FBX Export not calculating all vertex weights?

Topologie

I'm trying to export a Gen8 figure from Studio 4.10 to animate in Blender. The problem I'm encountering is that if I export the figure with any level of subdivision, and I'd like level 1 at least, the vertices added by subdivision are exported without bone weights. Checking off the "SubD Information" checkbox has no effect that I can see on import. What I'm doing as a workaround, in Blender, is smoothing the weights of each group 5 times, then normalizing the whole figure. It works, but it's a time consuming process. I'm wondering if there is a setting I'm overlooking, or if this is a known limitation/oversight/bug etc.  If there is no quick fix, I'm probably going to have to write a Python script to interpolate all the weights, but I've love to be spared that effort.

 

Doc Acme

Which version of FBX are you using to export?  Thanks to some other tips I read, dropping back and using FBX2012 resolved most problems I was having when imported into Lightwave. But I've just used base subD. I haven't had need to check weights yet either.

Maybe post a screen snap of your export settings.  Do you have the same issue using OBJ?

WendyLuvsCatz

I don’t think you can export FBX with anything but base resolution 

you can only add a subdivided mesh your target application can use with the base resolution mesh driving it if it’s supported and I have no idea if Blender does, I know Unreal game engine and a few other apps like Poser can but that too beyond my skill set.

andya_b341b7c5f5

Do you have a reason nott to do the subdivision in Blender?

Topologie

Wendy_Carrara said:

I don’t think you can export FBX with anything but base resolution 

This is not where I'm having the problem. I am able to export the figures as FBX with any level of subdivision Daz Studio offers. It's just that the resulting file has bone weights on only the vertices that were part of the original SubD Level 0 mesh.

andya_b341b7c5f5 said:

Do you have a reason nott to do the subdivision in Blender?

Yeah, I tried using the SubD0 figure and Blender's Catmull-Clark subdivision modifier, and by itself it looks bloody awful. It rounds everything out and makes the figure look like it's made of plasticine. It does not give the increasingly-high level of detail to the HD figures that Daz Studio's built-in subdivision does, it pretty much does the opposite. Clearly some important information is missing related to creasing. The closest I've been able to easily get to what I want is to export the SubD0 figure, and the SubD1 figure, use Blender's subdivision on the SubD0 figure, and then use the shrinkwrap modifier to force this rounded-off figure it to conform to the SubD1 exported figure. This is a lot more steps than if the files just exported correctly in the first place, so it would be nice to get the proper fix.

 

I tried different versions of FBX. None worked. The problem is likely that the data just not getting to the exporter. OBJ doesn't support bone weights AFAIK. I haven't tried collada yet.

andya_b341b7c5f5

Yes, standard subdivision will smooth out details like edges unless there is information available to prevent it (creases or holding edges and so on).  The HD morphs don't seem to create details in some way that is not being exported in a way that Blender's importer understands.  It's something like a 'level of detail' feature.  I cannot get FBX to export anything more than base resolution.  OBJ format will export the additional geometry but nothing in the way of crease information.  I thought that might allow the creation of a shape key for the HD details, but it doesn't work - although Blender's subdivision will match the number of vertices you see in DS, it appears the vertex order doesn't match after subdividing the base resolution mesh, so the resulting shape key is a mess.