Importing fbx models

Just wondering if anybody else has an issue importing fbx models in to a Mycosm scene? I have been unable to import any fbx files with the exception of one stock model. I have been unable to import other stock models or any I have exported myself from Studio Max into a scene, either with or without animation. l

Corro

Hi guys, you are not alone in having trouble with importing FBX models...

There are a few considerations that must be made when looking at your models:

1. What scale/units were used to create your model?
Mycosm reads the number values only - ignoring any unit settings. That is, if your model has been created using mm, but is 10m high (10,000mm), Mycosm will read your model as 10,000 units high - so it will appear impossibly huge within your scene. It is possible for models on this scale to be so big that you are always viewing from INSIDE the imported model.

2. Is your model exported a great distance from the origin?
If a model is not zeroed to the origin of the 3d modelling package prior to export into FBX, it may not appear where you expect it to. If in this case you use the "Place at original coordinates" import option in Mycosm, the model will appear an equivalent distance from the Mycosm origin that it was located in the 3d modelling package.
If you are using UTM coordinates and expect the model to be a distance form the origin, then with your model selected you can use the "G" hotkey to make the viewport camera GoTo the currently selected model.

3. If using 3ds Max, what version are you using and have the FBX plugins been updated?
There have been issues noted with the use of FBX models throughout the course of Mycosm's development, and as recently as last week it was found that obtaining the latest FBX plugin update from Autodesk can help to resolve many issues, including incorrect triangulation for example. If you have a version pre-dating 3ds Max 2011, and have not upgraded the FBX plugin at all, you may find there are other issues with your FBX models upon export that may not be resolved until the plugin is updated.

4. Are there any ambient or transparency settings on the texture material applied to your model?
When an object is selected in Mycosm, it will normally flash red thanks to an inbuilt ambient light. If however, the selected object has NO value in the ambient colour channel then it will simply appear black and unlit.
For those using Maya, the default settings in the material library can sometimes cause an object to be invisible when imported into Mycosm. This is thanks to the "Transparency" property of the material. Unfortunately 3ds Max uses an "Opacity" channel, and Maya uses a "Transparency" channel - which are of course complete opposites of one another. Mycosm only reads this channel as Opacity. So a model exported from 3ds Max with an all-white Opacity material will appear in Mycosm, whilst a model exported from Maya with an all-black Transparency channel will have that read as Opacity, and thus be invisible when imported into Mycosm.


If you are unsure of the answers to any of these questions (as you may be using a third party provided model, purchased from a 3d marketplace for example) then it is advised to check the model in your 3d modelling package prior to export to FBX. There are some known bugs at present that are being addressed for the next release of Mycosm, such as 2-sided texture support, that will be made available in the near future.

BigTex

I'm getting an error message when I try to place a FBX file "Mycosm Assertion Failure" - this is a bit cryptic - what is it trying to tell me?