UT 2004 Wip Character NEED HELP!

the_podman

Hi. I'm just about wrapping up my little "test" character for UT2004.

There are still lots of kinks I need to work out. Ragdoll's looking a little weird, some weapon alignment issues, but the biggest thing that's driving me mad is the fact that my animations are not "blending" properly. I configured all the sockets in UnrealED correctly I think.
Oh, well. If anyone knows how to fix it, let me know. You can take a look at him with UnrealEd 2 or just play him in the game.

Here's the file. Download and unzip it to your UT2004 folder, overwrite promt.. yes(it won't overwrite files already in there).

DOWNLOAD:
http://rodbrett.com/SaruUT/PIPOSARU.zip

Here's some screens:






My original WIP thread can be found here:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=280979&page=1&pp=15


Any help would be appreciated. I dunno why the sockets don't work properly. I DID use Maya with Y up coordinates, however, ActorX for Maya 7 has an option for assuming Maya Y up so that shouldn't be a problem. I spent a great deal of time animating this little sucker, so I'm not ready to give up just yet. PLEAAASE HELP!!!

Thanks all,
-pod

Husch

As far as I remember you have to use the correct Max Biped Name for the Root Bone to enable animation blending in UT2003/2004, even when you are using Maya. But maybe I am wrong with that.

the_podman

The "magdalena" model from Skullbox seems to not follow that rule, as it's got it's own unique namesets and it blends ok, but you started me thinking about other possiblilies. Thanks for the input

I've been noticing that all the models in UT2004 recently that have "unique" animation sets are MAX models, so maybe the "y" up in Maya's got something to do with it.

KDR_11k

I think you can rename any bone using sockets.

the_podman

Hmmm. Not sure how I would rename the bone once within UnrealEd. I want to try and avoid re-exporting all these animations. Really trying to narrow down what the problem might be.
Thanks

FunkaDelicDass

Your model doesn't have sockets 12-16, which are used for animation blending. Go into yout animation file and add the sockets manually. This page explains what I mean, go down to the "Sockets Explained" part:

http://www.sunny-d.com/ut2003tut_page7.html

I was able to get your animations to blend by adding the sockets. So follow that and you're good to go.

the_podman

Yes, I originally had sockets 12-16 in there, but then I noticed his center of gravity goes way out of whack whenever he "turns". Even though the animations are blending, the whole mesh shifts to the side so it looks like he's walking on the side of an invisible wall.

I also noticed that UT2003 characters all have sockets 12-16, yet all of the UT2004 characters, fan mod-made and official Epic ones, do not have 12-16, only the the first 11. I think they changed the rules a little bit in UT2004. The character seems ok in UT2003, but the problems arise in UT2004.

I'm going to experiment a little more. Your tutorial was very helping in beggining stages of my UT model. I would love to help you update the tut one day, I've got lots of stuff worked out including ragdolls and using Maya's trax editor to simplify animation tweaks, start walk/run cycles in "mid stride" without having to key them that way, and to store all your cycles without having to save out each file.

Good looking out, Sunny-D.. you the man.

-pod

SkullboX

As explainaed in the tutorial, it won't work without all the extra sockets. On Magdalena/Effigy I had a static root bone which I used as Bip01 (and worked perfecty) but I think the rule is that the "Bip01" socket HAS to be the bone highest up in the hierarchy. Don't forget to add " " to socket names with a space.

The rest of the bones are straightforward blending, you can also assign multiple sockets to one bone, if you have only two spine bones, or only want to use one or two for blending, simply link two or three of the sockets to a single bone, and the rotation of those sockets combnied will be applied to one or two. I used this on Magdalena, all the aiming rotation (spine and head links) are applied to a single link. It worked great.

If you can't get your sockets to work properly on your rig as is, consider adding a static root to the model you export (I doubt you need to alter your rig for every animation, but you might), reload the animations and use that static root as Bip 01.

edit: Also make sure the legs are lower in the hierarchy that the "Bip01 Spine" socket.

KDR_11k

Also make sure the legs are lower in the hierarchy that the "Bip01 Spine" socket.

You mean the leg bones should be parented to the Spine bone?

the_podman

Hehe. I was waiting for Skullbox to chime in. Thanks I'll get started on those modifications on my next day off. So you are saying that just by adding "Bip01" or changing my current root bone name to Bip01 and re-exporting will solve this? Or do I still need to add all the extra sockets?
Just curious as to why most of the other models do not have the extra sockets and they seem to blend alright.

I've got a couple more ideas to try out, as the problem may be related to how I actually exported the model on the grid in Maya.(Even though you can compensate the offset within UnrealEd).


My animations will not be affected by adding a dummy root bone highest in the heirarchy. All animation data is safely stored in the Trax Editor(Maya's MotionMixer), and as long as the "rigg" doesn't change, it's ok. The actual skeleton can change all it wants. I've written a script for this model/rigg that "bakes" all the animation from my rigg to the main skeleton and deletes the rigg itself, leaving me with just a skinned mesh and the skinned FK skeleton animation. It helps ActorX from exporting extra "rigg" bones, which are not needed in UnrealEd. I've set it up this way because I've burned myself in the past and was inspired by MotionBuilder's "control rigg" setup in which one skeleton drives another.

Thanks all! This project has been over 4 months of work for me!

Damn Maya's "Y" up system!! It doesn't play nice in UnrealEd

-pod

MoP

Just a note, I think you mean rig, not "rigg"
Good luck fixing that, he looks like a fun little primate.

SkullboX

[ QUOTE ]
Also make sure the legs are lower in the hierarchy that the "Bip01 Spine" socket.

You mean the leg bones should be parented to the Spine bone?

[/ QUOTE ]

Woops, you're right, I meant higher - or rather linked to a bone higher in the hierarchy.

Thanks for pointing that out!

SkullboX

[ QUOTE ]
So you are saying that just by adding "Bip01" or changing my current root bone name to Bip01 and re-exporting will solve this? Or do I still need to add all the extra sockets?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, leave the names the way you like them, just make sure you add a socket named "Bip01" assigned to the bone that is highest up in your hierarchy ("root", or something). Just check out Effigy which uses all 5 extra sockets and has unconventional names for each bone, the blending there works as it should.

What I was saying was, if you keep getting the problem of the lower body acting weird try adding a static root to the rig and use that for the bone attached to socket "Bip01".

[ QUOTE ]
Just curious as to why most of the other models do not have the extra sockets and they seem to blend alright.

[/ QUOTE ]

When models (custom or not) use Max' biped system, the names are as they should so there is no need for extra sockets.

the_podman

Thanks, man. Cleared it all up nicely. If I get this model working properly, I'll be cracking open a bottle of champagne.

One quick question:
If I add a dummy root bone to alleviate the problem. How should it be oriented? Z up, Y up?

Mop: Man, I've been calling 'em riggs all this time. LOL. This doesn't make me look good, seeing I'm working as a TD professionally right now. Also can't spell for shit.

the_podman

I think I've got everything fixed now. It's fully playable and the skeleton has been reskinned. There are less joints now so it runs quicker. ALso got the ragdoll working pretty good now after some tweaking in KAT.

I had to export with Maya settings to "Z" up temporarilly in order for the animations to blend right. Using ActorX's "Assume Maya coordinates" does not compensate for the "turn" axis.

Get the new file here:
http://rodbrett.com/SaruUT/PIPOSARU.zip


As soon as POLYCOUNT is fully up and running again, I guess I'll submit it for review. hehe.

Thanks for the help, fellows.
-pod

KDR_11k

Forget about submitting, the powers that be want to abolish playermodels on Polycount. Give it to Skin City, noone checks Polycount for UT2004 models anyway (well, except for the Skin City admin).

Scott Ruggels

Congratulations on completing this. Saw it up on Skin City. Fully operational? sweetness..

Scott