So, i gather there is something akin to a set of rules of how to prepare animation for exporting into game engine. What are these rules ? I find myself in a situation where i can create animations in 3D package, but cant export them anywhere. What do i do ? I cant find any articles or tutorials, or anything on the subject of game integration. What do i need ? Of course, there must be a mesh. And a set of bones, for most of current generation engines support skeletal animation. Can i use constraints ? Any groupping ? Can the scene contain anything at all except bones and mesh ? How can i quickly check if my export file can be imported nicely ? Waiting for the helping hand.

I didnt think it would be such a hard question for the dedicated gamedev board...

There probably haven't been any responses because your question was so vague. What game engine are you talking about? Every single game engine works differently. Usually a special animation exporter tool is used.

I think my questions are quite exact, and they'll be the same regardless of the engine. Or are you saying that there is an engine somewhere that can just import ready .max or .scn files ? With grouping, constraints, driven parameters, expressions and whatnot ?

No it's very much dependant on the engine as to what can be in the scene, as well as what format it must be exported as. You will almost always have to export to a specific file format from which the engine can read. Each engine usually has it's own specific file format. Though some engines can handle multiple file formats. First choose an engine, then find out if there's a plug-in for that engine which works with your appropriate 3D software package.

Quote: ...Or are you saying that there is an engine somewhere that can just import ready .max or .scn files ? With grouping, constraints, driven parameters, expressions and whatnot ?

No, he quite quite specifically answered with:

Quote: Every single game engine works differently. Usually a special animation exporter tool is used

You really are asking a rather generalized question. You want to know what rules are used for importing these animations. The answer is: The code are the rules. How the software works is how your models/animation/whatevers are loaded. If you are programming yourself this is all on you. If not, you will need to keep in close contact with your programmer(s) and make sure of two things.

1)Everyone designing the game agrees on what data needs to be used within the game to achieve a desired effect and that the programmer or programmers are developing software toward that end.

2)Everyone creating importable assets (artwork being one of them) is doing so is a way that the software will be able to digest.

Hope this clears thing up a bit [grin]

Quote: Original post by Karnot
I think my questions are quite exact, and they'll be the same regardless of the engine.

No. Different game engines require different workflows and prepping. Do you have a game engine in mind? You're going to need to look at the documentation for a given engine to let you know how to prep your art assets for it. If you let us know what engine you're working with, someone might have experience with its appropriate tools.

Quote: Original post
I cant find any articles or tutorials, or anything on the subject of game integration.

This is because they don't exist on a general basis. What need to be included, what needs to be stripped out, amount of vertices allowed to be influenced by a bone, etc are all engine dependent.

edit: lack o comments pretty much said the same thing as me.

*sigh*

Very well, i'll give an even more specific example. I have a man model with a walk cycle on it. Its rigged with a pre-made XSI Biped rig. I want to export it _anywhere_ i can, just to know it works. I export it to .x format (DirectX) and .dae formats (Collada), which are supposed to be most common nowadays. Both formats have their respective model viewers, ColView & DXviewer. Simple animations like moving a sphere show up in them fine. Simple enveloped animations like joints chain enveloped in a box show up fine. My man walk cycle crashes the viewers. I cleaned up, and cleaned up, and cleaned up my scene again and again, until there is nothing there except bones and mesh - i still cant view my animation in viewers.

For exporting to the .x format, you should check my stickied tutorial I wrote up a year ago. It is working with Maya, but really it should help with any modeling package. I wrote up a cleaner version Here. Hope that helps.

Yes, thanks alot, this is the exact kind of info i was looking for. Do you know where i could find more recomendations like these ?

To think that i totally forgot about layers, i have everything on its own layer, geometry, joints, rig controls. That could play a part in my misery.
I also might just have unenveloped joints there.