Duplicate with dependencies

If the 3D Frame doesn't show up, hit the play and record IC to see the duplicate in place of the original.

Rendering Particles

Many particles - i.e. more than 40 are expensive to render. My .vmo and .cmo no longer play in the browser. This is from the graph-like button near the playback buttons in VIRTOOLS.

"cut and paste in place"

To duplicate an object in place, check "no dependencies",

Baked textures from MAYA

I'm finding that textures from High End 3D are lost when I import them into VIRTOOLS. This is either due to some texture setting or not baking the textures onto the object. I hoping - not now - but at some point in the future researching how relection would work.

Scaling MAYA animations imported as Characters

I'm finding that FK animations imported into VIRTOOLS don't seem to scale, even when ICs are set, maybe there's some other way to do this.

Drawing a Curve as a Perfect Circle

I'm trying to get a perfect circle with evenly spaced nodes. I tried tracing a round 3D object but that doesn't really seem to work.

Character FK animation II

The work-around for this animation was to leave part of the rings "character" as a 3D object and use the "Play Animation 3D Entity" BB under 3 Transformations>Animation

Character FK animation

Here I'm running into a problem with the "character" animated in MAYA. There are two separate moving parts, but the VIRTOOLS MAYA export only views one of the parts as a character animation and the other as a 3D object. Maybe the best strategy here is to export each ring individually as a character. To get the animation to start, I used the "Character Controller" Building Block and set all the parameters to the name of the character.

Relative Movement

Using the "Move to" BB - setting the Destination Referential to the 3D object causes it to move infinitely. I am using a 3D frame as a Destination Referential, but need math to move relatively each time.

Feeding in Data from 2 Souces II

The script can handle multiple feeds - somewhere along the way the test building block got copied. I am up to 12 database feeds with decent performance.

Feeding in from 2 Data Sources

Running into problems reading data from two different sources into one script. As pictured here, a int is being fed into the test.

Translating a Camera Curve

I'm using "curve follow" and "position on cuve" as a script on a rotating camera. When I translate the curve, the camera attaches automatically, but the XYZ direction doesn't follow. I'm going to try and set ICs on the curve once I rotate it to see if the camera positions itself correctly.

Managing scripts

The color option on the right click menu is really helpful:

Switching Sound

Seems like If-Else structure doesn't work for MP3s, perhaps because of the way they're loaded:

Keycuts and Duplicating with or without Dependencies

Keycuts:

Middle Mouse down to pan
Alt - Middle Mouse Down to rotate view

I've been duplicating with dependancies and am able to set new parameters for the new copied instance. When duplicating, it's difficult to select the child. In order to select the child, move the parent slightly, press play, then the child instance will show up and be selectable.

Shortcuts II

When importing and exporting Behavior Graphs, be sure to re-create all shortcuts as they as specific to the .cmo

Particles and Rendering expense - note on shortcuts

An interesting tip from the VIRTOOLS manual - some cards have difficulty rendering textures on particles that are not perfect squares. Using Particle size values about 100 and having many emitters is expensive.

Regarding shortcuts - this is the method to send data between BBs. You right click, create a square with an arrow, then copy paste and link to the appropriate input.

Sound logic

For now, I'm using .wavs and am trying to think of a good way to prevent the sound from looping continuously.



My first test with the web player didn't work so well - I couldn't get any sound.

MP3s in Virtools

Because of .wav file sizes, I'm hoping to work with MP3s. The Virtools online documentation on this subject is not available for educational users. The help section points towards a class called CKSound, so I'll look into how it's integrated.

Textures on Particles

It seems like the only way to get a texture on an object is by importing it in from MAYA. The texture setting on the particle system's parameters seems to be just for sprites.

"Backface Culling"

I imported a head model into virtools and the lighting made parts of the surface invisible. This is because of the way the normals exported from MAYA. A quick fix in VIRTOOLS is to go to the texture, and check "both sided".

Sequencer II

The Sequencer is found in Logics>Streaming>Sequencer. I am trying to build the following logic - an if-else structure leading to a Parameter Selector.

Transition Camera Resolved

The transition camera needs three cameras and a "Set Active Camera" BB to work correctly and toggle between cameras. The first camera on the parameter needs to be set as active. Initial Conditions are set on the camera being transitioned to.

Using the Sequencer correctly

Below is the pre-built BB I am working with. I am trying to loop the spacebar action under the key waiter. I figure the sequencer is to route this kind of input, so it doesn't seem necessary to loop the BB.

Camera BBs and what they do

I'm looking at the Virtools Camera Resources BBs and how I can use them for my project. I'm studying the transition camera from the "Virtual Spaces Resources" to toggle between two views. NB - for debugging and error messages, click the bomb sign on the lower right side of the interface.

Importing from MAYA - groups II

In MAYA, going to Polygons>Combine seems to do the trick. Once the model is in VIRTOOLS, it seems that the component parts are not gettable (the model is under "Character" with whatever name was used on the export)

Importing from MAYA - groups

Don't do this: even though Jean Marc told us just today to avoid this, I fogot to group my object in MAYA - hence hundreds of cubes floating around in the level manager.




On second thoughts, grouping doesn't work either...

Exporting to VIRTOOLS player

I am able to get a good socket connection from the player, but my one 3D entity isn't showing up. I turned on a light, didn't seem to do anything.

if else structure two

This is a kludge - the loop breaks on the false pin on the lower test. I'm moving an item on the screen based on data input.




OK. This one works - it bypasses the input of the first test and goes straight to the translate.

If else structure

Use the "test" BB under logic. Also, when working with data flow and logic, the logic works from left to right, like a book. Here is a screenshot of the test. Because I don't want dependancy on the data in, I need to come up with some other value for the input of Set Y (also need to change the input from Vector to some other data type).

Basic Math II

Using the calculator for this operation was unneccessary. With the params and Multiplication BB, the value can be amplified. To the right is a vector version of the multiplication BB.

Basic Math

I'm trying to do basic math on an integer. The basic calculator BB seems to be the best way to do it, although I'm unclear where the output goes.

Schematic Object link thing has disappeared

In the schematic, the object "column" has disappeared, so I can only access scripts from the Level Manager. It's unclear if this is a preferences thing or a bug.

What the building block lines mean

Blue - data input and output
Red - Active BB

I wasn't sure what the 0/0 and 1/0 signify. They are frame based delay rates. Another point, when encapsulating BBs, right click to Construct>Add Behavior Input to connect to the triangle on the left.

Polling the server

The Web Get Data building block seems to poll automatically. My text was not updating however. Below is the connection to loop the text drawing building blocks so that a value automatically updates.

Adding more textures

I'm trying to toggle between textures on a terrain without loading a texture every time. The slot button doesn't seem to load it into a new placeholder.

Light Selection II

Disregard previous post - this was a memory management issue, as soon as MAYA crashed, the light selection showed up.

Light Selection

I'm having a hard time selecting my point lights to move them. Setting IC doesn't seem to fix this. They can be placed in an absolute position with the properties, but there's got to be an easier way.

Looping in VIRTOOLS

I'm trying to figure out how to loop the BBs - in this case the Web Get Data/Send Message ones. Simply drawing a literal loop doesn't seem to work - my goal is to get a continuously updated server value as a gettable number in VIRTOOLS. I'll consult the documentation to see if there are any such examples...

Fonts in VIRTOOLS II

First thing, the font file is some kind of bitmap with an alpha channel. Secondly, it appears like the only way to generate (dynamic or otherwise) text is with a BB as seen below from the program documentation:

Fonts in VIRTOOLS

I'm trying to figure out how fonts work in VIRTOOLS - I see it in one of the bundled examples as a texture, but I don't know what file type to import - system fonts or somthing else....

Hierarchy Manager

Ok, the way to group items imported from MAYA so that they move as a 3D Entity is to use the Hierarchy Manager tab and click and drag to create a heirarchy.



Here, I'm trying to group exhaust for several space ships. Remember to set the IC on absolutely everything otherwise it's next to impossible to find missing particles.

Grouping and 3D entities

Ok, here's an issue I ran into regarding importing a model that is grouped in MAYA.
When I animate the object on a curve, VIRTOOLS is looking for a 3D entity, not a group. My model has three parts to it, grouped and parented in MAYA. I'm hoping to resolve this because the only other solution seems to be creating one model in MAYA with merged vertices, etc...






As you can see, Virtools imported my 3D Entity in pieces - they need to be grouped
in order to be animated as a whole....

Importing Maya Objects with Textures

Learned today: Bake the textures onto the MAYA object before exporting. In MAYA, select the object texture and texture in the hypershade. Go to the EDIT menu and select the option box on convert file to texture.

When importing objects with a heirarchy from MAYA into Virtools, be sure to name each component uniquely, otherwise Virtools will give a confusing naming system to each object in the hierarchy.