Well, Tpitman…it is difficult to say.
As a developer, when I'm confronted with ‘time consuming’ delays in an area such as this, I re-evaluate the workflow/tool. Is this ‘awesome’ tool/modifier really ‘meaningful’ to my production needs, or can I do pretty much the same thing, in a different workflow.
At this point…I would move away from the ‘AutoRig’ toolshelf, and probably build my own rig and control system from the ground up, as the developers of the Digital Content Creator have don't have my precise workflow or asset requirements in the forefront of their minds when designing tools and modifiers…so, there ya have it. If I haven't gotten a good workflow established in a week or so…I move on to where I can get my production needs finished in a timely fashion. There are only 52 weeks in the year! Not enough to burn trying to invent the wheel, so to speak; but it's all a matter of time constraints. If I have the time, I'll pound away on something till I get it beaten into shape.
Keep on chuggin'!
PS: it sounds as though you need some really intense one-one tutoring with your assets and the tools to get things sorted. Usually I'll jump in on something like this, but our schedule at the current moment is not allowing me to burn any spare time, sorry I can't be of more help at the moment. Again, I beat on ‘AutoRig’ for a while and could not get it working to my satisfaction…..for what it's worth. That was at least a year ago….
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Toon Character Torque Export Problem
- DrFrankenRex
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Toon Character Torque Export Problem
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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It must be because of the AutoRig multiple control objects…because I know that AutoDetails work very well, as I helped the ROP author in testing it out! I think the dancing orc you see in the brief export video was submitted by me, although I was a bit surprised to see a video produced with it, . And they didn't really go into exporting just the animation binary DSQ's at all…and not sure if the guy got the material to render or not…heh-heh…
Again, I found it difficult to weave in/out of the AutoRig tools to get a good export to Torque; good luck to you with the AutoRigs… I liked their control very much, but as I've seen with many programs exporting to Torque, what you get in the UI is not what might be capable in exporting/support to DTS…
Again, I found it difficult to weave in/out of the AutoRig tools to get a good export to Torque; good luck to you with the AutoRigs… I liked their control very much, but as I've seen with many programs exporting to Torque, what you get in the UI is not what might be capable in exporting/support to DTS…
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Toon Character Torque Export Problem
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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It sounds as though you're trying to get LOD's with this setup, tpitman? I ‘thought’ that the exporter/ROP had “autoDetails” feature within? If you are looking strictly for LOD's for rendering optimization; I'd say, look into those. Great you're sorting how to do it via HD's tools! AutoDetails is one of the nice features for an Artist in Torque; you don't need to ‘physically’ crunch the geometry yourself, just adjust some numbers in your exporter….and view the rendered result in the engine/viewer.
If you're looking for ‘LOD’s'/Levels Of Detail, I ‘think’ you can just ‘add’ another one via the ROP and fill in the ‘details’, using the geometry object as a reference, pretty sure of that, exporter does the rest. Instant/auto poly crunching….it's great. Fairly certain T3D supports it as well!
If you're looking for ‘LOD’s'/Levels Of Detail, I ‘think’ you can just ‘add’ another one via the ROP and fill in the ‘details’, using the geometry object as a reference, pretty sure of that, exporter does the rest. Instant/auto poly crunching….it's great. Fairly certain T3D supports it as well!
Edited by - March 24, 2010 15:21:50
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Toon Character Torque Export Problem
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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About not getting geometry to export:
Are you giving ‘detail’ numbers to that particular geometry you want ‘rendering’ upon export correctly? That is ‘usually’ the fault when polys aren't rendering inside the Torque engine. Conceptually, the engine wants to know at what pixel height on screen you want the geometry rendering, so you need to append geometry with numbers. The setting of detail ‘levels’ or numbers is done in the ROP tabs. You will need to navigate to the actual geometry that is textured, weighted and being deformed by the rig/skeleton, not the ‘auto rig’/proxy stuf. From your description; you are exporting the proxy geometry, not what you want. You want the nicely textured weighted ‘outer’ mesh…I assume.
This was the hardest part of using the AutoRig toolshelf I found; matching the right geometry with right skeleton.
There are some very nice online avatar creation content providers now, that cater to the Torque/gaming community; Evolver springs to mind immediately. DAZ 3D is another solution with their latest digimi service I saw at GDC `10.
Are you giving ‘detail’ numbers to that particular geometry you want ‘rendering’ upon export correctly? That is ‘usually’ the fault when polys aren't rendering inside the Torque engine. Conceptually, the engine wants to know at what pixel height on screen you want the geometry rendering, so you need to append geometry with numbers. The setting of detail ‘levels’ or numbers is done in the ROP tabs. You will need to navigate to the actual geometry that is textured, weighted and being deformed by the rig/skeleton, not the ‘auto rig’/proxy stuf. From your description; you are exporting the proxy geometry, not what you want. You want the nicely textured weighted ‘outer’ mesh…I assume.
This was the hardest part of using the AutoRig toolshelf I found; matching the right geometry with right skeleton.
There are some very nice online avatar creation content providers now, that cater to the Torque/gaming community; Evolver springs to mind immediately. DAZ 3D is another solution with their latest digimi service I saw at GDC `10.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Toon Character Torque Export Problem
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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Yes, the autoRig tools will work. You will get slightly odd results, they work; but the resulting hierarchy in the DTS shape will not be a true ‘skeleton’. All the nodes are unchained from each branch and all children to a single node. This results in a DTS shape that must use DSQ files produced with this setup, as you get node transform data in the animations as well, and those transforms are used to create a ‘psuedoHierarchy’ to locate the nodes where they belong with their vertex/weight data.
It will take working the ROP to get the right geometry exporting with the right rig. As long as you keep the DSQ's made with this rig with the same DTS, it should work. However, opening the DTS shape elsewhere, and working with it, will not be doable…., and who needs that?!
Good luck!
It will take working the ROP to get the right geometry exporting with the right rig. As long as you keep the DSQ's made with this rig with the same DTS, it should work. However, opening the DTS shape elsewhere, and working with it, will not be doable…., and who needs that?!
Good luck!
Houdini Lounge » Houdini in the big picture
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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I would suggest the Torque Game Engine for an ‘interactive’ simulation environment.
It can be ported to run thru a web page, or can be compiled into a binary for redistribution.
The Torque Engine ‘Community’ is quite large and is involved with many different type of ‘interactive’ simulations.
Good luck!
It can be ported to run thru a web page, or can be compiled into a binary for redistribution.
The Torque Engine ‘Community’ is quite large and is involved with many different type of ‘interactive’ simulations.
Good luck!
Technical Discussion » Houdini HD & Torque DTS files
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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Getting_Started [tdn.garagegames.com] is one place to find some DTS/DSQ background.
Here [garagegames.com] is another spot for some reading…
The DTS format still holds it's own for amount of features vs. size of file pushed across a network and well, they're Torque native. Some have trouble setting up the files for export, it's a learning process…small.
Good modeling!
Ah, C++ is used for T3D and TGE, etal….I haven't dabble with those newer flavours of Torque(TorqueX, TGB, etc…), but the bottom line is you'll need a programmer to get the most out of Torque's rendering and effects. You sound ready to go! The art formats do have limits on what they're comprised of and they way they're constructed, in reference to Houdini effects ‘exporting/rendering’ to DTS/DSQ.
Here [garagegames.com] is another spot for some reading…
The DTS format still holds it's own for amount of features vs. size of file pushed across a network and well, they're Torque native. Some have trouble setting up the files for export, it's a learning process…small.
Good modeling!
Ah, C++ is used for T3D and TGE, etal….I haven't dabble with those newer flavours of Torque(TorqueX, TGB, etc…), but the bottom line is you'll need a programmer to get the most out of Torque's rendering and effects. You sound ready to go! The art formats do have limits on what they're comprised of and they way they're constructed, in reference to Houdini effects ‘exporting/rendering’ to DTS/DSQ.
Technical Discussion » Houdini HD & Torque DTS files
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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1) Is anything that can be done in Houdini importable into Torque via DTS?
No, Houdini's ‘features’ are limited to what the DTS and DSQ formats support; read up on the Torque Art formats to find out what functionality is available with the two art formats.
3) Do we need extra add-on$ to be able to create those great effects we can see in the video tutorial section?
You will need a C++ coder who knows the Torque Game Engine versions, as this is the final environment for the art assets. Houdini doesn't create the ‘effects’ inside Torque, the ‘engine’ does all the realtime processing work.
5) What about Physics and interaction with other objects?
I am not certain how much of the ‘Houdini Physics’ will export…I imagine if you set up the other Rigid Body Object as a proper export and export it's animation…..I guess you could get a ‘baked’ version of a physics event inside Torque, but it would probably be much more realistic to put a physics library inside Torque, running at the same time…and use Torque for the rendering….
Hope this helps a bit, I would research up on the Art formats first!
No, Houdini's ‘features’ are limited to what the DTS and DSQ formats support; read up on the Torque Art formats to find out what functionality is available with the two art formats.
3) Do we need extra add-on$ to be able to create those great effects we can see in the video tutorial section?
You will need a C++ coder who knows the Torque Game Engine versions, as this is the final environment for the art assets. Houdini doesn't create the ‘effects’ inside Torque, the ‘engine’ does all the realtime processing work.
5) What about Physics and interaction with other objects?
I am not certain how much of the ‘Houdini Physics’ will export…I imagine if you set up the other Rigid Body Object as a proper export and export it's animation…..I guess you could get a ‘baked’ version of a physics event inside Torque, but it would probably be much more realistic to put a physics library inside Torque, running at the same time…and use Torque for the rendering….
Hope this helps a bit, I would research up on the Art formats first!
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Torque animation triggers
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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Make certain Ground Transforms are ‘Enabled’ for triggers to function in the engine. You can parse them out in the DSQ file; but without Ground Transforms, the engine will not place the Footprint Decals, Footstep sounds, or Footpuff particle system on the terrain.
Ground Transforms are needed for Death sequences as well, to prevent the engine from crashing.
Ground Transforms are needed for Death sequences as well, to prevent the engine from crashing.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Rigging my Character
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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I haven't checked in some time. I found the AutoRig system to, yes, export to DTS, but I found some issues with the ‘rig’/hierarchy it constructed with the render/'export' process. I'll try to explain my observations:
By nature, this ‘AutoRig’ system seems to use a ‘control’ object/rig to drive the ‘deforming’ rig which is interacting with the mesh object. This means that there are a few ‘objects’ in the Scene to ‘render’/export. You can select what object to export, this is where the “gotcha” comes in.
When I exported the mesh deforming rig and it's associated ‘mesh’, I did indeed get a mesh, with materials, bound to a ‘hierarchy’. However; it was not the ‘hierarchy’ I desired.
The rig that exported with the textured mesh, was not in a hierarchy of ‘branches’, with Parent/Child relationships. I got a single ‘Parent’ node and many, many Child nodes; and there was no interconnection/chain between the ‘branches’ as you would ‘expect’ to get. A ‘hieracrhy’ of chains. With AutoRig, you get a single ‘chain’….one Parent, with every other node a direct ‘child’ of this one Parent. This may seem ‘okay’ on the surface…
Now, you have this mesh bound to this odd rig…it DOES run any animation created by this setup and put to this particular rig. If you wish to manipulate this hierarchy ‘procedurally’ inside the engine, this ‘un-connectedness’ of the ‘children’, won't translate all of the nodes correctly, it would move the ONE ‘parent’ of a branch, but not any of it's ‘expected’ children,, since there is not direct Parenting to a node's ‘logical’ parent, just all nodes to a single ‘root’ node, B'ah, that ain't gonna work….outside HD.
I would perhaps try to ‘build a rig’ from the ground up, complete with IK setups, out of the native HD, ‘bones’ and use this as a ‘deforming’ rig and control rig, or roll your own “AutoRig” setup. My previous attempts with FBX Import were not stellar, to get a working rig to start with, it did something similar to what I was seeing upon ‘render’. Many single unconnected nodes to the ‘root’ of the shape. I could not get the native IK to work with just ‘joints’ and no ‘bones’ in the shape. At this point I had to move onto other pressing projects and haven't looked at this feature any further; perhaps things have changed since I was evaluating the render Node…
Hope this helps, I'd love to hear how the system works for you…
Cheers!
Rex
PS: I did follow the Quadra Ped autorig video, there is a portion where the video quality lags and you don't get a dropdown menu appearing correctly to show to get the parameters to the other node. Once I got passed that, I did get the quadra ped to function correctly. I then interpolated this video to a ‘human’ biped autoRig and that worked just as well as a control setup, but not a good TORQUE render/export.
I would follow any ‘groundUp’ tutorials on rigging…and leave autoRig alone for now??
By nature, this ‘AutoRig’ system seems to use a ‘control’ object/rig to drive the ‘deforming’ rig which is interacting with the mesh object. This means that there are a few ‘objects’ in the Scene to ‘render’/export. You can select what object to export, this is where the “gotcha” comes in.
When I exported the mesh deforming rig and it's associated ‘mesh’, I did indeed get a mesh, with materials, bound to a ‘hierarchy’. However; it was not the ‘hierarchy’ I desired.
The rig that exported with the textured mesh, was not in a hierarchy of ‘branches’, with Parent/Child relationships. I got a single ‘Parent’ node and many, many Child nodes; and there was no interconnection/chain between the ‘branches’ as you would ‘expect’ to get. A ‘hieracrhy’ of chains. With AutoRig, you get a single ‘chain’….one Parent, with every other node a direct ‘child’ of this one Parent. This may seem ‘okay’ on the surface…
Now, you have this mesh bound to this odd rig…it DOES run any animation created by this setup and put to this particular rig. If you wish to manipulate this hierarchy ‘procedurally’ inside the engine, this ‘un-connectedness’ of the ‘children’, won't translate all of the nodes correctly, it would move the ONE ‘parent’ of a branch, but not any of it's ‘expected’ children,, since there is not direct Parenting to a node's ‘logical’ parent, just all nodes to a single ‘root’ node, B'ah, that ain't gonna work….outside HD.
I would perhaps try to ‘build a rig’ from the ground up, complete with IK setups, out of the native HD, ‘bones’ and use this as a ‘deforming’ rig and control rig, or roll your own “AutoRig” setup. My previous attempts with FBX Import were not stellar, to get a working rig to start with, it did something similar to what I was seeing upon ‘render’. Many single unconnected nodes to the ‘root’ of the shape. I could not get the native IK to work with just ‘joints’ and no ‘bones’ in the shape. At this point I had to move onto other pressing projects and haven't looked at this feature any further; perhaps things have changed since I was evaluating the render Node…
Hope this helps, I'd love to hear how the system works for you…
Cheers!
Rex
PS: I did follow the Quadra Ped autorig video, there is a portion where the video quality lags and you don't get a dropdown menu appearing correctly to show to get the parameters to the other node. Once I got passed that, I did get the quadra ped to function correctly. I then interpolated this video to a ‘human’ biped autoRig and that worked just as well as a control setup, but not a good TORQUE render/export.
I would follow any ‘groundUp’ tutorials on rigging…and leave autoRig alone for now??
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Exporting animated texture with the Torque render node?
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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If I'm not out ‘giggin’ in the RealWorld, I'm most often sitting at my two workstations….and work remotely with Development Teams everywhere with MSNmessenger, IRC servers and more. My MSNmessenger contact info is BL_Rex-AT-hotmail-DOT-com.
I help out like this all day long, give me a ‘chat’ sometime for questions…..
I help out like this all day long, give me a ‘chat’ sometime for questions…..
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Exporting animated texture with the Torque render node?
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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Ack… RAR, installed on my other workstation…no matter.
I looked into this, and can say that I exported the ‘Example’ UV animation setup from the Torque ROP ‘Help’ examples and it worked exactly as I expected after export. I suggest you view the EXAMPLE files shipped with the ROP and interpolate….sorry to suggest your experience with the Torque Engine was not ‘advanced’. Mea Culpa, mea culpa.
I got it viewable in ShowToolPro, and would ‘expect’ the same behavior once inside the engine. I had a sequence named ‘Ambient’ with scrolling UV's….cyclic, worked with Play button; no scripting yet.
I'll try to get this RAR cracked open and look at how you've constructed the Scene.
The ‘feature’ does export….animated UV's.
So, in the HELP section of the ROP…you'll find working EXAMPLES of the supported features….good place to start when things go bonkers.
I looked into this, and can say that I exported the ‘Example’ UV animation setup from the Torque ROP ‘Help’ examples and it worked exactly as I expected after export. I suggest you view the EXAMPLE files shipped with the ROP and interpolate….sorry to suggest your experience with the Torque Engine was not ‘advanced’. Mea Culpa, mea culpa.
I got it viewable in ShowToolPro, and would ‘expect’ the same behavior once inside the engine. I had a sequence named ‘Ambient’ with scrolling UV's….cyclic, worked with Play button; no scripting yet.
I'll try to get this RAR cracked open and look at how you've constructed the Scene.
The ‘feature’ does export….animated UV's.
So, in the HELP section of the ROP…you'll find working EXAMPLES of the supported features….good place to start when things go bonkers.
Edited by - March 6, 2009 12:08:13
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Exporting animated texture with the Torque render node?
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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It's really difficult to ‘guess’ about files, is it possible to upload the Scene? DTS?
This ‘feature’ should be ‘working’, I believe there may even be an example in Help for it?
This ‘feature’ should be ‘working’, I believe there may even be an example in Help for it?
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Exporting animated texture with the Torque render node?
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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I hope you've setup the staff ‘magic’ animation sequence in the 'Sequence' Tab in the ROP to start. FrameCount, FPS, etc…need to be declared/written into the file with the ROP's entry fields.
The object in question, exported from Apprentice HD, and working ‘fine’ inside Houdini and the "SHOW TOOL PRO", might possibly need a Torque Script datablock with the ‘loaded sequence’ in a console ‘method’.
For example:
You have this ‘staff’, and it contains 'animation'. This is just the beginning of seeing it ‘working’ inside the engine at runTime.
The engine, does not know when to ‘play’ the sequence. The engine will not ‘automatically’ run a sequence, it needs to be ‘told’ when the sequence runs.
To continue the example:
You need to get the animation's internal ‘name’ of the sequence in the ROP, to be included in a function or method.
When objects are ‘placed’ inside the TGE, there is an automatic ‘callback’ :nAdd fired inside the engine. Inside this callback, you would script the staff animation to turn “ON”….to get the staff's animation ‘playing’ inside the engine/world. This ‘callback’ is fired for each object ‘placed’ in a Mission, so you 'know' that this line of code/script will be run and processed. This is the general ‘first place’ to get a sequence ‘running’. Of course, if there are special ‘instances’ of time where this sequence will play, you'll need to ‘script’ those commands as well. When the holder's ‘Damage State’ changes, if the holder ‘sees’ another type of opponent, it's endless…until you run out of bandwidth!
This is merely the beginning to getting your art ‘working’ inside Torque. You can have many sequences embeddd/loaded into a ‘shape’. It is the Torque Scripting that makes it ‘happen’ at runTime.
It sounds like you've got a properly setup shape inside Apprentice HD…and perhaps a proper DTS shape with animation. Getting animations viewed inside the engine like this is a FAQ for the Torque Artist.
I hope this helps somewhat, sounds like you're on the right track.
Rex
PS: the quickest and dirtiest method to check is is to name your animation 'ambient'…no quotes.
This namingConvention of ‘ambient’ on a sequence is like a hardcoded ‘callback’ function…if the sequence is named correctly, it ‘should’ fire with :nAdd callback automagically.
I wouldn't rely upon that ‘catchall’ to check though…I would give each animation a sequenceSpecific ‘name’ and script it's running via a datablock…
The object in question, exported from Apprentice HD, and working ‘fine’ inside Houdini and the "SHOW TOOL PRO", might possibly need a Torque Script datablock with the ‘loaded sequence’ in a console ‘method’.
For example:
You have this ‘staff’, and it contains 'animation
The engine, does not know when to ‘play’ the sequence. The engine will not ‘automatically’ run a sequence, it needs to be ‘told’ when the sequence runs.
To continue the example:
You need to get the animation's internal ‘name’ of the sequence in the ROP, to be included in a function or method.
When objects are ‘placed’ inside the TGE, there is an automatic ‘callback’ :nAdd fired inside the engine. Inside this callback, you would script the staff animation to turn “ON”….to get the staff's animation ‘playing’ inside the engine/world. This ‘callback’ is fired for each object ‘placed’ in a Mission, so you 'know' that this line of code/script will be run and processed. This is the general ‘first place’ to get a sequence ‘running’. Of course, if there are special ‘instances’ of time where this sequence will play, you'll need to ‘script’ those commands as well. When the holder's ‘Damage State’ changes, if the holder ‘sees’ another type of opponent, it's endless…until you run out of bandwidth!
This is merely the beginning to getting your art ‘working’ inside Torque. You can have many sequences embeddd/loaded into a ‘shape’. It is the Torque Scripting that makes it ‘happen’ at runTime.
It sounds like you've got a properly setup shape inside Apprentice HD…and perhaps a proper DTS shape with animation. Getting animations viewed inside the engine like this is a FAQ for the Torque Artist.
I hope this helps somewhat, sounds like you're on the right track.
Rex
PS: the quickest and dirtiest method to check is is to name your animation 'ambient'…no quotes.
This namingConvention of ‘ambient’ on a sequence is like a hardcoded ‘callback’ function…if the sequence is named correctly, it ‘should’ fire with :nAdd callback automagically.
I wouldn't rely upon that ‘catchall’ to check though…I would give each animation a sequenceSpecific ‘name’ and script it's running via a datablock…
Edited by - March 6, 2009 11:36:58
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Torque Render Node
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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Are you able to locate it under….File>>Export>>Torque Game Engine?
This will load a Torque ROP node in the Output Network and you can then continue setting up the Scene/object for export/'render'…or you can manually place the node inside it's own Output Network node or use the default network in the Scene graph. Good luck!
How about Tab>>Scene?? in any network pane?!?
Cheers!
This will load a Torque ROP node in the Output Network and you can then continue setting up the Scene/object for export/'render'…or you can manually place the node inside it's own Output Network node or use the default network in the Scene graph. Good luck!
How about Tab>>Scene?? in any network pane?!?
Cheers!
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Help with torque and initializing details from scene
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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Shapes used as ‘interiors’ or buildings to enter and exit are ‘typically’ constructed with BSP math in mind, and this is the ‘DIFF’ format; converted from .MAP files. This format has it's own set of caveats and workflow. The ROP does NOT support this fileType.
The DTS format is more typically used for animated or ‘nonStatic’ shapes. Houdini's Torque ROP will generate this type of file output. DSQ format is the animation counterpart of the DTS file and stores pertinent animation data for the DTS shapes to load and play at ‘runtime’.
You can have quite a few ‘Detail’ levels per mesh object, it depends upon your approach to optimization. I am uncertain as to a ‘maximum’ of levels of detail the DTS format will support. 20 seems excessive, even for large poly/complex shapes. I use about 8 ‘Detail’ levels in a human avatar shape.
It sounds as though you are using the DTS format to provide ‘interior’ shapes, and while this approach may work for certain types of gameplay, for a FPS or MMORPG, this may prove hard on optimization at a later point. Lighting, portalization…will prove a challenge, unless you have all this sorted from the start.
Can you give a few more specifics on your HD workflow and intent of the shape to help focus where you need the help?
The DTS format is more typically used for animated or ‘nonStatic’ shapes. Houdini's Torque ROP will generate this type of file output. DSQ format is the animation counterpart of the DTS file and stores pertinent animation data for the DTS shapes to load and play at ‘runtime’.
You can have quite a few ‘Detail’ levels per mesh object, it depends upon your approach to optimization. I am uncertain as to a ‘maximum’ of levels of detail the DTS format will support. 20 seems excessive, even for large poly/complex shapes. I use about 8 ‘Detail’ levels in a human avatar shape.
It sounds as though you are using the DTS format to provide ‘interior’ shapes, and while this approach may work for certain types of gameplay, for a FPS or MMORPG, this may prove hard on optimization at a later point. Lighting, portalization…will prove a challenge, unless you have all this sorted from the start.
Can you give a few more specifics on your HD workflow and intent of the shape to help focus where you need the help?
Technical Discussion » TGEA 1.8 and Houdini 9.5 - Torque Import Problem
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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Yes, I noticed oddity with the DTSPlus! exporter for Milkshape3D and auto generate a bounds. This may be a place for a start in cleaning up the code.
Glad you clarified things, always hard to localize where the bugs is start thru public Threads.
I maintained robotic lighting fixtures and when they would bring me a light; I always started with, “what's it doing/what's it not doing”….helped narrow things down quickly, as you begin to see ‘trends’ in breakdown over long periods, as I'm sure you're aware if you do this for a living, .
I'm also running a very early version of Apprentice HD and the ROP, I believe it has changed perhaps once since the gold release of 9.5.146 , as there have been many ‘public’ builds since then and I have no idea of the inner workings of the script side of the program. And this version even says ‘Public Beta’ on the splash…guess it's time to download another release version…
Good luck out there!
Glad you clarified things, always hard to localize where the bugs is start thru public Threads.
I maintained robotic lighting fixtures and when they would bring me a light; I always started with, “what's it doing/what's it not doing”….helped narrow things down quickly, as you begin to see ‘trends’ in breakdown over long periods, as I'm sure you're aware if you do this for a living, .
I'm also running a very early version of Apprentice HD and the ROP, I believe it has changed perhaps once since the gold release of 9.5.146 , as there have been many ‘public’ builds since then and I have no idea of the inner workings of the script side of the program. And this version even says ‘Public Beta’ on the splash…guess it's time to download another release version…
Good luck out there!
Technical Discussion » TGEA 1.8 and Houdini 9.5 - Torque Import Problem
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
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Ahhhh, auto bounds…ugh. I always build my own…and if I remember from the DTSplus! exporter with auto bounds creation, it ‘padded’ the shape's dimensions to put the bottom of the box, below the ground plane; and this was not good, as it artificially ‘lowered’ the origin to below ground level, making objects ‘sink’ into the terrain. I bet the same bit of code is doing something similar, perhaps? Padding the dimensions, obviously not autogenerating correctly.
Glad to see you kept at it, and let me get this straight so I can commit it to memory; this same shape with auto bounds generation…was NOT crashing TGE 1.5.2, not crashing TGEA 1.7x only crashing TGEA 1.8? And any ‘custom’ bounds was clean in all versions?
Thanks.
Glad to see you kept at it, and let me get this straight so I can commit it to memory; this same shape with auto bounds generation…was NOT crashing TGE 1.5.2, not crashing TGEA 1.7x only crashing TGEA 1.8? And any ‘custom’ bounds was clean in all versions?
Thanks.
Technical Discussion » TGEA 1.8 and Houdini 9.5 - Torque Import Problem
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
- Offline
Ya…goofy, how a ‘release’ version is NOT crashing the engine; while the ‘deBug’ version is….I'd keep hammering away from that vector.
? What is going on in the debug binary that is not happening in the release version, and does it matter, if the ‘release’ is not crashing to desktop?
Try to get an ‘official’ answer from a GG employee on this, be great to know what is going on here….
? What is going on in the debug binary that is not happening in the release version, and does it matter, if the ‘release’ is not crashing to desktop?
Try to get an ‘official’ answer from a GG employee on this, be great to know what is going on here….
Technical Discussion » TGEA 1.8 and Houdini 9.5 - Torque Import Problem
- DrFrankenRex
- 69 posts
- Offline
Ah….a ‘clue’…the ‘Detailmap’ shape…which would be some extra material goofiness, me tinks.
This sounds more and more like a ‘material’/Render issue with this build, and detail mapping, which I am not sure was ever ‘supported’ in the engine, while the DTS format itself supports this feature, I believe, check into that. That the feature of the DTS file is not supported by your version of TGEA.
…and is this the only ‘example’ fileshape, that causes this assertion error, in Debug build? I have heard another report about a HD dts shape crashing the engine, but can't remember at moment which build of engine, but I am pretty certain it was in a ‘deBug’.exe, where this occured; while a ‘release’ build functioned fine, also look into that perhaps.
This sounds more and more like a ‘material’/Render issue with this build, and detail mapping, which I am not sure was ever ‘supported’ in the engine, while the DTS format itself supports this feature, I believe, check into that. That the feature of the DTS file is not supported by your version of TGEA.
…and is this the only ‘example’ fileshape, that causes this assertion error, in Debug build? I have heard another report about a HD dts shape crashing the engine, but can't remember at moment which build of engine, but I am pretty certain it was in a ‘deBug’.exe, where this occured; while a ‘release’ build functioned fine, also look into that perhaps.
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