Exporting to game - Softimage?
polycounter lvl 14
Just double checking after a bunch of searches.... Is this even possible/has anyone had any success publishing items via Softimage, or is everyone using a middle man (Max/Maya/Blender) to get Softimage created items into the game?
The closest I've gotten is using Valve's .SMD tools on an old 32 bit version of Softimage and I can get a working model rigged properly and exported (at least is seems to be) but no such luck for the _fx.smd files for items that require it (Drow's bow string, etc.), they don't seem to work here. Also, all versions of .FBX exporter for Softimage w/every possible combination of settings tried seems not to work. 2014 fbx exporter doesn't validate, 2013 with Ascii set to on validates but the game doesn't properly respect the rigging/weighting Softimage puts in that file, at least for me.
Who's having the best of luck with exporting? Max or Maya folks, or are those two both equally viable? I don't want to waste any more time with this intermediary step. Thank you very much everyone, having many headaches here, any help is greatly appreciated.
Would love a smooth pipeline, especially if I do something with animation from Softimage later, like a courier, etc..
-thanks, cheers
EDIT:Update
Ok, I cleared some of my questions up. I read before that FX were added by Valve, and then I read with a newer update that you could now add your own FX with an extra _fx model, and the example in the well known tutorial is anti-mage. Well I thought that drows bow thing followed the same lines but it doesn't, if you go to look at publishing an anti-mage file, there is a seperate page 2 for the fx file. Valve apparently puts drows bowstring on for you upon approval. So that part is finished. Now. whats left....
Why doesn't .FBX exporter work in Softimage 2014? I crosswalked the same scene, rigged and setup in softimage, over to Maya 2014 and low and behold, exporting to .fbx from there, changing no settings at all, just works.... But not the case with Softimage, and every combination of settings I can think of, doesn't help...
I guess this is why the guy who did the Mad Harvester video tutorial set used Maya and not Soft to export, though I don't remember him explaining why. Any related insight/info appreciated
The closest I've gotten is using Valve's .SMD tools on an old 32 bit version of Softimage and I can get a working model rigged properly and exported (at least is seems to be) but no such luck for the _fx.smd files for items that require it (Drow's bow string, etc.), they don't seem to work here. Also, all versions of .FBX exporter for Softimage w/every possible combination of settings tried seems not to work. 2014 fbx exporter doesn't validate, 2013 with Ascii set to on validates but the game doesn't properly respect the rigging/weighting Softimage puts in that file, at least for me.
Who's having the best of luck with exporting? Max or Maya folks, or are those two both equally viable? I don't want to waste any more time with this intermediary step. Thank you very much everyone, having many headaches here, any help is greatly appreciated.
Would love a smooth pipeline, especially if I do something with animation from Softimage later, like a courier, etc..
-thanks, cheers
EDIT:Update
Ok, I cleared some of my questions up. I read before that FX were added by Valve, and then I read with a newer update that you could now add your own FX with an extra _fx model, and the example in the well known tutorial is anti-mage. Well I thought that drows bow thing followed the same lines but it doesn't, if you go to look at publishing an anti-mage file, there is a seperate page 2 for the fx file. Valve apparently puts drows bowstring on for you upon approval. So that part is finished. Now. whats left....
Why doesn't .FBX exporter work in Softimage 2014? I crosswalked the same scene, rigged and setup in softimage, over to Maya 2014 and low and behold, exporting to .fbx from there, changing no settings at all, just works.... But not the case with Softimage, and every combination of settings I can think of, doesn't help...
I guess this is why the guy who did the Mad Harvester video tutorial set used Maya and not Soft to export, though I don't remember him explaining why. Any related insight/info appreciated