Hi Nick

As Animagic has already explained, once a character or project is saved in CC4 it can no longer be opened in CC3 or used in iClone 7. This has always been the case with every major version upgrade, and is discussed often on the forum. However, I will pass on your feedback so hopefully we can make things clearer in the future for those unaware of the version compatibility issues.

One thing I would strongly advise is never keep just one copy of your custom files. There are so many things that can go wrong, including hardware failures, file corruption etc. so having backups of your custom content is vital. Always having backup copies will save you from headaches like this in the future.


                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Hi there and thanks for the reply.

I get that you usually can't use older software for newer versions of projects, it's just that the project was created in CC3 and I don't recall receiving a warning about breaking backwards compatibility when opening and saving an old file in CC4. Like I said, my bad, lack of knowledge on the methods of Reallusion. Just wish I would've have had some form of warning, which would have prevented me from proceeding.
CC3 also gives no further info as to why it doesn't work, it just fails and hangs for a couple of seconds and then reverts to the default project.

I bought one of the combopacks which included the upgrade to CC4. If I would've known this upfront I would have probably purchased another pack, but that's in the past.

I could afford the upgrade to iClone 8, but I really have no need to for it, besides being able to use CC4 along with it. I can't justify that extra cost just to run an app I currently have no use for.
Maybe when I run into certain limitations or something like that, but at this moment I am good with CC3+iClone 7.

I may have just messed op a day worth of work and was hoping that there was an option to restore my old project into CC3.
The CC4 to iClone route through 3DXchange seems somewhat usable for single accidental type imports, but it's not something I want to do for 10 separate characters or even more.
And there were some strange retargeting issues like I mentioned above.

I do want to suggest that Reallusion makes the process of buying the right software package a bit clearer though, so I agree that it's kind of strange to offer these combinations.
I for one had no idea the Creator and iClone apps went hand in hand, version wise.

Having said that, I do enjoy the software. The seamless experience of exporting to and importing from substance painter is great.
Importing a fully clothed character into UE 4.27 and targeting some character animations turned out to be a breeze.
I was controlling an avatar within minutes after importing it into the Unreal project, so props to that!

I am still quite happy with my purchase, it's just a bummer that this happened.

Nick

It is expected behavior that files created in newer versions will not open in older versions.

That said, RL should have been clearer for new users that each generation of products work together, so IC7 with CC3 and IC8 with CC4.

I was a bit surprised that when the offers were announced earlier that people could choose for example CC4 only, because if you are using iClone 7, CC4 wouldn't be of much use. 

As along-time user I was aware of that and I have always updated in groups to stay compatible. 

I suspect the refund period has expired, but sometimes they will make an exception. Peter (RL) may know about that.

BTW, if you can at all afford it, it is worth getting iClone 8.

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Hello everyone,

So I am a fairly new user of the Reallusion pipeline, and up until recently everything was working fine.
But then I got the prompt to install CC4, for which I had a key. So I installed CC4, while also keeping CC3.

I opened one of my projects from CC3 in CC4 and that went well. But when I wanted to export it to iClone 7, the button was greyed out.

So am I not able to send from CC4 to iClone 7 without workarounds?
Because if that is the case, you could have been clearer about that if I am being honest.

I wasn't planning on getting iClone 8, since I haven't even really started to get to work with 7, so what now?
I bought the 3dxchange app a while back and through a video on youtube I managed to get my character into iClone 7, but not everything was functioning properly.
I realise I still need to get all the bones remapped for the eyebrows and stuff, but there are also issues with the forearms not properly bending at poses.
(Also, the right eye had the transformation still, but the left eye didn't do anything, this was fixed by clearing both eyes and retargeting.)

The picture below shows the area around elbows and wrists deforming strangely. I can make better images if you need them, just had this on my desktop and the issue is clearly visible.
The same pose worked fine in iClone 7 when I exported from CC3.


This is the opposite of the reason I started using your apps by the way, the seamless workflow and all..

Not a problem, I will just use CC3 with iClone 7, and consider the upgrade to CC4 waisted money for my current usecase.
My bad for not reading up enough I guess..

But now the project I have opened in CC4 can no longer be opened in CC3, something isn't working anymore..
I guess I could redo the entire model in CC3, but it isn't really what I was expecting.
I must say, I am getting kinda confused now.

So to sum it up:

CC4 to iClone 7: Yes or No? And is this intended behavior?
And was this common knowledge?

From CC4 back into CC3: Why is it not working and is this intended behaviour?
Will my projects be unusable in CC3 if I have opened them in CC4 or is this a bug or human (me) error?

From CC4 to 3DXchange to iClone 7: Why are limbs misaligned when I exported from CC4 in T-pose?
Should I technically be able to get a fully functioning standard character into iClone 7 through 3dXchange if I put in the time?
Because that way I might be able to still use the character from the project.

Is there any way for me to restore the file for use in CC3?
Is there even a proper way to go back and forth?
Could I maybe pull the morphs out of this project for use in another or something like that?

Am I forced to buy iClone 8 for the same seamless integration from CC4 as I had between iClone 7 and CC3?
Because that would mean I've wasted my money on the CC4 upgrade.

Hope someone can enlighten me and thanks for reading,
Nick