A quick update, as mentioned in my previous post. I’ve now ported my VTF Shell extensions to Windows 7 RTM (the official release version) although they should also work with the Beta/RC as well.
There are no new features, just Windows 7 compatibility, so the version number hasn’t changed and if you’re already using the latest version on XP/Vista you don’t need this update. All I’ve done is add compatibility for Windows 7 into the installer.
So, the current supported OS’s are: Windows 2000, XP 32-bit, Vista 32/64-bit, Windows 7 32/64-bit. If you’re running Windows 2003/2008 I’m afraid I don’t have access to those OS’s for testing, but if you’d like to try the extensions, e-mail me for the files and manual install instructions and if it turns out it works, I’ll add support for it in the installer.
- VTF Shell Extensions for Windows 2K/XP/Vista/7 version 1.0.6.1
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Hello.
This summers passed by really quickly and I realised I haven’t posted anything here for ages. I started a new job in June and I’ve been fairly full throttle with that for the past three month, hence the lack of any movement here. It’s nice to be working full time again and developing stuff but sadly it’s not game related. 🙁
I haven’t had as much freetime as before and what little I have has been given over to Ham and Jam and trying to get that finished. We are very close to be able to make a public release but we are still short of a few art assets. We are absolutely desperate for weapon texture artists for our first persion view models and it’s the only think holding us back right now. If I had to make an estimate I would say that with a reliable weapons texture artist on board, we could be looking at a public beta within 2 months.
Other stuff, not much moving on the plug-ins and such but I have had a lot of good feedback and I’ve got some new features I want to add to the VTA plug-in. I’m still toying with the idea of a VTA importer and possible a raw MDL importer but those are future projects if/when I get more time to myself. There is one minor update though – I’ve ported/tested my VTF Shell Extensions to work with the RTM (Release To Market) version of Windows 7. This is the proper release version of Windows 7, not the RC/Beta (although it should work with those as well) so hopefully no problems. As I haven’t added any features it’s the same version number, just re-download the installer as I’ve updated it for Windows 7.
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Got an email from “superaldo” over at the Steampowered forums telling me he used my 3DS Max VTA exporter plug-in to make new face flexes for his custom player model for TF2.
You gotta check this out. 🙂
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Thanks to those who volunteered to test-drive the beta of my VTA exporter. No bug reports came back and all said they had successfully managed to get their face animations working so I figure we’re good for general release!
I’ve written up some rough instructions on how to use it here but basically it’s exactly the same as Cannonfodder’s exporter. The main difference is that you don’t have to delete a lot of stuff before export – just make sure you have the bones and morphed mesh selected and off you go.
Feel free to email me any pics/demos of any models you got working with it! 🙂
- 3DS Max VTA Exporter version 1.0
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Finally!
I’ve now finished a face-flex vertex animation (VTA) plug-in for 3DS Max 9 onwards and so far, with what limited testing I’ve done it works! 🙂
I’d like to get some of you guys to test it’s for me before I make an official public release so if you’re making character models with custom/new face flexes and using Max 9, 2008, 2009 or 2010 let me know and I’ll send you the plug-in for testing.
The offer only applies to those who know what their doing – I’m not going to teach anyone how to flex rig a model. The assumption is you already know how to do it but are still using Max 5 – 8 and Cannonfodder’s plug-in.
Oh, and in case you missed it I updated all my other Max plug-ins for 3DS Max 2010.
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I’ve now re-compiled my 3DS Max plug-ins to support 3DS Max 2010. Grab them while they’re hot! 🙂
The only change has been to the SMD exporter where I’ve added support for spline objects after user requests. I left it out on purpose to stop people using splines in place of bones or dummies in model skeletons. The reason being is that they are very quirky and it often results in the animation in Max not matching the rotation on export. They are fine to use to as controllers to influence the rotation of a bone or dummy but don’t use them as bones themselves. You’ll put yourself in a world of pain.
I’ve testing the plug-ins in the 32-bit version of 3DS Max 2010 but I’m assuming that they’ll work fine in the 64-bit version too.
As always, any problems let me know.
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Sorry folks. Not been posting at all of late due to some major upheavals in my life of late. 🙁
I’ve been getting a lot of email of late about my plug-ins and 3DS Max 2010 and the fact they don’t work – yes, I know.
Thing is, every time Autodesk release a new version of Max is means I need access to its SDK to recompile the plug-ins. I’ve been lucky in the past that through my professional associations I’ve been able to get access fairly easy but no-one I know is currently using Max 2010. As I’m not a student and don’t have the $3500 to buy a copy myself you’re just going to have to wait a while.
It’s also a bit of a task porting everything to new versions. Max 2010 requires Visual Studio 2008 which I need to run side-by-side Visual Studio 2005 and I need port and test all my code so it can be compiled and works in four different version of Max as well as 32-bit and 64-bit. As efficient as I try to make my code, it’s no easy task maintaining eight versions of each plug-in.
Oh and the VTA exporter – I got a very crude version working for Max 9 working which should be easy enough to port to other versions. It’s very rough around the edges and isn’t very user friendly but it does work – I used it for all the face flexes in the Ham and Jam player models.
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I’ve been getting a lot of e-mail recently about a VTA exporter for Max.
I actually did what could be called a “hack” compile of an exporter this week just to test out some code and it worked pretty well. Certainly from Max 9 I was able to export a VTA that worked and I compiled it into a model with working flexes.
Naturally the next stage will be to tart it up a bit and make it more user friendly and of course, port it to Max 2009 and make 32 and 64 bit versions.
However, if anyone out there is using Max 9, 32-bit and is actively face rigging models and would like to test the very rough “alpha” version, let me know.
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Apologies for a lack of updates, etc. since Xmas. I’ve been unbelievably busy with my 9-5 job and have spent what little free time I’ve had left working exclusively on Ham and Jam. I’m also in the process of fixing up some “backend” stuff on my website and I’m trying not to make too many updates until I’ve got that all sorted.
A lot of people have been emailing me about a VTA face-flex exporter for 3DS Max 9, 2008 & 2009. Yes, I am working on one and it’s my next plug-in project. I have a desperate need for this plug-in myself as I can’t keep using Max 8 forever just to export flex data. Again, a lack of free time is what’s holding me back but bear with me.
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