[BUG] FBX 2013 Incompatibility

Hey there,

Version: 1627304

Install Path: C:\users\Markus\

Description:
Rocket complained loudly when I exported using FBX 2012, so I went to the Autodesk website to upgrade and got FBX2013.3 for Maya 2012. I’ve been trying to get FBX 2013.3 to work with Rocket, and it’s just not happening. I’ve attached a video recording to show you what I mean.

Repro Steps: Replication of this is pretty straightforward if you watch the video.

Results: The result is that when exporting using Maya 2012 with 2013.3 FBX, rocket does not recognize that there is an incoming skeletalmesh. When you manually switch to the skeletal mesh option, the import fails. This happens regardless of whether I use FBX binary or ASCII.

Maybe 2013.3 FBX is a recent update, and rocket is not patched to cover 2013.3 quite yet. But unless I revert to FBX2012, I can’t get anything into Rocket otherwise.

Expected: I was expecting an upgrade to 2013.3 to work, since it said in documentation that Rocket supports FBX 2013. Hopefully this will be patched by next update – or at least have better legacy support built into FBX 2012.

In 3dsmax iv used 2012 and 2013 exporting and they work fine

Thanks Fabrice! Your method for 2013 worked, somewhat. Rocket now recognizes it as a skeletal mesh, and imports the bind pose without a hitch. I still don’t understand why this problem doesn’t happen in FBX 2012, though – I never had to use that option. Seems to be something unique to 2013.

However, I’m not out of the woods yet. If I send the mocap animation itself into rocket using FBX 2013.3, it will /still/ fail! Again, same with animations, I don’t get this problem at all using FBX 2012.

I tested this on a separate machine just to see if this was a problem with my main computer in particular, but this does not appear to be the case. Attached you’ll find the 3 errors I get upon animation import.

What I notice in Maya is that a group node at the base of the bone hierarchy is throwing off the whole import into rocket – something that’s necessary to keep my character centered in the grid while the animation plays.

With UE3’s Animset Editor, what would happen is the group node would simply be filtered out and that node’s Trans/Rot/Scale offsets would be applied to the bones themselves. The editor would not actually consider the group node to be part of the FK simulation as rocket currently does.

First Error Message:
10239-
;

Second Error Message:
10240-
;

Third Error Message:
10241-
;

In your export options, can you try enabling the export of deformed models ? I remember having problem in UDK when importing an animation without exporting the skinned mesh. Also, during the export, maybe you should select the geometry and at least the root bone of your mesh.

This is how I proceeded for my own animations and I didn’t have any problems, using FBX 2013.3 too.

FBX 2013.3 is the version of FBX we use internally. There must be some issue with the asset that is causing it to fail not the because that you are using FBX 2013 or 2012. I noticed in the video that the importer recognizes the type of fbx as a static mesh. This usually means it cannot detect anything that would make it a skeletal mesh (like skinned vertices or bones). If you are able to provide an asset that doesnt work for you I can determine why it is failing.