How to export morphs from DS 4.6 and load in LW?

Mr Rid

I am trying to export FBX from DS 4.6, and have morphs load into LW 11.6. Particularly, I cannot figure out how to 'export all morphs' as they appear in the DS' Parameters window. Although I could easily export all morphs in DS v3.1. In DS v4.6, the FBX Options- "Morph Export Rules" dont seem to have any documentation (?).

DS v3.1 exports FBX with all morphs in a logical way, by setting the Morphs>Method to "Export." Or you can export only the applied morphs (with values other than 0) by setting the Morphs>Method to "Bake." FBX also exports UV, bones, weights, and color and bump maps, but not transparency maps. So the user must also export a separate OBJ for DS to export the transparency maps, then apply them in Layout. Its usually just a couple maps for a figure's eyebrows and lashes, so no biggy.

But I cant get morphs practically out of DS v4.6. And the default "Rule" value titled "final" does not seem editable (is it meant just as an example?).

If I 'Add' a new Morph 'Rule,' with 'Match' set to "Anything" (double-click to change name) and set the 'Action' to "Bake," it does not seem to export any applied morphs, as none of them show up in LW. So "Bake" does not seem to work, as it did in DS 3.1.

If I set a new Rule 'Match' to "Anything" and "Export," then DS takes a very long time compiling a zillion morphs with names that do not even appear anywhere in Parameters nor the Export Options Staging dropdown ... I have no idea what all that is scrolling by, but is not practical to deal with. After eight minutes of waiting, I killed DS in the Task Manager. So exporting all morphs does not seem to work, as it does in DS3.1.

So to get all the morphs I want to export, it appears I have to Add a separate Rule for each word "Match" contained in the name of every morph I want to export, which is very inefficient. It really ought to list all associated morphs, and allow the user to 'shift+select' and/or checkbox each morph to include/exclude. What's wrong with that?

And if I want to say export all the morphs for the "head," I see that in the FBX Export Options, under Staging dropdown, all the morphs applied to the head contain the word "head" in their names like "head.frown." Although those same morphs do not contain the word "head" in the Parameters window. But I would expect that I could add a Morph Export Rule with Match set to "head", but then none of the "head" morphs actually export. Instead, the Match name must match words in the morph names as they appear in the Parameters window, which means having to make a lot more rules.

Anyone know a better way to get the morphs you want to export from DS4.6?

prixat

Hi David,

I knew your next post would be about FBX!!! :-)

I don't use LW but I vaguely remember reading about peculiarities with FBX into Lightwave.

The same process you're using works for me into C4D, including transparencies (although everything needs tweaking in Cinema).
Which suggests the FBX is exported correctly and you'll have to do something on the import side.

C4D R13 likes FBX 2012 ascii, perhaps LW needs a different version.

Mr Rid

Hello again,

The thing is that FBX export works fine in DS v3.1, except for transparencies, but those are not a big deal (although it should work, since it works with OBJ export-to-LW).

The bigger problem is that someone decided to completely change the morph export menu by 4.6, but has made it less functional or intuitive as far as I can tell, and I cant find any instruction for it. I cant figure how to 'export all morphs.'

The concept of "Shift+select & Ctrl+select" and "checkboxes" has been around as long as Windows, it covers all the ways you could need to select a range of items, and most people intuitively understand it. I dont how this clunky rule setup was meant to improve anything.

But the rule-match thing is being iffy now. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesnt, and I have not pinned it down. I really tire of spending half my time troubleshooting what should be basic stuff, and it appears there is a more efficient way to have set it up. Maybe I am missing something in this instance (?).

But this is also why it is necessary to keep older versions of an app installed, and why I dont prefer the way the Daz 4+ upgrades insist on uninstalling the previous version, since something usually breaks.

prixat

Yes, that's a big change with Genesis. No more INJ/REM.
Although using INJ was a convenient way of telling DS3 what morphs were loaded, it also loaded lots of morphs that were not actually used.

In DS4, all the morphs you ever bought for any Genesis figure are on the list but not loaded, you don't have to INJ them.
Instead, what DS4.6 does is only save or load morphs with a non zero value.

That means you can potentially have hundreds and hundreds of morphs if you actually exported 'All Morphs'.
With that many morphs and vendors using their own naming conventions, check boxes are not feasible.

I like the rules approach but I agree, shift-select would be preferable and saving export rules as sets would also be handy.

Is 'Everything' the keyword to find all used morphs which are not already set for export?
The one used in the "Finally - Everything - Bake" rule.

Mr Rid

"Anything" is the Match word to export all morphs. I wonder what other useful magic words there might be (where are the instructions?). But what I meant by 'all morphs' was all the morphs displayed in the Parameter window, which are not that many.

So, one mistake I was making was not realizing that the Match names are case sensitive.

For some reason, the default Rule cannot be removed and it is stuck to "Bake" & "Anything" so all active morphs are baked into the base mesh, regardless of other rules.

One problem is that it seems that the Rules list is saved in a general config (I'm not familiar with how that works with Daz), since it does not save with the scene, and it remains the same even after re-opening Daz or loading other scenes. This stinks if I want to return to a previous Rules list after changing them, since I have to enter each one of them all over again.

Currently, I am testing the morph export with the old V3 figure for a particular project, but is exporting with the same effectiveness as Genesis.

But lets say I want to export only the morphs related to the head, that are displayed in the Parameters>Morphs window with the V3 head selected, which are just a few dozen morphs. I use a Morph Export Rule with Match = "head", Action = Export.

After several minutes to load in LW, Morph Mixer reads "410 Morphs." I dont know where all these "head" morphs came from since I never applied them to the character, and they do not display in the Staging dropdown list, nor anywhere in Daz Parameters>Morphs no matter what is selected. Most of these 'extra' morphs do not work. But most of the morphs I wanted from the Daz Parameters window do work, although a few do not.

So, to export only the few dozen head morphs I want, I must enter ten different rules covering enough key words contained within the few dozen head morphs I want to export. That is not efficient, but it would help if I could at least enter all the keywords in a single rule at once, separated by commas (maybe there is some way to do this... instructions?). But if I delete or change the rules, and later I want to come back to this scene for export, I have to re-enter all ten rules again.

This is messy. Definitely needs "shift+select" function. Also should be able to save and load Morph Export Rules as presets.

'Ten matches to rule them all!'

prixat

Wasn't that a feature of V3?
Having lots of empty morph channels!

In the Parameters corner menu, you can switch on 'display hidden' and you'll get 400 or so morphs show up.

Mr Rid

Ah.

Yeah, I dont know what all those "PBMCC_..." morphs are.

prixat

...though I think you've highlighted one of the problems in that export dialog.
Those hidden morphs should either show in the list or they should not be exported.

Having FBX export is greatly appreciated but the dialog still seems to be in the early stages and a bit unfinished.

tonyrizo92

use this technique