Blender To HKX Development Thread

[RohZima]

Is no one going to pick this up? I skimmed through and it seemed to me that some of the trouble was to do with scale and rotation of the object. Might have helped to check the units type and scale against what is coming in. Skeleton straight from Fallout? When the object comes in the scale should be 1.0. You don't want to apply scale but you should apply location and rotation (Ctrl-A) before doing anything else with the bones.

 

Blender messes up skeletons if you bring it in via FBX. I couldn't tell if he was using that or Niftools.

 

Anyway I don't know any of that mathematical stuff with quarternions, nor python but I seriously would love to make animations for FO4 with blender. I'm making static poses now with 3ds 2015 but I just can't bring myself to work with it for full blown animations. It'll take me months to master the software enough for that.

[dagobaking]

I also would really like to see animations in Blender for FO4.

 

But, animating in 3DS shouldn't take months to figure out. It's really more like a day for the basics.

[RohZima]

5 hours ago, dagobaking said:

I also would really like to see animations in Blender for FO4.

 

But, animating in 3DS shouldn't take months to figure out. It's really more like a day for the basics.

 

I know the basics, at least for CAT. I'm making a pose mod in 3DS. But for animating I want to work at the same level I do for Skyrim and I realized I need to know the system inside out to work efficiently. I need to know all the tricks to be able to do anything I want.

[DocClox]

17 hours ago, RohZima said:

Is no one going to pick this up? I skimmed through and it seemed to me that some of the trouble was to do with scale and rotation of the object. Might have helped to check the units type and scale against what is coming in. Skeleton straight from Fallout? When the object comes in the scale should be 1.0. You don't want to apply scale but you should apply location and rotation (Ctrl-A) before doing anything else with the bones.

 

Blender messes up skeletons if you bring it in via FBX. I couldn't tell if he was using that or Niftools.

 

Anyway I don't know any of that mathematical stuff with quarternions, nor python but I seriously would love to make animations for FO4 with blender. I'm making static poses now with 3ds 2015 but I just can't bring myself to work with it for full blown animations. It'll take me months to master the software enough for that.

 

My bad. I was going to post my code, and then work resumed and RL went a bit sideways.

 

Let me have a rummage.

[infiniteone]

I suppose this is for fo4, but would it also be applicable for Skyrim-SE hkx?

I did find something similar, you may have seen it already, or maybe f04/SSE are different enough havoc that you didnt look at skyrim se stuff?  Anyhow, using tktk's animation tools N3+28 which i found in the following tutorial https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/50586 gets it done, but maybe does not account for auxbones I hear, ive not tested trying to bring in additional bones yet.  Its blender python script & dependencies sorts the scale, directions, & names out & then converts the zbonekeys to kf, then converts the kf to hkx. The python script is in the script console within the two blender files in the pack, the male & female rigs.

Edited January 28, 2022 by infiniteone

[RohZima]

19 hours ago, infiniteone said:

I suppose this is for fo4, but would it also be applicable for Skyrim-SE hkx?

I did find something similar, you may have seen it already, or maybe f04/SSE are different enough havoc that you didnt look at skyrim se stuff?  Anyhow, using tktk's animation tools N3+28 which i found in the following tutorial https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/50586 gets it done, but maybe does not account for auxbones I hear, ive not tested trying to bring in additional bones yet.  Its blender python script & dependencies sorts the scale, directions, & names out & then converts the zbonekeys to kf, then converts the kf to hkx. The python script is in the script console within the two blender files in the pack, the male & female rigs.

 

Hi, what have you managed to do so far? Did you get an animation into FO4 from blender without using 3DS MAX in the process?

 

Did you take a skeleton from FO4 to work with in blender? I thought the bone names were different to the skyrim bone names.

[infiniteone]

6 hours ago, RohZima said:

 

Hi, what have you managed to do so far? Did you get an animation into FO4 from blender without using 3DS MAX in the process?

 

Did you take a skeleton from FO4 to work with in blender? I thought the bone names were different to the skyrim bone names.

No, I dont actually have any fallout games, though I may get fo4 at some point.  I am testing that rig on the link I shared, & any ways I find, for making Skyrim SE hkx animations.  It has been recommended for me to use the olde MAX & its old havok plugin for final stage, but im trying pure blender ways first.  It should be possible, and would be preferred by many. Im about to test some run's with that blender rig & script, to see how it goes bringing them in game.

 

Mostly I wanted to share it in case it would be of any use or inspiration, since its doing a lot of the same things discussed here, albeit perhaps slightly different between fo4 and sse.

[RohZima]

18 hours ago, infiniteone said:

No, I dont actually have any fallout games, though I may get fo4 at some point.  I am testing that rig on the link I shared, & any ways I find, for making Skyrim SE hkx animations.  It has been recommended for me to use the olde MAX & its old havok plugin for final stage, but im trying pure blender ways first.  It should be possible, and would be preferred by many. Im about to test some run's with that blender rig & script, to see how it goes bringing them in game.

 

Mostly I wanted to share it in case it would be of any use or inspiration, since its doing a lot of the same things discussed here, albeit perhaps slightly different between fo4 and sse.

 

There is no problem at all making anims for SSE. You can convert LE to SE with hkxconverter tool. It's FO4 that is the problem from blender, though it is very easy from 3DS.

[infiniteone]

On 1/30/2022 at 12:36 AM, RohZima said:

 

There is no problem at all making anims for SSE. You can convert LE to SE with hkxconverter tool. It's FO4 that is the problem from blender, though it is very easy from 3DS.

Yes I now have a good rig for blender 3.0 to SSE, the older stuff I started with was out of date and took me a bunch of digging, but now theres no need for 32bit stages either. Took me some trial and error and finding the great resources people have shared, but im learning animations for skyrim now, starting with body then will learn face anims to go with it. My plan is to make some M4M anims for SL/OSA/OSTIM scenes as a learning practice, and for fun.

 

I also got and installed FO4 ? there's little sense in learning the huge workflows and leaving out fo4, it looks fun and fun to mod as well, its really similar to SSE in some useful ways. 

 

So what is the issue specific to FO4? With blender outputs?  Are the animation outputs that different than SSE 64bit hkx? I guess I will definitely run up against this when I start fo4 modding.  I only use blender, though I could get an olde max for the final conversion, but adding that Max step seems overkill, if just a blender script & dependencies can do it so nicely.

Edited February 2, 2022 by infiniteone

[RohZima]

3 hours ago, infiniteone said:

So what is the issue specific to FO4? With blender outputs?  Are the animation outputs that different than SSE 64bit hkx? I guess I will definitely run up against this when I start fo4 modding.  I only use blender, though I could get an olde max for the final conversion, but adding that Max step seems overkill, if just a blender script & dependencies can do it so nicely.

 

The is issue is you need to have the havok content tools installed. I don't know why, don't understand it. But that is not available for blender I have all that set up in 3DS and it works but I'm not comfortable animating in 3DS.

 

If you mean why doesn't antons scricts work going from blender to FO4 - just read this thread... 

 

It is using anton's scripts though - not TkTk's, which I assume are just a tweaked version of antons?

 

As for using max for the final conversion, I tried that and was not able to. The problem was when you take a skeleton from max to blender via fbx - it changes. So if you can figure out perfect way to import/export fbx it should work.

 

I can help you setting up 3ds max and give you *links* for what you require. It would be nice to have someone else trying to do the same thing for once instead of only myself trying to figure it out on my own.

 

So the question is - do you know python script and do you understand how quarterinon rotations work, i.e technical 3d stuff? 

[vaultbait]

Noticed this the other day, not sure if it's new to anyone else: FBXImporter

[poblivion]

29 minutes ago, vaultbait said:

Noticed this the other day, not sure if it's new to anyone else: FBXImporter

 

That looks promising.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Description

 

FBXImporter is an utility from Havok SDK that converts 3D scene from FBX to Havok format.
It was recompiled with Havok SDK hk2014_1_0_r1 that is used in Fallout 4.

 

What can it be used for?

 

It can be used to convert animations from FBX to HKX format.
The advantage of this approach is that you can use any software that can export to FBX (Blender, 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, etc.) to create animations.

[Vader666]

You still need Havok tools for the final conversion, but surely a step in the right direction.

 

[dagobaking]

4 hours ago, vaultbait said:

Noticed this the other day, not sure if it's new to anyone else: FBXImporter

 

Yep. The author made it for Skyrim and then was kind enough to make a version for FO4 even though he doesn't work with it. (Deserves endorsements and votes imo!)

 

Now we need proper control rigs for the characters in Blender. I can probably make rudimentary ones. But, it would be much better if someone skilled in Blender made those.

 

Should open up a lot of possibilities for new FO4 animations!

Edited April 22, 2022 by dagobaking

[dagobaking]

I'm wondering if hctStandAloneFilterManager.exe can be used via command line.

 

If so, then it should be possible to make an export command for Blender that handles the entire export process from the app...

[RohZima]

7 hours ago, dagobaking said:

I'm wondering if hctStandAloneFilterManager.exe can be used via command line.

 

If so, then it should be possible to make an export command for Blender that handles the entire export process from the app...

 

What's that?

[dagobaking]

44 minutes ago, RohZima said:

 

What's that?

 

It's an executable that comes with Havok Content Tools. It's needed to convert from HCT to HKX format after FBXImporter turns FBX into HCT.

 

It's basically the same thing as the Havok export process that runs as a plugin within 3DSMax. But, it can run externally by itself.

 

(andrelo1 confirmed that it can run from command line. I don't know Blender Scripting at all. But, in theory, someone should be able to make a Blender add-on that allows exporting animations as HKX with at least some of the FBXImporter steps removed.)

Edited April 23, 2022 by dagobaking

[RohZima]

14 minutes ago, dagobaking said:

 

It's an executable that comes with Havok Content Tools. It's needed to convert from HCT to HKX format after FBXImporter turns FBX into HCT.

 

It's basically the same thing as the Havok export process that runs as a plugin within 3DSMax. But, it can run externally by itself.

 

(andrelo1 confirmed that it can run from command line. I don't know Blender Scripting at all. But, in theory, someone should be able to make a Blender add-on that allows exporting animations as HKX with at least some of the FBXImporter steps removed.)

 

Ok no problem. So for now it can be used with CMD. I'll try this over the weekend then. Hopefully it works. I won't get excited till I know.

[dagobaking]

1 hour ago, RohZima said:

 

Ok no problem. So for now it can be used with CMD. I'll try this over the weekend then. Hopefully it works. I won't get excited till I know.

 

It actually has the same GUI as when its used as a plugin. So, it should be familiar if you've used that before. Let me know if you haven't and I may be able to walk through it. It's kind of a complex looking menu first time you use it.

 

The reason I brought up CMD is that it means someone could script its usage so that it could just be a quicker export directly from Blender rather than moving files around folders, selecting config file etc. I think it will make more sense once you test with the example files.

 

FWIW there is already a visual tutorial in Korean: https://arca.live/b/tullius/49027419?category=폴+정보&p=1

[EngineGaming]

5 hours ago, dagobaking said:

 

It actually has the same GUI as when its used as a plugin. So, it should be familiar if you've used that before. Let me know if you haven't and I may be able to walk through it. It's kind of a complex looking menu first time you use it.

 

The reason I brought up CMD is that it means someone could script its usage so that it could just be a quicker export directly from Blender rather than moving files around folders, selecting config file etc. I think it will make more sense once you test with the example files.

 

FWIW there is already a visual tutorial in Korean: https://arca.live/b/tullius/49027419?category=폴+정보&p=1

 

 

Mine worked in game based on a tutorial written in Korean as Dagoba left a link above. I gave it a try.

The skinning technique is complicated, most of the bones aren't weighted properly with meshes, i tried so that would be easy for in game final results.

The thing is when picking one of the bones, move it. Then with the bone(s) u have selected and posed, right click on the frame bar and the frame count u aimed for, and click insert keyframe to create a key on ur frame. U can either delete the key, too. Or u can even toggle the small write dot, its an autokey that works exactly like in 3ds max. U move the bone and it will automatically create keys.



(Its NOT final yet, but needs to fix it) - U can check the file i tried. Btw for havok tools ull only need the hkt file (The amarture one), and skip the optional 'foobar.fbx' path. U can add the hkx in ur template mod as a test. From my rig file (which it has meshes imported) or examples from fbximporter, it works even in blender to make animations/poses.

BlenderRigTest.rarTestBlender.hkx

Edited April 23, 2022 by EngineGaming

[dagobaking]

Nice. I like the idea of including male/female modes within the rig.

[EngineGaming]

2 hours ago, dagobaking said:

Nice. I like the idea of including male/female modes within the rig.

Yea, the cool thing is that both modes can be rigged and posed at the same time, bcs both are weighted. But not perfectly enough, still having issues with weights/skinned. Plus that it's a different technique. In 3ds u can import anything that has weight bones, as nif, having a skin modifier right away, while in blender we dont have nif import/export but an addon plugin for it. Only as obj format was possible, but having it imported never adds skin modifier. And the only way would be manual weight painting or parenting with armature. I am moving on in plan B with nif addons or exporting fbx from 3ds with meshes. Otherwise it would be a pain and time consuming to do manual weighting and testing in blender.

Edited April 23, 2022 by EngineGaming

[dagobaking]

33 minutes ago, EngineGaming said:

Yea, the cool thing is that both modes can be rigged and posed at the same time, bcs both are weighted. But not perfectly enough, still having issues with weights/skinned. Plus that it's a different technique. In 3ds u can import anything that has weight bones, as nif, having a skin modifier right away, while in blender we dont have nif import/export but an addon plugin for it. Only as obj format was possible, but having it imported never adds skin modifier. And the only way would be manual weight painting or parenting with armature. I am moving on in plan B with nif addons or exporting fbx from 3ds with meshes. Otherwise it would be a pain and time consuming to do manual weighting and testing in blender.

 

I don't think the meshes need to look perfect in Blender. Just close enough to not throw off alignments in animations.

 

That said, have you used pynifly for the import? (https://github.com/BadDogSkyrim/PyNifly)

 

It seems to do a pretty good job from what I've seen...

[RohZima]

3 hours ago, dagobaking said:

 

I don't think the meshes need to look perfect in Blender. Just close enough to not throw off alignments in animations.

 

That said, have you used pynifly for the import? (https://github.com/BadDogSkyrim/PyNifly)

 

It seems to do a pretty good job from what I've seen...

 

I didn't even know about that. I usually do obj or fbx. Will give that a try.

[EngineGaming]

10 hours ago, dagobaking said:

 

I don't think the meshes need to look perfect in Blender. Just close enough to not throw off alignments in animations.

 

That said, have you used pynifly for the import? (https://github.com/BadDogSkyrim/PyNifly)

 

It seems to do a pretty good job from what I've seen...

 

No, i was asleep too. Not only having it perfect but when also rotating the chest/spine and collarbone/upperarm bones, face meshes become more distorted and almost unclear to focus. Another example for other places affected.

The face and eyes are like 0 effort weight jobs for blender... And it was imported as obj.
 

7 hours ago, RohZima said:

 

I didn't even know about that. I usually do obj or fbx. Will give that a try.

Btw, I tested with fbx import when i wanted to convert meshes through OS, too. In fact it both imports the entire skeleton bones and the mesh. The rigging and having weighted from it worked. But i only want a complete weighted meshes i am working on.
Another idea would be connections, i found a way for it so that we can play with arms and legs like in 3ds max. The Chain IK.