Feature: FBX Import [Fully Supported]

[SolarPortal]

We have been trying to find a way of making importing assets a breeze, and we have improved this for skyline.
In the next auto update, you should be able to import FBX Files that work for static meshes and animated characters alike.

We have successfully imported many characters with FBX and ended up with a full accurate animation track.


Above are 2 characters that were both converted from .fbx to .mesh, and .skeleton, they both have a full single track of animation, which leads to the next feature. A tool for splitting animations into new animation tracks is being developed, so you will not have to touch the modelling application to get characters in.

We do have planned to add a mesh normal unifying tool as some meshes after import have inversed normals or selective inversed normals.
This is a coming soon feature though and probably will not be included in the next release.

And Finally to top it all of. We also have a working mesh editor again, so you can reposition, rotate and scale your meshes.
Except characters can now be scaled up or down including their skeleton without loss of animation or skeleton structure.




EDIT - To get the FBX displaying in the asset manager, activate the "Misc Mesh" in the filters.

[howler]

Hey guys,
FBX doesn't seem to have made it into 0.8.1 (or at least, it doesn't show up as an available type when you use "import model") - any eta?

Thanks!

[SolarPortal]

lol, this is my current job atm.
i have redesigned the mesh editor to include a timeline for animation extraction aswell as built a new exe capable of extracting FBX files with a simple procedure of drag and drop from the asset manager.
Currently trying to finish the job up, but it will be in the next release

As with all things, its easy to make something new, but making it polished takes a little longer.

Hope this helps

[SolarPortal]

Here is an update on the work.
The FBX conversion work is now completed for this version, there is obvious improvements and tweaks that can be made in the future.
But we have had a lot of success importing a few different characters.

If the FBX file is exported with seperated animations inside a single file, then the converter will pick up each animation and name then export them serperately. This saves having to do any extra work.

Animations that are in one long timeline can be split using the mesh editor or if each animation is in a seperate fbx file, then simply naming them with myFBX@animationName.fbx will see them added to the main mesh.

For example:
Main FBX File: myCharacter.fbx
Walk Animation: myCharacter@walk.fbx
RunAnimation: myCharacter@run.fbx
etc...

The alternate method is to add the animation fbx file through the timeline if you do not want to name as previously shown.

Nice, easy and fast with a good success rate

There is just some documentation to write up now, then we will be looking at a release

[StarFire]

Just a quick update:

we have encountered a few issues on this journey to FBX, most have been overcome. One issue still remains: Some packages can export the model with broken normals which cause incorrect lighting on the faulty face. Generally this is remedied by sending back into modelling application and repairing the normals then re-exporting. We think this can be improved by providing Skyline, with a tool so that the normals can be repaired on import thus saving some time on the tedious art asset remodelling.
This decision has put back the new update a few more days but we want to give a version that will cover most areas of FBX importing.

[ant0N]

Yes, this would be very useful!