FBX triangulation direction out of maya?
ngon master
Does anyone know if there is a way to preserve triangulation direction with fbx out of maya? Max has the option but maya doesn't.
oh and im running fbx 2012.2 on both.
oh and im running fbx 2012.2 on both.
Replies
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76767
But since that time nothing had changed - there's still no solution to preserve internal diagonals orientation while exporting. I still triangulate model before exporting. Also you could try to use some alternative file formats like Xnormal's SBM - there's a plugin for both maya and max.
So guess what I am saying is that my actual export can be fully triangulated- it just needs to match any of the 3 automatic triangulation modes in maya.
That's the whole thing! The FBX exporter "recieves" the model in its internal representation. It looks like dynamic diagonals reorientation is performed by maya in realtime without affecting actual model representation in memory. The worst thing is that I found no way to match visible triangulation in viewport and what you get after manual triangulation or exporting.
I really wonder how this problem is being solved in maya-based studios. The exported geometry almost never matches the model in viewport unless it is explicitly triangulated and/or manually edited. The most interesting is that maya viewport's HQ render somehow "compensates" the tangent space of the model which leads to correct display of normal maps even while diagonals rotation.
I wish I knew the solution too
Do you have an example? screen?
Not really sure if you plan on doing 'additional' work to it after export.
Another issue in this case is that studio's pipeline may include both max and maya users. Sometimes in maya modeler may create a model which shape looks slightly different in max because if lost dialoganls orientation. Example below.
Here we may clearly see the differences in silhouettoes between sample model in maya and exported one in Marmoset.
@funshark
The model you get after export IS AN ACTUAL geometry. Thw model you see in viewport is a "dynamically tweaked" geometry.
@JacqueChoi
Sometimes the model made in Maya is being rigged in Max (oh sh*t!) - and rigger often wanna add some extra edgeloops in deformation areas. When the model submitted for animation was previously triangulated - you may imagine how inconvenient it is.
Anyway it's not a great problem, but sometimes makes work a bit uncomfortable.
As for locking the normals you can also instead of using the triangulated mesh, you can duplicate, triangulate and TRANSFER ATTRIBUTES the locked triangles normals to the quad one. You will still have to triangulate before exporting.
Try not touching with modeling after in max, just in Maya. I wouldn't change the mesh after it's rigged. Always before.
Manual triangulation like this will work- it just isn't as ideal as having FBX do it automatically.
pasha_sevez > huh? What you're showing right now is just something we already know. Maya has his own triangulation algo ( but you can change it to force it clockwise or counter ) and if you do not triangulate your mesh before importing it in another soft, you can be sure that some edges were flipped.
I wonder, is there any way to prevent Maya from dynamic diagonals turning? I mean Max-style processing of internal polygons triangulation - on demand or manually (I know there's a way to swap diagonals manually since Maya 2010 if I'm not mistaking).
the edge turn thing works only when the edge is visible.
I do not know if there is now supposedly another import option you guys are talking about? But when I export to to UDK without triangulating it always keeps the invisible tri edge direction. Unless there is an issue with maya fbx to max that Unreal doesn't mess up?
I can ask him if I am allowed to share the tool if anyone is interested??
I would be interested to see if triangles are now broken with the tool into other packages and engines?
There's a preserve edge orientation there.
Yeah FBX plug-ins are up to date but was trying to keep all quads for rigging purposes. Looks like the normals were baked with triangulation the one way making small normal artifacts show up as Maya is triangulating some faces the other way. BTW edge orientation triangulates the mesh since FBX just looks at what is visible.
Ah thats shitty. Just normal map artifacts with different triangulation. Solved it by triangulating the mesh before export but was just trying to keep it quads for easier use in rigging/further changes etc.
Hey Alec, thanks for the quick response. Yeah it imports them from the exported object and I just told the artists to triangulate before export. Just more work on my end :P Shame there isn't more options to handle this. Ah well thanks anyways!