some problems with models and animation

Scripting Issues
#1

Hi,
first of all, I am not a good 3D programer, mostly I program database related things. But since xmas I am programming at a simulation like secondlife or opensim. The databases and the server for the grid are running, also the sim-server is ok. So I use this wonderful panda3d to make my own viewer. But now I have some problems and questions:
I use the original secondlife avatar with the .bvh animation files ( you find it here http://secondlife.com/community/avatar.php, I convert the avatar in blender with chicken to a panda3d egg. And I can load this model.
But it seems, it is not a real actor file, I get this messages:
Actor(warning): etc/client/models/default_male is not a character!
I look at the egg file and see, that there are no “Joints” and no “character” tag. How can I set this ?
Then to the animations, I can load it with the model:

self.Avatar = Actor("etc/client/models/default_male", {"walk":"etc/client/models/avatar_walk.bvh"})

but my program crashes here:

self.AnimControl=self.Avatar.getAnimControl('walk')

Do Panda3d support .bvh animation files ?
Perhaps some of you use this sl avatar and have solved the problems.
At last, I use the packager to build a p3d file using in a browser. There is a strange, only little problem:
I have set a name on top of the avatar, using this:

self.chatBubble=DirectLabel(parent=avatar.Avatar, text=avatar.username + ' ' +avatar.lastname , text_wordwrap=10,    relief = None, text_scale=(.5,.5),   pos = (0,0,6),     frameColor=(.3,.2,.1,.5),  text_frame=(0,0,0,1),  text_bg=(1,1,1,1))
                            self.chatBubble.component('text0').textNode.setCardDecal(1)
                            self.chatBubble['text'] = avatar.username + ' ' +avatar.lastname
                            self.chatBubble.setBillboardAxis()

It works good if I call this program with python, but in the browser see I only a black beam. The plugin is ready for testing at http://py3d-worlds.org and if you will look at the other code in the SVN look here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/py3d-worlds/
I hope, some of you can help me,
bye
Jürgen

#2

I don’t have a lot of experience with Chicken, but when you export your model file, you have to select the option to convert it as animatable model, as opposed to the default, which is a static model. I can’t tell you where to find that option, but maybe that will be enough to help you find it.

Also, you will have to convert your animation files to egg files as well to load them with your Actor. You should select the option to convert these as animation channels, whatever that option is called.

As to the nametag issue, it’s hard to imagine what could be going wrong; but possibly the confusion over the above model files is causing trouble there. I tried to run your p3d file, and it crashed hard on me. Note that the p3d file is run in a mode that eliminates many safety checks, so it is more likely to crash hard or behave oddly if you have a mistake such as an incorrect egg file.

David

#3

First of all, thank you. I will try this, but I am not really firm with blender.

Oh, that should not happens ! I tried it out at different computers. Perhaps something wrong with the account data, Please try it only with the button Login world without any other entry ( that shall use the testuser data). I have this problem with the direct GUI that the entries only set the values after hit the enter key.
I try to use wxPython, but that will not work with the webbrowser plugin, so I will wait for enable pyGTK in the packager.
Again, thank you, and I hope, that someone solved this avatar problem before, I am not sure that I can solve it.
Bye
Jürgen

#4

like drwr said, you have to convert all your animations. if you can manage to import them into blender that should do the trick. once you have your model and animations imported check this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz9lfHk2dPg