XSI Exporter Update

Post by **sinbad** » Tue May 10, 2005 12:03 am

A new release of the XSI Exporter is now available, v1.0.1c.

Changes in this version:
- Added material exporting
- Added animation sampling (handle IK, other constraints seamlessly)
- Fixed vertex output format for software skinning
- Fixed a problem with translation keyframes
- Added optimisation of resulting animations (eliminate identity tracks, collapse identical keyframes)
- Fixed frame -> time conversion with varying Action bases
- Reorganised GUI a little
- Deal with case-insensitive fcurve references
- Linux build fixes
- Documentation bits and bobs I didn't have time for before

The binary release is just Windows, but as of yesterday night, it built on Linux too so if any of you are using XSI on Linux it should work there too.

Click here to download!

alphageek · Post by **alphageek** » Tue May 10, 2005 9:54 am

Nice one.

P · Post by P » Tue May 10, 2005 1:20 pm

Few IRC speaking -> lot of work

But Sinbad is different, he is speaking a lot and working a lot

Nice !

mash · Post by **mash** » Tue May 10, 2005 5:08 pm

H! Sinbad,

I would like to compile your new XSI exporter under Linux.
Have you got a makefile?

Thanks,
Mash

Zen Ken · Post by **Zen Ken** » Tue May 10, 2005 6:11 pm

Sinbad,
Thanks for the update! I'm looking forward to testing out the IK-FK conversion. Btw, I tested out the standard biped rig (enveloped to the man polymesh), and I exported ALL the standard animations (poses). One thing I noticed was that when it was done exported, the head was bent over to the model's right (left looking at it head on) at an abnormal angle. I'm not sure what that was..., but everything was exported/tested into ogre fine. Thanks again for all the hard work!

Sincerely,
Ken

Post by **sinbad** » Tue May 10, 2005 8:05 pm

I would like to compile your new XSI exporter under Linux.
Have you got a makefile?

Not at this time - I don't have XSI on a Linux box, this has been tested by another user on IRC (whose nick I can't remember - how embarassing). Anyway, it shouldn't be too hard to make one, you just have to link to OgreMain and the standard XSI libs.

@Zen Ken: Was this using the new exporter? The standard XSI rigs still need re-sampling since they all appear to have at least one constraint - typically linking the SpineRoot to the COG node. Exporting without sampling can lose the SpineRoot animation. The sampling resolves the complications of all constraints, not just IK.

icemilk · Post by **icemilk** » Wed May 11, 2005 4:10 am

well done! thanx a lot fot the update

mash · Post by **mash** » Wed May 11, 2005 10:33 am

You can download XSI 4.2 Foundation for Linux 30 day trial from www.softimage.com.

Rixeh · Post by **Rixeh** » Wed May 11, 2005 5:28 pm

Plugins don't work with the trial version. (Mail Softimage and complain.

)

mash · Post by **mash** » Wed May 11, 2005 9:19 pm

OgreXSIExporter working fine with the XSI 4.2 Foundation Trial for Windows, but I want to export under Linux.

Post by **sinbad** » Wed May 11, 2005 9:43 pm

Linux makefiles have been added to CVS (v1-0 branch). Thanks to kerick for doing that, and I apologise for forgetting your nick earlier

I was under the impression that no plugins worked in the trial editions on any platform. I had several reports of this problem from Windows users on the last release.

Rixeh · Post by **Rixeh** » Wed May 11, 2005 9:48 pm

I think I'll try it again with the latest exporter...

Edit: Quick update FYI ASAP TBH BBQ OMG (

) -- this version of the exporter does in fact work with the trial version of Foundation. So now you can actually get a feel for how things export into Ogre without going on faith.

Slicky · Post by **Slicky** » Sat May 14, 2005 9:53 pm

I just tried the latest exporter. The mesh size is smaller than a previous export (my mesh is quite large 2mb) and I now get this error when running my app:

-----------------------------------
Details:
-----------------------------------
Error #: -2005530516
Function: D3D9HardwareIndexBuffer::D3D9HardwareIndexBuffer
Description: Cannot create D3D9 Index buffer: Invalid call.
File: \Files\Cvs\Ogre\ogrenew\RenderSystems\Direct3D9\src\OgreD3D9HardwareIndexBuffer.cpp
Line: 60
Stack unwinding: <<beginning of stack>>

I'd like you to try the file maybe if I can find you on irc.

Post by **sinbad** » Sat May 14, 2005 11:24 pm

The exporter switches to 32-bit indexes if your mesh is very large - does your card support 32-bit indexes? 2Mb for a .mesh is pretty big. I'll need to see it.

Slicky · Post by **Slicky** » Sun May 15, 2005 2:47 am

One other thing I just noticed. I don't think the centre of the object as translated in xsi is retained on export.

Post by **sinbad** » Sun May 15, 2005 12:25 pm

No, it's not. This is because many objects are often merged during export, so using any one centre of any of them wouldn't be correct. The model is exported in global coords - most people seem to model individual models that way anyhow, looking at all the samples I've had so far (and in the XSI samples - all are centred with their feet on y=0).

Zen Ken · Post by **Zen Ken** » Thu May 19, 2005 1:53 am

Dumb question (because I know it's probably something simple).

Model export - check!
Animation export - check!
Material export - NO

I can't get any material to correctly export. I tried exporting the simple biped man texture (just to see if it would work properly) and all I'm getting is a whited out character. Something I'm doing wrong with XSI that's causing it to not be exported? Thanks again for any help. FYI, the animation exporter works great!

-Ken

Post by **haffax** » Thu May 19, 2005 11:45 am

Does the exporter create a .material file? if yes, what is in it?

Post by **sinbad** » Thu May 19, 2005 9:24 pm

The exporter only picks up materials hooked into the 'RealTime' shader link on the material - it won't pick up offline shaders. You can put GL or D3D (the GLs ones are a little more flexible for some reason) XSI shader objects in a chain linking up to the RealTime port and it will export.
ie:

The blue OGL classes will get exported since they're RealTime, the Lambert will not since it's offline.

Baldrake · Post by **Baldrake** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 11:57 pm

In what form would you like feedback on the XSI Exporter, Sinbad? We've been using it for the last week or so, and have run into various crash bugs as well as a number of unintuitive failures to export.

We assume you know about the crash bugs and aren't interested in bug reports on them. But are you interested in hearing about cases where it appears that you have to go through hoops in XSI to get a model that Ogre can deal with? In these cases, it's not always clear to us if the problem is a bug or intended behaviour of the exporter. Is it best to PM you the URL of a model illustrating the problem?

We really appreciate all your work on this exporter, Sinbad. And so we want to contribute to problem determination and reporting in a way that you find efficient.

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