Can TrueSpace 7.5 export animation?

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Post by Unregistered // May 4, 2007, 3:27am

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Can TrueSpace 7.5 export animation?

Post by TomG // May 4, 2007, 8:26am

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That is too simple a question, as the answer will depend on just what you are wanting to export and what you want to export it too.


So it can export some things to some formats, but not all things to all formats :)


Currently the new skeletal animation system does not export to anything at all, since as stated elsewhere, we have focused on the tools and making those useful and stable. Only once that is in place does it make sense to look at an export process.


So exports for that sort of animation are yet to come. Export and import formats are on the cards for review and action after tS7.5 is released.


Animations made in the older system can be exported as vertex animation for instance (but not as skeletal animation - besides, you dont really want to use the old bones system compared to the new one, trust me on that!).


If you have more specifics about what you wanted to export and what you wanted to export to, then people may be able to give more specific answers, advice and workflow!



HTH!

Tom

Post by Tiles // May 4, 2007, 9:16pm

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Currently the new skeletal animation system does not export to anything at all, ...


Darn. Another year to wait and hope ...


Animations made in the older system can be exported as vertex animation for instance (but not as skeletal animation - besides, you dont really want to use the old bones system compared to the new one, trust me on that!).


You don't have a choice when you need to export it to a game engine for example, have you? Hmm. I remember somebody that has figured out how to export the old bones to X. Not sure if vertexwise or boneswise. I just know that it was a hard task for him which took him months to figure out. And two trueSpace versions involved because of the broken bones in TS 7.11. Seems that i need to contact him :rolleyes:

Post by tomasb // May 4, 2007, 11:49pm

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A lot of things are accessible from script. It should be no problem to write exporter to your favorite format (your game engine etc.) but currently there is no exporter on wS side for animation.

Post by TomG // May 7, 2007, 7:04am

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Tiles, as noted, you can't write an exporter before you know what you are exporting.


In other words, the skeletal system has to go all the way through to completion before it makes sense to make an exporter, as otherwise you are always chasing moving goalposts.


For that reason, exporters have not been tackled. All focus has been making a truly groundbreaking and useful and bug free character and animation system.


I think that's been the right way to go - get that right first, then think about making the exports and imports.


For games, well gS2.0 is also on the cards now that the systems are developed. tS7.5 is not specifically designed for making content for games (and not specifically marketed that way either) since we know it needs the formats to make sense. So, next you will see work on the formats, and on gS2.0, and then you will see us pitch the game content aspect with those tools in place!


HTH,

Tom

Post by Asem // May 7, 2007, 12:44pm

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Is it possible to do an animation thing go to the Model side where you can use that plugin that converts the animation into vertex animation to export out as directx. I was wondering as this could be a decent work around for using ts animation with other apps (I have a specific idea that will work just fine if this is at least possible).

Post by Tiles // May 7, 2007, 9:38pm

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Thanks for the detailled explanation. I fully understand that it makes no sense to write an exporter for a not finished bones system. I just thought that it is finished now. And so i had hoped it comes with an exporting feature as the final touch to it too. My fault. I am a bit impatient from time to time, sorry ... :)


Asem, i don't think that this is possible. I think the new bones animation stuff is not transferrable to the old modeler core. Which means that i highly doubt that you can extract the vertex animation information and transfer it to the modeler side. The modeler is one big plugin to the new architecture to bring the old functionality to the new core. But not in the other direction.

Post by buffolli // May 9, 2007, 5:04am

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Hello all,


I am that guy who managed to export .x-Animation Tiles mentioned a few posts above.


As I saw the first videos with new animatioin tools via bones I bought TS75 upgrade at once....


Please state clearly:


Is it possible to export animated mesh deformation after using new bone-tools to .x-format ?


If not, a lot of game designer will have to use the old "ill-suited" bones till export is added to ts75. That's nearly unbelivable....


Regards


buffolli

Post by buffolli // May 11, 2007, 3:26am

buffolli
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Hello all,


I had a few hours to check tS7.5 and tried to export some kind of new bone animation to .x-Format.


This was not possible, because Animation Data are not stored in the usual scene editor as keyframes. There is some kind of second animation bar which has nothing to do with the scene editor.


So I hope that there is a posibility to transform all data into the scene editor where they have to be stored as keyframes.


Otherwise tS7.5 new bones toolset is useless for all game developers like me.


Greetings



buffolli

Post by Tiles // May 11, 2007, 7:28am

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As Tom stated before: not yet. Will come in a future release of TS.


While at it, is here meant the next mayor release in one or two years? Or a point upgrade within the next few months?

Post by Jack Edwards // May 11, 2007, 7:32am

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I think the plan is to export directly from Workspace with Collada, FBX, or one of the new animation formats once they get the exporters written. Maybe one of the Caligari guys can post an estimated time frame for that? (Say months, not years?)


-Jack.

Post by gm770 // May 12, 2007, 5:22am

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I was also looking to export animation with TS 7.5. Not bones, but Vertex animation. If there are no options for that, I'm even willing to write a plug-in/script to MDD and/or sequence OBJ to complete my pipeline.



I haven't written a plug-in for TS since version 5, and so much has changed since, so I'm not even sure of my current options. I would prefer to write code in Python, since all my recent code is using Python, but if I have to write a c++ tsx, I'll do that since I'm familar with the older sdk. Reading the latest mannual (7.5) I can't find much reguarding scripting or tsx plug-in writing. Collada and FBX are not options for me since they don't work in my pipeline, nor do I wish to wait for them.



Can anybody help point me in the right direction?

Post by Jack Edwards // May 13, 2007, 1:38am

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The vertex data of meshes is accessible from the scripting interface. Its VB and Javascript. So I don't think there will be any difficulty in writing a vertex data exporter. I imagine the simplest way to export the animation would probably be to do a frame by frame update of the vertex lists.


I'm sure there are a lot of people who would be very happy to see this. ;)


-Jack.

Post by roman // May 13, 2007, 12:55pm

roman
Total Posts: 320
Thanks guys offering any assistance in writing export/import plug-ins. We will be working on 7.5 SDK right now, contact me directly at roman@caligari.com if you are seriously interested.
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