Hey guys is there any info on what I can and cannot use in this programs so my models and animations export and import properly in Unity 2.0?
Things like kinds of animations, kinds of bones, IK chains, FBX export settings, etc.
I want this process to be as painless as possible.
Blend shapes are a no-no, particle effects wont import, and neither will lights, though you will get a transform node with correct location yet incorrect rotation(in 1.6.2 anyway), which you can use as a reference point.
Multiple UV’s will work (up to 2) if you use the lightmapping shaders in unity.
Everything will get converted to triangles on import, though I havent tried with subdivision surfaces. Bones are all good.
from vauge memory if you animate a vertex moving, or an edge or face, that wont work.
Let us know if theres any specific fields you want to know about. Im sure you’ll get good advice.
AC
When bringing in models from maya (especially rigged characters) its important to try and keep your scene clean. Don’t have a bunch of seperate pieces of geometry or empty groups left about. While unity won’t break or anything, there’s no point having it keep track of extra information. Ideally you’d want to have a character be a single polygon mesh, with the bare minimum bones for your animation needs. The ONLY deformer unity can use is bone data, so anything like clusters, blend shapes, rigid bind flexors, etc. won’t translate over.
That said, even the most complex connections you make will be translated over as long as the results are bakeable. For instance, you could have a muscle bulging bone in your character’s bicep set up in maya to extend when your elbow bends via a simple set-driven-key relationship. On export, that muscle bulging bone’s animation would be baked, and therefore would show up in unity. The same is true for IK chains of any kind. You could have a snake of bones controlled with a spline in maya and as long as you instruct unity to make IK on import, it will work. Bone scaling is also read from your 3d app of choice unlike many engines.
And on the 3DSMax side… you can use Character Studio Biped or your own bones, and the Skin modifier or Physique (even though it complains about not supporting something with physique any basic rigging works). Same rules as above apply to the meshes and deformers (converted 2 tri’s, doesn’t do deformers unless bakeable, etc).
I’ve also found that if you like to work with quads or larger than quad polygons and have rotated your internal edges exactly how you want them to look it’s best to put a ‘Turn To Poly’ modifier on the stack and set it to max edges of 3, otherwise on import it could turn your edges again for you (not in your max file but from the fbx). As well, any extra tweeks that you make to a skinned mesh, like applying the turn to poly, can be done after the skin/physique modifier and then just moved/dragged down the stack to below the modifier, anything put above the skin/physique doesn’t seem to get taken into account.
Lastly, if you happen to be using both Max and Maya, you can set it up to have one file that’s you’re character file with Biped in Max and export that as the character, then just export the animated bones as individual animation files. But for those animations to work right you’ll have to import that .fbx into Maya, select the root node of the Biped, group it one time, then save out the file and bring it into Unity. Applying that group to the Bip01 in Max doesn’t work so I’m not sure yet why it does through Maya, but must have something to do with the FBX process.
The models export mostly ok from 3D studio, turbo smooth doesn´t seem to work. The other problem I have is importing the animations created with a biped, the character looks all stretched and the joints seem to be rotating the other way.
Could it be a difference in coordinate axis? where do I change this?