3dsMax Exporter - TVA Skin Exporter Completely Broken

[sybixsus]

I've spent all day just trying to export one model from 3dsMax. I've tried every conceivable combination of things, but there's obviously a bug in the exporter. I've got my actor positioned at 0,0,0 with the actor's pivot also at 0,0,0. In 3dsMax the feet of the model are exactly at ground height. When I export and load into ModelView, the centre of the mesh is about at the height of the knees. Also, there is no animation.

If I export as an animated x file ( still using your 3dsMax 9 skin plugin ) the animation exports correctly and the model is centered correctly. This doesn't help, of course, because I can't add any animations to the model. If I add animations in code and call SaveTVA, it breaks the model centering and loses all my animation, so it's evidently a problem with your SaveTVA code. If I make any changes or additions in ModelView, the same thing, and ModelView doesn't have an option to export to X, it seems.

If I export as a mesh instead of an actor, the mesh is centered correctly. No help, of course, because there's no animation as a mesh, but just hoping this information helps lead to a quick bugfix as my project is dead if I can't get any content into it. In fact, my game is pretty much crippled by bugs at the moment. I came back to export some new media because I hoped it might solve the ( worsening ) problems with stencil shadows, but now I've just run into another bug as well.

I couldn't find any way to upload a file without making it public except for starting a support ticket, so that's what I've done. Load the X file ( exported using your plugin ) into ModelView, then save to TVA and reload to see both issues.

This is with the 3dsMax 9 Skin exporter.

[sybixsus]

I realise that - as someone who is entirely dependant upon TV3D for my ability to eat, and pay bills,etc - I'm massively in the minority, but I've now lost two full days of work and it seems likely that it will be at least a few more. Would it be too much just to acknowledge receipt of the actor that I sent? At least then I know that the time isn't passing pointlessly because you don't even have the model.

On a related subject, is there some alternative support contract beyond the standard license? I notice that bugs reported by some people are taken more seriously and dealt with more quickly than those reported by others. So since this is costing me about £200 a day every time I hit critical bugs like this, it would make sense for me to be on this additional support contract.

[SylvainTV]

Well you know that I have some problems to get a Internet connection in the week for now.
And only available on weekends. Moreover I'm weak and sick today, and it doesn't help.

So I just got the model tonight, and will make some tests tomorrow, it's maybe not a big bug.

Some options for now :
Try the Panda exporter or the new KiloWatt .X exporter : http://kwxport.sourceforge.net/
You never know, they might work directly.

However if I understood well, the problem seems to be in SaveTVA right? So it has nothing to do with the .X exporting ? .X is 100% correct, even in TV ?
TVA exporter actually uses SaveTVA internally, so I suppose that SaveTVA is the real culprit here.

[sybixsus]

Hi Sylvain,

Thanks for the reply.

No, actually, I had no idea that you had internet connection problems or that you were sick. Of course I realize that things happen and there are bad times, and I don't expect an immediate fix. I just thought that with three(?) of you on the team, there really ought to be someone to let me know that it had been received. Actually, even if the system sent out an automated email to confirm receipt it would make me feel better that I wasn't waiting for a reply to something you had never received. Anyway, that's all beside the point now.

Yes, the problem is defintely in SaveTVA. SaveXFile works both in the X File exporter and in the engine itself. I apologise for the slightly misleading topic title, but it wasn't until later when I had a flash of inspiration that it occurred to me that the problem might be in the SaveTVA code itself. I'm not sure if you've changed anything in SaveTVA recently or not. In the past, I've used SaveTVA quite a bit and had no problems with it. So perhaps something in SaveTVA has changed, or perhaps it's just something which only occurs with certain models. Which is why I supplied the model so it's ( hopefully ) easy for you to reproduce the problem.

[likedonuts]

Yes, the problem is defintely in SaveTVA. SaveXFile works both in the X File exporter and in the engine itself. I apologise for the slightly misleading topic title, but it wasn't until later when I had a flash of inspiration that it occurred to me that the problem might be in the SaveTVA code itself. I'm not sure if you've changed anything in SaveTVA recently or not. In the past, I've used SaveTVA quite a bit and had no problems with it. So perhaps something in SaveTVA has changed, or perhaps it's just something which only occurs with certain models. Which is why I supplied the model so it's ( hopefully ) easy for you to reproduce the problem.

Just a thought; why not use an older version of the exporter until this is fixed?

I use an older version of the exporter that i found stable. If you want, i can try it here (with Max9 SP1). I PM'ed my e-mail.

Cheers,
Mike

[sybixsus]

Hi Mike,

That's very kind of you. I don't think it will help me though. I still need to be able to SaveTVA in my editor, because that's where I add all the animations to the actors. So I would have to revert to an older version of the SDK altogether. The problem with this is that it was only recently that ImportAnimations() was fixed so that it will share animations between models properly. So reverting to an old version would mean that I still couldn't add all the additional animations to the model.

I'll check my version history just to make sure that there might not be a version where both were working correctly. If I find that there is a possiblity, I may well take you up on that offer. Again, thanks for the offer.

[sybixsus]

We're coming up to the weekend, and I don't know if you're still only around at weekend or what, but is there any news on the search for this bug and the release of a fix? I can't export any animated meshes at all until it's fixed because I need the TVA format in order to be able to share animations, and unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an old version where both animation sharing and TVA export were both working.

[sybixsus]

.

[Elgon]

And...?

[SylvainTV]

Just to say that it hasn't been forgotten. I'm fixing stuff like actor skinning at the moment, then I will start review all other bugs.

[SylvainTV]

Fixed