MeshView Animation Problems

I'm not an artist myself, but my partner on the project I'm working is an artist, and he recently went through quite a bit of trouble also getting skinned meshes to export properly. At the beginning, we also couldn't view them properly in MeshView... Anyways tbh I can't remember exactly what he did to fix the problem, but I think the problem may have been something to do with the 3ds max version...

Sorry I'm not much of a help, don't know exactly how to fix your problem, but at least what I can tell you is that it IS possible to view animated characters in MeshView exported w/ PandaSoft, so keep at it and you'll figure it out I'm sure :)

Good luck!

Actually, it was the Dr. X mesh that I was trying to work with. It seems like it's almost working right, but not quite - the vertex envelopes seem to be getting miscommunicated during the export; some of the right vertices don't work, and many of the wrong ones do. The bones themselves work properly.

I'm wondering if maybe it's an issue with PandaSoft? Reading the author's site, he seemed to have some trouble converting it to Max 7. I'll send him an email and see what he has to say.

It definitely seems to be exporting more or less correctly, as it does appear in MeshView (although I'm still wondering why it doesn't show up in that tutorial viewer; I'll probably have to spend some time examining the differences between that and MeshView). It simply doesn't animate correctly and I'm not sure exactly how to interpret a .x file (as far as determining what vertices a particular animation will effect).

I noticed that problem with the footsteps, too.... And it makes since, as the Max footsteps don't cross over well into DirectX. Maybe there's some extra coding you could do on the programming side that could properly interpret them. I imagine you could export them as a dummy. Otherwise, you'd probably have to work with normal animation techniques to get running in place to work.

Another thought on the footstep problem: It might be possible to write a Max script to automatically set "walk in place" sort of keyframes (which would probably require manual tweaking). But at least it would be a quick template to work off of. I may write that if I find the time.

The Panda Exporter is a piece of crap.
Also the JT Exporter from MilkShape.
None of them works good enough, I believe the authors don't really test ther usage. They just export one and the same model with an animation sequence and it works for them.

Microsoft directx exporter (in the DX Extras) folder sometimes manages it to export meshes right. The DXMeshViewer application works perfect.

I have written my own Unreal Tournament 2003 to .X converter and it works with any character/animation i want.

For 3ds max: All Character Studio/Physique settings should be set to: RIGID and NOT BLENDED, and max bone influences to 4 or lower (1 for maximum compatibility). Also set the Phsiyique/Render settings to RIGID so you will not be disappointed that your animation might be a little deformed.

There is no way to export BLENDED mode mesh correctly, also no hardware supports it. Rigid with max 4 bones per vertex works for any dx 8/9 capable adapter.

Ah. The rigid thing seems to have been my problem. I still can't use the tutorial files, but it works fine with some other models I've tried and that was really the whole point of the exercise, so I won't bother fixing that problem for now. Thanks for the help, guys.

I still haven't tested the MS DirectX exporter, as they don't have a version for Max 7, but I suppose I could give it a shot anyway.