More model questions

[anomaly]

Yes! Thank you.
Finally, I can work with the with stock assets by converting them to .3ds and importing them into gmax.

Hmm... It doesn't seem able to show skeletal animations.  Does anyone know if later versions can?  And do later versions still limit the number of animation frames to 8(shows up as first 16 in gmax) when exporting?

[Warfreak]

they cant....... you can see it in the text, but explorer can view the animation at all......... which is strange really.

[VSMIT]

I think the xsis in the pack for the scions just doesn't like animation in general.  You can see the hps moving, but nothing else.  I tried to use the xsi mauler with a different skin in game, it converted to msh, but the head wouldn't turn at all...

VSMIT.

[Avatar]

Pilots and Scions use Softimage's method of animating the verticies themselves, and from what I've found only the Pandemic Viewer or Softimage itself will show them.  dx posted some info about the Pandemic exporter exporting such animation if a controller is used in Max, but I haven't had time to follow up on it.

-Av-

[Nielk1]

Changing the controller is how I got Max 6 to export normal BZ2 animated XSIs. Which one did he say to use?

[Warfreak]

TCB Animations, the original animation style of 3DS Max. 

(arent you glad im still around to answer that)

[Avatar]

Well, I was saying how Max will do vertex animations in many ways but that they don't make it through the Pandemic exporter.

He said it should if you use a controller.

I never got around to testing it.  Theoretically if I assign a controller to a set of verticies, I should be able to export it into an XSI...

[bigbadbogie]

*ears prick up*

now youve got my attention!!

[anomaly]

Can these vertex animations be done in gmax, too?
And does anyone know of a tutorial for doing them?

[VSMIT]

As far as I know, any animation done in gmax is not exported, no matter what exporter you use.  Especially since there is no XSI exporter.

VSMIT.

[anomaly]

As far as I know, any animation done in gmax is not exported, no matter what exporter you use.  Especially since there is no XSI exporter.

VSMIT.

Of course there are exporters out there for gmax that can export animations .  Why else would gmax have animation capabilities; it's not like you can use it for making movies as it has no renderer as far as I can tell.  The main problem is that most exporters I've found use unusual file formats used by games and I would like something that could be opened in Deep Exploration.

Shouldn't the Quake exporter export animations? I mean, quake models used animations, too, didn't they?
I just tried it and the animation did not export.  Maybe, they use a specific way of animating?

[Nielk1]

What VSMIT meant was there is no way to get them to BZ2.

[bigbadbogie]

does it export to 3ds??

[anomaly]

Nope.  At least, it doesn't come with an exporter for .3ds. It can only import .3ds and .dxf which i've been using to import into gmax.  Looking around, I see a few solutions for getting it to 3ds but, they all use some sort of MAXscript.  Probably not too hard, but I'll keep looking.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

If all else fails in the search for a viable way to do BZ2 animation seems to currently hinge on getting OM's Blender 3d's XSI exporter. You may try that route as testers are needed by OM to give him some feedback on what if anything needs to be changed in the python script he made to export animations directly into the game. So far participation has been minimal as from what I've discovered about B3d is that while it's a very capable 3d modeler it requires users with a longer attention span then I have personally. I made a few models with it, but I usually get lost at some point in the creation process and fall back to GSL a much simpler modeler for non-professionals like myself. Unfortunately, GSL is not well suited for converting X animations to a usable XSI animation sequence for BZ2. Still, I continue to tinker with B3d from time to time in an effort to eventually decode it's well kept secrets.