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[Mnemonic]

Oh, and btw Mnemonic, the max file also includes all the biped's bones - they are just hidden. If you unhide all objects you will see them.

I wasn't talking about the max file, I was talking about your exported X file, because that's the reason of all the trouble. If you look into the original sample file, it contains sections for all the skeleton bones, your file only contains the root bone (Bip01). Perhaps you could try unhiding the bones before exporting them.

[Daniel]

Perhaps you could try unhiding the bones before exporting them.

I did try that before but the results are very weird. I'm sending you the file so you can see for yourself what I'm talking about. The entire biped goes for an out-of-body experience... 

[adonf]

Hi Daniel,

As far as I know, the Pandasoft exporter doesn't support animations created with Character Studio's Bipeds, see
http://www.andytather.co.uk/Panda/directxmax_mainfeatures.aspx ("Skinning using Character Studio Physique and Max Bones/Skinning (Not Biped)")

On our project we did all the animations using standard bones. We were able to create Biped skeletons with CS and then convert them to regular bones with MAX scripts found on the internet, that saved a little time and money but the animations still had to be done by hand... (We had to convert Bipeds to bones before animating. The script we used didn't convert the IK chain so the artists had to recreate it too.)

Now as to why there is a MAX file with CS animations on the Pandasoft web site, I have no idea 

Cheers,
  Olivier

[Daniel]

Now as to why there is a MAX file with CS animations on the Pandasoft web site, I have no idea

[adonf]

I guess that you can convert Character Studio data (Biped + 'physique' skinning model) into standard MAX data (bones + skin) by saving a temporary file with the .FXB exporter (standard in MAX 7, dunno about other versions) and importing it again into a new scene. Then you'll be able to export the scene with pandasoft exporter and get your animation into WME

I tried it and it did convert the animations into bones & skin that worked in MAX but the resulting .X file did not work in the Direct X viewer. I don't have too much time to spend on that right now, maybe I'll have another try later on.

For my project I only worked with scenes that contained only the model and its bones and sometimes a dummy too, so all I had to do was export the whole scene to get it to work in WME.

[Daniel]

Well guys, it works!

The problem was neither with max nor with the Panda exporter proper, it was with the way I used to run the exporter. There seems to be some confusion regarding how to activate the exporter. I used to run it via a script that came with the exporter, a file named pandaxtools.ms. A pdf file that came with the script also explained how to install it and how to run the exporter. I followed the instructions to the word and it never even occurred to me that there could be another way of running the exporter besides this one. Well, to keep a very, very long story short, despite what is stated in the pdf file, that the script should work with max 8 - it doesn't, at least not in my case and that was to source of all my troubles.

The other way of running the exporter, a way that actually works for a change, is through the standard File->Export option in the main menu. In the dialog that opens, all I had to do was to choose "Panda DirectX (*.X)" as the "Save as type" and the exporter dialog opens. And that's it! Everything works when it opens like that. WME can load the resulting X file perfectly with all the textures and even with all the Biped animations! No export to FBX first or anything like it, the Biped animations are exported as is and play perfectly in WME.

Thanks everybody for all the assistance. I hope this knowledge will also help others avoid what I had to go through...

[Amo]

Hi guys. I have nearly the same problem at all, so I have do dig this thread out.

I used the Panda Exporter via Export in Max 7, activated the here suggested options and tried it out and: It doesn't work

[Mnemonic]

Glad you figured it out. I hope one day we'll be able to put together a large knowledge base with such tips..

[Amo]

Ok, another step done within the last hour. I created a very low poly (and very ugly, too  ) charakter and animated him just for testing.
It works fine. Maybe a poly count problem? I thought about the envelopes of the physique but now this seems to be a bit unlogic.
Nevertheless, the guy walks around, but with an replace me texture.

So the next problem:
Where is my texture? I applyed one in MAX (16x16 just brown), and copied the texture in my actor folder. After no effect, I applied the copied texture to my guy, means, that one in the actor folder and exported again. Something is going wrong, the replace me again.
Suggestions, opinions, emotions?

[Mnemonic]

Try opening the generated X file in some text editor and find the texture name to see how it got exported. There shouldn't be any absolute path references, just the texture filename. Then WME will look for the texture in the same directory where the X file is located.

[Amo]

Ah, thank you, I just wanted to ask where to change the path, because the WME.log told me that there is an absolute path.
It works now!

[leucome]

Just in case someone want to know what is expected to work with panda. Biped Bone Skin and physique work and i have a model who use all this at same time ...

But hum ok few time the exported model not work (possibly a bug somewhere) when this happen i rebuild the bones and biped from the scrath and after everythings is good... and some time start a new scene (in 3ds max) and merge the old one with the new, seem to resolve unexpected things. Collapsing stack could help, like you said . Reset XForm can help to but i never need it with panda.

I still use 3ds max 6 and i do not know if it is the same things for max 7 and 8.

[Amo]

Another part of questions. Which exporter did you use Mnemonic? Trinity is a Half life model as mentioned in the .txt file.
Which exporters are also effective to get a model out of max into WME?
In fact I am not very satisfied with the work of the panda.
One thing is, that all animationtypes were exported linear, as I recognized. E.g.: The animation of my model contains an rotation and an position key. In Max is everything nice, in WME first the leg moves forward, then the foot rotates. That looks crappy.
I thought about creating both keys right after another, but the time area of keyless frames is too short. Otherwise the walk would be too slow and the model needs too much resources.
How good works the interpolation between the keys really? Or other said: Is there a interpolation, or were keys generated for every frame?

[Mnemonic]

Which exporter did you use Mnemonic?

None. It's originally a half-life model, converted to MS3D, later converted to X. Not really a good example of how to do things.

Which exporters are also effective to get a model out of max into WME?

Everyone's using Panda, AFAIK.

In fact I am not very satisfied with the work of the panda.
One thing is, that all animationtypes were exported linear, as I recognized. E.g.: The animation of my model contains an rotation and an position key. In Max is everything nice, in WME first the leg moves forward, then the foot rotates. That looks crappy.
I thought about creating both keys right after another, but the time area of keyless frames is too short. Otherwise the walk would be too slow and the model needs too much resources.
How good works the interpolation between the keys really? Or other said: Is there a interpolation, or were keys generated for every frame?

WME always interpolates between two keyframes.

[Amo]

Thank you for your answer. But now I really got a problem. In Max looks the animation very nice and in WME like a robot