3dstudio max Biped imports

History:
I’ve written a Java OpenGL binding. All well and good.
Next I’ve written a 3dstudio .ase file importer. (This required many modifications to the export plugin code as it doesn’t export some important data)
Next I’ve written a generic Java model format, which I stash .ase files in after I’ve read them and cache them on disk for faster access.
Finally I’ve written a GLModel class which can be used to read the generic model format and turn it into display lists or rendering commands.

GLModel creates static and animated meshes as necessary, and uses rotation and translation sampling when it can. The ultimate result is that you get the whole 3d studio scene animation, with each frame stored as a single display list, and the maximum amount of reuse of meshes and vertexes etc.

Then one day I tried to import some damned biped .ase file and it’s absolutely useless! What I wanted was bone-based animation because deformed meshes take up vast amounts of ram. The Physique modifier unfortunately applies a deformation to an attached mesh in every frame.

Does anyone know how I can literally just get at the rotation and translation of body parts which use the Physique modifier?

I’ve tried collapsing the modifier stack, deleting it, etc. etc. but to no avail.

I’ve got the .max animation if anyone can help. Hell, you can even have the test code too! This is important. It’s worth at least one virtual beer.

Cas :slight_smile:

check out the jet3d project, its not openGL based, but its an opensource 3d engine. www.jet3d.com jetpp.sourceforge.net It includes the source code for a 3ds max exporter that exports animation data from bipeds. Its a rather large download though, if you’d rather have me send you just the source for the plugin, just let me know.

BwB,
thanks for your offer, I’ll take you up on it! (There’s likely some other useful code in the archive too but it’s more useful to me to work the rest out by myself for now)