[solved] Skinned mesh exploding when animated

[paramecij]

I'm still trying to convert most of my bought models to GMF (with little luck thanks to stupid UU3D policy to sell only to specific countries .. i've bought Milkshape3D but it doesn't export animated models to gmf and if I export to fbx from milkshape there's even more problems) .. so much money wasted !! Now i'm doing my own modelling and animating and everything seemed to work fine (but it will set me back A LOT) .. but i've run into another strange problem, suddenly skinning doesn't work for me in LE, for no apparent reason, I haven't installed or changed anything (drivers or other software related).. the mesh just explodes randomly in different directions when I try to Animate() it .. At first I thought it must be some issue while exporting, but it happens to all the models (tested it with crawler.gmf) on all recent versions of the engine .. and as I said, I havent updated my graphics drivers or anything recently.. has anyone experienced something like this, or would have an idea as to what may be the cause? I guess I can try updating my drivers, but why would it suddenly stop working?

 

Thanks in advance...

[Naughty Alien]

..your surface normals went crazy..also your enimated mesh is not Xformed so such appearance is reason for it. Second reason is that you may have open edges or unwelded vertices (happen to me few times)..its rather minor thing, and non code related, but media..your LE doing just fine..

[cassius]

I don't know the answer to your problem but have you tried the supplied converters that come with le with your bought models?

Also I see that Dexsoft have some models already in gmf format. Reliance on uu3d should be optional not essential.

[Pixel Perfect]

I'm using version 2.43 and have had no issues with animating characters, so I'm guessing it’s something other than a version issue. With regard to the UU3D policy, I really find it bizarre in this day and age that people are restricting software sales in this way and sympathize with you as it's a great tool and is my main pipeline for Leadwerks.

[paramecij]

It's not media or code related, the files which worked before haven't changed a bit, I even tested it with the crawler.gmf that came with one of the official tutorials.. I think it's either hardware/driver or OS in relation to LE that's causing this.. as I said nothing changed, everything worked .. I just came back a couple of hours and everything animated blows up all of the sudden, ... I remember Josh saying something about some issues with skinning, that's why I asked here first, .. if everything fails I'll try to restore my system to a previous image I made or a fresh OS install. (laptop running vista 64, nvidia 8800)

 

Yeah, I have bought the dexsoft elite soldier, when I asked dexsoft for assistance converting it to GMF(seeing that they have some models already converted) they pointed me to UU3D, when I asked on the forum everyone and their cat (even Josh) told me to get UU3D - maybe UU3D should come bundled with the engine license then .. of course I tried first converting with the supplied converters, but there's always a problem or two..

[ArBuZ]

Just a thought: What frame numbers do you use while animating? I had such problem when the frame number came out of the animation range of the model ( -1 or > animation length)

[paramecij]

I figured it out, it's a timing issue with windows and LE, ..don't let your windows run for too long

[Pixel Perfect]

what! ... more info please

[paramecij]

Well I think i figured it out.. I need to do a couple tests more to be sure, but it seems if I leave windows running for too long there's some weird time related issue, i know timeGetTime() wraps around after 49 days, but I didn't have it running for so long.. there's also known issues with QueryPerformanceCounter and laptops, which throttle down the CPU to save battery power, which can give inaccurate readings.. I remember running into similar problems in the past (not with LE), but this is on a different laptop almost on a fresh windows install, the only thing in common I think is that I had windows running for a few days and things went bonkers (in a similar fashion) and after a restart, all was back to normal...

[Pixel Perfect]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, QueryPerformanceCounter has well documented issues. I guess as most people tend to reboot their systems on a daily basis issues with timings beyond that period would be less of an issue, but I'd still like to hear the outcome of your findings once complete.