GMF Processor to work on animated models

[macklebee]

It appears the GMF Processor only works on static meshes? It would be ideal if it worked on animated meshes as well since they are usually very high polycount and cause significant delays/pauses when hit with a raycast for the first time... Not to mention, it collapses the gmf file size down significantly which is always a bonus.

[Masterxilo]

Hmm you shouldn't use raycasts on animated meshes, they don't hit the transformed triangles anyways.

[macklebee]

thanks, but that doesn't resolve the problem

[Admin]

The GMF processor collapses the mesh hierarchy. So if you do that to an animated mesh, it won't be animated anymore.

[macklebee]

The GMF processor collapses the mesh hierarchy. So if you do that to an animated mesh, it won't be animated anymore.

 

yeah i noticed... in any case, a solution would be nice. Any way the newton raycast data could be calculated already in the GMF file? Or is it already doing this and this is the best we can get?

[Admin]

That's the point of the processor...to get rid of the hierarchy and collapse everything into a single mesh.

[macklebee]

thats only part of the features it supposedly performs.

 

This utility loads a GMF file, collapses it into an optimized mesh with the fewest number of surfaces possible, and precalculates Newton raycast data. Version 2.32 will be able to load Newton raycast data straight from a GMF file. This will eliminate the pause that occurs the first time a raycast is performed on a mesh.

 

What I am asking can we get the precalculated raycast data without optimizing the mesh? I realize this means that the existing converters might need to be updated to support this, but it really is crazy to expect people to have to perform picks on every high poly model loaded into a scene before gameplay.

 

And maybe this would only help a small amount if it was doable, but anything would be an improvement than the stutter/pause effect that occurs now. This is not a new feature request in this aspect, I was just trying to see if it was possible to use any part of the GMF Processor's supposed abilities on high poly count animated meshes.

[Josh]

The speed at which Newton builds the tree collision got a lot better in a recent version, so it's not as much of an issue anymore. I am hesitant to rely on serialized data anymore like we did, because we all know how many headaches that caused when the serialized format changed.

 

Why would you be performing raycasts on an animated mesh anyways? Wouldn't it be better to use a few low-poly hit boxes attached to the joints? Or is this just for ease of use in the editor?

[macklebee]

The speed at which Newton builds the tree collision got a lot better in a recent version, so it's not as much of an issue anymore. I am hesitant to rely on serialized data anymore like we did, because we all know how many headaches that caused when the serialized format changed.

 

Why would you be performing raycasts on an animated mesh anyways? Wouldn't it be better to use a few low-poly hit boxes attached to the joints? Or is this just for ease of use in the editor?

 

So what does this mean for future use of newton?

 

That's the workaround for all high poly meshes that could possibly be ever hit with a raycast? To create invisible meshes around them... I guess. Out of curiosity what version of Newton are we using with LE 2.4?

[cocopino]

Can't Newton be handled on a separate thread/core? It will eliminate the stuttering while also speeding up most games.