Hey guys, once again I’m having issues, and I hope there’s help to be had. =)
I’ll preface this by saying my animation experience is nearly nonexistent, so I apologize profusely if this question is redundant or obvious.
The problem I’m having is importing animation done by others, in programs I don’t have access to.
I have an animator working with me, who uses 3d Studio Max to work. From what I understand, Unity can use .max files, and all I should have to do is drop them into the library.
However, I don’t have a copy of 3dSM myself. I suspect this is somehow interfering with Unity’s ability to import and read the file; whenever I drop the file in, Unity freezes. This has also happened to my supervisor, who has no modeling programs on hand, and can’t seem to import anything but FBX files - and even that is hit and miss.
Can anyone tell me if my suspicions are accurate, and if they’re not, what I can do to solve them? Any advice would be appreciated, as this is really holding back progress on our game.
Thanks!
Yes. When you include a MAX file (or a Maya file for that matter) Unity is actually starting MAX in the background to convert it to FBX so it can use it.
When everything is installed it’s a seamless process, but if you try to use them on a computer without MAX or even with the wrong version of the FBX exporter installed, Unity can appear to hang or crash.
Your best bet is to get your animator to export everything to FBX for use in Unity. Much less pain in a multi user environment.
That’s what I’d suspected, thank you. =)
Is there by chance a resource I can read up on that will clarify exactly what version of the FBX exporter to use, and what settings need to be arranged? I’ve been working it out with our animators, but our results are still temperamental.
I’m already hitting google for a solution, but I figured I’d ask too, in case I miss something.
To clarify, problems we’ve had with FBX exports to date: Exports losing the connection between bones and controllers, exports losing the skin binding mesh to bone, and exports not retaining IK/FK information and bindings, turning the body into a whirlwind of disembodied body parts when it’s animated.
The cleanest export we’ve had so far is a few animations where the mesh animates predictably, but the controllers are broken.