Import error

[Erandur]

I'm trying to make a somewhat special mod, something in lines or rubber ducks fighting each other. So I tried using existing units as a template to create my first duck unit, however when I try to view the result, I just get an error.

ERROR: art/meshes/skeletal/base02.dae: Exception caught while parsing a COLLADA document from file.

ERROR: Could not load mesh 'art/meshes/skeletal/base02.dae'

ERROR: CObjectEntry::BuildVariation(): Model art/meshes/skeletal/base02.dae failed to load

Does anybody know what may have been the cause? Does the engine have strict naming requirements for the bones perhaps? I hope not, it could be rpetty hard to give a rubber duck a biped skeleton.

[Mythos_Ruler]

LOL, indeed the game is pretty strict on the bones naming. I believe you need to create a skeleton file if you want something other than a bipedal skeleton. Unfortunately, even though I am the Art Dept Lead, animation is my greatest deficiency. The good thing is that there are other members who can speak more authoritatively on the subject and they should be around shortly.

[Pureon]

Hi Erandur. This info might help you: http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14577

What 3D program are you using?

[Erandur]

Hah, yay, another xml file! Thanks for the help, I'll try it tomorrow then.

And I'm using 3ds max.

[Erandur]

Well, I tried adding something to skeleton.xml, but didn't quite help.

In my Collada file, I found

	<visual_scene id="RootNode" name="RootNode">
   	<node id="Bone001" name="Bone001" type="JOINT">

So I added this to skeleton.xml

  <standard_skeleton title="Duck" id="Duck">
  	<bone name="Bone001">
  	</bone>
  </standard_skeleton>

But without any success, did I miss something?

[Pureon]

In the skeleton.xml you'll need something like this:

	<standard_skeleton title="Duck" id="Duck"> 
                <bone name="Bone001"></bone> 
	</standard_skeleton> 

	<skeleton title="Duck" target="Duck"> 
                <identifier> 
                        <root>Duck</root> 
                </identifier> 
                <bone name="Duck"><target>Bone001</target></bone> 
	</skeleton> 

Don't use the above, it may not be right, but look again at the link I posted above and notice you need a 'standard_skeleton' and a 'skeleton' tag in the skeleton.xml

[Erandur]

I have this now

  <standard_skeleton title="Duck" id="Duck">
  	<bone name="Bone001">
  	</bone>
  </standard_skeleton>

  <skeleton title="3ds Max duck" target="Duck">
	<identifier>
  	<root>Duck</root>
	</identifier>
	<bone name="Duck_Bone001">
  	<target>Bone001</target>
	</bone>
  </skeleton>

But still no results, re-exported the duck mesh, so that its bone is now called Duck_Bone001, hoping that would perhaps help, but no. However, I've noticed that in your collada file there's

<node id="Armature" type="NODE">

Which I don't have, what is that exactly? I just made a single bone in Max to store my animations, never had to give the armature a name. Could I perhaps just add it to the .dae myself?

[Pureon]

Could I perhaps just add it to the .dae myself?

You could (it's sometimes easier editing the xml than trying to work out the layout in a 3D program).

[Erandur]

Mh, I can't figure it out. Would you, or anyone else, be kind enough to have a look for me? You shall be rewarded with a virtual rubber duck.

[Pureon]

I'm afraid none of the 0AD team with 3DS Max can animate, so not sure how much we can help with your bones. Paste your actor and collada xml into pastebin and I'll take a quick look at that.

[Erandur]

Collada: http://pastebin.com/zY4zSNKx

Actor: http://pastebin.com/33cKUBT6

Re-exported the duck, so that's the version 3ds max spits out. At least that way I'm sure the mesh is intact, and that I didn't change the wrong things etc.

And not sure if that's the actor file you wanted, because there's nothing in it really. And I haven't changed the skeleton file since my last post.

Thank you for helping me!

[Pureon]

You need to call the animation in your actor file. See <animations> tag I've added to your actor below. Make a duplicate of your duck.dae and place it in binaries\data\mods\public\art\animation\test

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<actor version="1">
  <castshadow/>
  <group>
    <variant frequency="1" name="Base">
      <mesh>skeletal/duck.dae</mesh>
      <texture>skeletal/base.dds</texture>
      <animations> 
        <animation file="test/duck_move.dae" name="Walk" speed="100"/> 
      </animations> 
    </variant>
  </group>
  <material>player_trans.xml</material>
</actor>

If I'm honest I haven't even been able to get a simple Blender animation to work in 0AD since I animated the Iberian Siege Ram a few months ago (I can't even export that animated Ram anymore, it just crashes the game).

[Erandur]

It's alive! It was just autodesk's exporter that was being annoying, I downloaded OpenCollada, and now it does work. It must be that it exports the bones differently though, since using it as a static structural mesh worked fine... The same skeleton file but with ColladaMax's file works fine!

Thank you for your help with setting up the skeleton file Pureon!