Exporting MDD & OBJ with matching vertices?

dvyd

Hello,

I'm trying to export 60 frames of a Michael 4 animation as MDD and OBJ with the vertices in the two files matching in terms of number and order. The figure is wearing only the default underwear. There are no other props. The OBJ file imports fine into Blender. However, when I try to import the MDD file, I get the error "vertex count mismatch". I think Blender's MDD importer works fine. But, Michael is a bunch of body parts and the MDD & OBJ exporters may pop out the parts and their vertices in different orders. Is there some way to keep the animation and textures in DAZ but merge the pieces of the mesh and then export both OBJ and MDD? Or perhaps group the parts (and vertices) in some way that both exporters respect?

Thank you,

-d. vyd

 

 

Richard Haseltine

Was the OBJ in base resolution or was it the SubD mesh?

mikael-aronsson

I have used the OBJ/MDD exporter a number of times (importing to Lightwave, G1, G2 characters with cloth and hair, I have not tried with M4 though) and never had any problems at all so it should work just fine, maybe some settings in the OBJ export you have to change to get it working, be careful with "Ignore invisible nodes", "Use bonewelds" and "Remove unused".

And of course check the import settings in Blender so it does not remove any vertices it should not or anything like that.

(I used both base resolution and high resolution without any hickups).

 

dvyd

Richard & Mikael, thank you for the prompt replies.

Richard, I didn't see any settings to export base or SubD mesh--where are they? The OBJ file for Michael 4 was 11mb. I'm not sure if the file size answers the question.

Mikael, what OBJ settings do you use to export DAZ for Lightwave? Do you create a top level group above all the body parts and apply the MDD to that group? Also, when you export Genesis characters, do you keep HD morphs?

-d. vyd

Richard Haseltine

Michael 4 wouldn't be sub-divided, unless you had doen so, so that wasn't relevant - sorry.

mikael-aronsson

I just export the character as it is (OBJ) no other top level objects, I have "Ignore invisible nodes" checked, Unchecked "Use bone welds", "Remove unused vertices", "Triangulate n-gons", I do not use "write groups", it should not change the point order though if you use it, it only change the polygons order.

In LightWave I just import the OBJ and apply the MDD to that OBJ without any extra magic.

I don't use HD morphs so cannot answer that, but it should work just fine as long as the HD points are in both MDD and OBJ.

 

dvyd

Thank you Mikael.

dvyd

I was able to import the DAZ OBJ & MDD files to Blender. However, the MDD file destroys the mesh. I'm asking in a Blender forum but wanted to ask here as well in case the fix requires different DAZ export settings.

Once I load the MDD file, the figure's scale reduces drastically and the surface looks a mess. Moving the frame slider shows that the animation is indeed there. I've played with DAZ's OBJ export options, such as reversing axes and changing the scale. But the result remain the same. Perhaps someone has already encountered and solved this problem or has other recommendations?

-d. vyd

dvyd

SOLVED: I solved this by selecting "keep vert order" in the Blender OBJ importer. The options appear in the lower left corner of the screen.