Cinema 4d model not coming into Unity with normals.

As the title says, my cinema4d model has a bunch of normal information on it, hard edges and soft edges. Or Break\Unbreak phong shading as C4d calls it.

But my model comes into Unity with every edge smoothed. How do I fix this?

I'm using c4d 11.5 on vista 64

 

the same problem here with 11.5 on XP.

 

After some asking around on other forums and places, it appears that C4d does not export edge break data with FBX. So there is no way to get an animated character, with proper normals, into Unity.


Which means, I'm going to Maya instead. As Unity is simply not compatible with C4D.

 

Have you tried using the free Riptide plugin and exporting from C4D to .obj then bring into Unity? http://skinprops.com/riptide.php

Instead of having to buy Maya. Then log a support ticket with Maxon telling them of the limitation.

 

I tried the plugin from that site that puts a normals tag on the object. But the FBX 2010.2 exporter still doesn't export the normals right with FBX, with the normals tag it exports all edges as broken.

And it has to be FBX because I'm trying to export a character with animation.

I did try .dae, and C4d does put proper normals on that.

 

The .dae format comes into unity with proper edge breaks from C4D.

Is there anyway to export the model as .dae and then export the animations as .fbx and plug the .fbx data into the .dae?

 

Well, I have been complaining many times about FBX file format
I have been replied that I am the only one in the world having these kind of issues

Unity3d has only happy clients , I was told :wink:

I think that Unity3d staff should admit sooner or later that it is a must to support also some other simple but reliable file format

You risk to spoil an excellent engine, otherwise

Personally I would not hesitate to upgrade to the Pro version but I will not do it until I am confident with the import / export module

 

Yes this seems like a hidden little secret, it is not mentioned on the Cinema4D support page anywhere that it is impossible to import a character with normal data and animation.

Even if the fault is on Maxons side, it should be noted.

 

Sorry for the thread necro but I didn't want to go off topic in the other thread (http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=40989&start=30).

As I did not encounter any severe problems regarding Phong yet I'm writing only after a short test:
As far as I know Cinema4D does NOT have specific smoothing groups in the models. You can however define the smoothing angle in the 'Phong' Tag. That one does not transfer over to Unity directly but you can define it to see how your model would look like in Engine.

You imported model can then be applied the same smoothing angle inside Unity. Just click on your model and let Unity recalculate your normals by the same amount as in Cinema (Tangent Space -> Calculate Normals). If you apply the smooth angle of Cinema's Phone tag your model should look identical.

 

C4D does support specific smoothing groups, but it is implemented through 'break/unbreak phong shading'

 

Another Way would be to render a small NormalMap in C4D with the correct PhongShading, but thats not that efficient.

But if anyway use a detailed NormalMapped Object, this problem doesn´t really matter so much.

 

its not fault of the FBX file format, it is fault of the currently crappy cinema 4d's FBX exporter

because a fbx file exported by the official autodesk plugins for maya or max, export without problems

in cinema 4d, the file format compatible with unity with the fewer flaws is collada, if you use the collada exporter in cinema 4d 11.5 , the normal smoothing/edge breaks export fine, animation seems to export fine BUT, mesh names doesnt..they end up with random numeric names

 

maybe we can find someone to write a proper fbx export plugin for c4d.

i would pay for it as its a neverending story to wait for maxon to get moving with this. dae took ages till it was implemented, now the same for fbx. unbearable

so, who's in for a proper funding and/or coding of the plugin?


cheers,
marco