kW Xport: 3dsmax v8 .X exporter version 1.1 released!

Good timing! (The content pipeline consumes X and FBX, so people are going to need X exporters.)

You rock! We've been using the pandasoft one for some time, I'll be sure to check yours out.

I am not sure why but...

I downloaded your exporter while browsing the forums. I installed it while using 3ds, closed it when it prompted to. However, when trying to use 3ds Max and export my model with 3ds Max I am encountering errors out of no where. I noticed that the installer downloads a package off the internet. What exactly is this package, it may be causing conflicts with panda exporter :/

The package it downloads is the actual installer (or, perhaps, the MSVC 8 runtime libraries, if you haven't installed those previously).

I have made a new version available (version 1.1.1), that I have debugged with the XNA content pipeline. I recommend upgrading. http://www.mindcontrol.org/~hplus/graphics/kwxport.html.
This version also has various coordinate space flipping options, to suit anyone (left-handed/right-handed, V-up/V-down).

It's possible that the Panda exporter uses an older version of the IGame exporter, and the latest version that kW installs may not be backwards compatible. IGame is a DLL that comes from 3dsmax, but which has had a lot of bugs, and thus they've released newer versions several times.

A warning, though: there are several bugs in the XNA Beta 2 Content Pipeline import code. One of the bugs is that it loses the correlation between vertex buffer bone indices and bone node indices -- meaning that skinning just can't do the right thing. (There are also several other bugs, which have work-arounds)

Hi Jon,

first I have to thank you for your effort to create
a new powerfull xfile exporter for 3dsmax.
Well, since PandaSoft seems to be dead(for the last 6 month),
your exporter is the only serious way to
export stuff from 3dsmax to xfiles.

But now some issues:
- all bones, which are listed inside the skin-modifier of an object, must
be selected before "export selected" => else CRASH

- all bones , which are part of an animation ,
must be selected before "export selected" => else CRASH
Question: Is there any way to disconnect bones , which are animated together,
by kwXPort ?

- sometimes inverted normals without any reason => only "reset transform"
helps , why ?

- skinned meshes, which are combined with IK and "helper objects", won't be
exported correctly => corrupt xfile
Question: is there any reason?

In the next few days I'll continue testing since I want to help you
improving the exporter(I believe in you ;).
The other reasons is that I'm lead artist of Dreamworld Development
and I finished the "dummy" character some days ago, which must be skinned
and animated now.

So, I hope you'll find enough time for bugfixing ;)

"I'll be back"

Chris

Oh thanks a lot. BTW i use 5th max at home do you have an exporter for it?

.. and where do you get an MD3 importer for max?

=)

Thanks for the feedback.

I have just released an updated version for 3ds Max 9, which I've actually tested on Max 9 (having finally upgraded).

I'll look into the Export Selected bugs.

Regarding the skinned mesh with IK limit and helpers: what is the problem you're seeing? I use that method for my own characters (helpers for bones, and various animation limits), and it seems to work allright. I mostly use text mode files, but there should be little to no difference.

Hi Jon

Well, you asked me for a more detailed explanation of the issues I mentioned last time.
The most problems I got occured when exporting skinned(and also animated) stuff.
Below you find some problems, but first I'll give some system information:
- WinXP SP2
- 3DSMax 8 SP3
- IGame.dll (8.0.2.62)
- kW X-port 1.1(should be newest version for 3DSMax8)

-----------
issues:

>> meshes/bones/whatever which are connected with helpers(e.g. circles,..) always cause the exporter to crash
---> especially bones linked to helpers let the exporter crash(no matter whether the helpers were selected or not before "export selected")

>> IK-solvers linked to helpers cause an exporter crash when they're exported together(IK+Helper)
---> but without helpers everything seems to be ok

>> when using the DEFAULT mirror command(upper toolbar) in 3DSMax for bone hierarchies I always got wrong
animated(inverted transform or similar) and inverted polys on the mirrored hierarchy side after export
---> the only way for mirroring the hierarchies is to use the extra "mirror"-button in the "Bone Utility"-dialog-> then everything looks fine

>> strange bug/problem:
Few months ago I made a monster(a huge fat bug) which was exported with the Panda exporter without significant problems.
I tried to export it with kwXPort but the result was a corrupted XFile ?!?
After some hours of decomposing I found the reason for the problem:
There were some poly rings of the feelers which were virtually invisible since the restricting edge loops were nearly on top of each other.
That means the surface area of these polys was about zero(maybe problems with sub-float precision).
Furthermore, the problem only appeared if there were some bones and IKs in scene ?!?
Well, there's no doubt that this was a modelling mistake by me but it's interesting why there were no problems with the Panda exporter.
--> some kind of strange , isn't it ?

-----------

Since I'm not sure whether you can comprehend the issues I mentioned above I've created a set of scenes which demonstrate the specific problems.
I'd like to send it by eMail but I'm afraid of your "killer" spam filter ;)
In addition, some advices(especially skinned meshes,IK-solutions) would be quite helpful for all users of kwXPort.

That's everything for the moment concerning your exporter.
Again I want to thank you for your effort and I'm really interested in any compensation for it(some exclusive screenshots of our current project
called "Splitterwelten" which can also be found in the GameDev-gallery or maybe a playable version next summer).

Last but not least I wish you, your family , all kwXPort-users and the whole GameDev-community Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

see you soon
Chris

Quote:

Original post by HybridChris Well, you asked me for a more detailed explanation of the issues I mentioned last time.

Thanks a lot, this helps! Most of what you're seeing seems like a bug, and I'll hopefully have some time to look at it during Christmas break.

Quote:

>> when using the DEFAULT mirror command(upper toolbar) in 3DSMax for bone hierarchies I always got wrong animated(inverted transform or similar) and inverted polys on the mirrored hierarchy side after export ---> the only way for mirroring the hierarchies is to use the extra "mirror"-button in the "Bone Utility"-dialog-> then everything looks fine

That one's easy: the "default" mirroring creates messed-up skinned animation. That's why they have the bone utility mirror button. Have you tried this geometry with Panda? If so, does Panda export it right?

Quote:

I'd like to send it by eMail but I'm afraid of your "killer" spam filter ;)

I'll send you a good address in e-mail.


Thanks again for the detailed feedback!

I'm running 3dsmax 8 with service pack 3, I installed KW Xport and installation seemed to go fine, however when I try to run max with the exporter installed I get the "kwxport.dle failed to initialize, error code 126: The specified module could not be found." error.

Any ideas what might be missing?

It works now...

I have visual studio 2003, but I got visual studio 2005 express and XNA game studio express because I wanted to mess around XNA. After installing vs2005 express and XNA the plugin worked. When I installed the plugin before, I allowed the vs8 runtime libraries to install but still the plugin didn't work. I guess the installer didn't install everything that was required for someone not running vs2005. Just figured I share this information incase others have this problem.

We are using kW Xport in our project and it is working fine in most cases. However sometimes the output is messed up and the following ends up between the normals:

MeshNormals normals {
935;
-0.020853;-0.014953;-2.183553;,

...

2.183704;0.000000;-0.000000;,
-1.#IND00;-1.#IND00;-1.#IND00;,
-1.#IND00;-1.#IND00;-1.#IND00;,
-1.#IND00;-1.#IND00;-1.#IND00;,
2.183704;0.000000;-0.000000;,
2.183704;0.000000;-0.000000;,

...

Any ideas on where this is coming from? If I remove the 3 lines and replace the #IND part by 000 the model works fine.

That looks like getting bad data out of 3dsMax. The kW X-porter only takes the normals as provided by 3ds Max; it doesn't do anything to the data. The weird data you're seeing is badly formatted data such as infinity or denormals or not-a-number tokens. You could check the geometry for zero-size faces or incomplete smoothing groups to see if that's what's causing it.

Hi, I use kW Xport and I have a trouble: when I check to export mesh with shader, it doesn't do exporting! Also I cannot to export skeleton animation. I have vs2005 installed, and 3ds max8 sp3.
Who know how to help me, please answer me.

Great job, this plug-in does everything I need. Thanks for sharing!

I've downloaded the "kwxport-setup-max9.exe" and installed it then i run the 3ds max, the messagebox with error about some moduls not found, i follow the instruction and install the "DirectX October 2006", right now i can run the 3ds max without above error, i opened my car model, selected File\Export, selected file type "kW X-port(*.X)" to export, the kW X-port Dialog appeared, i keep every default settings, click "OK", after about 30s i see the error on the screen "An error has occurred and the application will now close. No scene changes have occurred since your last save".

Do you have any idea about that ? Please tell me why.

......sorry double post

all i seem to get when exporting is

the exporter crashed during export

please close max and restart it before trying to export again

then after that it says

export module failure

is a shame really as panda really doesnt work for what i need

Hiii!!!
Itried to export a skinned mesh that has several animations, like 900 frames, but the mesh uses Character Studio bones. anybody knows if this exporter supports CS?