Fuchur

Hi guys, I just wanted to let you guys know that there is a new tutorial on how to export from A:M to Unity (a gameengine using the FBX-format) on my website. Video-Tutorial: A:M2Unity3d. Another tutorial can be found here about how to export from A:M to Quest3d. (a 3d engine using the directX-format) Video-Tutorial: A:M2Quest3d. Hope you find them useful! See you *Fuchur*

Have a very nice day Luuk! Best wishes *Fuchur*

I did the pipeline again and it worked well: 1.) A:M: DirectX-Export-Plugin. 2.) Fragmotion: Import DirectX > Export using Milkshape-Format. 3.) Milkshape: Open Milkshape-Format > Export Alias FBX 4.) Unity: Import FBX. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I did a video-tutorial on the pipeline here: Video Tutorial A:M2Unity3d / A:M2FBX Hope you guys like it and can use it! Best wishes *Fuchur*

Although possible, so when I last tried it, it had a buggy importer at XSI too... See you *Fuchur*

DirectX > Fragmotion (quite inexpensive, well known in the game-industry) > Milkshape (free) > FBX... that is the possible pipeline... See you *Fuchur*

You need a bone-hierchy, right? Otherwise you can use an OBJ-file with the MDD-export-plugin. > OBJ provides the geometrie, mdd the animation (on a CP-level). Other than that: You may be able to use Fragmotion. I heard of people using it with the directx-export from A:M. It can export to several game-engines after that, so not to FBX or Collada. It can however export to Milkshape and Milkshape can export to FBX. I would like an FBX or Collada-exporter too, but till then this is an unexpensive way to get A:M-models to Unity. Another, shorter but although much more expensive way is to use Right Hemispheres Deep Exploration. So I didn't test this route yet... it is however one of the most powerful converter-programms out there. See you *Fuchur*

I would not use a 5-point-patch for the dead-end-spline. That one is perfectly suited for a hook. However I would although try to not set the hook next to the 5-pointer but try to set it a spline-loop away from the 5-pointer. That should solve the problems you are having there. See you *Fuchur*

Still I think that A:M offers the most intuitiv and easy way of doing it. Select something, and the selection is the rotationpoint. select something else and that one is the point... very fast, very easy to understand and very powerful. You just need to get a little mor experience if you ask me... There is no easier way in A:M to work with so... everything else is much more complicated (like translating the black-bone / model-bone, etc.) See you *Fuchur*

For Example the mousePointer ist used to determine the rotationpoint or there is a static point defined before or the object pivot or the global pivot etc. Keep in mind that most programms use a global space only... A:M has a great and intuitive way doing it. See u *Fuchur*

I cant think of anything... so I find this is a very intuitive way doing it. Best I have ever seen in A:M, because it is so easy to see what you are rotating around. In other programms that is much more complicated... See you *Fuchur*

Try this. If you have CPs in a symmetrical model that have lost contact with their mirrored counterparts in "Mirror Mode" after "Copy/FlipAttach", you can reconnect them as follows; First turn Mirror Mode OFF. Then left click the troublesome CP to select it. Now right click on the selected CP and a contextual menu will appear. From it select "Snap to Mirrored point(s)". Turn "Mirror Mode back on and they should be reconnected now. Thanks for the guidance. I recall using it before but it didn't work for me, must have been because mirror mode was still on. I'll toy around with it some more, and make sure mirror mode is toggled off. I tested it and it seems to have to do with the Mirror-Mode-Tolerance (and / or the group-snap-tolerance) - value. If the difference of the mirrored CP is larger than the tolerance-values, it won't work. Have a look at "Tools > Options > Modelling" and see if you can get it to work. For my test it worked when I increased the tolerance-values there. See you *Fuchur*

Try this. If you have CPs in a symmetrical model that have lost contact with their mirrored counterparts in "Mirror Mode" after "Copy/FlipAttach", you can reconnect them as follows; First turn Mirror Mode OFF. Then left click the troublesome CP to select it. Now right click on the selected CP and a contextual menu will appear. From it select "Snap to Mirrored point(s)". Turn "Mirror Mode back on and they should be reconnected now. Wow, thanks Mark, I didn't know that one! See you *Fuchur*

... just to make it clear: You are rendering the right frame, right? You need to render frame 29 (actually 29,5, but that is not a real frame, so 29 or 30 should look very similar to your realtime-view) See you *Fuchur*

Does it change anything when you use "Global Axis"? See you *Fuchur*

Wow... v5? how old is that? Do you really think someone has one of those installed? My first one is v8, and even that is ancient... What do you need it for? See you *Fuchur*

Dont think so... Maybe you can test if a 1pass is enough for the depth buffer (maybe blured?) and render the images in the usual way?

Have a very great day! *Fuchur*

You will want to be a little careful assigning an IP address in the range that your router might give out addresses. A problem can happen when a new device comes online, and the DHCP server (in the router) gives out 198.162.1.5 to that new device, and there is a conflict with your existing device. There is usually a configuration value in the router to specify the range of DHCP addresses it will give out, frequently by default it is 1-50 or 1-100. One thing you can do is change the router to give out dynamic IP addresses beginning at 100, and reserve 2-99 for your static addresses (1 is usually the router itself). Yep, may cause problems. Easiest way to get around that: Assign a IP-address that is unlikely to be given out like 198.162.1.200. It is unlikely that you use 200 ip-addresses in the next time. Dont use 254 so. This one is although often given to a second router / etc. because it is at the end of the range. Your address is a little strange to me so. 192.168.1.5 / 192.168.0.5 would be much more common, so you may not run into trouble anyway. See you *Fuchur*

I dont think so. You will have to close the renderslave and reopen it. I saw those bugs in the first releases of v16 alpha but they are no longer common. So I think it could be some trouble with the network-speed. When my homeserver was running slow due to a ethernet-driver issue it happend all the time. Then I updated it and I never had a hanging renderslave again. Maybe you can write a request to only wait a specified time for a new frame and if it doesnt receive one, it should reopen the renderslave automatically. For now: Close the renderslave and reopen it. You wont loose any data but the frame that was currently rendered by the slave. (I pressume you are rendering to image-sequences) See you *Fuchur*

In general, the IP of your computer will not change if you reboot provided the router discovers your computer as the one which tried it before and your router isn't rebooted too. It should than recognize it and give it the same IP again, if possible (this depends on the router so) and there aren't some kind of ip-conflicts... If you take your laptop (by the way not very well suited for rendering anyway in general) to another network it can be a problem. Don't know exactly what happens then. However (at least at windows-pcs) you can assign an internally static IP-adress for your network anyway and the server should always be accessable there. I do that all the time with my homeserver and myl client-pcs (homeserver doesnt run all the time but is often shut down). See you *Fuchur*

I like the character very much (especially the smoothness you got with the low amount of splineage) and the bird is very nice looking! Keep up the good work! If I had to change something I would rework the ears so they are a little more volumetric... more weighted. See you *Fuchur*

There are three possibilities to export something from A:M with animation. - DirectX > Quite advanced export-plugin which can provide CP-weight and bones-animation, texture, material and geometry options. There is a video-tutorial on my website which provides a workflow between A:M and Quest3d. It should be transferable to other 3d engines / game engines as well. - Torque > This one is available on my website too, so I cant really help you much with it. I never used it and I am just offering it on my website so it is not lost. I did not programm it so. - OBJ + MDD > This one is quite new (add maybe half a year ago) and will export no bone-animation but animation on a CP-base. That means, you can export any animation-type you want (including smartskin-animation, bone-animation, CP-animation, expression, skaling, poses, etc.). OF course the types are not maintained so. You will find my video-tutorial on A:M to DirectX here: A:M 2 DirectX / Quest3d A 3d-application I created with A:M, Quest3d and partly another 3d-software can be found here: My diploma thesis Hope I could help a little. I dont have too bad experiences with 5-pointers so. They may not transfer perfectly, but if you keep them small and you make sure the normals are facing the right way, they behaved always okay for me with Quest3d. See you *Fuchur*

Did you deactivate the dynamics after you baked the particles? See you *Fuchur*

I think you can use up to 8 cores with the new version, so I am not totally sure about that. 8 of course is only possible if you have a 8 core cpu of course. See you *Fuchur*