Hello Have some problems with animation. I've writen my own animation controller... D3DXAnimationController doesnt match because of track weight normalization, and closed implementation (.h + lib). I want to implement combination, blending and procedural animation. Well, I've written my own controller, that match my requests...got biped model (made in 3dsmax) with some animations, tested it and all wirked fine ... problems started when i've got model made by "bones" system. In opposite to biped model it has several bones hierarchies and converter, i'm using (pandadxexporter), have problems with exporting of "mirror" objects and animations for such models. Finally, questions : - This converter (panda) cant convert models, that made using max's "bones"? - Or, maybe, model was hm "incorrect"? (One more interesting fact: dxmeshviewer cant display these models, deepexploration can...) - Why most game developers reject .x file format for models and animation storing? (i'm using it and it satisfies me... for now ... maybe i'll meet problems later?) It seems to me that's all ... i'll be very grateful for answers [edited by - someth1ng on June 9, 2004 9:56:15 AM] [edited by - someth1ng on June 9, 2004 9:59:06 AM]

someth1ng: I haven''t been able to get the pandasoft exporter to work correctly for me. Have you tried the Quest exporter? It has way fewer options, but I''ve had no troubles with it at all.

thanx alot ...
write my own importer/exporter .... that''s where problems will start...it seems to me this will take too much time (....

eeee one more question: i have humanoid model, well, i want to animate it as independent parts (for example legs+torso), and i want to mix some animations (like run and walk). my controller allows to do this, but "biped" models, that i have, forces me to do excess things (for exmaple models base point (footsteps)isnt a root bone, so it is affected by some transformations and i need to multiply it by inverse transform to make it static)
so thats the question:
... what bone hierarchy would you prefer for such tasks? is "biped" hierarchy good enough or is there more appropriate "ways"?
maybe somebody could give some links...?

thanx

quote:Original post by Jiia
someth1ng: I haven't been able to get the pandasoft exporter to work correctly for me. Have you tried the Quest exporter? It has way fewer options, but I've had no troubles with it at all.

hmm... quest exporter? i'll try to find it .. thanx alot

tryed to find ... maybe you can give me a link?

[edited by - someth1ng on June 10, 2004 4:25:19 AM]

The panda exporter isn''t the best thing to use.
I use 3DS MAX and Hardware (T&L) skinning for biped objects. I recomend you, to recompile the MICROSOFT .X exporter with your 3DS MAX SDK (which is very easy to do). Then you have to consider following:

- Biped must be se to "RIGID" when applying PHSYSIQUE modifier
- Maximum number of weights is 4 (either use NO BLENDING, 2,3,4 and nothing else!)

Hm, this exporter sucks in some views too, and it may not provide the best results. But to make sure, for testing you could:

- Collapse your mesh
- Apply phisysique modifier
- Add some animation
- Check it in 3DS MAX
- Select "ONLY!" the mesh
- File/Export slected: Microsoft .X Exporter
- Save your file and preview it with the DXMESHVIEWER or the Tiny.x (Skinned mesh demo) which supports File/Open

The functions id DX 9.0 Summer update work correct for NONINDEXED blending. In case you would like to use INDEXED BLENDING there will accur problems, because DX 9.0 Has a bug in ConvertToIndexedBlendedMesh.

thanx very much ... i''ll try it ... eeee .. stop .. where can i find microsoft exporter?

www.quest3d.com

What exactly do you guys change in your exporter code when you compile it? Anything?

the .X exporter was supported in DX8, DX8.1 under: DX Extras (plugins). It depends which visual studio you use. It may come along that it will be missing some ".h" of C++ (that''s probaby because you use VC 7). Just uncoment it. If it still needs some character studio .h file, you have to find it. It is in the 3DS MAX software folder. I know there are some problems with MAX 5, but it works with MAX 4 and 6 perfect.

thanx for help guys .