MDB to FBX, FBX to MDB converter

[rjshae]

I'm trying out 0.3 alpha now. Blender Playback works great when I try it with C_Rat_CL_Body01.MBD and its c_rat_* animations. However, the Armoire model PLC_MC_ARMY01 won't budge. When I import the .fbx model, the doors are displaced from their expected positions. It does generate three bones though.

 

I'm still learning this stuff so I'm not quite sure how to switch between animations yet. It looks like the Armoire idle GR2 may contain the skeleton, so when I import with just the openidle GR2 and MDB it doesn't build the skeleton. For the build with the skeleton, I'm probably just playing the idle animation and can't switch to the open idle animation.

Edited November 18, 2017 by rjshae

[FreshLook]

I'm trying out 0.3 alpha now. Blender Playback works great when I try it with C_Rat_CL_Body01.MBD and its c_rat_* animations. However, the Armoire model PLC_MC_ARMY01 won't budge. When I import the .fbx model, the doors are displaced from their expected positions. It does generate three bones though.

 

I'm still learning this stuff so I'm not quite sure how to switch between animations yet. It looks like the Armoire idle GR2 may contain the skeleton, so when I import with just the openidle GR2 and MDB it doesn't build the skeleton. For the build with the skeleton, I'm probably just playing the idle animation and can't switch to the open idle animation.

 

The skeleton for PLC_MC_ARMY01 is within PLC_MC_ARMY01.GR2. You must convert:

• PLC_MC_ARMY01.MDB and it's attached models.
• PLC_MC_ARMY01.GR2 which contains the skeleton.
• And an animation.

I only see two animations for the armoire: PLC_MC_ARMY01_IDLE.GR2 which contains an idle animation with the doors closed and PLC_MC_ARMY01_PLC_OPENIDLE.GR2 which contains an idle animation with the doors open. I'm not sure how the armoire opening/closing animation is done within the game, I guess that the opening/closing animation is the result of the interpolation performed in the transition from the closed-idle animation to the open-idle animation and viceversa. It's the same interpolation tha occurs when, for example, a creature transitions from the walk animation to the run animation.

 

The doors are displaced from their expected positions because the tool doesn't link placeables to the skeleton. For creatures the model is linked to the skeleton through skinning (SKIN packet), but placeables doesn't have skin information. The easiest and logical solution would be that each placeable model is parented to the corresponding bone, but as I explained in a previous post, Blender doesn't import the child-parent relationship between objects and bones from FBX. I decided to not invest more time on this issue because: a) skeletons for placeables usually have few bones so it isn't a lot of work to manually link each placeable model to the corresponding bone and b) I don't know if converting animated placeables to FBX is going to be used a lot. But I would like to get your feedback.

Edited November 20, 2017 by FreshLook

[rjshae]

Thanks. It sounds like I just need to try repositioning and linking the doors, then run the animation.

 

I don't know what this will end up getting used for, but's it's nice to know the possibilities. Doors, for example, would be useful. Thanks again.

[TrinitalMod]

I would definitely use it a lot.

The two major things I want to use your tool for are importing existing animations / and creating animated placeables.

 

Sounds like the work around isn't too bad.. Maybe it just takes some growing pain / tutorials. ^-^

[FreshLook]

I would definitely use it a lot.

The two major things I want to use your tool for are importing existing animations / and creating animated placeables.

 

Sounds like the work around isn't too bad.. Maybe it just takes some growing pain / tutorials. ^-^

 

I think I can simplify working with animated placeables in a way that would solve the issue at the same time. I need to analyze it, not sure if it'll be complex to implement.

 

Have you been able to modify an existing animation? I don't know if you finally did what you wanted.

[TrinitalMod]

 

I would definitely use it a lot.

The two major things I want to use your tool for are importing existing animations / and creating animated placeables.

 

Sounds like the work around isn't too bad.. Maybe it just takes some growing pain / tutorials. ^-^

 

I think I can simplify working with animated placeables in a way that would solve the issue at the same time. I need to analyze it, not sure if it'll be complex to implement.

 

Have you been able to modify an existing animation? I don't know if you finally did what you wanted.

 

 

I was about to try and do it today using your trick in Blender.

Was working on a huge project with some other artists to remove Neck Seams from Head + Body pairings. But I have some free time now to go back to my animations.

 

Will let you know.

[TrinitalMod]

Double Post -

 

Still working away on getting animations working the way I want, found a slight bug though.

 

When clicking and dragging files onto the console shortcut, the path apparently is not quoted so if any directories leading to my workspace have spaces in them, the program bails out treating the directory as a parameter.

 

Example:

I have a FBX File Located at:
C:\Users\SomeDir WithSpace\Workspace\Animation

Error In Log:
'C:\Users\SomeDir' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

[FreshLook]

Double Post -

 

Still working away on getting animations working the way I want, found a slight bug though.

 

When clicking and dragging files onto the console shortcut, the path apparently is not quoted so if any directories leading to my workspace have spaces in them, the program bails out treating the directory as a parameter.

 

Example:

I have a FBX File Located at:

C:\Users\SomeDir WithSpace\Workspace\Animation

 

Error In Log:

'C:\Users\SomeDir' is not recognized as an internal or external command,

operable program or batch file.

 

I found the bug. It's trivial to fix: edit *-dragdrop.cmd and enclose the command with quotes. For example, replace:

%~dp0fbx2nw %* > log.txt 2>&1

with:

"%~dp0nw2fbx" %* > log.txt 2>&1

I think this bug is too trivial to make a new release just because of this. Can you edit the cmd? It'll be fixed in the next version, I'm working on simplifying animated placeables.

[TrinitalMod]

I agree, the bug is very trivial, not worth a release on it's own. Good change going forward though as many users may have trouble with it.

 

Thanks, will keep playing with it and post back again.

 

Edit:

 

SUCCESS!

 

By Exporting the Animation / Skeleton separately in two FBX files and using the trick you showed in blender.. I was able to get it working!

 

Now I just need to figure out how to do animation / rigging from scratch in blender and make sure that works.. then I can kiss 3DS goodbye.

Edited December 14, 2017 by TrinitalMod

[FreshLook]

I have released version 0.4. You can download it here: https://github.com/A...wn2mdk/releases

Changes:

- A skeleton no longer is needed to convert animated placeables.

- When converting animated placeables to FBX, all models are positioned and animated correctly.

- Fixed issue where drag&drop didn't work if the path to the MDK contained spaces.

Working with animated placeables has been simplified. I'll have to modify the tutorial about animating the banner of Tyr (two steps removed and Step 3 simplified).

 

 

...

 

SUCCESS!

 

...

:smile:

Edited December 16, 2017 by FreshLook