Blender to Unity: Object shifting positions - blender

I have a model that I created in Blender. I then created a bow and arrow and then parented it to the hand bone of the model so that it moves with the hand. When I use the .blend file in Unity, however,the bow and arrow shifts to some other position away from where it is supposed to be. I'm not entirely sure how Unity and Blender's co-ordinate systems differ so it might be that but I haven't really had this problem with other models before. Any help would be appreciated.
Edit: Ok, so I've figured out what the problem is but I have no idea how to fix it (apologies for my poor modelling practices in advance because i'm fairly new to this)
This is my model in pose position:
This is my model in rest position:
I connected the bow to the skeleton by clicking on the bow rig > shift clicking on the hand bone > CNTRL+P > to bone. This works fine as the bow now moves with the skeleton and I can do whatever I need in the NLA editor.
Now, the issue is, when I use the .blend file in Unity, the bow is in the rest position of my model even though the skeleton is in pose position and performing the actions (so the bow is floating on the side).
I've tried connecting it differently. If I connect the bow instead of the bow rig to the model, then it is in the correct position in unity but then the bow rig detaches and so the bow animations don't play.
I've also thought the problem would be solved if I make the the current pose position my rest position but when I do that, the mesh reverts to the old rest position and moves very weirdly with the skeleton. Here is that pic:
I would really, really appreciated any help with this as it's been hindering my progress for the past few days.

This method describes saving the hierarchical assignment of a handheld object until after the character and animations are exported to unity. The weapon is imported separately in Unity and then assigned as a child to the relevant bone at that time.
Assigning a handheld object to a blender generated character.

Related

Hide an object for a specific camera

I use godot to create my 3d game. I ran into a problem while creating portals using camera viewport rendering to texture. The problem is that the camera captures unnecessary objects that are behind portal. I partially solved this problem by setting the parameter "near " for the camera at a distance from the camera itself to the portal, but the part behind the portal began to be cut off.
The question is, is it possible to hide objects for a particular camera so that other cameras can see them? Perhaps there is another way to do this, for example by creating a static clipping plane?
Proximity Fade
Probably not what you are looking for, but I'll mention it for completeness sake.
The default material has proximity fade and distance fade, which you can use to make the material disappear if it is too close or to distant from the camera, respectively.
It is important to note that this is not a cull plane, and that the fading is gradual.
Thus, using proximity fade you can make objects near the camera appear semitransparent.
Using Visibility layers and cull mask
is it possible to hide objects for a particular camera so that other cameras can see them?
Every VisualInstance (you know, all things that are visible in 3D) has layers. And every Camera has a cull_mask. If the cull_mask of the Camera does not include any of the layers of a VisualInstance, then the Camera does not see that VisualInstance.
A VisualInstance with no layers will not show on no Camera, even if the Camera has all the layers in its cull_mask (which is the default).
You can either edit the cull_mask of the camera to not include the layers of the VisualInstance, or edit the layers of the VisualInstance, or both.
Using a custom shader cull plane
Perhaps there is another way to do this, for example by creating a static clipping plane?
You can use a custom spatial shader to cut things out based on a plane.
You need to define the plane as a uniforms. For this answer I'll use a point-normal definition of a plane:
n·(r - r_0)
That is:
dot(plane_normal, (world_position - plane_point)
Thus, we define a plane_normal and plane_point uniforms:
uniform vec3 plane_normal;
uniform vec3 plane_point;
The plane_normal gives us the orientation of the plane, while the plane_point is a point on the plane which allows us to position it.
And then use this logic:
vec3 wold_position = (CAMERA_MATRIX * vec4(VERTEX, 1.0)).xyz;
ALPHA = clamp(sign(dot(plane_normal, wold_position - plane_point)), 0.0, 1.0);
Here we are converting the coordinates of the current point to world space, and then using definition of the plane to find the points on one side (using sign), and set ALPHA based on that, such that everything on one side of the plane becomes invisible.
Note: This is not the only way to define the plane. Another popular definition is a 4D vector, where the xyz are the normal, and the w is the distance from plane to the origin.
Sadly, I don't think there is a way to make this work with multiple material passes, because ALPHA controls the blending of the passes, and will not result in transparency. And no, using discard; does not solve it either, because the other passes can write the fragment regardless. Thus, you are going to need to modify your materials to include that.
Further Sadly Godot 3.x does not support global uniforms (see Godot 4.0 gets global and per-instance shader uniforms). Which means you will have to set these parameter everywhere you need them.
Using Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG)
Add a CSGCombiner make the geometry that needs to disappear with other CSG nodes as children.
Then you can, for example, add a CSGSphere with operation set to "Subtraction", and move it with the Camera (for this purpose, I suggest to add a RemoteTransform node as child to the Camera and set its remote path to the CSGSphere).
Of course, it does not have to be a CSGSphere, you can use any CSG nodes for this purpose. For the portal, I imagine you could use a CSGBox and align it to the portal plane.
Note: Currently on Godot 3.3 CSG nodes do not support baking lights. This is a regression. See: Unable to bake lightmap with CSG due to the lack of ability to generate UV2 for CSG nodes.
Portals, actually
Bartleby Lawnjelly has a portal (godot-lportal) module for Godot 3.x.
Being a module, they require to build Godot from source. See Compiling on the official Godot documentation. It is not that bad, I promise. Or use build from godot-titan.
I have to explain that these portals are not portals in the Valve Portal video game series sense… The module lets you define areas as "rooms", and planes as "portals" that connect those rooms, in such way that you can look from one to the other. The purpose of this is to cull entire rooms unless you are looking through one of the portals.
Hopefully that makes more sense with a video. This is a somewhat old one, but good to get the idea across: Portal rendering module in Godot 3.2 - Improved performance. Seeing shadow pooping in the video? Bartleby Lawnjelly also has a custom lightmapper.

Project a box from world to image plane

I have a calibrated camera with extrinsincs and intrinsics parameters such that I can project a visible point in the world back to the image.
But I need to be able to deal with points that are also outside of what the camera can see.
how can I know if a point is visible by the camera? That would solve the issue when dealing with only one point.
how can I project a possibly only partially visible 3d box (8 points) back to the image?
My knowledge is limited and I cannot use a 3rd party framework to this end, rather need to implement it in python/C.

Unreal Engine 4 minimum distance of camera from object

I placed a standard Camera in front of a moving Actor. When I set the current view to this camera I noticed a strange behaviour: If the actor get really close to another object on the scenario (a default cube) it disappear from the view. It looks like the camera is getting into the cube. I'm pretty sure the camera is not colliding with the cube because the actor has a couple of bumpers that prevent the side where the camera is placed to collide with other objects and the whole camera mesh is placed fully 'inside' the actor. The problem maybe is related with the size of the actor that's about 40cm x 30cm x 10cm. The observed cube is 1mt x 1mt x 1mt, the minimum distance of camera from cube is around 3 cm.
Sounds to me like you're experiencing an issue with an object passing your camera's "clipping plane." In the 3D world, this is simply just draw distance minimum and maximum values. For more information on what you are experiencing, check out this brilliant explanation by Autodesk: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2018/ENU/Maya-Rendering/files/GUID-D69C23DA-ECFB-4D95-82F5-81118ED41C95-htm.html
Now, let's fix the issue! In Unreal Engine, it's super easy. Go into your Project Settings/General Settings. There is a value called Near Clip Plane, which simply changes the minimum clipping value for Camera components. I would bet making this value smaller will fix your issue! For a visual representation, check out this tutorial by Kyle Dail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO79qxNnOfU

In OpenGL ES 2.0, how can I draw a wireframe of triangles except for the lines on adjacent coplanar faces?

I vaguely remember seeing something in OpenGL (not ES, which was still at v1.0 on the iPhone when I came across this, which is why I never used it) that let me specify which edges of my polygons were considered outlines vs those that made up the interior of faces. As such, this isn't the same as the outline of the entire model (which I know how to do), but rather the outline of a planar face with all its tris basically blended into one poly. For instance, in a cube made up of tri's, each face is actually two tris. I want to render the outline of the square, but not the diagonal across the face. Same thing with a hexagon. That takes four tris, but just one outline for the face.
Now yes, I know I can simply test all the edges to see if they share coplanar faces, but I could have sworn I remember seeing somewhere when you're defining the tri mesh data where you could say 'this line outlines a face whereas this one is inside a face.' That way when rendering, you could set a flag that basically says 'Give me a wireframe, but only the wires around the edges of complete faces, not around the tris that make them up.'
BTW, my target is all platforms that support OpenGL ES 2.0 but my dev platform is iOS. Again, this Im pretty sure was originally in OpenGL and may have been depreciated once shaders came on the scene, but I can't even find a reference to this feature to check if that's the case.
The only way I know now is to have one set of vertices, but two separate sets of indices... one for rendering tris, and another for rendering the wireframes of the faces. It's a real pain since I end up hand-coding a lot of this, which again, I'm 99% sure you can define when rendering the lines.
GL_QUADS, glEdgeFlag and glPolygonMode are not supported in OpenGL ES.
You could use LINES to draw the wireframe: To get hidden lines, first draw black filled triangles (with DEPTH on) and then draw the edges you are interested in with GL_LINES.

Is it possible to animate markers in ArcMap?

I'm completely new to ArcGIS and ArcMap, but someone suggested this program to me for a project I'm working on.
I would like to animate individual entities on a map, and was wondering if it is possible to do so in ArcMap. I asked this earlier here and a member directed me to a tutorial on animating in ArcGIS. The animation in the guide was over a map spread (ie. each pixel on the map displays, say, a different color to indicate population data in the area). However I realized that if I zoom in a lot, eventually the image will degenerate into pixels, which is why I need an actual object to mark a certain point. I checked some online tutorials and it seems like we can place markers on the map. Can someone tell me if it is possible to animate these markers (for example via a for-loop)? And if so, could you point me in a direction where to start?
Thanks in advance!
You can animate layers in ArcMap is the short answer. Its not as simple as using the timeline feature in Google Earth for example though. But then ArcMap is much more than just a visualization tool.
This help page on the ESRI web help looks like a good place to start.
I'm not 100% sure what you mean by the image degenerates into pixels. Are you saying that the markers were single points in the layer. Unlike Google Earth you are not confined to simply plotting points on the map. You can draw completely arbitrary shapes in ArcMap, which can be defined to cover actual areas of the map, so when you zoom-in the shape gets larger.
The way you need to load data into ArcMap to produce an animation isn't too simple. There might be other ways to do this, but the way I know of is to generate a NetCDF file. This file contains a 3D matrix of layer data, where each layer is separated through time. Because you generate a matrix, you are effectively placing a raster image over the map. Thus if you want to cover a large area, each matrix becomes large, and you multiply that by the number of time slices you wish to animate over.
Once you have a NetCDF file with your data in however, getting ArcMap to animate it and produce say a .avi file is pretty simple.
You could try just loading some of the example NetCDF datasets into ArcMap to see how/if they will work to get you started.
Hope that helps.
The upcoming v10 will have better time-aware capabilities, which will allow for animation.