FBX to GLM converter

[Xycaleth]

@@minilogoguy18 Can you explain a bit more about transferring animations and storing them as clips? I've just finished writing a script which will take all the .xsi files and convert each of them to a .fbx file, but if it would be better to merge them into a single file or something then that's doable as well.

[minilogoguy18]

Well I have it already started, just like I said, kinda repetitive work, gets boring pretty much copy/pasting and organizing at the same time.

 

 

What I did was I took the base skeleton, stored it under a Model object, then created another Model object, drag/dropped the dotXSI file under the second Model object since with Model objects you can have things stored under them with the same names as another Model and not have any conflicts.

 

http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/xsidocs/bk446001.htm#Rbk30992

 

I would then go to Action>Store>Transforms - All Sources to store all keyed transforms as a clip with it's own mixer under the Model containing the imported animation. From there I would of course properly name the clip to match it's name in the animation.cfg file as well as give it it's proper start and end time then just simply drag/drop it to the unanimated skeleton to it's animation mixer that it had stored. Since the naming of the bones were all the same everything transferred over seamlessly, the only problem I had at first was some of the files used bone chains where of course the heirarchy would be different which would mess up the transfer but I found a way around it.

 

EDIT: Oh yeah, I also have a connection mapping template set up since quite a few of the animations are JK2 ones so naming doesn't match like for the left hand tag bone so it automatically fixes that. I also forgot to mention that this skeleton has ALL of the bones from both since it seems that the games animations were originally done on a JK2 skeleton with a renamed hand tag bone then they just didn't weigh the models to all the bones causing them to be ignored on compile. What a waste.

[Xycaleth]

So is a list of FBX files directly converted from the XSI files of any use? I've finished converting them all now (except for root.xsi, which gives me errors when importing it in Mod Tools), but if it's not useful then there's not much point in keeping them

[Archangel35757]

So is a list of FBX files directly converted from the XSI files of any use? I've finished converting them all now (except for root.xsi, which gives me errors when importing it in Mod Tools), but if it's not useful then there's not much point in keeping them

Yes... it's good to have all the animations in a common usable format that can be imported into Maya, Blender, and other 3D tools... however to be truly usable in 3dsMax they need to be turned into animation clips (much like @@minilogoguy18 did) and stored in the 3dsMax "Reservoir" as .XAF files. This is something I am planning to do.

 

root.xsi is the root skeleton pose... and you can safely omit this one because we have this covered by our uploaded skeleton files. Or if you want we can send it to you as a root.fbx

[Xycaleth]

Here's a few FBX files for anyone who wants to make sure that they will import correctly into their modeling software.

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/874909/FBX_Animations.zip

 

It's only a small selection, but if they work then I can upload them on JKHub

[minilogoguy18]

I personally don't need them in FBX but like mentioned others may be interested, I was kinda doing this just cause, it's most useful for other Softimage users since I have all the animations named and such. You can even blend or rearrange them how you want using the mixer, like say combine an upper and lower animation that wouldn't normally be combined in game to make something.

[Tempust85]

root.xsi has issues being imported to ModTool, I forget what I did but I had to edit the xsi file and remove some crap.

 

Probably would be good if Rich could also add dotXSI format support for Noesis, this way people can convert between different dotXSI versions (1, 3, 3.5, 6).

 

 

@@Xycaleth

 

Using your converter I still get no splits in the mesh along UV seams. No idea what's going on, but I've tested both GLMs in MP & SP of base JKA (not OpenJK). Also, your exporter can't handle exporting my jedi_hm due to the numerous parts I'm guessing. It crashes upon application start.

[minilogoguy18]

Must be something on your end inside of 3ds max, should get to the bottom of this since whatever you're doing could be applied to other 3d programs as well to stop the seams.

[Archangel35757]

root.xsi has issues being imported to ModTool, I forget what I did but I had to edit the xsi file and remove some crap.

 

Probably would be good if Rich could also add dotXSI format support for Noesis, this way people can convert between different dotXSI versions (1, 3, 3.5, 6).

 

 

@@Xycaleth

 

Using your converter I still get no splits in the mesh along UV seams. No idea what's going on, but I've tested both GLMs in MP & SP of base JKA (not OpenJK). Also, your exporter can't handle exporting my jedi_hm due to the numerous parts I'm guessing. It crashes upon application start.

What about when using 3ds Max 8? Does it generate UV seams?

 

I chatted with Rich on jacoders and he said he was not planning to add dotXSI to Noesis-- I was dismayed... like you I wish he would... because I'm curious about some older XSI 1.1 animations released from Star Trek Elite

Forces.

 

But I still have plans to write an updated dotXSI importer for 3ds Max... finish the WIP I have started.

[Xycaleth]

@@Xycaleth

 

Using your converter I still get no splits in the mesh along UV seams. No idea what's going on, but I've tested both GLMs in MP & SP of base JKA (not OpenJK). Also, your exporter can't handle exporting my jedi_hm due to the numerous parts I'm guessing. It crashes upon application start.

Mind sending me the FBX so I can debug what's going on?

[Tempust85]

I'm starting to think that the UV seams were either in my head or Archangel unknowingly fixed it in his exporters as Max 2011 has no splits either. I don't have any models for Max 8 anymore so I can't test that one.

 

@@Xycaleth

 

I ran it through again and it decided to convert lol. Looks fine in modview. 

[Archangel35757]

@@Psyk0Sith -- could you verify if any UV seams exist on your models from either Max7 or Max9?

[Psyk0Sith]

The converter does not work, "not a valid win32 application" perhaps because i'm on xp x64?? (old and obsolete)

[Xycaleth]

How about this one?

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/874909/fbx2ghoul2.zip

 

You should really upgrade from XP soon though

[Archangel35757]

The converter does not work, "not a valid win32 application" perhaps because i'm on xp x64?? (old and obsolete)

I meant using Carcass... but please try the FBX2Ghoul2 converter as well.

[Psyk0Sith]

How about this one?

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/874909/fbx2ghoul2.zip

 

You should really upgrade from XP soon though

Ok this one starts the process, but i get error: "No model LODs found" but i don't want LODs! hehe

[Tempust85]

I'm checking all of my previous models I swear I've seen UV seam splits on (ie stormtrooper) and now I don't see them. Please tell me other people have seen UV seam splits on their work.......feel like I'm going nuts here. :\

[Psyk0Sith]

I don't recall seeing uv seams, only mesh seams when objects are split from each other.

[Xycaleth]

If you don't read the member status updates, @@eezstreet posted this:

 

https://twitter.com/DickWhitehouse/status/485659347096047617

[Tempust85]

There's a small thing you need to do however when exporting an FBX from Max. It only includes bones that are in the skin modifier, but you don't need to weigh them to anything.

[eezstreet]

 

<Rich> New Noesis is up with GLA export support

<Rich> When exporting a new humanoid gla you should probably use -g2exalwaystform Motion -g2exalwaystform face to re-set those flags, since they seem to be set for the default humanoid  

<Rich> There's also a ton of other options for things like normalizing bone axes and scaling them again at export time 

<Rich> They're all listed in the "advanced commands" bit of the export dialog

[Futuza]

Lol.  Rich is so glorious.

[Tempust85]

No matter what I do, I always seem to have issues exporting GLMs with Noesis. Maybe GLA's will work better.

[Xycaleth]

What problems are you having with it? Rich posted a screenshot of a Final Fantasy model converted to GLM on his twitter handle http://www.richwhitehouse.com/pubimg/ja_vaan.jpg

[Tempust85]

I'm exporting HS obi-wan model as an FBX, making slight changes in Max then exporting back out as an FBX. Load it up in Noesis and convert to GLM.

 

It seems to swap out bones randomly during conversion, like for the r_leg mesh I have rtibia & rtalus bones in Max but after conversion to GLM the r_leg mesh in modview has rtibia & lower_lumbar bones. :\