Collada from TS to Blender

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Collada from TS to Blender // Archive: Tech Forum

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Post by Tiles // Jun 2, 2008, 11:32pm

Tiles
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Has anybody experience how to fit the TS collada so that i can import it into Blender? All i get is a bunch of pose bone errors.

Post by jamesmc // Jun 3, 2008, 4:23am

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Try a simple skeleton, see if that works and then get progressively more complicated to see if you can find/repeat the error.

i.e. two spheres linked together.

Post by Tiles // Jun 3, 2008, 6:38am

Tiles
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In short, nope, nobody has experience with that :p

I will follow your advice now. Let's have a look :)

EDIT; incompatible, no matter what i try. I managed to import at least two naked bones. But it destroys even that, making two big bones and two small bones out of it. Okay, lots learned. On with another idea :)

Post by Jack Edwards // Jun 3, 2008, 9:29am

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Blender's Collada importer doesn't support skinning/animation. :(

Post by Asem // Jun 3, 2008, 9:57am

Asem
Total Posts: 255
Blender's collada import isn't complete so you get this problem. I was able to do 2 things. one was to import just the mesh itself and the other just the skeleton itself. I even went as for as downloading the update script for the collada import which seemed to do better but I'm not even really sure what version the current blender is using now. If you go to the website for collada support for blender (http://colladablender.illusoft.com/cms/content/blogcategory/25/29/) you can see that a lot is "in testing" and that they've been jumping from export to import features (hasn't been updated since July 2007). Jack is right though no skinning/animation yet. You could try export as bvh though I think blender has a problem with that too or ts doesn't completly support it but im not sure.


this is as close as it gets for import collada files for blender as far as animation goes:

Bones Boned animations testing testing

Skeletal animation Skeletal animations testing testing

Post by Tiles // Jun 3, 2008, 8:55pm

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Ah, that explains it. So it is indeed incompatible and i do nothing wrong. Thanks guys :)


What i try to do is to find a way from trueSpace to my game engine. Which cannot read Collada. It can read FBX though ...


Format hassle is one of the hardest things when making a 3d game. You can be sure that the engine you want to import cannot read the format that exports from your 3d software :rolleyes:

Post by Jack Edwards // Jun 4, 2008, 5:54am

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UU3D imports TS Collada animation, but the sticking point is finding UU3D Export plugins that support animation. See also this thread here:
http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showthread.php?t=5189

Collada is a text based format though, so the simplest approach might be to write a standalone file converter that converts to FBX. Autodesk's FBX SDK comes with built-in Collada import BTW, so it might be as simple as having your app load the Collada file and export the FBX using the SDK. ;)

Post by Tiles // Jun 4, 2008, 6:40am

Tiles
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Thanks for the suggestion, but i have unfortunately no clue about C++. So that's an SDK out. And i don't have UU3d neither, so that's UU3d out :)


I still hope for trueSpace having FBX in a future release. Else i am lost here.

Post by Délé // Jun 4, 2008, 9:47am

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I hear your frustrations Tiles. I've been discovering over the past year that pipelines into many game engines is an exercise in hoop jumping, creative problems solving, and patience. It's amazing that people make progress with the horrible pipelines available. The best bet always seems to be 3dmax. There usually seems to be some kind of pipeline from that program. That's way out my price range though.

I would like to see Microsoft give Caligari the financing and developer team to make truePlay into a full fledged indie game engine. That would make for an absolutely seamless pipeline and would be awesome. I don't expect that to happen, but that would be sweet for sure. :)

Post by jamesmc // Jun 4, 2008, 11:01am

jamesmc
Total Posts: 2566
Here you go, trueGame 1.0 the ultimate in freakish Frankenstein-like interface, with (yours for $299.00 + your first born)

3DPaint - Photoshop functions
Shader Lab
Morph Tools
Pose Mechanic
UV and Unwrapper
Video Layers
Landscape Creator
Hair and Fur
After Effects Like Particles and FX
Built-in Compositor
Plus all the other trueSpace Functions
Every Import & Export File Format Known to Man. :D

:banana:

Post by Tiles // Jun 4, 2008, 8:58pm

Tiles
Total Posts: 1037
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Where can i get it ? Ist it out yet, is it out yet, is it out yet :p

Max is out of reach for most indie developers. At least the legal version, heh. Well, there is Gmax. But this one just allows non commercial useage. Same for XSI Modtool ...

Well there are working art pipelines for indies - when you animate in other packages. These packages aren't even expensive. Fragmotion for example costs just a few bucks. Or the almighty Milkshape, which is a classic. The problem with them is that they are small and limited, and their bones systems are not this powerful. They are one more step to do mistakes and to introduce new bugs too. But yeah, they have the needed im- and exporters for nearly every game format - except collada. Life is cruel :D

Post by Jack Edwards // Jun 4, 2008, 10:56pm

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The FBX converter (which reads Collada 1.4) is available from the same place as the SDK....

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=6839916

Who better to go to for Collada => FBX conversion than the owners of the FBX format right? ;)

Post by Tiles // Jun 4, 2008, 11:11pm

Tiles
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Thanks Jack, but any try ends in "incompleted task" and no FBX file, unfortunately.

Post by Jack Edwards // Jun 5, 2008, 12:18am

Jack Edwards
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Hmm... that's odd.

Alright, give me a week or two and I might have an alternate solution for you ;)

Post by Tiles // Jun 5, 2008, 1:01am

Tiles
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Yup, there must be a solution. Thanks for the further investigation Jack :)

I tried XSI modtool with the newest Crosswalk meanwhile. I have totally forgotten that it can Collada and FBX. Imports my Collada. Exports FBX. The exported FBX gives me warnings in my game engine then though. And it imports without textures and very very small. Plus it mixes the position of the hat. But it imports, phew. Seems that i found a pipeline. Just have to dig a bit more :D

Have to investigate some time into this one once my character has a first animation (still battling with that one, i really hope that i can at least do a basic animation in TS. The bugs are killing me) . I hope i can get it to work more proper. I keep my fingers crossed :)
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