Export Problems


https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic452650.aspx
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By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
I need to export to Blender in either FBX or OBJ formats, but neither seem to work properly. I could export OBJs to Blender before the update, but not now. I didn't used FBX then, but it doesn't work now.

With OBJ figures now come in with materials issues. The faces appear on the neck, brow strips appear in various places (not consistent), and the nipples show up at the bottom of the ribcage. So, I'm going to guess that this has something to do with the Skingen update. Any help with resolving this would be appreciated.
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
I would be nice to see your workflow in screenshots.
Character you are exporting, Blender import settings, outcome.
I am exporting a lot (including the latest release) but never seen anything you have described.
Does it happen on the Base characters or DAZ?
I also replied to your thread about rigify problem, where I also found no problem.
In another thread some problems was discovered with latest CC3 export but not directly relate to the problem you are having https://forum.reallusion.com/452315/HIGH-HEELS-SAGA
You could also share the exported out of CC FBX or OBJ.
By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
I'll try to get some screen shots together. There really aren't any settings in Blender on importing OBJ files, and I don't have any issues with meshes from other sources- including a mesh I exported from CC3 a couple of months ago. Blender has certainly had its share of FBX problems, so that could be the problem there. I don't have FBX figures to compare with, but it does import other meshes in FBX format without problem. Of course, they aren't rigged, so there's that. I don't have DAZ either, so I don't know about that.
Thanks for responding.

By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
There's also a thread from a couple of months ago about FBX problems with Blender, which RL has acknowledged is a CC problem, but as far as I can tell, hasn't fixed.

https://forum.reallusion.com/448552/Please-help-me-exportimport-CC3-to-Blender
By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
This is the stock Caleb figure with no changes, exported as an OBJ and imported to Blender.

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/543535dc-a71f-4d7a-9e64-4573.png
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
hkhaneveer (7/28/2020)
There's also a thread from a couple of months ago about FBX problems with Blender, which RL has acknowledged is a CC problem, but as far as I can tell, hasn't fixed.

https://forum.reallusion.com/448552/Please-help-me-exportimport-CC3-to-Blender


That is a little different. It is about exporting characters converted to Game Base. There is also another thread started by the same user, where I have shown couple of workarounds for exporting/importing Game Base characters.
That is by exporting from iClone and if you do not have iClone changing bones orientation settings on import in Blender. https://forum.reallusion.com/448830/Is-it-possible-to-export-CC3-character-with-bones-connected-so-I-can-animate
Bone orientation on Game Base export was confirmed by RL and fix should be released at some point.
By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
This is a CC3 figure I exported as OBJ a couple of months ago. Exactly the same procedure in both CC3 and Blender as the previous shot.

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/ce5e352e-610d-4b21-8d43-6f8f.png
By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
4u2ges (7/28/2020)
hkhaneveer (7/28/2020)
There's also a thread from a couple of months ago about FBX problems with Blender, which RL has acknowledged is a CC problem, but as far as I can tell, hasn't fixed.

https://forum.reallusion.com/448552/Please-help-me-exportimport-CC3-to-Blender


That is a little different. It is about exporting characters converted to Game Base. There is also another thread started by the same user, where I have shown couple of workarounds for exporting/importing Game Base characters.
That is by exporting from iClone and if you do not have iClone changing bones orientation settings on import in Blender. https://forum.reallusion.com/448830/Is-it-possible-to-export-CC3-character-with-bones-connected-so-I-can-animate
Bone orientation on Game Base export was confirmed by RL and fix should be released at some point.


Yes, I saw that thread, I think I got them conflated. Reading through it though, it's interesting that people with the same versions are having different experiences. This is odd, to say the least, and it makes me wonder if the same thing could be happening with some of my issues.

By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
Hmm... that is strange. I'd suggest opening a ticket with support as it seems to be a problem with your local CC installation.
Because I do not have a problem with either Bind-Pose or Current Pose Export/Import of Caleb

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/6074fcbe-15b4-4ea5-b061-1abc.jpg
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
There, try to import them to Blender. Those are Caleb exports I just did out of CC
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5e6fr15p49wqt8z/Caleb_Exports_CC33.zip?dl=0
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
Gee, I just saw the size of the texture folder. A whooping 255Mb per character!
6 files of 64bit PNG for micro-normal in each. Why in the world it has to be 64 bit!

This is odd, to say the least, and it makes me wonder if the same thing could be happening with some of my issues.

That is very possible. That is why it is best to confirm with those I have sent and then open a ticket.
By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
Okay, I just imported your model to Blender and it worked fine.... Aaargh!

By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
So yeah, that is what I have expected. It is a local install problem (maybe something went wrong during upgrade). Please talk to RL support. You may refer them to this thread for clarifications. Good Luck!
By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
I submitted a ticket, but my screenshot wouldn't attach... what else?
By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
And thanks, I appreciate your help.

Btw, the bones in the FBX I've exported from CC3 to Blender don't look anything like the bones in the original CC3 model- for instance, there are two bones in the upper arm and two bones in the forearm. Is this 'expected' behavior?

By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
No problem. Just one more thing. I remember someone had some weird problem after overriding a standard default base.
Worth to check: https://forum.reallusion.com/FindPost451527.aspx
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
hkhaneveer (7/28/2020)
And thanks, I appreciate your help.

Btw, the bones in the FBX I've exported from CC3 to Blender don't look anything like the bones in the original CC3 model- for instance, there are two bones in the upper arm and two bones in the forearm. Is this 'expected' behavior?


Yes, that is normal, that is why people want to use a Game Base character armature. It is free from *skin* bones.
By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
I see- I thought it was about poly reduction so I didn't bother investigating the game base- especially since it has problems. What are the advantages of this CC rig? Do you have any advice about posing it in Blender? If it's a lot of work I'll just have to wait until the game base exporter is fixed or I can solve the OBJ problem and just rig with Auto Rig Pro. It would definitely be convenient to have a useful rig transfer automatically from CC3 though.
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
hkhaneveer (7/28/2020)
I see- I thought it was about poly reduction so I didn't bother investigating the game base- especially since it has problems. What are the advantages of this CC rig? Do you have any advice about posing it in Blender? If it's a lot of work I'll just have to wait until the game base exporter is fixed or I can solve the OBJ problem and just rig with Auto Rig Pro. It would definitely be convenient to have a useful rig transfer automatically from CC3 though.

Game Base has 73 bones as oppose to Normal CC Base, which has 101 bones, including those double *skin* bones. It is just easier to set an IK chain for Game Base, if you need it to pose bones.
Rigify gives you an automated IK chain I think (I did not play with it much), as I do not have any experience posing/animating in Blender though. I animate in iClone.
But on the other hand you can rig an OBJ online in Mixamo. Just less headache.
By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
Well, after getting not much in the way of feedback from RL, I reinstalled CC3. Hub was a little wonky, but smooth compared to the first time. However, the problem remains the same. Any ideas? I've sent a screen cap to support. I'm really losing my mind on this.https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/c84535e1-7a00-4003-b346-dc4d.png
By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
Have completely uninstalled CC3 and components and reinstalled twice now. Still getting the exact same problem. Any suggestions would be welcome.
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
hkhaneveer (7/30/2020)
Have completely uninstalled CC3 and components and reinstalled twice now. Still getting the exact same problem. Any suggestions would be welcome.

When you said "completely uninstalled", did you mean you have deleted Reallusion folders (I would delete it from Programs and Content location as well as clear Temp folder) after uninstall. Because most uninstalls leave traces behind.
Also registry. Not sure if you're proficient with registry editing. But I would clean Reallusion key from both HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (that is if no other Reallusion products are installed on the computer)

By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
No, I didn't remove those folders or edit the reg keys. Sigh... I guess I should do that....   Thank you for your help, I wouldn't have thought about it. I tend to assume that when the fix for something is so often 'reinstall the program' that the uninstall routine actually removes everything that would interfere with that, but I know that's just a dream...

Oh, and I don't know how to edit the reg keys.
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
Oh, and I don't know how to edit the reg keys.                               


Better not bother with it then. Just uninstall, delete manually everything related to CC on a disk. (In Program files and the Content location as well as Temp folder content).
And then try to reinstall. It it persists, then zip exported OBJ with texture folder and share it with Dropbox or similar cloud storage. You should also closely work with support and let them know it is still not working.
There must be a reason for that.
By hkhaneveer - 4 Years Ago
I was finally able to get back on this task today. Rampa sent me pretty detailed instructions (not entirely correct, but close enough for me to figure out the rest), and a link to a free registry cleaner, and I did a complete cleaning and a new install, and it seems to have fixed things (plus about 6k things the registry cleaner didn't like about my system- have no idea what they were).  Thanks for all your help with this, also.

Some notes for anyone having issues that lead to a reinstall-  it appears that Reallusion sometimes changes the names of its Appdata folders- search for any keywords relating to Reallusion.  Also, if you uninstall RL products through the Hub, it doesn't do much uninstalling, it apparently just severs the links to the executables- because it looked like the entire program was still in the folders in Program Files, and they had to be manually removed.

I still have no idea how the original problem was even possible, but at least it's fixed now.
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
I am reviving this thread, because I got the same error just an hour ago. This time it was an export of CC3+ to FBX though.
I did export with Embed Texture unchecked so that the FBX file would be smaller. Next you know I got this weird mismatch between UV and texture in Blender.

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/1c178fa7-d681-4829-83ad-ddfd.jpg

After checking the texture source, I found out that ALL texture files were pulled from a folder which was created with some OBJ export I made a few days ago.
That folder was located in totally different sub-folder and had a different name. As you may see from a texture it was a CC3 base, hence the discrepancy is obvious.

I did close both iClone and CC, cleared temp folder, rebooted computer, searched for that path in registry to no avail. Exported again, but mismatch in texture path persisted.

The Fix: I did export same character with Embed Texture checked. Verified in Blender - problem persisted even with Embedded texture.
However, when I again unchecked Embed Texture on export from CC, the problem was miraculously gone and the texture was correctly pulled from .fbm folder.

I cannot replicate this bug anymore though. It is obviously a bug/glitch, where some texture path is hardcoded somewhere and then used randomly in consecutive exports.
The worst part is, that you might not even know that the texture was pulled from elsewhere (If both exports were the same base). Only minor details in skin shade or details would give it up.
I'll be watching it closely as I do a lot of exports, but I wish RL can check this on their end (there is a support ticker from hkhaneveer still exists).
By Jfrog - 4 Years Ago
@4u2ges

This is really scary! 

The good news is that you know your way around and can see the problem, not like many of us.  Wink

When exporting to Unity for example,  I am never satisfied with the results, but my knowledge of the whole export process is a bit limited so I have no idea what is going wrong during the transfer. For example I get much better results using the legacy 3D render pipeline than when using the HDRP render pipeline. I asked the question many times but I haven't found anybody yet that provided a comparison picture of a character before export (Iclone) and after export (Unity). When I do the comparison tests myself, there is a huge drop in quality especially in HDRP.
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
This is really scary!


It is Ermm
As to unity, I hope it is not the problem I was facing today. Unfortunately I do not export to 3-rd party apps for render. Hopefully someone with unity experience would clarify that for you.


By Peter (RL) - 4 Years Ago
4u2ges (8/16/2020)
 but I wish RL can check this on their end (there is a support ticker from hkhaneveer still exists).


I will pass on your feedback but it will really help if you can add the issue in the Feedback Tracker as well.  The CC team will then give any feedback about the issue there. Thanks.
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
I will Peter. Thanks.
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
FT 7156 https://www.reallusion.com/FeedBackTracker/Issue/Texture-mismatch-when-exporting-to-OBJ-or-FBX
Feel free to state your case in comments
By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago


By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago