XSI import failed, code = 4599

[Gug Eyewalker]

Hello.

 

Working on my first character model for JKA. Using Max 8. I grabbed the JK3 skeleton from psych0's website and built a very basic mesh around it.

 

I got it all weighted and skinned, even got the caps weighted, and i think the tags were already weighted. It exports to an XSI okay.

 

instead of using assimilate i read that it was easier to use carcass.exe manually.

 

So I put all my files; _humanoid.gla, root.xsi , and model.car in a folder in the models/players directory i call mtest.

I put carcass.exe in there too. I drag my model.car to the carcass.exe folder and it tries to compile - i think.

but I get an error

XSI import failed, code = 4599 - and then it lists the xsi file.

 

Is this common? Tried searching for it. What could I be doing wrong? If it told me something wasn;t wieghted or something I could fix it, but ti doesn't.

 

Thanks!

 

edit: ya know im jsut wondering something. SOME of my vertices on my mesh are not wiethed with a full 1 value - i think, maybe, maybe thats it.

-Hmm, nope, my vertices have a total of 1 or greater....hmmmmmmmmm......

[Psyk0Sith]

Ah yes, carcass, what a pain in the butt, i dont recall ever seeing that one. Unweighted verts are never reported as a random error code. The tags are already weighted by the way.

 

I can take a look, no idea if i'll find the problem.

psykopat(at)geocities.com

[Gug Eyewalker]

Okay psych I will send it but WARNING - this is a very basic and IMHO bad model lol.

Its basicly just a manakin to see if this will all work.

[Psyk0Sith]

It's a good idea, start simple and do more complex stuff as you learn.

 

Good and bad news, good news is the errors are easy to fix...

 

1-Move the UVW and unwrap modifiers under the skin modifier. I strongly recommend collapsing the stack when you are done with UV mapping and only the skin modifier should remain when the character is rigged.

 

2-It seems one of the eff_ (dummy for animation) has been turned into and editable poly, carcass will think its part of the player model, just select it and delete it.

 

3-The tag "bolt_head_front" needs to be linked to the head.

 

That's it.

 

Now the bad news...

 

Basically max screwed up the model's orientation, when you export the model, the mesh is inverted (meaning the head is down where the feet are supposed to be). So you'll have to reweight the character from scratch, but before you do, read on.

 

That's because of the reset xform modifier, i'll quote myself on the subject:

 

The reset Xform syndrome

 

Ok so you have completed your mesh, you think you are ready to go? well maybe not, there are two things that most people overlook when rigging their model in 3D Max. The first one involves the reset xform modifier. Let me remind you that it is best that your character is made of a single mesh, that way you will have less chance of having reset xform issues.

 

What the hell is a reset xform modifier? simple, when you move, scale or modifiy the object or its pivot point, its properties appear to have changed (like when you scale, the object is scaled down and appears fine). When in reality, max keeps track of the last state the object was in...well most of the time.

 

To verify this, create a simple cylinder and use the mirror tool to make a copy...with the new mesh selected, go to the utilities tab and hit the reset xform modifier button...what just happened? you should see the normals (faces if you prefer) being flipped. Go to the modifier stack and collapse it, next in polygon or element level select all the faces and flip them back, voila, you just fixed an object with the reset xform modifier. Imagine that your character has been rigged and its ready to be exported, but you forgot to use the xform modifier...not a pretty sight!

 

I'm sure you have no idea what im talking about, but that's the major problem remaining to be fixed.

 

One way to do it is attach all the body parts together, then create a box. select the box and attach the character to it (not the other way around). Get rid of the box and align the pivot point to the character's center and reset the xform.

 

The reason you attach the mesh to a box is because the box xform or "transformation" state hasnt been modified and yes, Max is a stupidly built software.

[Gug Eyewalker]

Oh my!

 

I had never heard of the Xform modifier until just now. So I am going to have to either

A. Reattach everything and go back and do the xfrom modfier thingy, then break everything up again, and reweight and bone.

or

B.start at an earlier version of the model (I saved a new version at every stage) where it is one completed unweighted mesh, and the the Xform fix there. Then break the model up into its variouse parts, do the hierarchy over again, and reweight from there.

right?

Well, im in for a lot of practise.

thanks for your help. I will update you on my progress.

[Psyk0Sith]

Yup that's exactly what you should do, both will work .

[Gug Eyewalker]

Okay!

Well i followed the steps you said, first I got the error, but i figured out that when exporting this as an XSI from MAX i can uncheck include:: animations. And apparently this gets me past that error 4599.

 

Now...I get to marvel at the new errors I get.

Such as:

Error: Vert (7) on mesh rarm_eff has no wieghts.

 

BTW what are those effect thingies for? I presume they are not necessary and this particular one hsouldnt be a mesh at all.

Thanks again for your help.

[Gug Eyewalker]

It WOOORRRKSSSS!!!!!!!

It looks like hell but it works!!!

 

Now, time to move on and work on a REAL model.

 

By the By! While I am here...does anyone know how to work the shaders - not the textures, but the shaders for these glms and/or character models.

 

For example, I noticed that there are shaders for each and every character. No problem I can add the shaders, i hope...But but but....I noticed how monmothma in a hologram glows blue and is transparant, same with morgan Katarn apeparing as a ghost. How are these 'special' shaders activated in the game? Because I see no special .skin file for these glowing shaders.

Just wondering since I am too tired to figure it out at the moment. If no one knows dats ok i will get it...

[Psyk0Sith]

Congrats hehe, i know how it feels when you get to see your first player come alive.

 

The "_eff" are just animation helpers, just dont mind them .

 

I think raven put a bunch of shaders into one big file, so look for one called players something (sorry i cant remember).

[Inyri]

How are these 'special' shaders activated in the game? Because I see no special .skin file for these glowing shaders.

Just wondering since I am too tired to figure it out at the moment. If no one knows dats ok i will get it...

Shaders affect textures directly. They are not textures themselves, so they do not rely on .skin files. All of the shaders available for the game at any given time (all the base shaders, plus whatever shaders you have within PK3s in your base folder) will basically "turn on" automatically. They do not need to be triggered in any special way.

 

If you're not sure about the actual syntax for shaders, try looking up any basic Q3 shader tutorial. They should all be sufficient. Also, it's probably easiest, if you're trying to create a common effect, to just look at other shaders to see how it's done. Basic shaders are actually very simple once you understand what does what.