Heaps and FBX files.

[Horsetopus]

Hi,

I know, I know.
It's still early for the heaps library, there isn't even a website yet and the doc is incomplete.
But I am tinkering, and I am very enthusiast with this library.

I was trying to load some 3D fbx models, and none passes the parsing process when building.

I guess the standard isn't fully supported, and I understand, but is there a list somewhere of what is allowed and what isn't?

So far I think:

- binary mode isn't supported

- assets embeded doesn't seem to work, even in Ascii

But what about the models themselves, what is allowed and what isn't?

Thanks.

[Nicolas Cannasse]

Le 01/04/2015 20:53, Horsetopus a écrit :
> Hi,
>
> I know, I know.
> It's still early for the heaps library, there isn't even a website yet
> and the doc is incomplete.
> But I am tinkering, and I am very enthusiast with this library.
>
> I was trying to load some 3D fbx models, and none passes the parsing
> process when building.
>
> I guess the standard isn't fully supported, and I understand, but is
> there a list somewhere of what is allowed and what isn't?
>
> So far I think:
> - binary mode isn't supported

Yes, the FBX binary format is not specified, so we currently support FBX
2013 ASCII and test with 3DSMax exporter. Other softwares might encode
things in a different manner. We got a few Maya models working at some
time, but haven't checked recently.

At runtime we don't use FBX but convert + cache to Heaps HMD format
which is binary + much more compact and efficient than FBX.

> - assets embeded doesn't seem to work, even in Ascii

You mean texture embedding ? I haven't tried how this would work.

> But what about the models themselves, what is allowed and what isn't?

Models are supported, with normals, vertex color, full animation
including skinning (some exotic setups are not supported).

There is no support for Morph Targets yet, and UV animation requires a
MAXScript plugin (in tools/xtra) that will export an additional .xtra
XML file

Best,
Nicolas

[Horsetopus]

Thanks, I'll try to progress from that.

By reading the code I figured out a few things already.

If I had a vote on an important feature I need, I would ask for the opacity map.

But I don't have a vote, so I won't dare make this outrageous request ;)

Can't wait for what's coming.

I like OpenFl, Flash with Starling was still an interesting option, Away3D is everywhere, Unity is neat, but so far I haven't found a tech that I feel like focusing 100%

Heaps might be it...

PS: for texture embedding, it's just a option to check when exporting from max: embed media

It will put the textures right inside the fbx file, encrypted with asciis characters.

Not a priority indeed, not optimized in size, and it doesn't fit all the cases, but it can be useful for testing assets easily without worrying with the textures path.