Character tutorial?

#21 There is nothing "strange" in the bones' names. Just don't give them numbers in the end of their names like "mybone2" for example, because this may make the bone visible. Instead name it "myboneTwo".

It is very easy to export a skinned mesh as DTS and its separate DSQs.
Anyway there are some thing you must be aware of:
1. Make sure all vertices of the skinned mesh have 100% influence by the bone(s).
2. The mesh must be inside Bounds.
3. Make sure you have a top parent bone like the "Bip01" which holds the rest of the bones as children, but not featured in the skin modifier.
4. Make sure you have a CFG file set appropriately.

Mainly that's all...

#22 It looks to me like perhaps the missing link for most of us is having a "CFG file set appropriately." Could you please elaborate on that? I'm sure I'm not the only person who would greatly appreciate it!

#23 Here's been another sticking point for me: let's say I've got an existing set of animation .DSQ files. From what I can tell, I shouldn't need to re-animate my mesh, right? I should just be able to export it and have it use all of the existing animations. That seemed to be the idea behind the whole .DTS/.DSQ system.

#24 As long as your rig uses exactly the same bones as far as I understand. If all of your characters use the same rig they can all just use the same animations.

I would say grab Bravetree's Girl Pack, but it appears to have been taken down. I have it, so perhaps I can find some time in the next few days to look at the skeleton.

#25 In my own attempts to help, this is the contents of the .CFG file accociated with the "Maco" character from 3DAAK:


AlwaysExport:

eye
cam
mount0
Roots
Rhip
RKnee
Rankle
Rball
Rtoe
Lhip
Lknee
Lankle
Lball
Ltoe
BSpine
Spine1
Spine2
Collar
Neck
Head
joint50
LEar1
LEar2
LEar3
Lear_end
REar1
REar2
REar3
Rear_end
LClavical
LShoulder
LElbow
Lwrist
Lmid1
Lmid2
Lmid3
joint57
Lindex1
Lindex2
Lindex3
joint61
Lring1
Lring2
Lring3
joint65
Lmini1
Lmini2
joint68
Lmini3
Lthumb1
Lthumb2
Lthumb3
joint73
RClavical
RShoulder
Relbow
Rwrist
Rmid1
Rmid2
Rmid3
joint33
Rindex1
Rindex2
Rindex3
joint37
Rring1
Rring2
Rring3
joint41
Rmini1
Rmini2
Rmini3
joint45
Rthumb1
Rthumn2
Rthumb3
RThumb
BackPack
backpack1
backpack2
backpack3
backpack4
backpack5
backpack6
backpack7
joint85
sidepouch
Sidepouch_end


-Param::CollapseTransforms


Honestly doesn't look like there's all that much to it, but maybe that has to be associated with the model in some way.

#26 Silly question: I know the character height is about 60 max units high, but the sample characters I've opened were, well, a bit smaller. How tall is a character supposed to be?

#27 Well, one game unit is supposed to be one meter. Once upon a time, modelling software units were used as game units on import. This should still be the case.

#28 That means if I import my 60 unit high character I will get a 120-foot tall monstrosity? I'll scale him down to 2.6 units, then... or, wait...

This is a little odd since I arrived at the 60-unit figure by exporting objects of various sizes until I got one that looked right, then I used that number all throughout my modeling and everything has worked out well.

#29 <shrug> I always set MAX to use meters and work that way. Gets me thinking in the right scale automatically.

#30 So I rigged a character and attempted to export it without success. I'm not really sure whats making it into the playable file but its invisible and the camera doesn't love it.

The documentation in general tends to just gloss over important details; for example one even refers to the .cfg file and even claims to be giving directions on how to create it, but just... sort of... doesn't. The step that covers making the file says "Make sure to COPY an export .cfg file to that run directory also" but there is no option to do this.

It is possible I have the wrong .DTS exporter, but I really don't know.

EDIT: or the .cfg file is jsut set up improperly. Again no way for me to tell.

#31 I've been through the tutorial posted by Joseph Muller a few times so far, its the most complete but still sadly leaves out a lot of vital information. In particular there's all the various dummy/helper objects which for some reason it assumes you've already created... which is odd becuase the tutorial also assumes you are starting out with an unskinned mesh.

In any event my exports are still not working, I'm producing a roughly 3 kb .dts file when it should be more like 500. It could be the links, the dummys, the .cfg, or really any number of issues at this point, hence the need for clear and complete documentation.

The export did produce a .dmp file, but as yet none of the guides I have consulted mention how one is supposed to open and read said files(see "assumes you already know".)

#32 You get a 3kb file, because the exported failed to export a good DTS file.
You CFG listed above looks fine, anyway try adding this line in the CFG file:

NeverExport:
Bip01

Where "Bip01" is the top parent node (bone) that holds the rest of the skeleton and this bones must be not included into the Skin modifier.

Check if all the vertices are controlled by 100% of the bones, for example try to move the "Bip01" bone (top parent bone) and see if all the vertices of the mesh follow it.

Always try to simplify things before you get the export process working for you. Don't try with fully adjusted mesh. Instead link the skeleton and apply the ifluence of all vertices to only one bone. Make sure everything is within the Bounds, add the mount0, mount1, etc. nodes and link them to the bones. Your mesh must be not linked to any node in the scene. You must end up with a skeleton and a mesh not linked to each outher and Bounds not linked to anything, i.e. three separete nodes not linked to anything in the scene - the skeleton, the mesh and Bounds.

Before applying the Skin modifier and adding to it all the bones from the skeleton exluding the top-parent bone (Bip01) make sure your mesh is converted to "EditableMesh", not Poly or Patch. This may be the main reason for your fail to export the DTS. Prior to it give it some UVW Mapping and collapse the modifier stack to "EditableMesh". Go ahead and then apply the skin modifier, add the bones and export. This must do the job.

#33 Okay, I found some old documentation that helped me out when I was starting out. Go to the Torque Developers Network here. If you haven't already, you will need to register in order to log in. After you log in, click on the Product Documentation icon for Torque Game Engine (NOT Torque 3D!), then click on For Artists, then on DTS. You will find info for the Config file, among other useful stuff. These docs are pretty old, but still apply to the DTS pipeline.

#34 Just a few things: the posted .CFG file is just one I found in the files, I did try to make my own though later on, using NeverExport: Bip01. I've also been using editable meshes(one of the useful tidbits I've picked up along the way... I should really write a lot of this stuff down)

"Make sure everything is within the Bounds, add the mount0, mount1, etc. nodes and link them to the bones."

What are mount0 and mount1, how are they created, how are they linked, etc? In the sample characters I've looked over they appear to be "dummy" objects but I cannot find any information on the subject. I get a similar error reguarding "detail1"(the error is "No details to export", which I was able to make go away by creating a dummy and naming it detail1, but as the export still does not work properly it leaves me wondering.

I'll look over the old documentation tonight. I've been fiddling with torque off and on since TGE but the documentation has never really been thorough enough for me to do much of anything.

Thanks everyone for your help so far, though!

#35 After a cursory glance at the documentation for the CFG files9which helps clear up a lot of issues) it looks like the file I posted earlier will not work with a biped object. This is the cfg that came with the stock "Maco" character from 3DAAK, which was exported from Maya, and who's animations I was planning to use.

So, silly question, because I think someone may have mentioned this before, but am I able to re-name the bones on the biped to match whats in that CFG?

#36 Yes, the mount points are dummy objects - mount0 and mount1 are used to mount primary and secondary weapons, others were used for additional mountable objects (from Tribes, the flag if you had captured it for instance). They should be oriented in the same way you want the mounted object to be oriented (mounted object will use the mount node's relative transform/rotation). If I remember correctly, the detail(x) were supposed to be for LODs but I can't remember the rules.

#37 Good, thanks. Now how does on attach the mount points?

#38 They're children of the bone you want to mount your game object to - gun to hand, for instance.

#39 Something else I just happened across that is important: I haven't had my max file in the same folder as I'm exporting to, apparently that matters.

Ok, I understand the concept of parent-child heirarchy, but I am unclear on the exact process of setting it up in this instance in 3d studio max, could someone elaborate?

#40 LOD Example files with schematic


Character example