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Pte Jack 24 Nov, 2015 @ 4:46pm
[Solved] DMX Flex Issue (OR Am I doing Something Wrong?)
I'm in the process of doing a tutorial on Blender Shape keys and using this model as an example. I was able to complete the part on exporting using BleST as a SMD which created a VTA and imported the result. Everything worked fine. Using the same model object (not the imported model) I exported as a DMX to show the benefits of using DMX files. I was shocked with the result of the import of the exported model. All faces that were a part of a shapekey were badly deformed. Thinking that my flexes were being considered as corrective shapes because of the use of underscores in the shape key names, I replaced the underscores with periods in the original session and re-exported. The resulting import did not change.

After reading the report of a similar bugs here, I decided to import the DMX into an earlier version of Blender using an earlier version of BleST. The model imported perfectly, all flexes worked and the model looked the same as if importing the SMD/VTA.

Blender version 2.76b, BleST version 2.6.2. Earlier version numbers used Blender 2.70 and BleST 2.1.0

Observations. Severe face distorsions in the DMX imported to 2.76b/2.6.2. All faces that have shape keys are affected. The BleST upgrade function in Blender reports I have the most current version.

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

(Is there a switch in Blender that I forgot to set???)
Last edited by Pte Jack; 26 Nov, 2015 @ 9:09pm
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Zappy 25 Nov, 2015 @ 12:03am 
Originally posted by Pte Jack:
(Is there a switch in Blender that I forgot to set???)
No there's not, it's just broken. (Especially/Mostly for hard-ware morph-style flexes.)

Edit: ...Actually, in the export for Source it's just (slightly-ish) broken, in Blender it's just a limitation of Blender. As of version -something-, importing DMXes with the Blender Source Tools also imported custom normals... but I don't think flexes/shape keys can have their own set of custom normals, so they just use the "custom normals" of the reference pose mesh thing... and while those normals are affected by the faces of a model squishing, stretching, and rotation, they're not smoothed with each other, unlike in Source. (Just try moving some bones of the armature a little around in pose mode, you'll see what I mean.)
Last edited by Zappy; 25 Nov, 2015 @ 12:06am
Artfunkel 25 Nov, 2015 @ 10:30am 
Upload a blend and I'll take a look. If what Zappy suggests is true though, I'm not sure what the right fix will be...
Pte Jack 25 Nov, 2015 @ 1:40pm 
I'll throw that blend into a dropbox and fire you a link as soon as I get back on that computer.
Keepon 25 Nov, 2015 @ 3:13pm 
Looks like it indeed is a thing with custom normals.
Just imported my exported DMX, applied any flex/shape key, and boom.

Looks like it's possible disable displaying custom normals by un-ticking "Auto Smooth" (in "Data" tab, under "Normals" section), http://i.imgur.com/iqkUDOl.png or delete them by clicking "Clear Custom Split Normals Data" ("Data" tab, "Geometry Data" section)
Last edited by Keepon; 25 Nov, 2015 @ 3:15pm
Pte Jack 25 Nov, 2015 @ 4:28pm 
Well, isn't that special.... Good eye Keepon. Still not on that other computer but will check that out and report back when I do. Thanks...
Pte Jack 25 Nov, 2015 @ 4:48pm 
Ok, seen... When I exported the model as a DMX Auto Smooth WAS off, however when I imported the DMX back into blender, the model came back in and Auto Smooth turned on.

Turning off Auto Smooth in the normals section of the object data panel fixed the problem. Thanks Keepon. I'll make sure to include that tidbit in my tutorial.
Zappy 25 Nov, 2015 @ 11:12pm 
Yeah, I was going to mention that too, but I first remembered it after I went to bed.

Originally posted by Pte Jack:
Ok, seen... When I exported the model as a DMX Auto Smooth WAS off, however when I imported the DMX back into blender, the model came back in and Auto Smooth turned on.
There's nothing in a DMX saying whether something has custom normals, only what the custom normals are, and there's no reliable way to check if any custom normal differs from the default normals when imported (that doesn't involve huge extra importing time from individually checking every single vertice's custom and default normal of every single face), so it's always "this has custom normals" when imported.
Oh, and should I mention that different applications (Blender against 3DS Max, for example) may still very likely save different normals to the mesh, making it so that that "is this a custom normal" method would still only work for models already exported from Blender?
Pte Jack 26 Nov, 2015 @ 9:08pm 
Then I guess there's nothing to be done except inform the masses the situation exists and provide the "turn off Auto Smooth" as the the current work around. But as far as I'm concerened this is a solved situation for me.

Thanks everyone. I can carry on now.
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