clu Posted January 14, 2003 Share Posted January 14, 2003 Hey people. I've just tried exporting my finished model to XSI (all weighted, linked, etc) and a couple weird things happen: 1) The head and head_torso cap disappear completely when I open the XSI file 2) Some parts of the mesh move slightly out of alignment 3) The normals on one section are flipped 4) The mesh smoothing disappears (maybe this is unavoidable?) I tried reseting the Xform for all these parts and then re-importing, but I am still having troubles. Any ideas? The model is for a Gladiator type Mod I'm working on. Screenshots can be found here (it's my first crack at modeling, so any feedback would be cool too): http://www.jakekeating.com/thesis/screenshots/models/tharex/textured/ - clu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksk h2o Posted January 14, 2003 Share Posted January 14, 2003 Great model. Yea I think your problems are from the Xform. Dont worry about the smoothing, carcass will smooth the model for you when making a glm. You should really try to select the problem parts and Reset XForm. Most Likely this will move around the selected mesh and invert it's normals. Once you fix this under xform it should export to XSI fine. I had the longest time getting this part right sine XForm seriously messed up my mesh. You said that this didn't work... what happens when you reset the Xform (from the tools tab in 4.2) of the problem areas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clu Posted January 14, 2003 Author Share Posted January 14, 2003 Thanks much for the reply. OK, not to get too wordy here, but in answer to your question (what happened when I reset Xform), I started off with a model that exported with the following probs: - Head and head neck cap disappeared - Left leg had norms inverted - arms shifted slightly - couple tags displaced. I reset the Xform on these parts, dragged the Xform modifier below the skin modifier (so as not to lose my vertex/bone weights), and "colappsed to" the mesh Nothing happened to the mesh within Max, except the leg inverted it's normals incorrectly. When I reexported to XSI and looked at the file, the displaced tags were all cool, but all the other problems still existed (no head, inverted leg, etc.) I'm using the reset Xform from the Utilities tab (Max 5...but I think it's the same). Also I am exporting with the DLL that came with Raven's first tool release. -clu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clu Posted January 14, 2003 Author Share Posted January 14, 2003 Sorry...also, I am NOT unlinking the hierarchy before applying Xform (and until I see it export correctly, I wasn't going to relink it either). Is this a bad move? -clu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksk h2o Posted January 14, 2003 Share Posted January 14, 2003 Well, it's not a bad move but could have lead to ome big problems when you reset xform. You need to correct all the errors that appear after you reset Xform. You said that the leg has it's normals inverted... if you fixed those polys they should be appearing ok next time you export. Try looking around in 3dsmax to find where your head goes. If you need to, use wireframe view to see if maybe it just became invisible somehow. It must end up somewhere (maybe far out of view?) At least the tags are in the right place now. Try doing it one step at a time. Also try unlinking only that specific body part from the rest, and appying xform then re-linking it. (there is a hierarchy view that makes this easy). Thats all I can think of. usually Xform will move stuff around for me and I will have to move stuf back into place and flip normals. If nothing happens when you reset the xform of a problem part, then the problem is something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clu Posted January 14, 2003 Author Share Posted January 14, 2003 Right on. I'll post back here once I've solved it just in case anyone has this problem in the future. The head literally disappears (not even in the selection list) but I'll mess around a bit and see what's what. Thanks a million for all the help. - clu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clu Posted January 15, 2003 Author Share Posted January 15, 2003 ksk h2o, thanks much for helping me out with this. I'm learning this stuff slowly but surely and I appreciate you sticking with it. Cheers. For everyone's reference, ksk h2o and a couple of great guys in the 3DS Max forum (3DZealot and Stroker) at http://www.cgtalk.com gave me a bunch of great tips for fixing stuff that Xform displaces. I'll sum up what I did with all their advice. (Maybe this is old hat to some of you guys but I'll put it here for the benefit of whoever hits this Xform problem): Problem: Applying Xform frequently displaces/rotates/scales your mesh object, and it basically sucks trying to get it back where it belongs. 1) Before applying Xform to anything, save copy of your character with all bones deleted, and all mesh/tag/whatevers renamed to something consistent (tools-->rename objects). I just put "00_" in front of everything 2) Open up your original file with bones. I unlinked everything just to be safe since you'll probably end up redoing the hierarchy anyway. Reset the Xforms on your problem areas and watch stuff get f***ed up. Good times. 3) So now your "r_arm" is rotated, scaled and transformed all over the map thanks to Xform. Merge that character from step one and just merge the "00_r_arm" into the scene. It shows up exactly where it should be. 4) Select "r_arm" and apply the "morpher" modifier 5) Move the morpher modifier under your skin modifier and above your editable mesh (this is important) 6) Choose the "00_r_arm" as your morph target and it should morph to exactly the same position. 7) Delete your "00_r_arm" (since it's just there for reference) and move on to the next Xform victim. Thanks again for all the help ksk h2o. Now I'm off to get this damn model in-game! -clu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksk h2o Posted January 16, 2003 Share Posted January 16, 2003 Wow, clu... I didn't think about using that morph thing... very nice tip. It saves a LOT of time, re-aligning the xform-ed objects. Did you ever fund out what happened to your model's head? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clu Posted January 16, 2003 Author Share Posted January 16, 2003 It saved a ton of time. Yeah, my head disappeared because it was out of the hierarchy. As soon as I moved it back under it showed up. This actually happened with my skeleton at one point too. I guess anytime something isn't in the hierarchy it doesn't show up in the XSI file. I finally got him into modview last night. I never thought I'd see the day. Thanks again for the help. -clu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.