[SOLVED] Animated character creation

[GeorgeP]

Hello.

I apologise in advance for the long post.

 

First of all, my task is to create animated characters using PoserPro 2012 and import them in unigine.

Knowing that unigine doesn't support morphing or pz3 files i try to do it using collada format.

 

So i export PoserPro character in *.dae and here comes the first problem.

When i try to preview it with unigine's resource editor, the model with the surfaces appear pretty good but i get no information for model's skeleton hierarchy. I also cant same the model as *.smesh.

 

Is there anyone who is using PoserPro ? How do people who work on unigine create animated characters?

 

Thank you for your time.

[GeorgeP]

Allow me to extend my previous question by saying when i use 3ds max to open the dae model , export it to smesh and open hat

smesh to unigine resource editor.

 

PoserPro -> dae -> 3ds max -> smesh -> resource editor

 

In that case the skeleton hierarchy appears normally but there is only 1 surface which is very difficult to apply a texture to it.

If i open the dae with unigine resource editor without converting it to smesh, i get 10-15 surfaces for the model but no skeleton hierarchy.

 

How can i get a smesh with multi surfaces + skeleton hierarchy ?

By saying multi surfaces i mean different surfaces for hands , shoes, trousers... etc.

 

Thnx again.

[ulf.schroeter]

If I remember it correctly, UNIGINE DAE support is only limited to static mesh geometry, but does not support skinned meshes. Therefore you should stay with your 3D Max approach. Don't know exactly, why you only get a single surface on import, but try importing UNIGINE character skinned mesh to 3D Max and compare model/material structure with your poser model.

[ulf.schroeter]

BTW multiple surfaces should be avoided from a performance perspective. For minimizing draw calls a texture atlas = single material is not a bad idea

[GeorgeP]

It is 1 object with many elements. When i export the whole object to *.smesh and open the result with resource editor, only 1 surface appears in the bottom left dialog box.

So you suggest to use unwrap uv modifier to create only 1 texture for the whole object right ?

 

thank you for your time.

[ulf.schroeter]

yes, exactly, if this is possible it will give you the best performance as the whole character can be drawn with a single draw call.

[ulf.schroeter]

http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/03/Using-texture-atlases just as an example

[manguste]

Yes, Collada format is supported only for static geometry. And texture atlas+1 material is indeed the best variant from performance point of view (thanks for the hint, Ulf).

 

As for surfaces, skinned models when exported into SMESH format are split absolutely the same way as static meshes (for example, by assigning multi-material: one surface per sub-material). Did you use any?

[GeorgeP]

In the end i used 1 surface. I had to create the skeleton + animation though.

[demostenes]

Generally if you need equipable character, best solution is to have all parts/animations as separate files (rigged on the same skeleton) and stitch it on the fly to one skinned mesh according to need. It is even possible to make texture atlas on the fly. It is only way how to keep it managable (from the artistic point of view, imagine you have 100 equipable pieces/body parts) and performance friendly. Some equipment parts like swords, shields etc shouldnt be part of skinned model, but normal meshes attached to model by mount points (I dont know equivalent word on Unigine for this). For example you animate character for sword attack and you can attach any sword you like without rigging and animating it, because sword is attached usually to some bone in palm.

 

We are new to Unigine (so no experience with this here), but we had such solution working on our previous engine. It took cca 20ms to build one skinned mesh from all parts (next gen quality model), cca 200ms to build Atlas. So perfectly usable in realtime.

[manguste]

Demostenes,

 

Thank you for sharing :) The same approach can be easily implemented in Unigine.