Could anyone tell me effective ways to export models to GameStudio complete with animation as seamlessly as possible?

I am not referencing any specific 3D application to do this with, though I will say that I am not interested in Max or Maya because of the price. I want to keep the price under $1000. I would like to use XSI but I have read that there is no way to export from this application and keep the animation.

Also, I would like to know if complex animation can be achieved from within Gamestudio itself. If so, would I be better off animating withing GameStudio?

I am simply seeking the best alternatives that require the least amount of tweaking.

Thanks.

The best alternative i know ist blender: it has a wide range of modelling and animating functions. There also exists a very very good exporter by ventilator, just check his sig for it.

Hiya.

You can export from XSI (in .x format), and it will keep animations. However, the bones will be useless (and screwed up). I haven't really sat down and tried every little export/import and creation/naming convention to try and find a way to make it work. But, as I said, if you don't need the bones intact (for bone animation via scripting in-game), then you can use XSI just fine.

My latest 'experiment' involves using Hash Animation:Master, building a 'duplicate bone rig' (same names and structure) in it, using that to animate and export as .bvh (or .fbx for the new A7 I suppose). Use Fragmotion to import my model, bone it as mentioned, import .bvh/.fbx and export as MD7. I haven't had a chance to try this, but everyone seems to think it will work... I guess I'll find out in a while.

Is there nothing a bit more straight-forward?

Use MilkShape
3DGS can import the ascii version

I appreciate the tip regarding Milkshape but I truly have an aversion for that software.

Maybe I am missing something, just not reading closely enough, but it would seem to me that there should be some type of solution that is guaranteed to work whether it be in-house or 3rd-party. This is after all game development software and there should be some infallible way of getting content into it. Is there perhaps something within 3DGS itself that allows you to bone and animate meshes?

There simply has to be one excellent way to get content into the engine or else why use it?

Blender is good (in conjunction with vent's MDL7 exporter), Milkshape is adequate but dated, fragMotion is the way to go. The developer listens to his users, so if you suggest something he'll listen (in most cases). It's specialty is animation and it will export (natively) to every version of 3DGS MDL format including vertex and bones (MDL7 format of course). He's also awaiting the libraries to the newer MDL7 versions, so when that arrives, he'll implement it. I'll be sure to suggest he makes it MDL7 A7 (provided Conitec doesn't change it to MDL8) for compatibility purposes. It will also export to X and eventually FBX (which A7's MED will export and will allow for up to 4 bones per vertex in your rigs):

Anyway, it's $20, constantly in development, and probably the best indie targeted animation program on the market:

http://www.fragmosoft.com/

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Is there perhaps something within 3DGS itself that allows you to bone and animate meshes?

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Our own model editor MED will allow this (and the A7 version has many feature enhancements...see beta page at top of page), but if you have an aversion to Milkshape, you probably have one to MED, as well.

I read somewhere that XSI will export to FBX. Are the animations retained in this file format? Will this be a reliable way to get animated content into 3DGS?

Orange Brat: Fragmotion does indeed look impressive for such a affordably-priced application. Getting it is a no-brainer...

Hiya.

Again, yes, XSI can export to .fbx (you get the plugin from the Autodesk site...you may have to hunt for it). It will export quite happily. Animations, textures, shape animations, etc. However, once again, it seems that everything that reads in a .fbx from XSI has a problem with bones. The animation IS there...but the bones get all mangled in the conversion. I can only assume that this is an XSI nameing/setup scheme problem. Mind you, I'm using XSI v4...haven't upgraded yet. Maybe it's fixed in v6 now. Can anyone with XSI 6 confirm this?

I spent about 3 hours this morning trying all manner of exporting options and different programs to import/convert (Milkshape, fragmotion, UlimateUnwrap3d), but to no avail. I'm gonna install Blender and see if I have better luck there...

@darrenlc and others: I've been working with and making suggestions to Fragmo so I'll be sure to make sure to suggest to him to make sure fragMotion's FBX export will work in A7. A7 is going to support two kinds of FBX, so I hope he'll do this.

From beta:

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MEDB can now import FBX files with an arbitrary number of bones per vertex. Multiple bones animation can only be imported, but not edited in MED. The number of bones per vertex is visible under Model Properties. The engine now supports up to 4 bones per vertex. The number of bones per vertex can be restricted by setting the max_bones variable.

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MED FBX import now also supports bones animation. Because the FBX format is not downwards compatible to itself, two FBX importers are now implemented. The normal importer is for FBX files saved with the 2006 FBX version, the 2005 importer is for FBX files saved with the 2005 FBX version.

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