Blender 2.61 and 2.57 Problems

#1 Okay, I figured out part of the issue. Do NOT set your IK to track anything but a BONE! It will mess up bad if you do!

Now that is settled does anyone know how to bake an IK sequence in 2.6?

#2 Holy crap what a pain! I finally found my answer for baking animations like IK stuff.
wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Phabtar/Full_COLLADA_Animation_Support_for_Blend...

I vaguely remember doing this kind of stuff before. I will have to figure out how to add a nice key to the interface so I can find this stupid function! I now have a very simplistically animated armature using Collada export for Blender 2.61.

Maybe this post will save someone else a LOT of time.

#3 I just started Blender after watching 100's of videos on modeling, I using version 2.62 and so far it works great, but I refuse to change and use old software to be compatible with something I spent $$$ on that's one of the best game engines around.

#4 This is for T3D:
www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/129530

T3D supports Collada just fine. Textures work great, follow the thread to use them properly.

#5 Thanks Frank,

Seems your like me, having problems getting support for Blender, if we used MAX there be 500 people helping out.

#6 That is the reason they went to Collada. So they can reduce the support to 3rd party tech. No, I am not having issues with getting support for a 3rd party app.

The reason ppl are not jumping in is because they have experience with diff stuff. It is possible that nobody at GG knows Blender. Should they know every possible app out there? No. They don't have the time. They should be concentrating on their product and nothing else. Using the collada pipeline gives them that ability. If I want support for Blender I will go to the Blender website.

#7 Well that maybe true Frank, I don't expect everyone to know every software package too, I guess I'm just mad cuz it's hard to get help sometimes.
I mean how can you make a game if you can't get answers.
Back to my books.
Sorry Frank not grouching at you dude!

I am wondering how ever, how everyone can afford MAX?? It's like $5000
give +- something...

#8 @Michael - I got my copy by attending school and taking advantage of student pricing. Picked up MAX 3.1 for $300. After that, just keep up with them and you get the upgrade price, which saves you tons of money. Or you can stick with the version you got originally and work with it until you've managed to sell a game and then let that finance your software (something we all hope for).

I know that the student deal has changed for Autodesk products lately, but it's still probably worth looking into.

#9 They now do a free version I think, for students but I'm not sure how useful it is, most free software from companies that sell it normally, have something missing out of them, I'v even seen full blown free software that did everything, BUT you couldn't save any files! Lol

I think I'll just you Blender, I'v already kind of jumped into it and purchased books and videos and I'm getting pretty good at it!

Thanks Richard for the Commit maybe it will help someone else looking to get into Max.

#10 @Frank, I had modded a version of blender not too long ago, (maybe 2.60) that did exactly what you wanted. It baked IK into the DAE animation. It also stopped the model from going all wonky when switching between Pose and Root when the IKs were active.

I just grabbed the 2.62 source and I see they changed the Collada exporter a lot since then. I'll see what I can do about making a patch for 2.62 and submitting it.

#11 Here is an older build (2.58) r38859 of blender I did. It bakes all IK constraints into the DAE export, resamples every frame, and also stops the model from going all goofy when switching between edit modes.

This is the win32 version.
Blender_2.58.1_r38859_Winx86.zip

If you want to build it yourself, or see the changes I made:

1. Install an SVN client.
2. Get the source.

D:Blenderblender>svn co https://svn.blender.org/svnroot/bf-blender/trunk/blender --revision 38859

D:Blender> svn co https://svn.blender.org/svnroot/bf-blender/trunk/lib/windows --revision 38859

3. Apply my patch file
I used Cygwin's 'patch' command to do this. I'm sure you can use tortise SVN as well.

4. Grab CMake

5. Point CMake to D:Blenderblender (or ever where you installed the source)

5. Click 'Configure'

6. Make sure put a check mark next to 'OpenCollada'

7. Click Generate

8. This will create a Visual Studio project for you. Open the project in VS, Switch to from 'Debug' to 'Release. Select the 'INSTALL' project and build. Done.

Again, these steps are only need if you want to build it yourself.

v2.62 of blender has vastly changed the collada export. A number of things that I don't really like. First, they are no longer resampling every keyframe. This can cause issues in Torque (you may see a joint flop around strangely). Their method for stepping through the animation, although faster, doesn't lend to the need of baking IK into the frames. I will need some time to see what I can do there after I speak with them. In any case, this build of blender will solve your problems :-)

#12 Hmmm, maybe this should be hosted somewhere. Cough...GG...TDN...cough...

I could probably host the file and provide a link on TDN or something. I will definitely have to look into this. Thanks for taking the time to post this.

#13 Let me know how it works for you. I made the changes because I ran into the same frustrations you have. Blender is an awesome 3D modeling tool and the price is definitely right. I certainly don't mind hosting the files. I've got more bandwidth that I know what to do with. I think I posted this build in the forums last summer if I remember right. I really haven't had a compelling reason to move to 2.62, but I will look at making changes in that as well for those that need the new features in 2.6