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adding converted meshes to the commit

Discussion in 'Unity Collaborate' started by laurentlavigne, Dec 13, 2016.

  1. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    Some team members do not have maya, without maya when they sync with the colab repo they get empty meshes.
    it would be good to commit the converted meshes, as an option
     
    laurentlavigne, Dec 13, 2016
    #1

  2. Gurg

    Gurg

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    I am sorry you are running into issues between Maya, Unity, and Collaborate. I can look into this, but in the meantime, can you tell me how you are saving your Maya meshes, as in what file type/extension are you using?
     
    Gurg, Dec 20, 2016
    #2

  3. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    They are saved as .ma files
     
    laurentlavigne, Dec 20, 2016
    #3

  4. Gurg

    Gurg

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    So this isn't a problem with Collaborate specifically although it exposes the problem. See the section titled "Requirements" under "Importing Objects From Maya".

    https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/HOWTO-ImportObjectMaya.html

    Using the .mb or .ma save files only works if you have Maya installed, as you said. However, if you export the meshes as FBX files and use those in Unity instead, then those who do not have Maya installed can also see the meshes. I hope this helps.
     
    Gurg, Dec 20, 2016
    #4

  5. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    Seems counterproductive for collab to force a change in workflow. When importing an ma file unity uses maya to convert that file to an fbx, it's transparent and the file is stored in the libraries folder (I think). So could you commit that fbx so we don't have to change our or force our non Maya users to install the PE version of maya.
     
    laurentlavigne, Dec 21, 2016
    #5

  6. Gurg

    Gurg

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    I will admit I am going completely off the documentation on this as I don't have a copy of Maya right now to test this with, so I'm going to trust that you are right on how Unity deals with the FBX files, but there's something I don't understand yet.

    Instead of doing a direct Maya to Unity export, couldn't you just export the FBX files to storage without specifying sending them to Unity, and then just importing them as a second step to Unity afterwards? https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/HOWTO-exportFBX.html Wouldn't this let you dictate that the FBX files get saved to the Assets folder instead of the Library, kept synced with Collab and no need for collaborators to have Maya to see the meshes from the exported FBX files? I'll admit this turns a 1-step export/import process into a 2-step, but wouldn't this work?
     
    Gurg, Dec 22, 2016
    #6

  7. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    I've spoken with Thomas from the DCC team about this.
    It's true export to fbx is a workaround in Maya but it has a few problems:
    1. Maya 2013, which I use has a bug in the plugin activation where sometimes a plugin switches off, fbx is one of those plugins
    2. 100% of the time time double clicking an fbx opens maya but maya is "unable to recognize the file type", that's another bug and so I have to open it by hand
    3. (if these two reasons are not enough) an .ma file contains settings which fbx discard such as IK rig, constraints, expressions, mel scripts, modeling and deformer history, and character sets - they all get baked on export to fbx. Would I want to work off a baked scene? No I don't like pain. These are too important to discard and so I would have to load up the scene every time instead of double clicking on the asset, then exporting to fbx, then I would wonder are we in the 90s?
     
    laurentlavigne, Dec 22, 2016
    #7

  8. Gurg

    Gurg

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    Hmmmm... that is a problem. I actually just spent the morning talking about your use case internally. We do want to support this use case, but we also don't want to touch the Library files as that's a folder that is supposed to hold files you don't want to pass around like compiler scripts, hence why Collab just focuses on the Assets folder.

    Do you mind if I ask you what your team's workflow was like before using Collab? If you have details you would rather not post in the open, feel free to PM me with them. We want to make sure we aren't impeding established workflows.
     
    Gurg, Dec 22, 2016
    #8

  9. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    We used the Asset Server which didn't need Maya to update a project's asset.
     
    laurentlavigne, Dec 23, 2016
    #9

  10. Gurg

    Gurg

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    Alright, I am going to see what I can do about playing around with Asset Server in this use case after the holidays to see what it does and what can we do to port that logic to Collab.
     
    Gurg, Dec 23, 2016
    #10