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Newcomers DBPro Corner / DBPro - Question on Limbs as they related to .X files

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ChrisOG
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Posted: 31st Mar 2003 19:17
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I'm hoping someone here can help me out. I've written a DirectX exporter for Animation:Master, and I'm currently working with a DBPro user on how to get the X files into DBPro. I've tried scouring this website and boards to get as much info as possible, but I'm still a bit fuzzy.

1) Can DBPro user DirectX 8 Skinned Mesh .X files? Or is it limited to DX7 retained mode .X files?

2) How do DBPro limbs relate to animating an X file? I've seen conflicting info that DBPro limbs are based on either .X file bones, or .X file groups.

3) How does one assign limbs to an imported DirectX .X file? Does DBPro pull data from the bone heirarchy? Or do you need to assign DX groups and tell DBPro to use those as limbs? Or am I completely off base?

4) If limbs are based on DX groups, how does DBPro handle the DX AnimationSet data (since DX animations are based on the bones/skin weights)?

Thank you very much. I appreciate any help that anyone can provide.

Chris Roy
http://www.obsidiangames.com
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Steverino
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Posted: 31st Mar 2003 19:38
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1) It can use skinned mesh .X files. Kensupen's tutorial http://dakoren.home.attbi.com/ tells how to make those in Milkshape, and I had no trouble loading and animating the resulting dancing salami in DB Pro.

The rest of your questions are over my head, but I hope you can find the information you need. A curious feature of DB Pro's handling of .X models that use limb animation is that the limb numbering seems to be in the opposite order that they were in DB classic. E.g. if in DBC the pelvis is Limb 0 and the fingertips are Limb 34, in DBP the pelvis is 34 and the fingertips are Limb 0. Don't know if that's relevant.

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ChrisOG
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Posted: 31st Mar 2003 19:52 Edited at: 31st Mar 2003 19:53
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Thanks for the response, that's good to know. I checked out the link too, thanks. It looks like my exporter does the same thing in A:M as JT's exporter does in Milkshape.

Unfortunately, I'm not a DBPro user, so I'm not even sure that I'm asking the right questions about limbs. I can't find any documentation either.

When you import the .X model into DBPro, do you instantly have a list of limbs to select from (hopefully based on the names of the joints in Milkshape)? Or do you need to create the limbs one by one after you imported the .X model?

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Steverino
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Posted: 1st Apr 2003 02:42
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The limbs are all there ready to be rotated or whatever when you load the object. The docs for the PERFORM CHECKLIST FOR OBJECT LIMBS command say this:

This command will make a list of all limbs contained in a 3D object. Objects that have been loaded may contain hundreds of limbs, and are identified by number. All limbs include an internal limb description that often indicates which part of the overall 3D object it belongs to. You can access the limb description using the string item of the checklist when you have performed the check. Use the CHECKLIST commands in the SYSTEM command set to read the checklist.

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ChrisOG
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Posted: 2nd Apr 2003 15:57
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Steverino, thanks again for your help. That's the info I was looking for. It looks like limbs should get created automatically from the bones in a .X file, which is what I was hoping.

Thanks again,
Chris

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Steverino
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Posted: 2nd Apr 2003 16:19
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Glad to be useful. Let us know where to find this exporter when it's done. This may be the incentive I need to get back into using Hash A:M.

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