Lightwave rigged character export crash

#1 I'm currently having the same problem, I emailed Dave the DTS exporter creator but haven't heard back. I am also not getting textures to come into the show tool either.

I believe the problem is because the weight maps share vertices, but it's pretty much impossible to not share vertices between some weight maps. And some vertices that didn't have wieght maps on my mesh got pulled and stretched from the mesh. Also the root pose was not veiwable, but the walk cycle seq exposed the character..go figure.

Still waiting for word from Dave, I sent him my files for dissection.

#2 Dave Wyand got back from a trip just monday and had come down with a cold to boot. I don't think he's been to work in a while.

The exporter has some problems, but you need to make sure that frame 0 is the root pose for the skin, otherwise weird stretching will occur with bone poses, especially IK.

In the example files, the spider is parented to a 'shapebase' null, you may want to try that, and make sure it is exported as a node.

I haven't used autocharactersetup, but I have successfully exported Ik to the engine.

The model doesn't have to have a collision mesh.

Every single point in the model *must* be named into *some* weightmap to 100%, otherwise it will not move correctly with the model, that's in the documentation. A single point can be referenced in multiple weightmaps (I've never needed more than 4, so I don't know above that.) Anything referenced less than 100% will lag behind, and anything more will multiply ahead.

As far as animation not exporting, if you're not use weightmaps, use them, if you are: Make sure each needed node has rotation and possibly position checked (esp, for mount0, etc).

I know that my info isn't 100% accurate, but it seems like a few things to try, esp. if ACS doesn't use weightmaps, that'll be your first step, since bone influence in the exporter is read solely from the maps.

_Dave Loomis (some random guy)

edit: won speling erroar, and won clairty isue

#3 Yes, you HAVE to use weight maps with bones. Period, otherwise the animation will not export.

Thanks David, I got some insight from your your post and will try a few things.

Teri -

Using ASC4 for a game is a "LOT" overkill don't ya think? Unless you know absolutely nothing about rigging. I'm using a on IK chain setup for the legs with one IK goal for the heel. Really you don't need the toes to bend. SO one Ik chain per leg is good. You can control the toetip placement through keyframing.

For the arms I'm just using standard FK.

Donald

#4 - Hip (Unaffected by IK)
--|-KneeEffector (Use to control knee direction on the bank channel)
----|- Thigh (IK - Pitch/Heading)
--------|- Shin (IK Pitch or Heading, not both)
-----------|- FootRoll (IK_goal to "IK_L_Goal" or "IK_R_Goal") IK always on, match direction, Keep goal in reach, strength=75
---------------|- Heelbone
---------------|- Footbone
------------------|-Foot_ToeTip

That's how I set mine up Teri.

#5 R u guys modeling with triangles? becuase quads dont work well with torque

#6 I don't think any game accepts quads... Micheal... BTW to convert everything to TRI's Teri, in modeler press "Shift+T". Make sure you turn on smoothing for your texture's and don't use "Box" UV coordinates either.

I also have a lightwave Flow chart in the resource sections that I created for my last game I worked on, it can be found here...

http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=7461

and here:

http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=3333

#7 Glad to see the questions got answered.