bake ice geometry instances as pc2 or export it as fbx

[doctor3d]

Hi all
my problem is , i have a simulation already done , i did some geometry instances and animation on the instances included , i need to convert that to max ?

when i use the send to it sends particle only , i need the goemtry with caching just like CrowdFX thing but it don't work with anything but crowd ?

2nd question , can i access Point cache attributes through ice? and where i can find those?

thanx guys

[gotchee]

Hey there,

you could for example use Eric Mootz' emTopolizer. It let's you convert a Point Cloud into geometry which you then could export as Obj sequence to Max (if this is possible in Max).
Check out this demo video:

http://www.vimeo.com/76075927

the section you should watch is "Get Topo from Particles".

Regarding your second question: If an ICE Attribute is cached, you can of course access it via a Get Data Node on that cache.

Hope this helps!

[doctor3d]

Hey there,

you could for example use Eric Mootz' emTopolizer. It let's you convert a Point Cloud into geometry which you then could export as Obj sequence to Max (if this is possible in Max).
Check out this demo video:

http://www.vimeo.com/76075927

the section you should watch is "Get Topo from Particles".

Regarding your second question: If an ICE Attribute is cached, you can of course access it via a Get Data Node on that cache.

Hope this helps!

thanx gotchee
will see about emtopolizer , try it and see what happens

about the point cache i meant a point cache object not ice sim
i did export max file then I load the point cache through cache manger , i meant how to get that Pointcache attributes on Ice?
seaching the object subitems and i see nothing about cache

[gotchee]

I'm not exactly sure if i understand you correctly.
Do you mean you have a Point Cache of an object (for example an animated character)?
If so, what attributes do you want to access? Or what do you want to do with it in ICE?

Sorry for answering your question with more questions ;)

[doctor3d]

I'm not exactly sure if i understand you correctly.
Do you mean you have a Point Cache of an object (for example an animated character)?
If so, what attributes do you want to access? Or what do you want to do with it in ICE?

Sorry for answering your question with more questions ;)

exactly , i have character mesh with point cache , i bring the cache through cache manger so not sure if there is another way to do it , i ceated ice tree , put the point cache charcter as geomtry instance , i need to access the point cache source change it with ice with some tests if possible , change speed of cache playing and stuff like that.
i can do only change speed of the whole animation through instance geometry displacement node but still need other attributes of point cache on ice nodes get it and test it then set some states and stuff.

sorry for what i'm trying to do i need to know everything about softimage and i know only some ice and some general stuff.

[gotchee]

Alright. I think i slowly get what you're trying to do.
When you have your cache applied to the instanced geometry, you should be able to modify the timing of your instanced animation with the "ShapeInstanceTime" attribute. This value represents the "local" time of the instance and can be set/modified per particle. Keep in mind that it's in seconds.

Hope this is what you are looking for!

Cheers, gotchee

[doctor3d]

Alright. I think i slowly get what you're trying to do.
When you have your cache applied to the instanced geometry, you should be able to modify the timing of your instanced animation with the "ShapeInstanceTime" attribute. This value represents the "local" time of the instance and can be set/modified per particle. Keep in mind that it's in seconds.

Hope this is what you are looking for!

Cheers, gotchee

let me clear this again
i already can do time control , thats not my problem , what if i need another point cache file load on the same instance , what i manged to do is load copy Geometry with another point cache to change the whole animation but it jumps for sure.

what i'm trying to do is another crowd system based on point cached character not skin and rig

its almost done , good crowd behaviors , good animation timing control , main problems is states get another point cache loaded on low speed , and run cache for fast particle and other stuff , mixing between those etc.

btw i did this the same on 3ds max via scripting but controlling speed ,collision and transitions are nightmare there , so Ice is the way to go if i did fix these problems make the workflow back to max
still have alot of problems like scaling between the 2 aplication tryed something will probably work , will i be able to keep the same uvs on this workflow? alot to take in but testing still.
little complicated and i'm fixing one by one , so sorry to put all that on u .
thanx for your help again.

[doctor3d]

if we can't change point cache data through ice .... any idea to convert point cache to mixer clip so i can use it on ice
if vertex position can be saved as clip for ex ?

[gotchee]

Ok, that's what you are after. I don't have too much time now, but i will try to do a little proof of concept on how I would work with different caches and a state system, as we just recently did our own crowd system for stadium people. I'll get back to you later!

[gotchee]

I made a little demo scene for you to check out as this may be faster then to write everything down ;) . I've zipped the whole project so that the Paths to the Cache Files are right. I'm using Softimage 2013SP1, but 2014 should work as well.
Download it here (it's only 500kb though):
http://www.sendspace.com/file/wzq1hj

if we can't change point cache data through ice .... any idea to convert point cache to mixer clip so i can use it on ice
if vertex position can be saved as clip for ex ?

Youcan do exactly that...If you load a cache file onto an object using the Cache Manager it automatically creates an Clip on a FileCacheTrack in the Animation Mixer of the Object.

The main concept is that you put all your cache files in a long sequence on a FileCache Track in the animation mixer of the instanced Geo.
Then you have for example ClipA from frame 0-29 and ClipB from frame 30-59.
Now on your Crowd PointCloud all you have to do is to create two arrays containing the start and end values. With these arrays, the state ID and the current frame you can calculate the looping range for each clip and feed that into the ShapeInstanceTime.
Just open my scene and check out the ICE trees on the PointCloud to see what i mean.

Known limitations are that you wont be able to blend between clips. So if you want to avoid jumping, you can't switch to another clip without letting it play to it's end as well as the clips have to be loopable in themselves and the starts and ends of the clips should have the same PointPosition.

I hope you can find some inspiration in this setup...Let me know, if you need some more clarification.

Cheers

[doctor3d]

Ok, that's what you are after. I don't have too much time now, but i will try to do a little proof of concept on how I would work with different caches and a state system, as we just recently did our own crowd system for stadium people. I'll get back to you later!

well thanx Gotchee , got ice compound to convert ice instances to poly , the main problem for transfering instaces fixed now
https://www.si-community.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1579

will try to fix others. thanx again

[doctor3d]

I made a little demo scene for you to check out as this may be faster then to write everything down ;) . I've zipped the whole project so that the Paths to the Cache Files are right. I'm using Softimage 2013SP1, but 2014 should work as well.
Download it here (it's only 500kb though):
http://www.sendspace.com/file/wzq1hj

if we can't change point cache data through ice .... any idea to convert point cache to mixer clip so i can use it on ice
if vertex position can be saved as clip for ex ?

Youcan do exactly that...If you load a cache file onto an object using the Cache Manager it automatically creates an Clip on a FileCacheTrack in the Animation Mixer of the Object.

The main concept is that you put all your cache files in a long sequence on a FileCache Track in the animation mixer of the instanced Geo.
Then you have for example ClipA from frame 0-29 and ClipB from frame 30-59.
Now on your Crowd PointCloud all you have to do is to create two arrays containing the start and end values. With these arrays, the state ID and the current frame you can calculate the looping range for each clip and feed that into the ShapeInstanceTime.
Just open my scene and check out the ICE trees on the PointCloud to see what i mean.

Known limitations are that you wont be able to blend between clips. So if you want to avoid jumping, you can't switch to another clip without letting it play to it's end as well as the clips have to be loopable in themselves and the starts and ends of the clips should have the same PointPosition.

I hope you can find some inspiration in this setup...Let me know, if you need some more clarification.

Cheers

sorry for late reply didn't notice that post, gotchee u r the man

let me check this and will get back to u. , and btw i turned all the workflow to max only now writing scripted behaviors and stuff kind of working good now but i always love to make it work through soft.
thanx again will check it out