For some time now i’ve been working in Mod Tool to create animations for a game i’ve been working on.  The rig i’ve been using is the default Male ValveBiped.  In Mod Tool, when I export the model to an SMD file, the file has a list of 83 bones in it which is how it should be i think.

Now I am trying to work in XSI foundation with the same Male ValveBiped rig but when i try to export the model to an SMD file, i get 133 lines of bones.  I checked the list of named bones, and it looks as though the control bones for the Valvebiped are getting exported when they shouldn’t be.  Nevertheless this is breaking my previously setup animations.

Is there any way for me to control what the SMD exporter can see and export?  Or is there something fundamentally wrong with what I am trying to do here?  Any help would be greatly appreciated as animation is at a standstill until i can resolve this.

Im having a similar problem making a view model, with custom arms. Using the mod tool btw.

Basically, i can get the arms_reference scene (the hl2 arms and bones) - and make a reference pose, export that. Add some animations and export them. Compile it with ma qc. and it works fine in the model viewer.

I can add mesh to that (merging it with the arm mesh - as it all has to be 1 thing). And that will just sit there as you’d expect.

As soon as a make a null and use it as a bone to control the extra mesh, or draw a 2d chain and use a bone off that - the export seems to break - only the new bone and a bone for the mesh and the root bone get exported. If i add the new bone somewhere in the biped’s heirachry a few extra bones get exported but they dont have any effect on whats enveloped to them in xsi.

This has got me completely stuck - and btw dont even think of asking if i unticked the boxes in the smd exporter. I found this and it has me a little bemused () - ah i cant find it now, but it was some fellow with the same problem - and he said that it was just that xsi doesnt like expotring stuff with too many bone influences - any backup on that? or solutions?

He said that it works fine if the recombines the models in the .qc file, anyone got any clues how to do this - presumably it works like an attachment but any help would be great.

Respond please even if u got no idea, it will make me happy.

Wow, i almost forgot all about this thread.

The Valve exporter has some limitations that one would need to be aware of.  First off, any control bones you create will not be used in the .smd unless they get enveloped… even if those control bones are needed in XSI for your animations rig.  For this purpose, i’ve created my own set of rules to follow when rigging a new setup.

-Create your bone rig and controls under one hierarchy, usually labeled “ValveBiped” or something similar.  How you organize things within this hierarchy is up to you.  If there is a bone limit in the Source engine, i haven’t hit it yet… and i’ve topped 200 before.
-Create and maintain a “Envelope Deformers” Group where you place all your bones.  This group is usually in the reference scene files i’ve seen.  This group should only contain actual deformer bones for your mesh, NOT control bones or rigging constraints.
-When Enveloping your mesh to the new rig, set the envelope to the “Envelope Deformers” Group, NOT the “ValveBiped” hierarchy.  Then proceed with weight-mapping the mesh.
-Or, if you have a Rig/Mesh that already works and you just need to replce the mesh… use GATOR.  GATOR is your friend.

Things to note:
-If you need to animate the position of the “ValveBiped” root null, SMD export will not recognise that animation.  You’ll need a bone underneath “ValveBiped” which is actually enveloped to the mesh acting as root bone.  The SMD export has a tendency to ignore the top level bone (aka ValveBiped).
-It’s been a long time since Valve has updated the XSI plugins, some of the tools are still working but others are entirely broken (at least for me).  The contraints they created on their rigs can be difficult to reverse engineer if they get broken and need to be fixed later.  For this reason i would strongly consider building your own rig if you are planning on doing lots of work over an extended production.  But if you are just filling in your own custom v-model for a mod, the reference setup should work just fine as a starting point.  But be careful when messing with the preset contraints, they can be a pain to fix at times.

I’ll update this post if i think of anything else…

That is all good info, but i dont see why my export doesnt work considering that. Cause im even using the pre-enveloped hl2 arms and their biped - that i know is all good cause when i export that alone its fine. - and im not adding extra control bones or anything, but as soon as i add a bone it all breaks.

Maybe im going about making bones the wrong way or something. Ive never found any good tutorials or anything on it so ive had to just go by trying.

No clue on how to combine things in qc files? Ive had a look at the valve dev com wiki but its not the most usefull to the layman :)

Thanks a lot for replying, im just really new to all this.

if you are that new to it, then i would definitely run through some rigging tutorials before you set to work. XSI is a great app but it can take some getting used to.  It sounds to me like the problem you are having is something to do with improper enveloping.  All the bones need to be enveloped to the same mesh under one envelope operator in order for the smd operator to work properly. 

Check your operator stack for the polygon mesh and see if you have multiple “Envelope Weights” there. It’s ok to have multiple Envelope Weight operators but you must make sure that at least one of them is actually working on all of your bones.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then i’d say a good rigging tutorial would be the order of the day.  Good luck!

No that makes sence, is there a way to merge envelop operators then - or after adding my bones will i have to re-envelope the whole thing?

I know you can export/import weightmaps, and so i could do that but having the extra gun mesh there might screw it up mightnt it - but it would be a starting place.

Cheers for quick reply again :)

(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa83/benetheth/envweights.jpg)

There are my 5 envelope weights :)

And btw, you have given me the clue i needed :D - perfectimundo. Cause even if i do have to do it all over - i know what was wrong with it.

Read up in the manual/help about enveloping. 

To add bones, use set envelope, and then make sure NOT to use automatic (that will mess up all the existing weights you modified.  Basically, that will add the bone to the envelope, but nothing will be weighted to it.  Next, select points that you want to weigh to new bone, “Local Reassign” and pick the bone/null.

Ah good news then :) cheers fellow, and big thanks to brytis[U].

Edit;Worked perfectly thanks :) now i can start animating and getting stuff in game.
[/U]

yes, what he said. thanks dwigfor.  now… if anyone ever figures out how to manually “remove” a “bone” from the envelope list… i could use that piece of knowledge for myself.

thats your holy grail :) - does this count as spam? Sorry.