Archangel35757

So are you speaking only for yourself? Or every one at #jacoders?

Anyone planning to continue work on this project during @@Xycaleth's open-ended sabbatical?

No one is going to hold your hand. I suggest you watch and follow online tutorials and the tutorials from 3ds Max. 3ds Max comes with a lot of decent tutorials for a complete beginner. Good luck.

Search YouTube for 3ds Max tutorials on skinning/weighting the mesh using the Skin Modifier. Also, if you have the tutorials related to skinning/weighting that shipped with Max6, do those as well (if you don't have them let me know).

I will be releasing a new (version 1.9) dotXSI exporter for Max6 thru Max 2016 this week (the vertex normals got messed up in my v1.8 exporter)-- but you can still use it to prove out your workflow. You will need to install the game tools (ModView)-- to view your Ghoul2 Character/Creature/Vehicle models. There are vehicle and character tutorials on jkhub. Also check out @@Psyk0Sith 's character tutorials. I may need to upload a 3dsMax 5/6 skeleton file to weight your mesh to. I think the one I posted in files section is only for Max8.

Update: OK... so I believe that, in addition to fixing the triangulated mesh vertex normals, I've also fixed exporting of vertex normals for polygon (non-Triangle) meshes. I didn't realize that feature was broken in the original exporter-- but it was... and should be all good now. I will begin to carry updates over into other Max versions and compile new v1.9 beta plugins. I still would like @@AshuraDX to test out the Max2015 exporter on some of his models (since he originally noted the UV Mesh splitting issue).

You probably deleted part of the mesh.

Alright... I will focus on adding smGroups/specified/explicit normals export for poly (non-tri) meshes. And then recompile for all Max versions. Also, I probably should remove the "use smooth groups" option because the "specified/explicit" method automatically handles smooth groups as well-- so as to avoid confusion... (like @@KENNITHH recently experienced). @@AshuraDX -- will you test out the Max2015 exporter to verify the UV splits are gone?

@@DT85, @@Psyk0Sith et al... Although I have vertex colors exporting for the SI_Shape & SI_TriangleList templates, and I'm close to getting the face vertex order correct... I think I am going to abandon exporting vertex colors because they aren't used by the current game engine-- and I just discovered today that you cannot animate vertex colors at that base level of the mesh (perhaps via a vertex paint modifier or tension modifier... but then that's going down a rabbit hole I fear). Also, now that I believe I have smoothing groups and specified/explicit normals (i.e., the Edit_Normals modifier) working successfully, I was thinking of perhaps exporting the 3ds Max smoothing groups info in a custom template under each SI_Model template for each Mesh Object... this would only be useful if someone has to import a dotXSI file back into 3ds Max (where it would automatically re-apply the smoothing groups). This would mean I would also need to update my dotXSI Import Maxscript to handle this new custom smoothGroup template. And my importer script would be the only dotXSI importer that could import those templates (but it might be a nice feature for 3ds Max users). What do you guys think about that? Also, I still have to write one other method to properly export smooth groups, specified/explicit normals for polygon (non-Tri) meshes. Thanks for your feedback.

But its not the same legs. they gave him more human-like cybernetic legs

Others helped plow that ground (@@SmileTheory-- thanks). Maybe you'll keep it alive while @@Xycaleth is on sabbatical?

He appeared in comics with funky cybernetic legs. Like this: And I had started this model (collecting digital dust in my pile of wips):

@@KENNITHH - Also you should change the 3ds Max default animation frame length of 100 to actually fit your animated file.

Turn the edge(s) on the back of the shoulder armor.

The dotXSI file shows 411 vertices, 486 triangles, 486 normals, 411 UV's. So the triangles are sharing vertices. More likely this is some sinister case of Carcass creating additional vertices for materials, normals, UVs, etc. -- I'm just guessing

@@KENNITHH: that appears to be an exact match to my eyes.

@@KENNITHH: Your 3ds Max model shows both BLUE (unspecified normals from smooth groups) and GREEN (explicit normals)... you must choose the vertex normals export option of "specified/explicit". Please re-export with that option and post a new XSI result. Thanks.

@@KENNITHH, @@Scooper, @@DT85: From these screenshots, (@@Scooper) it would appear that the GLM exporter is only exporting the (green) explicit normals. And the dotXSI exporter appears to be exporting more normals than 3ds Max is showing (e.g. on back of hand and side of pinky finger). Are all faces assigned to smoothing groups? Are there any faces that are unassigned? Are any parts of the mesh detached as elements? Are you using a Multi-material or individual standard materials? Are different materials used on the hands? Would you email me your 3ds Max scene?

Update: I just emailed @@DT85 a new beta plugin to test out for explicit normals-- from my simple tests using a Cube mesh it appears to export explicit normals correctly. Hopefully, DT can post results for a more complicated model. Updated Update: I sent him a newer plugin to test out... it fixed a minor issue of not outputting normals when you chose to export explicit normals (but didn't have any...)-- so now you should get at least the normals from smooth groups if no explicit normals (i.e., no Edit_Normals modifier [either on stack or collapsed]). For completeness, I still need to fix exporting of vertex colors, and also fix exporting of vertex normals to use smoothing groups/explicit normals when not triangulating the mesh (I know this doesn't apply to this game engine or Carcass...)-- but I'd like to have it working correctly all the same. I would especially like to thank @@Scooper for his assistance and his smooth group vertex normals code snippet-- it (along with some other help from CGSociety) was invaluable in helping me write my own class method.

Turn off invisible mode ...just kidding.

An astronomer must have designed that heavy-gun... and used the sight from a telescope (idiotic design).

Update: Ok... so I have resolved the crashing during export when choosing the new option of exporting "Vertex Colors" -- however, I'm quite sure the vertex color indices (in the SI_TriangleList template) are not correctly matched to the vertex colors given in the SI_Shape template; but at least it doesn't crash anymore. So I'll have to fix the vertex color index mapping later... for now I'm going to focus on the flaws in the specified/explicit normals export option.

I'm sure @@Xycaleth will come back to it in time...

As soon as I finish the v1.9 dotXSI 3.0 exporter... I plan to get back to my Jan Ors head and new facial animation project. So we'll have modern lip-sync, facial expressions, and hopefully wrinkle maps (@@eezstreet, @@Xycaleth). My plan is try and get it all of my part finished in the next few months.