Archangel35757

Maybe see if they import properly in Max5 (if they're 3.0) or Blender or Milkshape. There is no importer code available for 3dsMax. I have importer code for Milkshape that I was going to try to convert for 3dsMax.

@@DT85 Does the new Beta R2 exporter work for your Biped Xtra Objects?

@@DT85 -- Sorry for the delay... Just create your User Defined Property for each of the Biped Xtra Objects as given: writeBipedPosData = true The new logic should catch this user defined property and export out the position transforms. Please post your results. Thanks!

Yes, I know... but sometimes it is useful to see examples of how others implemented cloth. The Open Dynamic Engine does have the ability for cloth... as it does have a spring-mass system; however, the ODE would need modification to add proper cloth buckling (see the papers I posted on my github request).

It's just solving a system of equations... only these equations are based on mass-spring physics using particles (i.e., vertices) -- with a special spring setup for buckling. See the papers I posted on my github request. Seems like it's just a special mathlib to me. Cloth code examples: http://code.google.com/p/opencloth/ http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/simulating-cloth-for-3d-games

So what's the difference in an "engine" versus a library that would contain the cloth physics calculations? Or even a class method?

I was thinking this cloth Shader and cloth physics would work would work similarly to how some current shaders deform world objects but on the character instead... (like the Shader that makes a wavy flag motion). Couldn't the cloth physics be handled by a new cloth object class methods? Maybe one method could generate those elliptical hulls (see the paper I posted on github) for the charactner to use in player collision detection if the low-level LOD/Ghoul2 is not efficient enough? @@eezstreet - The open dynamics engine does have a spring-mass system but it won't yield good cloth buckling. I read a thesis where ODE was used to simulate rope pretty well. I imagine that ODE could be modified to include the immediate cloth buckling method. See the github papers I posted.

One of the papers I referenced talked about simple elliptical hulls... but we could also use a low-level LOD. Could also use LODs for the cloth mesh as well... even have cloth turn off collision detection when NPCs are at a certain LOD (i.e. a good distance away from player)-- mesh would just keep its root pose if cloth was turned off??? I'm sure we could think of solutions.

I don't think its thousands of hours to implement cloth.

I discussed cloth implementation with Xycaleth. He suggested I add it as a request on OpenJK github: https://github.com/Razish/OpenJK/issues/291 In my request I posted some research papers and cloth simulation videos showing the research results (clip#3 is amazing!). We think the best way to implement cloth would be to create a cloth Shader... which would identify the object as a cloth object. Cloth simulation would be handled on the client side (thus it would work for both SP and MP). Also, by using a cloth shader it should not break legacy models. I think the cloth physics could be handled by a new class for cloth objects and its class methods-- perhaps Xycaleth could expound on how he thinks it could be implemented. Until cloth physics is implemented... you fake it by having additional bones for cloth. You use the cloth simulation feature in your 3D application to bake the cloth motion onto the cloth bones. Then you tweak the cloth bones' animation by copying their first frame to the end to make the cloth animation loop. EDIT: Cloth simulation results-- http://graphics.snu.ac.kr/%7Ekjchoi/cloth.htm

Could you use the hit map (see SoF2 documentation) to generate some flame sprites or EFX?

@@DT85 Sorry for the delay on the biped Xtra bone position output fix... it's been a crazy busy week and I've got to travel this next week. For now I think you're fine to press on with your animations using the custom user property "writeBipedPosData" and I'll get you an updated exporter when I get back next week.

@@DT85 Which do you like better: "writeBipObjPosData" or "writeBipXtraPosData" or "writeBipedPosData" ??? I'm changing the code now.

Go ahead and create the User Defined property called "writeBipObjPosData" and set it equal to "true" and I'll email you a revised plugin to try. So it would look like: writeBipObjPosData = true Then in the Maxscript Listener test your new custom property by using the "getUserProp" method as follows: getUserProp <node> writeBipObjPosData It should return the value "true" that you defined. Repeat this on a standard biped object and see that it returns "undefined."

@@DT85 Rather than mess with the bone property... we could just create a user defined property for each Xtra Biped facial object. Example given: writePosData = true Then in the plugin code I can check for this "writePosData" custom property using the SDK method "GetUserPropBool( )" and if it is found in a biped object... write out the position keys.

He is using a shadow rig with Dummies for the JA bones-- except for the facial bones. He just wanted the facial bones to be these Xtra Biped objects so that their animation is saved in the .bip file. It's totally doable-- just need to distinguish these Xtra objects from standard biped objects.

If turning on the bone property causes problems, then we could just as easily create a custom property. We just need a distinct method for distinguishing these Xtra biped objects from standard ones.

Ok... that's the issue. They are Biped Objects, and by default only the Biped root object gets its position transforms exported, whereas all of its child bones are rotations only. I've not really worked much with Bipeds... will you explain how you added these extra biped bones to the head? They don't seem to be in 3ds Max 8. What version of 3ds Max are you using? What version of 3ds Max added these "new" Xtras biped objects? We need to come up with a method for distinguishing these Biped Xtra objects versus the standard biped objects... so as to enable position keys only for them. Edit: I think I have a simple solution... would it negatively impact your biped facial setup if you turn on the Max Bone property for these Biped Xtra facial objects? This would make the xtra biped objects act like Max Bones. In the plugin code I could then test the biped objects to see if the bone property is true or false and if true then export out position keys. By default Biped Objects would test false unless this property is specifically set to ON for a biped object (just like any other non-bone object). So please go into the "Animation>BoneTools" menu and turn on the bone property for these facial xtras. Then do a 3dsMax test animation and save to .BIP and see if this causes you any problems. If not, then I think this is the cleanest solution-- but I'm open to other ideas.

That doesn't make sense... position & rotation should be exported for all Max Bones and Helpers. Are your facial bones biped objects with biped controllers? Or are they Max Bones/Helpers? What transform controller are they using?

Thanks, I'll take a look at it... but in this situation I'm talking about the floating point errors due to the coordinate transformation from 3ds Max to XSI. What @@DT85 was saying is that on export the dotXSI matrix values for the bones are slightly off out in the 5th or 6th decimal place or so... the reason for this is because in the matrix transormation from 3dsMax to XSI coordinates the value of PI/2 in the XSIFTK is defined as a double and yet the matrix data type is a float. So this type casting from Double-to-Float for the value of PI/2 is causing some round-off error in the matrix math. And it is possible to do this coordinate transformation while avoiding this specific truncation problem. Below is a depiction of World Space as defined in both 3dsMax and Softimage|XSI. As you can see... the two coordinate systems differ only by a 90 degree rotation about the X-axis. In my exporter fixes... I did the following 3 matrix multiplications for the coordinate transformation from 3dsMax to XSI (shown below using MathCAD symbolic math). But you will notice that the same can be achieved purely by row/column manipulations-- preserving exact values. So in my next Beta version, I will try the row/column manipulation and avoid the truncation errors from Double-to-Float casting.

The flex modifier should also work... but it has some particulars in setting it up. So the spring controllers are achieving the results you want? I look forward to your next video... I'm sure you can find plenty of reference material online.

First, are you using the Beta R1 exporter? If not, then please try that first. Otherwise, so these additional bones you've added to the biped hierarchy... what is their transform controller? Is it the standard PRS? Or do they have biped controllers? Edit: Also, please explain your flex modifier setup.

The error is introduced during the coordinate transformation due to truncation from double to float on the rotation part of the matrix. There's an alternative method I can use to do the coordinate transformation that should not introduce any errors. I'll try that for the next Beta version. But on the current exporter, the error is so small it is within the tolerance allowance and does not require the -ignorebaseposedeviation switch. So if I do nothing it's still good as-is.

I was thinking it might be useful for keeping track of the original 3ds max file from which the dotXSI file was made.

To all the users of the new dotXSI exporter for 3dsMax... how many of you ever open these dotXSI ASCII files in a text editor to look at them? If you have, then you will recall at the top of the file in the "SI_FILEINFO" template section there is a field for Project Name. Would it be useful to put the original 3dsMax Scene File Name here?