3ds max, SLAV - wrong position for uploaded mesh.

[AliceSeint]

First hello all, hopefully someone can help me.

I am new at creating clothes for sl (not in 3d stuff) and have an upload problem. First, the 3d program i use is 3ds max at version 2012, to get my shape correct exported out of sl i have an licensed version of SLAV plugin.

Now to my problem i created my first mesh a simple skirt. Before i start rigging i wanted to look if the position and all is correct, so i uploaded my mesh to sl.

For details i imported my shape/mesh with scale 1, all units in 3ds max are at metre and i scale my skirt to fit this size.

 

So after i imported the mesh to sl i attached it to the pelvis, but it wasn't the correct position like in max. I have no idea what went wrong, i hope you can help me.

Here how it looks in max

http://i.imgur.com/DwyTzX5.png

and here how it looks ingame

http://i.imgur.com/0dnnswt.jpg

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

As long as you don't rig your skirt, there is no reference to the avatar in SL. So the centre of your object will be exactly at the pelvis bone.

If your skirt will fit without rigging (which I highly doubt), just move it into position. If you do rig it, the problem will be gone.

[AliceSeint]

Thx, for the fast answer okay, thats logic. I read the wiki part about rigging stuff,

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh/Exporting_a_mesh_from_3ds_Max#Fixing_number_of_bones

but its hard for me to understand it in context with the upload process, in my scene there is my mesh and all bones, when i take the relevant bones do some weight painting thats all okay til there. Then i did this wiki stuff export all with the bones into .dae and uploaded.

Can anyone explain how to rig successfully after i painted weights and so on?

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

Painting the weights IS rigging.

Maybe you forgot to check the "include skin weights" in one of the upload tabs?

[AliceSeint]

Okay, but something is still wrong, do i need to upload all bones with my mesh or just the ones i need for the rigging?

And when i try to upload a rigged mesh the bones are visible. As you can see at the following picture the position is displaced and wrong scaled, and i can't check the weigthing option.

http://i.imgur.com/mPD9B8A.png

(Sry for the german language)

In 3ds i made the rigging with the skin modifier after that i export it to .dae, is there anything else to do with the mesh before exporting?

And thanks for the great support.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

It looks like you converted your bones to editable mesh or poly, that's the last thing you want.

First of all, in order to make sure the rigging went well, did you try to rotate the leg bones in 3ds Max to see if they make the skirt move?

If that works as it should, export just the skirt and add the bones to the dae file.

If that all goes well, you should be able to check the box in the uploader. You won't see the gray 3ds Max bones, but if I'm not mistaken you will see the blue SL skeleton.

[AliceSeint]

Yeah, on that parts where the skirt should move it moves. I think thats the problem HOW can i pack the "bones" into the dae file. I don't understand this process in the wiki with taking a vertex and assign all bones to it.....

Can i delete the bones after that process? When i delete them before the skin modifier gets empty too.....

[AliceSeint]

Ahhhhh now i get it this thing with adding the bones to an vertex ...... The only thing is that deleting the "mesh"-bones result in a empty skin modifier.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

You can leave the bones in the scene, but make sure you export just the skirt, not any bones. (Export -> Export selected). That way the bones won't be in the dae file, but the weights of your skirt will.

[AliceSeint]

Hm i selected the skirt, and exported just selected out of scene like you described, but the bones are exported as mesh too ..... a bit weird.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

That's odd.

I add the bone names by hand in the dae file, maybe that will work instead of assigning all the unused bones in 3ds Max.

Also, make sure your exporter is working as it should, 3ds Max 2012 has an exporter that's not compatible with SL. There's a 2013.3 version of the fbx plugin available for 3ds Max 2012. That one works for me (using 3ds Max Design 2013). You can download it here.

[AliceSeint]

Yep! That was it the new version of FBX plugin made it . Bones are not longer exported with the mesh and the skirt is at the right place. Thank you a lot for your knowledge and time!

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

Glad I could help!