Adding Torque Bones to an existing animated mesh- Answered
by Dave Young · in Artist Corner · 01/23/2006 (6:52 am) · 10 replies
I have been working out getting new custom content into TGE.
Thanks to the help of Rex, the exporter docs, Jorge, and various resources/tutorials, I know how to modify the existing skin, add new animation sequences to the default player, and even rerig the existing skeleton with a new mesh. These are all great!
Something that is bugging me lately is that I already have several animated boned meshes available. Some I bought as content packs, some I made myself.
Take the example in question. I have a mesh with a couple thousand frames of animation, all in the same animation timeline.
It seems like if I add the 'essential' bones to the skeleton, and export a .DTS and all my .DSQs, this should work fine in the TGE. The exporter does most of the work after I define my animation sequences, and even writes the .cs for me.
The problem I am having is adding the new bones. Luckily I change the name of some existing bones for mount0, ski0 and ski1. But whenever I add the Unlink and Cam bone as new parent bones, all the rotation in my animations get messed up. I don't understand why, because they are not attached at all to the existing skeleton.
I can reproduce this everytime. Add a Joint not attached to the existing skeleton in Milkshape, and hit Anim. The entire model rotates to the right on the Z axis about 15degrees, and all the rotations in the animations get wacked out. Any ideas?
Thanks to the help of Rex, the exporter docs, Jorge, and various resources/tutorials, I know how to modify the existing skin, add new animation sequences to the default player, and even rerig the existing skeleton with a new mesh. These are all great!
Something that is bugging me lately is that I already have several animated boned meshes available. Some I bought as content packs, some I made myself.
Take the example in question. I have a mesh with a couple thousand frames of animation, all in the same animation timeline.
It seems like if I add the 'essential' bones to the skeleton, and export a .DTS and all my .DSQs, this should work fine in the TGE. The exporter does most of the work after I define my animation sequences, and even writes the .cs for me.
The problem I am having is adding the new bones. Luckily I change the name of some existing bones for mount0, ski0 and ski1. But whenever I add the Unlink and Cam bone as new parent bones, all the rotation in my animations get messed up. I don't understand why, because they are not attached at all to the existing skeleton.
I can reproduce this everytime. Add a Joint not attached to the existing skeleton in Milkshape, and hit Anim. The entire model rotates to the right on the Z axis about 15degrees, and all the rotations in the animations get wacked out. Any ideas?
#2
01/23/2006 (7:00 am)
LOL Rex, you *are* a resource. Funny thing is, I went to your site before (can't mistake that background!) and didn't notice this. Thanks!
#3
Is there something I am missing, or does it really involve substituing meshes?
01/23/2006 (8:14 am)
Rex, I read through your tutorial but still don't understand how I can add an Unlink and a Cam bone to my existing skeleton without breaking the animations.Is there something I am missing, or does it really involve substituing meshes?
#4
Is there something I am missing, or does it really involve substituing meshes?
01/23/2006 (8:16 am)
Rex, I read through your tutorial but still don't understand how I can add an Unlink and a Cam bone to my existing skeleton without breaking the animations.Is there something I am missing, or does it really involve substituing meshes?
#5
01/23/2006 (12:01 pm)
As annoying as it is to use yet another tool in the ole pipeline, Fragmotion let me do this without complaining, also was able to adjust some skelly hierarchy issues I was having. 
#6
I haven't tried this Fragmotion yet...sounds like it helps with the ms3d animation issues....
01/23/2006 (3:00 pm)
You have to export the existing shape as an .SMD file and then edit the file in a text editor to include new Nodes...all the values of a child Node in the tuple are taken from it's parent and everything starts at the first Node...Bip01 Pelvis. You won't need to switch meshes at all, less you want to. You merely have to add two more index places in the nodes list and then their corresponding values in the skeleton list. Save the .SMD file[reference] and then Import it back into Milkshape. You should have new nodes in place and they won't disturb the existing transforms...I haven't tried this Fragmotion yet...sounds like it helps with the ms3d animation issues....
#7
01/23/2006 (6:14 pm)
Ahh, very good to know, I'm actually going to bookmark this!
#8
Here's an image as an example, from the guide; with the two lists[nodes,skeleton]. You could even use the unlink-cam values, as they're based on the default SDK. Doesn't matter where how the List in the Joints Tab is displayed, the parenting is done behind the scene and will come out correctly in the finished dts shape. The text data has a location for noting the parent joint/bone, it's explained in the guide...I also think the SMD exporter has been updated in the latest v1.7.7 of ms3d? It should clean up the .bmp appending on materials and groups which was for the very ancient HL format requirements...I, myself, haven't installed it yet, I am still running v1.7.4.
01/24/2006 (6:37 am)
Here's an image as an example, from the guide; with the two lists[nodes,skeleton]. You could even use the unlink-cam values, as they're based on the default SDK. Doesn't matter where how the List in the Joints Tab is displayed, the parenting is done behind the scene and will come out correctly in the finished dts shape. The text data has a location for noting the parent joint/bone, it's explained in the guide...I also think the SMD exporter has been updated in the latest v1.7.7 of ms3d? It should clean up the .bmp appending on materials and groups which was for the very ancient HL format requirements...I, myself, haven't installed it yet, I am still running v1.7.4.
#9
I *knew* there was a way to fix the SMD file, and I've been googling for weeks trying to find it again. Thank you!
01/24/2006 (7:32 am)
Rex, you rock! I *knew* there was a way to fix the SMD file, and I've been googling for weeks trying to find it again. Thank you!
#10
I was able to do this with another tool, but would be great not to have to use another program.
01/24/2006 (7:58 am)
So the real value of the SMD file is to be able to manually create some new nodes?I was able to do this with another tool, but would be great not to have to use another program.
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