Xith3d, 3DS MAX Model => HowTo animate?

[stevieboy]

Hello!

We (3 guys) trying to build a java game in 3d using xith3d.

We are nearly at our expected goal but we weren't able to load animated 3dsmax models into the game.

We tried:

We read about the loaders (md2 and 3ds, from kevglass and an enhanced version of "kinowelt" or something).
We tried every kind of tool or software which might could help us.
We converted the model in different formats.

BUT: No luck so far. The only thing we got were 1 frame (which is not enough for an animation, I guess.)

We need:
- a tutorial with code (how to load and how to start the animation)
- a hint on the "perfect" loader
- a hint on a good tool

...means everything to get this task done.

If someone could help us, we would be sooo happy 

If you need additional information just answer this thread, i'll check it every hour ... nearly.

So long, thanks for your attention.

bye

Stevie

[c_lilian]

Hi,

I don't think the current model loaders include any animations. For my game (see my sig) I've used keyframe animations, exported as sets of wavefront obj file.

These files compress well and I haven't got much animations so I chose that easy yet not perfect solution.

There's been a post on XSI animations in the JOGL subforum (plain GL not Xith). Porting this might be a better solution (I didn't look at it though)

Regards,

Lilian

[stevieboy]

Hello and thanks for your reply.

I read your answer over and over again but I didn't get it.

Sorry to bother you but can you explain it a bit more in detail?

• Which program do you use for making the animations? (link?)
• Which format do you use for exporting and how are the single steps to make this?
• How does the code for the animation look like?

It would be great if you can give me (us) this information and maybe a code snippet for a better understanding.

Thank you very much,

Stevie

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[c_lilian]

3DSMax => export as OBJ (or import  3ds in blender / export as OBJ)

animation loop : hand written (deltaTime / deltaMove to smoothly move the model, and a Switch to select the appropriate model variation (keyframe pose) when the time is elapsed. The main problem is that you have to reproduce the animation of the model by hand (it's not extracted from the 3ds file).

Sorry I can't help you more...

Lilian

[Amos Wenger]

We (3 guys) trying to build a java game in 3d using xith3d.

That's a pleasure to see that more and more people use Java & Xith3D.

We are nearly at our expected goal but we weren't able to load animated 3dsmax models into the game.

We tried:

We read about the loaders (md2 and 3ds, from kevglass and an enhanced version of "kinowelt" or something).
We tried every kind of tool or software which might could help us.
We converted the model in different formats.

BUT: No luck so far. The only thing we got were 1 frame (which is not enough for an animation, I guess.)

We need:
- a tutorial with code (how to load and how to start the animation)
- a hint on the "perfect" loader
- a hint on a good tool

I'm afraid I have no tutorial, but I have indeed some hints to give.
First,

I don't think the current model loaders include any animations.

That's wrong : MD2 and COLLADA loaders support animation. Sheesh, c_lilian you could have used them in fact it's not your fault I am currently improving the doc so the people actually know we support animation.
So I won't talk about COLLADA since I didn't tried it myself. What I tried is MD2. And it works well.
So I'll advice you to :
- use the MD2 format
- to know how to import it into Xith, study that file : http://xith.org/showsrc.php?src=src/org/xith3d/test/MD2Test.java that's pretty much all you need
- go Blender for modelisation/animation. Here's the official site : http://www.blender3d.org
I think the MD2 export/importer is included with the 2.41 release. However if it's not, here's the python script : http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Import___Export.5.0.html

Hope I helped you.

Good luck with your game, and please PM me about your project : I'm doing a database of the game projects using Xith.

[c_lilian]

FYI : MD2 didn't work well for me, and Collada support is broken in blender, which I used in the beginning of my project.

Currently I'm investigating the Morph node, and it looks like I've found a nice way to use it to smooth my keyframe animations. I'll keep you posted.


Lilian

[Amos Wenger]

MD2 worked well for me but I didn't tried to export from Blender then import to Xith. What I know is you can import correctly MD2 with animations into Xith.
And about COLLADA-Blender yes the problem is there is only a COLLADA 1.3.1 version, and anyway it doesn't exports anims from Blender.
And for the Morph node yes it seems really useful. And c_lilian, do you think we could modify a bit the Blender OBJ export script so that it exports an OBJ file each n frames ? That'd be cool so we can load it in Xith and use the Morph node to anim it.

[c_lilian]

The morph node is GREAT ! I've just finished testing it and I'm going to use it : my animations are now perfect !!

blender - obj : would be a good idea, but for now I don't have time to investigate it (python is easy to learn : I've created some small programs the first day I looked at it, but blender API is harder : the armatures used for animation have changed a lot recently)

Lilian