Problem with importing b3d models

[Vectrotek]

I have no idea..
But I did run into that sort of problem when the Root_Bone had weights attached to it..
I have since then made sure that the "Root" never has any weights attached or animation for that matter..

There is also an issue if a vertex has too many weights from too many bones attached to it.
What I also like doing is to import and export from different apps to see the outcome.

If you post the relevant material to me than we could have a look.
If Private messaging is more comfortable then use it..
Tiny upload and tiny image is good for that sort of thing..

[Vectrotek]

I have to go.. Talk later!

[sta24]

Many thanks for your help and sorry for the late answer.

We tried with another model and another animation and it worked, so we think that this was a model problem...
So we succeeded to export it to .b3d format and use it in a small Irllicht program...
And it worked !

But, the model is acting kind of strange some times...

Here is the .b3d model.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 1732955852

If you would be so kind to have some time to take a look at it, it could very nice of you.
We will also try with other models.

EDIT :
It seems that FragMotion is making animations go wrong. It's ok with Blender but when we import it in FragMotion (in .fbx), it doesn't work.
And we tried to export in .x with your script, but we cannot import it in FragMotion.

[sta24]

We are also encountering another problem.
We would like to add multiple animations to the same model but we can't make it...
We tried to export multiple animations in .bvh and then to use ctrl-P on the model with the animations but it didn’t worked.
We also tried to make it with pne animation an then another but it didn't work either.
Do we have to do this in Blender 2.7 (with .fbx animations) or in 2.49 (with .bvh animations) ?

EDIT : We made it by merging the .bvh files manually.

[Vectrotek]

Hi! This is as good as I could get it but it took some doing.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=079 ... 1044630456

[Vectrotek]

To get your "*.b3d" into my Blender 2.7.6 I first needed to convert it to Milshape's "*.ms3d"..
I did this by importing the "*.b3d" into "FragMotion" (fantastic) little program!
The I exported it from Frag Motion as a "*.ms3d"..
I imported the "*.ms3d" into Blender 2.76 (any close release is O.K.)..

This is what I saw..

[Vectrotek]

[Vectrotek]

- I deleted the "unnecessary" things.
- Manually removed "rogue" points by deleting "those" frames in "Dope Sheet".
(luckily the large frame count made this possible without too much damage to the main anim)
- Some Rotation Quaternion XYZ Curves were clearly twisted beyond what was intended
so I tried "Tweaking" them a bit.
- Squeezed the animation into about 80 frames.
("Cleaned Keyes" etc)
- Made sure the first frame is the "Bind Pose".
(this becomes important when Normals for shaders are considered)
- Saved the file..
- Saved a "Legacy" version of the file.
- Exported the Armature as a "*.bvh" (Biovision).
- Closed Blender 2.76.
- Opened Blender 2.49.
- Opened the "Legacy" file. (saw that animation were lost)
- Deleted the Armature. (again make sure about "unnecessaries")
- Imported the "*.bvh" and hooked it to the model.
- Tested the animation, it worked.
- Exported the Model as "*.x" with the script you now have.
- Closed Blender.
- Tried opening the "*.x" file in Frag Motion. DID NOT OPEN!!
- I had to import this file into a very old version of Deep Explorer
and re saved it (obviously under a different name).
Deep Explorer is virtually impossible to get hold of.
(and I would have liked a newer version)
(you'll probably have to try interchange different formats here)
There are thousands of combinations possible, all resulting in a good "*.b3d"
- Now it opened in Frag Motion.
- Welded the vertices in Frag Motion.
- Exported as "*.bvh".
- Thats it..

Note You'll probably need to try different procedures with
different formats in different Applications. Just keep trying.
It is not going to be easy, so just keep at it.
I don't know what you know and what you've done or even from which
country you are so I can only offer opinions.
It would be nice though if you could tell us more about who you are and
what you are doing.

[Vectrotek]

Here is the final ZIPPED "Tweaked" Blender 2.7.6 file.
(just before the Armature is exported and the file saved in "Legacy" format for opening in B 2.49)
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=036 ... 8130736013

[Vectrotek]

Frag Motion is good for combining animation..
Here is a "*.b3d" model I converted from Quake 4..
Fragmotion allowed me to combine the "*.md5anims" into a solid sequence.
(haven't tried other formats yet)
I scaled the weapons in a way that looks like they change..
(a neat rick with blender at the last stages as BVH don't support scaleing)

http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=877 ... 5883545416

[sta24]

First, thanks for all the time you spent helping us.

We are an IT (French) student group (so 3D modelling is not really our field) and we have few weeks to make a 3D game, using Irrlicht and C++.
We are not really used to 3D modelling software like Blender and we don't have a lot of time, so your help is really important to us.

Meantime, we have managed to create a model with multiple animations in it :
1 : We opened our model in .fbx with Blender 2.7
2 : We exported it in "legacy" format
3 : We exported multiple animations in .bvh (idle, attack, death, walk)
4 : We merged .bvh together manually
5 : We opened the "legacy" format model with Blender 2.49
6 : We scale and hook the .bvh animation to the model.

At this time, the model was moving perfectly, doing the 4 animations consecutively.

So we exported it in .fbx with default parameters, and import it in FragMotion.
And then we saw that some frames were missing and the model was acting weird at some moments.
So we tried to export again in .fbx, but with "HQ normals" and "Precision" at 16 (max value), and then open it in FragMotion.
This time, the attack, death and walk animations were much better, but after some tests, it appeared that some frames were missing.
Indeed each animation should last 250 frames, but when looping through each animation we saw that they were finishing first.
And the idle animation was still acting strange, so we think that many frames are missing from it.
In addition the frame total in Blender is 1000, whereas FragMotion counter stopped at 916.

Here is our final .b3d file, exported from FragMotion, and working in Irrlicht.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 7863866266

And here are the original .fbx model and the merged .bvh file (with attack, death, idle and walk animations).
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=063 ... 7346241091
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 5563955498

We looped from 1 to 250 to make it attack, and saw that the death animation begun at the end of the animation, whereas it should start after 250.

We also tried to use your script to export it in .x, but we could not open it in FragMotion...

[Vectrotek]

I see your "*.bvh" aimation is 1000 frames long!
I think you may be using far too many frames than what is needed for a set of simple moves.
You see, for a curve on the graph you don't really need each and every value
for each end every frame. Internally, many animation formats have the ability
to use "Bezier Curves" (clever French guy) which allows a curve to be generated with only a few parameters.
With this in mind I scaled it down to something more manageable like 300 frames and saw
that your animation details remained at a an acceptable level. (even more scaleing may have been O.K.)
I understand that you have "Seamless" Starts and Ends for your "Sequence Loops" which will now be influenced
but that should not be a real problem to fix.
You'll obviously also need to slow-down the framerate in Irrlicht.
So..
I tried your approach of exporting to "*.fbx" from Blender 2.49 and it seems that even with
a lower frame count there are still problems around the rotation of the fingers. (like the B3D)
I've run into this sort problem many times!
The "*.x" generated by Blender 2.49 (using the scaled down BVH) seems to me to be the only door through which the model
can progress to Frag Motion and eventually become a good "*.b3d"!
Now, we know that the "*.x" must first pass through Deep Exploration (which is difficult to get)
before exporting from Frag Motion to "*.b3d".
Nothing short of haveing "Deep Exploration" seems to allow us to complete this path to a decent "*.b3d" .
(see the "PM" I sent you)
I don't know exactly how to get around this, but I will post the 300 frame "*.b3d" for what it's worth.

But.. Don't dispair, because I have a suspicion that Irrlicht would be able to open the "*.x"
file from Blender 2.49 (which don't open in Frag Motion for some wierd reason if not passed through Deep Exp or perhaps even something else)
(I havent tried yet but I'm sure you will)
If the PM I sent don't do what I hope it will then you always have this "*.x" straight from Blender 2.49 option (if it works that is).
So.. Before anything else, shorten your "release" animations by at most 25% because you really are making them way too
long for realtime applications. (just my opinion as this is not morph-based aimation where higher frame counts are needed)
Get your "squeezed" BVH into Blender 2.49 with hook to object etc, and export it to "*.x" which should open in Irrlicht (I hope).
Yes I know the X Export Script is very slow but that's all the more reason to be economical with your Animation frame-counts.

Here is the "squeezed" 300 frame BVH. (used things in Blender "2.76" like "clean keys" and "clean frames" AFTER the squeeze)
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=274 ... 8456486423

Here is the 300 frame "*.b3d" which I think preserved your animation sequences quite nicely.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=405 ... 9928269678

For this one I did have to use the "*.x" from Blender 2.49 and passed it through Deep Eplorer before Exporting it
from Frag Motion at 25 FPS.. (the "*.x" from Blender seems to be the only real key to success)
In this process the model may become an "X-Mirror" version of itself.
Fix this in Frag Motion (L/R Hand) or elsewhere.




Load it in Irrlicht with a lower framerate to see the bezier curves do their work..
(I'm sure they are still beziers by this time in the process)
Some viewers don't recognize these beziers but Irrlicht does. (Assimp Viewer, when you drag the frame tab also shows it nicely)
You'll notice that your polys are no longer Quads, but Triangles.
Steer clear of Quads when doing skinning and Weight Painting because some 3D Apps prever them
as triangles and Quad-Splitting decisions don't have to be taken later down the line.
(debateable but in hardware, polys ar all tris and will prbably stay so for a long time to come, I think)
Keep your development models in Quads though.

The Blender files are massive so I won't bother uploading those.
Check your PM..

I'm still experimenting with these things and if I find anything usefull i'll let you know!

[Vectrotek]

Keep me posted.. Cheers!

[Vectrotek]

@ sta24. Check your New Private Message and let me know what happened.
Good luck with your assignment!

[Vectrotek]

@ sta24. I sent you a version of the "Roman Zombie".. PM..