A:M 13 poses and constraints problem!

[Paul Forwood]

I have been trying to progress with the low-patch model that you may have seen in another thread. I have added a backpack, bedroll and some dynamic constraints, bringing the total patches up to 758 now, but something is messing up the eye poses and the dynamics are not working at all.

 

Are other people getting similar problems with alpha 10?

 

[attachmentid=15255]

[itsjustme]

I got an error while downloading....are you using the Squetch Rig or something else, Paul?

[Paul Forwood]

TSM2 for the main rig.

My additions are the intermediate bones for joints, pupil pose sliders parented to the head bone, some dynamic bones parented to varoius spine bones and two pose sliders setup to do some simple eyelid poses with without bones.

 

Dynamics seem to be completely broken in this version. Can't edit any of the values in the dynamic options.

 

Or is it just me? ;-)

 

I'm not sure why you would get an error downloading, Mark, though you may need to have QT7 installed as I set the looping flag with the new QT viewer.

[KenH]

No such problems here with the TWO characters. I think Martin was toying with the idea of using SHIFT 8 too turn off not only particles but also dynamics. Maybe they did it?

[Paul Forwood]

Hmmm. Thanks, Ken, but I just tried that and turning off/on particles doesn't have any affect on dynamics here.

 

I am wondering if this is something to do with bringing characters with rigs into Alpha 10 from A:M 11.1i or A:M 12.

 

I will make a simple test model in Alpha 10 that uses the same kind of constraints and poses and see if I get the same problems. Maybe A:M 13 requires all the rigging to be done in A:M 13. I don't think all the TWO models were rigged in A:M 13 though were they?

 

Oh, Happy St. Patricks Day to you!

[itsjustme]

I don't think all the TWO models were rigged in A:M 13 though were they?

 

No, there were several that were begun in v12 and added to in v13...so I don't think that's the problem.

 

though you may need to have QT7 installed as I set the looping flag with the new QT viewer.

 

I have QT7, it's probably my provider...things like that have happened before.

[MattWBradbury]

Holy Smokes! Alpha 10 is out?! I'll have to get that. The problem isn't that noticeable to me. I didn't see it until I read the note that it was bad.

[MMZ_TimeLord]

If you built your dynamics in Alpha 9, then it could be that the file you saved from there was 'broke' in the first place. There was an error with dynamic constraints not being created properly with Alpha 9.

 

The bug was reported by me and fixed in Alpha 10.

 

I had tried to change settings in Alpha 9 on the drawbridge dynamic chain I had and it broke the constraint functionality. I tried to create a brand new chain in Alpha 9 and it broke the constraint functionality.

 

When I imported a pre-Alpha 9 model with working dynamic constraints, it didn't break as long as I didn't try and change any settings in the dynamic constraints.

 

The constraints on my drawbridge chains work just fine in Alpha 10.

 

EDIT: Actually looking at my A:M report, it has not been labled as fixed in Alpha 10, it was a different bug.

[Paul Forwood]

Thanks, Jody! That is pretty much what I have been thinking. I will try importing a version of this model that was rigged, and works, in A:M 11.1i into alpha 10 and see if it functions correctly.

[Paul Forwood]

Eureka!!!

 

After many frustrating hours of bringing models from A:M11 and A:M12 into A:M13, deleting constraints and then poses, rebuilding constraints and poses, testing and... failing... I finally found the culprit, I think!

 

I tried completely deleting the dynamic bones and constraints that were not working, saving, reopening and creating new bones to replace the ones that I had deleted. When I applied new dynamic constraints and tested them they still wouldn't work and I still couldn't set any of their properties. I just couldn't figure it out.

 

Finally, after doing it all over again many times, I started to wonder if A:M was retaining some information on the old constraints somewhere that was being passed on to the new bones somehow. I stripped out all the faulty constraints and bones one more time and rebuilt them but this time I had the good sense to use a different name for the bones. Eureka!!! It worked!!!

 

So A:M must be retaining redundant data when bones and constraints are deleted. I will send this into A:M Reports.

 

Pheeewww!

 

Thanks for everyone's help!

[KenH]

Good to see you found the problem. Satisfying huh?

[Paul Forwood]

Satisfying? Yes, but I would like all those wasted hours back so that I can use them more creatively. ;-)

 

I haven't solved the muscle pose problem yet so I'm not completely out of the woods yet.

 

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Well, an hour and a half later and I am back in the wilderness!

I brought in another model with the same problem but deleting all bones, constraints and actions before rebuilding with different names hasn't solved the problem with dynamic constraints. I'm right back where I was with the other model.

[MMZ_TimeLord]

EDIT from my above post: Actually looking at my A:M report, it has not been labled as fixed in Alpha 10, it was a different bug.

[Paul Forwood]

Well, I'm still puzzled by this. Others are apparently not having this problem with alpha 10.

 

I have reinstalled the update and have done the DIVX update aswell. It seemed to improve things...well...enough to do this test render, but as you can see the dynamics didn't work. The hat, shirt tails and backpack should all be displaying dynamic motion but they're as stiff as this lad's walk!

 

[attachmentid=15310]

 

 

 

[attachmentid=15320]

 

Edit:(Managed to get a Sorenson3 version with lower file size so posted this one instead.)

 

A:M 13 is refusing to run this project now. It opens and then freezes.

Maybe I should clean out the registry but I don't really know what I'm doing in there. If anyone can point me to clear instructions on getting a clean and solid installation of A:M I would be very grateful. Also if anyone knows what are the bare essential programs to have running on an XP Pro machine in order to give A:M the best working environment that would be really useful!

[martin]

A:M 13 is refusing to run this project now. It opens and then freezes.

Maybe I should clean out the registry but I don't really know what I'm doing in there. If anyone can point me to clear instructions on getting a clean and installation of A:M I would be very grateful.

Paul, send this baby in to A:M Reports. I'll have somebody look at it.

[KenH]

He's a cool unique looking model Paul. I wonder if all the game characters will be like that?

And he sure is taking an interest in that plant.

 

He's so efficient, I could see him running round in Hamre. Imagine being able to control him inside a Hamre browser applet(?)! The whole game could be done like that!

 

Hold the phone (sorry, got shrek in my head), I'm going to find those clean re-install instructions.

 

Edit: Found it in the FAQ:

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...584entry14584

[Paul Forwood]

AH! Cool! That's what I need, I think.

 

Thanks, Ken!

 

So once I have cleared out all traces of previous A:M installments I intend ot reinstall versions 11.1i, 12.0t and 13 alpha 10. Or is this likely to reintroduce problems?

 

Do I need to reinstall the A:Mstuff file, (or whatever it was called), for any of these versions and are there any other installations that I need?