Include Skins weights and Joints not enabled

[Michelle Torricelli]

I am very new to creating clothes and skinning in 3DS Max 2012/2014 but I am fimalliar with the program as far as building stationary objects. (furniture, houses, ect...) I have watched many tutorials on skinning/rigging and have followed them all. I have read the SL Wiki but i am still at a loss of what i am doing wrong.

My problem is when i try to upload the clothing into SL is I do not get ability to check the boxes for including the skin weights or the joints. I have looked into the dae file like the wiki says but the area for <Name_array id="DefaultClothingItemController-Joints-array" count="26"> is not in there at all. I see the joints but no Bones listed in the file. So i am assuming I am still doing something wrong in 3DS.

Any help would be very much appretiated!

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

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Michelle Torricelli wrote:

I have looked into the dae file like the wiki says but the area for <Name_array id="DefaultClothingItemController-Joints-array" count="26"> is not in there at all.

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3ds Max exports only the bones with weights into the dae file, so unused bones in the skin modifier won't be in it.

Search for "Controller-Joints-array" instead, make sure you have the line where it says "Name_array id", change the value to 26 and add the missing bones or all 26 bones (after the bones already listed) in the next line. It's all in the wiki page you linked.

[Michelle Torricelli]

That is the thing, "Controller-Joints-array" is NOT in the DAE file. I've enen searched for just "Joints-array". Not in the file.

There is something that I'm missing in the process and I can't figure it out.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

If your object has a skin modifier in 3ds max, the exporter should write that information in the dae file.

What kind of exporter are you using? For the 2012 version of 3ds max you can use the fbx 2013.2 plugin.

[Michelle Torricelli]

I updated the FBX plugin, that worked and put the bones into the DAE file. I manually added the missing bones. I can upload the rigged mesh but I when wear it the scale is huge. Almost sim size. When i rez it on the ground it's the right size. I double checked my messurments in 3DS as well and the scaling is right in there too. Units are set to meters, when i export my units are also set to meters.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

Do you have both global and local units set the right way? Did you set the units correct in the exporter?

Did you check both the object and the skeleton are scaled at 100%?

To me it sounds like the skeleton is too big.

[GrimAsa Roxan]

I had the same problem. If you are using Max Slav plugin, mesh scale issue may be caused by wrong setting of scale in Slav plugin window.

Here is a workflow that works for me:

-  in Max Slav set scale to 1.00 and make rig

- resize rig to SL avatar size with scale gizmo at 0,0,0 world coordinates

- add skin modifier to your object

- in Advanced Parameters set bone affect limit to 26

- Edit envelopes, add ALL bones to your object

- Select > Vertices > (pick only one random vert and open Weight Tool) > weight ALL bones to 1.0 one by one

- proceed with rigging as usual

- Upload mesh, scale doesn't matter

- rezz mesh (it will be tiny) and scale it

 

[Michelle Torricelli]

I got it working. Thank you both so much! Updated my plugin that got my bones in the file then followed the workflow GrimAsa suggested and everything works perfect now.