FSXA [Solved]Skinned mesh animation lost when exporting

[Kekelekou]

Hello fellow Blender modellers!

I am having a go at a very simple skinned mesh animation as a warm-up for a more complex project. The top 4 vertices of a cube rotate (I told you it was simple!).
Thanks to capt_x mini-tutorial, creating the mesh and assigning the anim is now pretty straightforward. Everything works fine in Blender.
The "skinned mesh" box is ticked in the material editor. The "skinned mesh" box is ticked in the export window. The export itself runs smoothly.
Reading the MDL in MCX (today's dev release) shows that the anim is included (correct name in the anim manager, and correct code in the ModelDef.xml reader).
But the top vertices do not move at all.

I must be missing something obvious one again. So any insight from a seasoned Blender modeller will be appreciated!

Have a nice day,

Blender 2.79b + Blender2FSX 0.94 (ii)

 

[FSX3D]

Hello,
Your file works fine ...

 

[Kekelekou]

Hello,

Which one are you talking about? The .blend one or the MDL one?

 

[FSX3D]

Both files work
In MCX the animation works exactly as in the .blend

 

[Kekelekou]

I have just tested again, to no avail on both MCX and FSX.
Could you please tell me which MCX release you use?

 

[FSX3D]

I use this version : 1.4 DEV 30/11/2018
It works as well with a version 1.4 of 2017

 

[Kekelekou]

Merci FSX3D. I have just had another look at the file. I tested the wrong version in FSX...
So now the MDL reacts as it should to the Lvar change in-game, but still no visible animation in MCX. Better than the otherway around, but I'd like to know the issue with MCX though.
Investigations on-going...

 

[arno]

Are you using the simple shader in MCX maybe? That doesn't support skin and bone animations.

 

[Kekelekou]

I had no idea this could be changed! The "ForceSimpleShader" is set to "False" in the Renderer tab of Options window.
I have just deleted the whole MCX folder, redownloaded and reinstalled it. Same result.

What is puzzling is that if the "Show Bones" box is selected, the bones animate just fine. So the textured rendering is the only item that does not move as expected, all other features react the right way.

PS : The cube's top face rotates (albeit not as specified by the bone's rotation) in "Inspect Normals", "Inspect Texture Mapping" and "Inspect Bone Weight" render modes.

 

[arno]

Did you assign the vertex weights in the model? Else the skin does not follow the bones.

 

[Kekelekou]

As far as I know, there are two methods to link the armature to the vertex groups :
- Adding a "armature" modifier to the mesh
- "Making parents" the armature and the mesh, then "deform the armature with automatic weights"
I have created two MDL following each method. Both work in FSX but the skinned anim is not depicted in MCX.

 

[arno]

And in MCX in the toolbar there is an icon with a red teapot (simple or complex shader), is that one set to simple maybe?

 

[FSX3D]

Arno found, you have to check the teapot

 

[Kekelekou]

Nailed it Arno! The FSX-approved MDL deforms if the red teapot is checked. The deformation is not exactly the one in Blender, but at least I can check if the anim is exported. That's all I wanted in the first place.
Thank you to both of you for your help.

 

[FSX3D]

You're welcome

 

[gastonj]

As far as I know, there are two methods to link the armature to the vertex groups :
- Adding a "armature" modifier to the mesh
- "Making parents" the armature and the mesh, then "deform the armature with automatic weights"
I have created two MDL following each method. Both work in FSX but the skinned anim is not depicted in MCX.

Oops! It seems to me that bones animation for FSX works only with vertex group! Am I wrong?
JMC