TrueSpace Plug-in

On p. 199 of Michael Duggan’s book, reference is made to the fact that, “...There are also plug-ins you can download to import Caligari TrueSpace”.
I wonder is anyone can help me locate where this is? I want to import a TrueSpace scene into GameStudio but have not been successful with locating the download.
Thanks
D

This plugin was probably for Gamespace. But Gamespace, older trueSpace versions and most of the plugins is not longer available since tS7.6 went freeware.

A working art pipeline is via OBJ format. Here Blender and the MDL7 export can come in handy. Because OBJ arrives in MED without textures. Blender reads with textures though. But this solution is just useful for static stuff. Or you own Ultimate Unwrap 3D, export from tS 7.6 as Collada, load it in UU3D, export as FBX, load it in MED and save it finally as MDL.

There is also an FBX plugin for trueSpace in development. Means when this arrives UU3D is not longer necessary for conversion. But this development can last a while. The guy who writes that plugin is currently busy with something else ...

why not just use the standalone fbx file converter from Autodesk to convert the collada file into fbx? Then directly import into 3d gamestudio.

Cheers Moggy

The light at the end of the tunnel is coming through!

Because it cannot read the trueSpace Collada maybe? Yup, i think that was the reason ...

I have to agree with "Tiles",I purchased a plug in for the damn Gamespace back in the day and was a total waste of $200+,that plug in suppose to work based on the documentations provided by the Author...yeah right!;the plug in didn't work well...crap!.As fo TS7 and up...well,a powerful package but limited in terms of export plugins...I cannot figure out as good as TS,a lot of standard plug ins are are not available...strange!;users have to create their own custom plugins;not so cool.I don't use either one of the tools anymore...frustrating.
Hopefully,somebody will come up with at least .FBX and .X export plugs that work.

That the official FBX converter cannot read the trueSpace Collada is a shame really ...

Well, there is already X in two flavours onboard. But the new X from Workspace works with a DeclData block for the texture vertices. Haven't found a single app that can read this newest X derivate so far (Well UU3D can). They all fail to read the UV's. And from the old core you have the old X. But there is no way to transfer the new skeleton over so that you could export from there. And so this Modeler X is just good for static stuff really.

I use trueSpace together with Ultimate Unwrap 3D though, and have my working art pipeline. Collada - FBX - MDL.

trueSpace is still in transition from the old architecture to the new architecture. So no wonder there is the one or another bit missing. Not talking about the bugs. That's where the call for external plugin developers come from. Team is busy with the core features, so no time left for other things like other importers/exporters. I really hope they finish that one day ...

With the old fbx converter 3.5 of filmbox (Motionbuilder) or the old .flm format before it was renamed .fbx did work. But now its not backwards compatible with new versions 5 and 6. Thats why the old importer that seems to be in Carrara and i guess other apps hence the reason why we cant import from one app to another with regards to skins materials and animation. But there maybe a small solution from this company if i am reading it correctly. Here is the link:

http://www.okino.com/conv/imp_fbx.htm The okino fbx importer

they seem to have been able to import skins and animation etc.....

As for pipelines it really is a shame not being able to see peoples workflow because this could build a picture of how things are done by all in this industry.

Some people give their workflow but not all.

its a pity really

i have one possible solution for TrueSpace users and thats to export to .cob and then import the .cob into Carrara then export to .fbx then into .mdl

so cob -> fbx -> mdl

and we know why the exporter works because it supports the parts we require skins, animation etc..... not just a static object!

Thats the latest version 5 and 6 of the autodesk kaydara .fbx exporter used in Maya and Carrara and yes Fat old Max too etc.....

Cheers Moggy

Hopefully the okino importer works here is the pricing for the base package nugraf or polytrans and the dcc pack needed which has the importer.

http://www.okino.com/conv/order/order.htm#basepackagepricinginfo

Cheers Moggy

So good luck and enjoy i hope this works for you!

Cheers Moggy

Bad choice. That's the old file format. You cannot export the new bones with that format. New bones from Workspace doesn't transfer over to Modeler. And Modeler Bones are finally broken. Means there is absolutely no sense to use *.cob ...

As for the workflow, i already told a working art pipeline that is also good enough to export animation from Workspace. That one needs Ultimate Unwrap 3D though. But that's much cheaper than your solution here

well considering collada is already in truespace 7.6 then transfer the file and directly import into the collada format in Carrara and then export into fbx.

essentially a direct collada -> collada -> fbx -> mdl

hows that for a solution if it works haha cob or no cob haha

Here we have the pitfall. A minimum $249.00 pitfall may i add. And i have no clue if Carrara even loads the trueSpace Collada. But yeah, no cob

I believe it does....

I don't need to believe when using Ultimate Unwrap 3D. This one does definitely

Hi

Thanks for all the info.

I wanted to avoid having to convert individual keyframes from TrueSpace(hundreds of them) and then import them as frames (e.g. .fbx or .3ds) into GameStudio as this is very time consuming. Being able to use a plugin to import a TrueSpace scene seemed to be an attractive alternative to individually converting large numbers of individual keyframes.

Okino responded to me and said I cannot take a truespace scene and convert this to a series of individual keyframes. The lengthier route of converting individual keyframes into various formats would be possible.

I do have a very old version of TrueSpace so perhaps a plugin might still be an option with that?

Another suggestion on the TrueSpace site was that one would not have to import the TrueSpace scene into Gamestudio as frames and it may be possible to simply play the animation using coding in the SED. I can't see how this would work? Firstly, I cannot see how one could get a TrueSpace scene to run in GameStudio just using coding in the SED e.g. even if one converted a truespace scene to a .wrl file and tried to run it from the SED. There would be an issue with being able to get it to run (I think) even if one could open it. Secondly there would be the issue of skins which I think wold be lost.

Hopefully what I have said is clear. Any further thoughts are most welcome!!!

D

Such a plugin is not longer available. The one that once existed was told as extremely buggy.



Going the Ultimate Unwrap route, Collada transfers the whole animation, FBX too. There is at no point the need to deal with single frames.

The decision of frames comes when you save your file as mdl. The decision is if you use Vertex animation or Bones animation. Vertex Animation is the frame thingie. You save your MDL by default in the vertex format. But even here you don't save individual frames, but the whole mdl file.



Scene? You better just export the animated character.

Collada exports selected objects. So does Workspace X. Modeler X can export whole scenes. But as told before, Workspace animation does not arrive in Modeler. And trueSpace X and MED is a very special relationship anyways.



Sounds like you need C++ skills for that one ...

Thanks!

I wanted to check I follow the logic of what has been said:

1) I have been looking for the ultimate unwrap product and am assuming that the link http://www.unwrap3d.com/ is the product you are referring to?

2) I am wondering what format to use to export an animation from TrueSpace to the ultimate unwrap product. I have an old version of TrueSpace so don't know about exporting it to a Collada format. I am assuming that I probably have to upgrade to a newer version of TrueSpace in order to be able to do so?

3) I understand that once you transfer your animation from TrueSpace to Ultimate Unwrap that you can then save the whole thing to GameStudio as an Mdl file which eliminates the need for saving individual frames?

D

1) Yes

Ah, you didn't tell that you work with an old version. There is no need to have an older version. trueSpace 7.6 is freeware nowadays. And so i thought we talk about that



It's one more step. Export from Workspace as Collada. Open UU3D, load Collada , save as FBX. Open MED, load FBX, save as MDL.

But we talk about the Workspace side in this case. The new bones.

Different story for the old bones and Modeler. WARNING, in Case we talk about old bones, they don't transfer over to the Workspace. Means there is no way to export them as Collada.

You could have a look if X arrives intact in MED. Try both, the X from your older Version ( I guess tS 6.6 or below?), and 7.6 Modeler. Haven't played around with the old bones for a long long time, and am honestly not willing to touch this buggy dinosaurs anymore



What do you mean with eliminating vs individual frames all the time? There is never a need to deal with the single frames when you don't want to. What's there is the need to clean up the one or another keyframe. But that's another thing.

Since the latest edition of TrueSpace is free, you should really upgrade soon.

Hi

Thanks for your insightful comments. Some of my misunderstandings were to do with a very old version of TrueSpace that I have.

I have purchased Ultimate Unwrap and installed the freeware version of TrueSpace 7.6 as suggested. I still have some difficulties...

I am able to save a scene as a Collada dae file from TrueSpace.

When I open the Collada dae file in Ultimate Unwrap and play the animation, each of the 30 frames that appear are exactly the same as the first frame so the animation sequence is a series of the same frame. Perhaps I am not saving the Collada file correctly to have ‘30' different frames from the TrueSpace scene or perhaps Ultimate Unwrap does not work in the way I expected it I to?

It doesn’t matter how large the dae file is, when I import it into Ultimate Unwrap I end up with the problem of having only 30 frames each time. Each RsScn from TrueSpace 76 varies in length and has different numbers of frames so this is a puzzle.

When I save the Collada dae file from Ultimate Unwrap to an .fbx file and then open the frames in the MED, not surprisingly – given my earlier problems, each of the frames is exactly the same.

My questions are:

1)Are their any special boxes one should tick when saving a file from TrueSpace to a Collada dae file that I am perhaps overlooking and which is causing my problem?
2)Does Ultimate Unwrap allow one to import more than 30 frames at a time?
3)Does Ultimate Unwrap import different frames e.g. ‘walking’, ‘running’ etc so that an animation sequence can be created or does it only accept the first frame one imports e.g. ‘walking’ and then make 30 copies of this frame?

D

I can definitely save more than 30 frames. Do you try to save the old bones? As told, this will not work.

In case you already save a workspace animation i would say have a closer look at the Collada export dialogue.