MSFS20 Animated People (Character Animation)

[Pavel1971]

Good afternoon.
I'm also joining this thread, I have a few questions about exporting the model and if possible I would like to know what I missed.

First I created an animation group.
Then, using the Babylon export, I exported the model and got a gltf file, a bin file, and a texture.
I don't have xml file as output.
Do I need to manually create the xml file and write animations to it, or can the xml file be created automatically using Babylon's export tools or the multi-exporter?
Thanks

 

[rhumbaflappy]

This forum uses English as the common language. Other languages are not to be used. Google Translate works fairly well if you are not familiar with English.

Good afternoon. I am also joining this thread, I have some questions about exporting the model and if possible I would like to know what I have missed. First I created an animation group. Then, using the Babylon export, I exported the model and got a gltf file, a bin file, and a texture. I don't have xml file as output. Do I need to manually create the xml file and write animations to it, or can the xml file be created automatically using Babylon's export tools or the multi-exporter? Thanks

 

[Pavel1971]

This forum uses English as the common language. Other languages are not to be used. Google Translate works fairly well if you are not familiar with English.

Sorry, I have corrected.

 

[=rk=]

Good afternoon.
I'm also joining this thread, I have a few questions about exporting the model and if possible I would like to know what I missed.

First I created an animation group.
Then, using the Babylon export, I exported the model and got a gltf file, a bin file, and a texture.
I don't have xml file as output.
Do I need to manually create the xml file and write animations to it, or can the xml file be created automatically using Babylon's export tools or the multi-exporter?
Thanks

Fascinating you should ask, I'm working from this very discussion myself, this past weekend. I'm using 3ds Max 2022 with the SDK plugins and I have managed to place Carla in the sim, thus far. Unfortunately, my own animated model place, but are static, the anticipation is indescribable.

As to your issue, there is another thread where Christian provided the contents of the carla.xml as part of a comment, I don't have that link in front of me, but I think it would be ok to copy/paste what I copy/pasted and have been using.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<ModelInfo version="1.1" guid="{be6f3f4c-c4e5-4665-9c8e-e1c40bf5b443}">
<Animation name="carla" guid="f3945d04-d487-4c4f-96de-3c054a1120ac" type="Standard" typeparam2="carla" typeparam="AutoPlay,Random" />

<LODS>
<LOD MinSize="0" ModelFile="carla.gltf"/>
</LODS>

</ModelInfo>

<ModelBehaviors>

<Component ID="testperson" Node="carla">
<Visibility>
<Parameter>
<Code>(E:LOCAL TIME, Seconds) 18000 &gt;= (E:LOCAL TIME, Seconds) 86400 &lt;= and (A:AMBIENT PRECIP STATE, mask) 3.0 &lt; and if{ 1 } els{ 0 }</Code>
</Parameter>
</Visibility>
</Component>

</ModelBehaviors>

Thus far I have compiled Carla as both a SimObject and a scenery object and it works as the latter, it is visible while placing as a SimObject, but it flickers and vanishes, leaving a placement box, if placed.

 

[Pavel1971]

Thank you for copying the contents of the xml file that Christian provided.

I'm working with 3ds Max 2020 with the latest patches and the MFS SDK. I managed to export to MFS my model, which I made in the populate5.0 application to 3ds Max, but unfortunately, the model is static and does not move.
I'll try to edit the xml file with my guid tonight. I will write about the result after testing.

 

[Pavel1971]

And she's still moving

The model was generated in populate5.0, in 3ds_Max2020. Exported to gltf.
Then in Blender I set the same name for the mesh and skin, edited the xml file and everything worked

xml file for the model -

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ModelInfo guid="{ab398e19-2ffa-42cf-a772-dba3128da18e}" version="1.1">

<Animation name="Tamara" guid="f3945d04-d487-4c4f-96de-3c054a1120ac" type="Standard" typeparam2="Tamara" typeparam="AutoPlay,Random" />

</ModelInfo>

 

[Pavel1971]

Blender manipulations can be skipped.
All renaming done in 3ds_Max. Everything works fine, the models move! Thank you all for your help! Christian, you are just brilliant!

 

[Christian Bahr]

Blender manipulations can be skipped.

I would be interested to know if you can export animated people with the official MSFS Blender Exporter without them having errors.

 

[Pavel1971]

Hi Christian!

I exported to from Blender using the FlightSim Blender glTF 2.0 plugin
Here is a link to this plugin.

GitHub - AsoboStudio/Microsoft-Flight-Simulator-2020-glTF-Blender-IO

Contribute to AsoboStudio/Microsoft-Flight-Simulator-2020-glTF-Blender-IO development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

In my opinion, the file was exported without errors, but the entire xml file had to be edited.
When I used the second option, namely export from 3ds_Max without using Blender, I created the xml file manually.

 

[Christian Bahr]

In the past, there was always distortion of people when exporting. Did these distortions go away with the Blender Exporter?

 

[Pavel1971]

I didn't notice any distortion after export. I'll later, export more people and choose clothing, which would be a ladies skirt, or an attached vest, and then I can be more specific.

 

[mamu]

In the past, there was always distortion of people when exporting. Did these distortions go away with the Blender Exporter?

The new exporter exports fine , this Is All made in Blender

(the dancing and idle animation Is from mixamo applied to non mixamo characters)

Distorsion happens when different scale are applied to the armature (either in object mode than in edit mode), to the mesh, and to the keyframes
Also location keyframes can be problematic

(actually i can't find any reason to insert a scale keyframe or location in a human body, in real life Bones cannot be relocated o moved, but only rotated around their joints)

So the recipe Is gonna be:

And empty at 0,0,0
Parented to an armature scale 1 at 0,0,0 location
The armature must have scale 1 also in edit mode
The armature must be parented to a mesh with scale 1
Animation with rotation only keyframes

Inviato dal mio Mi 9 Lite utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[Christian Bahr]

This is very good news, finally the export for animated people also works in Blender. Great!

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Distorsion happens when different scale are applied to the armature (either in object mode than in edit mode), to the mesh, and to the keyframes
Also location keyframes can be problematic

Exactly. This has always been the root cause of Blender bone animation problems. Federico, I love your videos. Have you revisited fencing? I think the patch may have solved some problems with the new VectorLines.

 

[mamu]

Exactly. This has always been the root cause of Blender bone animation problems. Federico, I love your videos. Have you revisited fencing? I think the patch may have solved some problems with the new VectorLines.

Thanks Dick!

I will give the Vectorplacement tool another try, altought i have already read in Devsupport that Is still buggy (why in the hell they claim stuff to be solved without throughly testing Is out of my understanding!)

Inviato dal mio Mi 9 Lite utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[superspud]

I'm not concentrating very hard, but I can't get anything out of the exporter that shows up if it's an imported animated FBX. All I get is an empty space in sim.

I'm doing an animated human library at the moment using the Mixamo straight to FBX2gltf method which works fine. The limited animations on Mixamo are a bit frustrating though.

 

[Gobby]

The new exporter exports fine , this Is All made in Blender

(the dancing and idle animation Is from mixamo applied to non mixamo characters)

Distorsion happens when different scale are applied to the armature (either in object mode than in edit mode), to the mesh, and to the keyframes
Also location keyframes can be problematic

(actually i can't find any reason to insert a scale keyframe or location in a human body, in real life Bones cannot be relocated o moved, but only rotated around their joints)

So the recipe Is gonna be:

And empty at 0,0,0
Parented to an armature scale 1 at 0,0,0 location
The armature must have scale 1 also in edit mode
The armature must be parented to a mesh with scale 1
Animation with rotation only keyframes

Inviato dal mio Mi 9 Lite utilizzando Tapatalk

I'm looking forward to your mixamo to MSFS via Blender tutorial. I just can't figure it out and always end up with a deformed T-pose.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

I used this process which works OK:
https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/t...istorted-animation-in-msfs.452304/post-885888

 

[superspud]

I'm looking forward to your mixamo to MSFS via Blender tutorial. I just can't figure it out and always end up with a deformed T-pose.

Yup. Mr. Flappy's method works for me.

The only part Blender is used for is exporting the FBX that goes into Mixamo without any animation, just the model. Then you use FBX2gltf to directly convert the FBX that downloads from Mixamo.

You then have to rename the .bin to match the file and open up the gltf with something like Notepad ++ to change the .bin name again inside the gltf file which will be near the top.

Quite often I'm getting semi transparent models for some reason. So in the gltf, search for 'Blend' in the materials and change it to 'Opaque'.

So far it's worked every time. Occasionally Mixamo doesn't auto rig but I either re export from Blender or apply all transforms again.

And if you're doing LODs because Mixamo's labelling is so hopeless I have two browsers with different accounts open at once and I upload the LOD model at the same time so I'm sure the animation matches. Otherwise it might disappear forever, especially if you're changing the stock phases.

That's the original FBXs, then the two outputs, then the final file. You can see what's changed.

 

[AlpineScenery]

I will try this method, just found this post. Thanks for the info, although from last year, very helpful.

It's still distorted when exporting animations directly from Blender (usually). It's kind of ashame that we are locked into export > mixamo > import > convert > MSFS.
This reduces a lot of the ability to export custom animations directly from Blender (which sort of work, sometimes I can do it without too much distortion, but not usually).