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[wallworm]

As you may know, my general focus has always been on level design and props. But more and more the questions come up about animated models. There have traditionally been some issues with Wall Worm when it comes to exporting various kinds of rigs. At the worst end is the fact that WW cannot export a CAT or Biped rig. On the milder side, many rig setups just fail to export. Some of these problems are based on user experience--for example, meshes or bones that have been scaled are just a big NO-NO in Max (whether you are using WW or not). Other problems are with WW... for example, bone orientations are often wrong.

One of the challenges I've faced (apart from being mathematically challenged) is dealing with coordinate system mismatched between different kinds of objects (and between Max and Source at times). For example, a node always has a Z-up orientation. But bones are Y-Up. This makes it hard to keep track of how to handle orientation calculations, as I've always wanted to keep WW robust and accommodate all of that--and the orientations of a bone whose parent is a geometry node is different than that of one whose parent is a bone node. It gets a little confusing at times...

Add to that that I've added the $origin parameter into the SMD calculations... and it gets so, so vexing for my simple brain!

Anyway, the real reason for this post is that the volume of posts and email wondering about rigs and animated models has risen and even my close friends are starting to delve into this. So I will give it some more time as soon as I'm done with my current level. I'll look into fixing the orientation woes that plague model bones and attachments.

[wallworm]

I had a eureka moment the other morning and think that I have fixed all the orientation woes. What is more is that Denis Trofimov on CG Society has presented me with a simple solution to getting the transformations of CAT rigs. By the looks of it I will also be able to apply this solution to Biped as well.

Cross your fingers and animation may soon blossom in WW!

Stay tuned...

[wallworm]

I now have a local version of WW that can export CAT rigs. Now I just need to do more testing. I think this will also work with Biped rigs. Hopefully I'll have this released in the next few days. If you want to test it, email me and I will send you the test version.

[wallworm]

I just wanted to share a tidbit. I've gotten the bones in CAT exporting correctly now along with their animations. But for some reason the weighting is all wrong... and I need to test more to find out if this is problem inside WW or a bug in Max 2014 (which is what I'm using to test now).

[wallworm]

The good news about this is that I will release this update probably tonight or tomorrow.

The bad news is that I've found a pretty annoying bug in MAXScript for Max 2014 that affects Skin. Until Fixed, skinned models really cannot be exported with WW using 3ds Max 2014.

I'll share news as soon as I release this update.

[wallworm]

Oops... I neglected to add this:

Please REPORT THE ABOVE-MENTIONED SkinOps.getBoneName BUG in MAX 2014 TO AUTODESK HERE.

In the bug report, please link to this thread on the Area Forums as reference.

Much thanks!