When trying to retarget animations from one skeleton to another the engine crashes. I can’t get any debug info due to symbols not being loaded. I’m trying to retarget the arm animations of this package (Animated Sharpshooter Variety Pack in Weapons - UE Marketplace) to the standard UE4 mannequin found in the AnimStarterPack.
Steps to reproduce:
Navigate to “/Content/FirstPersonBPIronbelly/Arms”
Select “FPSArms_Skeleton” and DELETE it
In the “Delete Assets” dialog bottom left, select “/Content/AnimStarterPack/UE4_Mannequin/Mesh/UE4_Mannequin_Skeleton” as the skeleton to use as a replacement.
Click “Replace References”
Engine Crashes
As far as I know this retarget should be possible as these anims are Epic skeleton compatible.
Even if they are not, the engine should handle this gracefully instead of exploding.
Actually it’s not just that content pack, I don’t own it. I tried my own custom mesh with the same bone setup that UE provides and UE crashes everytime I try to retarget.
In blender I setup a rig. After export it imports fine into UE. In the re targeting manager all bones do align. I’m using the example mannequin that comes with the third person example and use it to retarget to my own mesh. Once I click retarget, UE crashes. Can’t do much at this hour but ill see if i can provide more detail asap.
Due to this being an asset on the Marketplace, we do not provide support for it. Instead we recommend contacting the content creator for further details or questions.
Would it be possible to get more information on the steps that you are taking, a repro project, or screen shots? Also are you using the retarget manager, and posing assets to match up with what you are trying to retarget them to?
Does the asset have any extra bones? Blender will sometimes add an armature etc. If you can post the callstack and some screenshots(Blender Export/UE4 Import Settings) I can take a look at it. If you have a test asset that this is consistently occurring with, you can post the FBX here(as long as it isn’t a marketplace asset) and I can look at that as well. Any details will be helpful.
I found the main cause and that’s you can’t change the name of the armature object in blender. It has to be “armature”. If you do, it adds another “root” bone at the, eh, root. Retargeting no longer crashes however the mesh is now completely messed up. I think i’ve just haven’t set something up properly.
Edit:
nvm that! it still crashes if I click the automap button to map the bones
Edit:
Right so auto mapping was not correctly selecting the right bones. Thus causing the crash. But I’m sure the bone structure is the same though
I’m taking a look at the asset and everything seems to show up fine in the retarget windows, however the pose had to be adjusted a little since the asset is in T pose and the mannequin is in A pose. I’m not seeing a crash though. I also pulled it into Maya and took a look at it. I’ve posted the image below. Was this asset exported out of Blender with its leaf bones? That will need to be disabled on export if so. Unreal doesn’t handle leaf bones and this maybe what is causing the crash(see screenshot). There is also a warning bringing it into Unreal that it has 10 influences on it. The average recommended amount for a game is 4 so 10 is a fairly high number. This maybe something that is contributing to the crash as well. I’ve posted some documentation [here][1] on the Blender pipeline(elaborates on how to handle the armature bone), as well as some [docs][2] on retargeting. You can also post the callstack and from your crash and I can take a look at that as well if you would like. This will let me know where it is crashing.
I only have Only deform bones checked not leaf bones. I did read the retargeting documentation so either I overlooked something or the problem is with my installation ( everything seems to work fine tho ). You tested it on 4.18.2 yes?
I’ve tested it in 4.18.2. It looks to be working fine on my end. I’ve listed the steps I’ve taken below: Steps:
Open skeleton for the UE Mannequin
Add New Retarget Source
Add the Mannequin
Select Humanoid rig
Auto Mapping
Change pose to T Pose to match your mesh(moved the arms up 50 and -50)
Modify Pose < Use Current Post
Save
Repeat these steps for the other mesh
Right click < retarget(this is in the content browser)This will pull up the Select Skeleton window
Retarget
This should work but you may need to manually retarget a few bones. The manager is usually pretty forgiving as long as things are in the right pose(generally/doesn’t need to be 100% accurate). I posted a screenshot below of what I mean by poses being the same and as well as where to adjust them. The Mannequin is default in A pose to this will need to be changed to match your character which is in T pose(or the other way around).
I was actually having this issue too and for me, my character’s thumbnail wasn’t showing in the retargeting window either so the two things I did were open up my character’s skeleton (not the mesh but the skeleton asset) and in the Top Left of the menu bar you’ll see Preview Mesh. If you select the drop down, and choose your character’s skeletal mesh from the list (should be the only one) then right away in the bottom right corner of the preview window, you’ll get a pop up with a warning that the change is only temporary so you need to hit the Apply button. This message disappears pretty quickly so if you miss it just set the preview mesh again.
After that, the next thing I did (and I think this is what actually fixed the crashing) was to set my character into a T pose for the retargeting. To do this, with the Retarget Manager tab selected, you’ll be able to select the bones of your character and rotate them. Make sure the arms and legs are all straight and the feet are close together (about the width of one of your character’s feet apart). Once you’ve finished rotating the skeleton into a T-pose, hit the Modify Pose button and choose “Use current pose” from the list. Now you’ll be able to use the View Pose button to toggle between the imported pose and the Retarget Pose. Then you need to do the same thing with the UE4 mannequin. Once both skeletons are set to use a T-Pose for the Retarget Pose then you’re ready to try again. This fixed the crashing for me.
Also one last thing to make sure of, back in the Skeleton Tree tab, click on the Options drop down and check off “Show Retarget options” and you’ll see a list of the Translation Retargeting for each bone. These should all be set to Skeleton instead of animation so if they say animation, Right Click on a bone and choose “Recursively Set Translation Retargeting Skeleton”. This will set all the bones to Skeleton. Then select your Pelvis (or hips) and set it to Animation Scaled from the drop down. Then the root needs to be set to Animation. After that you’re good to go.
