, then its probably something with your weights or bones. A quick way to see if you can fix it, is to create a new bone structure and attach your mesh to it. Don't bother paying much attention to the accuracy of the weights, just test out that it exports the mesh properly with it skinned to your bone structure.
Also, you might want to read the dump file. In there somewhere is a Hierarchy list. This should list out your bone structures hierarchy, if its not, then your problem is that something is not exporting correctly from your bone structure. This would mean your mesh and skin is fine, its something with the bone structure. Which could be that it's trying to export a bone as a mesh or something like that, which would be in the dump file also.
Also, quick question. In your screenshot in showtool, it looks like you have a bunch of nodes in the face. If your trying to create facial expressions that is the right way of doing it, but you should test out exporting the mesh without them just to test out if something about them is causing your problem...
Hopefully something in this mess of stuff helps you out, i would look at the max file, but i have max 8 here at work...
The key is to go through each possible step to test out what part of your export is causing the problem. Then you can address it.
#4
I will take a look at everything again and go through it step by step...
The last time I tried to export I did delete all the nodes in the face and every other 'acces' nodes to exclude bones and weights from my export problem.
Just wandering..Could the dts exporter have something to do with it? I switched from max 9 to max 2009 because this error (export code not reentrant) kept popping up and olso a lot of exports resulted in an empty file.
Anyway, thanks again for the tips and I will look into it and keep you posted.
greetz Julie
06/04/2009 (12:49 am)
Thank you Jeremy!I will take a look at everything again and go through it step by step...
The last time I tried to export I did delete all the nodes in the face and every other 'acces' nodes to exclude bones and weights from my export problem.
Just wandering..Could the dts exporter have something to do with it? I switched from max 9 to max 2009 because this error (export code not reentrant) kept popping up and olso a lot of exports resulted in an empty file.
Anyway, thanks again for the tips and I will look into it and keep you posted.
greetz Julie
#6
06/04/2009 (5:42 am)
hej Eb! Did you get my mail ?
#7
Ok, here is what I found:
The DTS exporter is limited to 9k-10k triangles per mesh and your guy is 13k+. If you separate the head from the body or just break the triangle count into manageable sections, it will export fine. I selected 75% of the head at 7k or 8k and then setup the model to export.
I exported it fine. I'll email you the model I exported so that you can see what I did.
06/06/2009 (1:04 am)
Hey Julie, sorry for the late-ish reply. I have been a very busy person these last days.Ok, here is what I found:
The DTS exporter is limited to 9k-10k triangles per mesh and your guy is 13k+. If you separate the head from the body or just break the triangle count into manageable sections, it will export fine. I selected 75% of the head at 7k or 8k and then setup the model to export.
I exported it fine. I'll email you the model I exported so that you can see what I did.
Associate Logan Foster
perPixel Studios