Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Alchemist
#301 Old 3rd Jun 2011 at 1:27 AM
By using the term "easy way" I certainly am not meaning that I agree with the statement that using the players for testing is lazy. For people who know how to animate but not write their own scripts the players are the only way to test how an animation will look in game. It takes a while to learn the coding for this though so it's nice that in the meantime you can still play with the animation part For animator/script-writing collaborators it can cut a lot of trial and error out of the process as well.

The main point I was trying to make, is that steps 1-3 described above seem unnecessary to me. The horse is outta the barn and the tools made. Only thing left to do on that list, as far as I can tell, is to update the JAZZ editor so it's more user-friendly. Anything else seems a bit redundant.
Advertisement
Field Researcher
#302 Old 3rd Jun 2011 at 1:35 AM
Sorry cmo, didn't mean to insult you. Was referring to of more of a simpler way if WH wasn't interested in the coding process.
Forum Resident
#303 Old 3rd Jun 2011 at 10:50 AM
CMO: I remembered your sliding window sound effect right after I posted, but by then I was busy installing the new patch
and juggling mods to see what still works. (Have you updated your window mod?) I'm wondering how you added the
sound effect. The only thing I saw in Wes's tool was clip->smd, smd->clip and info. Did you add the sound event in
the jazz script? Was it a custom sound, or one already in fullbuild1?

Back to the debate: Rothn's tool uses the _rig resources instead of rigfile.txt, thus supporting more bones, and different
types of animations. Or are you guys somehow importing _rig data into rigfile.txt for that? And what about IK?
Field Researcher
#304 Old 3rd Jun 2011 at 1:24 PM
Quote: Originally posted by lenglel
CMO: I remembered your sliding window sound effect right after I posted, but by then I was busy installing the new patch
and juggling mods to see what still works. (Have you updated your window mod?) I'm wondering how you added the
sound effect. The only thing I saw in Wes's tool was clip->smd, smd->clip and info. Did you add the sound event in
the jazz script? Was it a custom sound, or one already in fullbuild1?

Back to the debate: Rothn's tool uses the _rig resources instead of rigfile.txt, thus supporting more bones, and different
types of animations. Or are you guys somehow importing _rig data into rigfile.txt for that? And what about IK?

He added the sound with the Sims 3 Animator by rothn. If you take a look, you can add the new events and sounds through that.
˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ǝɹ,noʎ 'oN
#305 Old 3rd Jun 2011 at 1:44 PM
Odistant: I wasn't insulted. I knew what you meant: making animations only using the animation player to play them would be the quick and painless way, but far less rewarding.

lenglel: The window works in Generations. I added the sound event in s3pe's Grid.Cmo secret alert -> I used the sound from the dressers(dresser_open, dresser_close):

Code:
Unknown01:	0x00000000
Unknown02:	0x00000001
Actor:	x
Event Table:
Version:	0x00000103
Events:
==Event[0]==
Type:	Sound
Id:	0x0002
Timecode:	 1.06660
Float01:	-1.00000
Float02:	-1.00000
Unknown:	0x00000003
Event Name:	window_open
Sound Name:	dresser_open

End Section:
[ 0.00000, 0.00000, 0.00000, 1.00000]


The rigfile.text most of us are using has 160 bones. The .smd produced imports/export with no problems(only a warning on export in Blender). A few of us have built IK setups in our respective 3D programs that allow for the use of IK. I'm posting mine once I get the kinks worked out.

"Part of being a mesher is being persistent through your own confusedness" - HystericalParoxysm
| (• ◡•)| (❍ᴥ❍ʋ) [◕ ‿ ◕]
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#306 Old 3rd Jun 2011 at 7:12 PM Last edited by rothn : 3rd Jun 2011 at 11:30 PM.
OK, I have finished a C# dll that will load and write animations flawlessly. I am looking for someone to write a Collada exporter, if anybody here is any good with that sort of thing.

*EDIT*
Well, I've just finished the dll that loads the grannyrigs. I guess I may have to do the collada exporter myself... This involves writing a geometry importer, as Blender will only open animations if geometry is attached.

I just can't help but to admire the new TS3 animator API; it's beautiful! This is the only code needed to use it!
Code:
Animation testAnim = new Animation(new FileStream("C:\\Users\\Nicholas\\Desktop\\a2o_electricGuitar_play_low_loop1_x.animation", FileMode.Open));
testAnim.writeAnimation(new FileStream("C:\\Users\\Nicholas\\Desktop\\a2o_electricGuitar_play_low_loop1_x2.animation", FileMode.Create));
GrannyFile gr = new GrannyFile(new FileStream("C:\\Users\\Nicholas\\Desktop\\auRig.gr2", FileMode.Open));


Anyway, I've tested TS3 Animator and find it to be completely solid... I guess that means I need to write the collada plugin now...

Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue. - Windows XP Setup
Hey! It compiles! Ship it! - Microsoft
Love is Hate. War is Peace. Windows is stable. - 1984 (sort of)
Test Subject
#307 Old 4th Jun 2011 at 5:09 AM
Why are you sending a filestream?,
Isn't it dangerous to send a filestream object without a resource identifier to close it?
Why don't you just send the filename and add in the filestream inside of the class? xD
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#308 Old 4th Jun 2011 at 5:43 AM
I believe that you are thinking of unmanaged code / .NET 1.1. Every stream object in .NET 2.0+ has a Close() method that will close the filestream. Besides, if I just sent in a filename, how could I input a memory stream?

Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue. - Windows XP Setup
Hey! It compiles! Ship it! - Microsoft
Love is Hate. War is Peace. Windows is stable. - 1984 (sort of)
Forum Resident
#309 Old 4th Jun 2011 at 8:39 AM
CMO: tyvm for that useful information

rothn: hope it goes smoothly, while you still have some hair left.
One horse disagreer of the Apocalypse
#310 Old 4th Jun 2011 at 9:30 AM
Quote: Originally posted by rothn
I just can't help but to admire the new TS3 animator API; it's beautiful!


Lol! It's good to be proud of your own acheivements I guess :D

"You can do refraction by raymarching through the depth buffer" (c. Reddeyfish 2017)
Test Subject
#311 Old 4th Jun 2011 at 10:05 PM
I just realized that when you send it to a method that method is going to store the pointer in the argument list :P
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#312 Old 5th Jun 2011 at 9:52 PM Last edited by rothn : 7th Jun 2011 at 2:27 AM.
I am done with the plugin that loads and consolidates sim geometry. Assuming that you don't care if I export to collada with textures or not, the exporter will probably be done today.

**Edit**
The tool is finished, except for the collada importer, which should be a lot easier than the exporter.

Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue. - Windows XP Setup
Hey! It compiles! Ship it! - Microsoft
Love is Hate. War is Peace. Windows is stable. - 1984 (sort of)
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#313 Old 8th Jun 2011 at 9:39 AM
Default U still there???
Could everybody here please comb through the attached COLLADA file and tell me what's wrong with it? Do this, and you will have cake.
Attached files:
File Type: zip  test.dae.zip (121.4 KB, 12 downloads) - View custom content
Description: This archive contains the collada file in question.

Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue. - Windows XP Setup
Hey! It compiles! Ship it! - Microsoft
Love is Hate. War is Peace. Windows is stable. - 1984 (sort of)
Test Subject
#314 Old 8th Jun 2011 at 5:48 PM Last edited by mesher : 8th Jun 2011 at 6:35 PM.
When opening the dae file on MAX I receive these error messages, it may be useful :

While reading or writing a file the following notifications have been raised.
-Warning: Material parameter not supported: index_of_refraction
-ERROR: source "Sim-Mesh-Normals" not found as <source> for <input>
-ERROR: Unable to parse xml/dae file

The XML structure of your file looks very consistent. But when comparing your file with a DAE saved by max I observed that there are newlines every 3 array elements. See the attached image. Eventually, this is the source of the bad parsing.
Screenshots
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#315 Old 9th Jun 2011 at 8:08 PM Last edited by rothn : 9th Jun 2011 at 11:35 PM.
I fixed the bug you just mentioned. The thing was I put id="Sim-Mesh-Normals" instead of id="#Sim-Mesh-Normals" What's wrong with this file?

Oh, and what version of 3ds max are you using?

btw, the newlines are only for readability; they are otherwise irrelevant.
Attached files:
File Type: zip  test.zip (212.0 KB, 7 downloads) - View custom content
Description: The broken collada file

Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue. - Windows XP Setup
Hey! It compiles! Ship it! - Microsoft
Love is Hate. War is Peace. Windows is stable. - 1984 (sort of)
Test Subject
#316 Old 9th Jun 2011 at 11:45 PM Last edited by mesher : 10th Jun 2011 at 12:12 AM.
I have access to a Max 2010.

Now i got these errors :

Code:
While reading or writing a file the following notifications have been raised.
    -Warning: Material parameter not supported: index_of_refraction
    -ERROR: reading array in <source>: #Sim-Skin-Bone_Weights
    -ERROR: Unable to parse xml/dae file


Sim-Skin-Bone_Weights is a very long array, 3777 elements on 1 single line, eventually it could be an overflow.
and I guess that there is an error here :
Code:
<accessor count="75" source="#Sim-Skin-Bone_Weights-Array">

To an array with 3777 elements, it would be count=3777 or count*stride=3777.
But Max crashes when I tried to edit it. (??)

I created a small dae file to be used as reference, a simple cube with 2 bones. I'm attaching it, you may see something in it.

I will keep trying on it, your work is very valuable.
Attached files:
File Type: rar  cube3.rar (1.5 KB, 4 downloads) - View custom content
Alchemist
#317 Old 10th Jun 2011 at 1:07 AM
Using the native Autodesk Maya 2011 import, the following errors occurred (on your second test.dae file)
Quote:
While reading or writing a file the following notifications have been raised.
Warning: Meter conversion factor is too small or invalid: . Using 1 instead.
Warning: Material parameter not supported: index_of_refraction
ERROR: Failed to read array in <source>: #Sim-Skin-Bone_Weights
ERROR: Library not found: #Sim-Skin
Warning: Node channel not found for animation: b__ROOT_bind__/rotationX.ANGLE
Warning: Node channel not found for animation: b__ROOT_bind__/rotationY.ANGLE

there were over 400 more warnings.

Using the OpenCOLLADA importer, the following error was reported:
Quote:
// Error: file: K://3DWork/test.ma line 4655: The lightList ':lightList1' has no 'ln[0]' attribute. //


OpenCOLLADA does a conversion to .ma, followed by an import, so that error is likely in their code.
Here is a picture of what was imported:


<* Wes *>

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#318 Old 10th Jun 2011 at 3:19 AM
That's strange; when I was working on code to import my own rigging in Blender, that's what it looked like, too... Maya 2012 Student Edition just crashes, where did you get your importer?

This is my most recent collada file. Please help me, Wes, as Maya 2012 has a very broken, quiet collada importer.
Attached files:
File Type: zip  test.zip (300.6 KB, 7 downloads) - View custom content

Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue. - Windows XP Setup
Hey! It compiles! Ship it! - Microsoft
Love is Hate. War is Peace. Windows is stable. - 1984 (sort of)
Test Subject
#319 Old 10th Jun 2011 at 4:19 AM
Your file is too large to be edited by hand, but there some facts to be observed.

I'm attaching another cube file, with some altered vertex weights. You can see the vertices weights on the first picture.

Now let's see the other picture.

-The yellow points the count issue that i mentioned before.
-The green shows how vcount is parsed. I suppose that vcount means vertices count, and there a lot of zeros on your vcount array.
-The purple shows the sequence of the pairs bones/weights. The first number of each pair is the bone index ( zero based) and the second number points the weights array index. As you can see, the first element (index 0) of the weights array seems to be not used. Now look your file (post #316), the second number of the first pair is 0, it would be 1, and 2 on on the second pair, etc...
Screenshots
Attached files:
File Type: rar  cube4.rar (1.5 KB, 4 downloads) - View custom content
Alchemist
#320 Old 10th Jun 2011 at 4:56 AM
I got exactly the same errors with the third test.dae file using Maya 2011. Please use some different file name each time, instead of depending on me to keep track.
On Maya 2012, the file just crashes the program. I don't have any third party importers for Maya 2012 at this time.
Mesher's cube, on the other pincer, loads fine (except it has no material when it comes in).

I think you should take a hint from Mesher and export a simpler file. This will take until next year if you have to try to walk through so many lines of data to try to debug it. Try stripping a file down to one finger and three joints or something, at least that will be manageable.

<* Wes *>

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#321 Old 10th Jun 2011 at 6:07 AM Last edited by rothn : 10th Jun 2011 at 7:41 PM.
I did that; the feet worked flawlessly. That's why I thought I would only have to worry about the importer, but when I exported a whole sim on a whim (lol, that rhymes) maya just crashed. I then tried blender, and it didn't work, either. I believe that the problem is in the weights or the skin. Maybe sticking to SMD is better, anyway...

Actually, I just had an idea. I could export each geom file as a separate mesh (as it was probably done by EA). This means that blender users couldn't open the document, but since Maya 2012 can, we could all just get that, right?

Additionally, for those who don't have high-end 3D software, I could add an option to export to SMD.


Actually, if anybody wants collada, they can get me this, but I have already bought enough stuff lately, and so I probably will be using Microsoft .x format, and add Collada later if anybody decides to get me that license.

Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue. - Windows XP Setup
Hey! It compiles! Ship it! - Microsoft
Love is Hate. War is Peace. Windows is stable. - 1984 (sort of)
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#322 Old 11th Jun 2011 at 8:06 AM Last edited by rothn : 11th Jun 2011 at 7:06 PM.
Default Almost there...
OK, I've decided to go with SMD, but before you say anything, let me explain:
TS3 Animator will export 2 SMD files: one has a fully-weighted mesh, and one has the animation.
First, you must import the mesh, then the animation.
Do not touch the first frame of the animation in Blender, or I will kill you.
Using very special magic, TS3 Animator will detect which joints you used, and will export only those.
The attached .mov file is how the animation looks in Blender after being imported from TS3, exported to Blender, exported to TS3 Animator (from Blender), exported to a package, extracted with S3PE, imported to TS3 Animator, and imported to Blender.

All that I have to do now is the UI, which will not be full-featured, as I am hoping to do a quick release.
Attached files:
File Type: zip  a2o_electricGuitar_play_low_loop1_x.zip (4.81 MB, 21 downloads) - View custom content

Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue. - Windows XP Setup
Hey! It compiles! Ship it! - Microsoft
Love is Hate. War is Peace. Windows is stable. - 1984 (sort of)
Test Subject
#323 Old 11th Jun 2011 at 1:36 PM
Can't wait for it
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#324 Old 11th Jun 2011 at 7:07 PM
oops, sry, forgot to upload the video. It's fixed, now. Notice how the use of weighted vertices makes the animation look more natural.

Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue. - Windows XP Setup
Hey! It compiles! Ship it! - Microsoft
Love is Hate. War is Peace. Windows is stable. - 1984 (sort of)
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#325 Old 12th Jun 2011 at 2:28 AM Last edited by rothn : 12th Jun 2011 at 7:08 PM.
Attached is a video of my salute animation ingame and the animation itself. It looks EXACTLY the same in Blender. The process may change, but so far, the animation process should go something like:
  1. Open simMesh.smd in a 3d-modeling tool of your choice (generated programmatically by the pre-alpha TS3 Animator that will be released a while after this release).
  2. Create your animation. Note that TS3 plays them a lot faster than blender.
  3. Export your animation.
  4. Optionally, edit the animation name and source file
  5. Export the animation to a package file of your choice, or to a new package.
I will have the release ready in a few hours. Please feel free to comment on it...

OK, so I just gave up on my file saving API, so it looks like the only way to save will be to a package. Don't whine, as I personally prefer packages.
Attached files:
File Type: zip  salute.zip (313.3 KB, 20 downloads) - View custom content

Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue. - Windows XP Setup
Hey! It compiles! Ship it! - Microsoft
Love is Hate. War is Peace. Windows is stable. - 1984 (sort of)
Page 13 of 17
Back to top