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Import/Export Paradox mesh tool

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Hello

I've been downloading the addon for Maya and it has no problem loading a mesh, however I always get an error when trying to load the .anim file

EPRawjg.png


I made sure when adding the mesh to import the skeleton aswell by checking the box. What am I missing ?
 
ross-g said:
The error is quite literal - meaning the animation you're importing is looking for bones which don't exist.

You've not mentioned which mesh, animation or even which PDX game you're trying to import from ... so I can't really help any further. Other than to say the error is a legitimate one.
Click to expand...
Thanks for replying

I'm actually trying to make some EU4 models and want to meddle with animations aswell. The file I'm using is the western generic type 1 mesh, as I said I made sure to import the skeleton by selecting the option before importing the mesh
 
I was trying to import western_01_type5_special_idle.anim

I attemped to import it on the western type5 mesh, to no avail, I just had the model change its position/stance but the animation didn't load and the same error showed up
 
Varegue said:
I was trying to import western_01_type5_special_idle.anim

I attemped to import it on the western type5 mesh, to no avail, I just had the model change its position/stance but the animation didn't load and the same error showed up
Click to expand...
Thanks. I get the same problem. Seems like the problem is genuine so I guess EU4 must just ignore it and load the animation anyway (on bones which do exist). I'll change my tool for the next release so this is just a warning and the working bits of the animation will still import correctly.


Red-Eyed_Fairace said:
Hello, what does error "u4" mean when trying to export?
Click to expand...
Not really sure how to answer on being given so little info, sorry ...
  • where did you see the error (game engine/modelling software)?
  • what software are you using (maya/blender)?
  • what are you trying to export (model/animation)?
  • is this your own content or are you modifying PDX assets?
  • can you show a screenshot or copy of the console log so I can see the actual error?
 
Last edited:
ross-g said:
Not really sure how to answer on being given so little info, sorry ...
  • where did you see the error (game engine/modelling software)?
  • what software are you using (maya/blender)?
  • what are you trying to export (model/animation)?
  • is this your own content or are you modifying PDX assets?
  • can you show a screenshot or copy of the console log so I can see the actual error?
Click to expand...
  • where did you see the error (game engine/modelling software)?
    -Exporting a previously working model (tested on Maya 2016 official exporter)
  • what software are you using (maya/blender)?
    -Maya 2018
  • what are you trying to export (model/animation)?
    -No animations, just the ship to stellaris, the Rodger Young with the updated UV map for decent textures
  • is this your own content or are you modifying PDX assets?
    -A sketchup model that I previously converted, I siwtched to maya 2018 from 2016 and use your exporter because the official ones are bugged (you know, the problem you posted on the other forum page)
  • can you show a screenshot or copy of the console log so I can see the actual error?
    -I cant, the only change I made before was the UV, projecting them to allow proper textures to be applied instead making the ship look like pastic models ingame stellaris, when I tried to export it, it gives me that error "u4". I decided to just download the sketchup model again then redo it from scratch applying the same UV projection fix that I did. But this time, it works.
 
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@Red-Eyed_Fairace That's great, thanks for the extra info. Makes it so much easier!

So the problem is UV related, the exporter only supports writing out 4 UV channels (u0, u1, u2, u3) as AFAIK I've only ever seen PDX meshes using that number. But I'm not actually checking at any point that the mesh to be exported doesn't have 5 or more UVs. Seems like you might have hit that situation where its stored a "u4" channel for the mesh data and then the file writer fails because it doesn't know what that is.

I'll fix this, thanks for bringing it up. :)
 
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Hi, I get an error. When entering a command in Maya 2020.
import io_pdx_mesh;reload(io_pdx_mesh)
# Error: UnicodeDecodeError: file C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2020\bin\python27.zip\ntpath.py line 85: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc4 in position 22: ordinal not in range(128) #

Sorry for my bad English.
 
If it doesn't work and gives "Struct() argument 1 must be string, not unicode." error, go to pdx_data.py and delete this line: "from __future__ import print_function, unicode_literals" then restart maya. It worked for me this way.
 
I'm having trouble getting the import/export to work in Blender. Running Blender 2.92 and io_pdx_mesh 0.8, I can import CK3 clothing meshes and view them but when I hit Save mesh to export it, it doesn't work in game.

If I import a mesh then export it without making any changes, it either fails to display in game or displays with weird visual errors (spiky vertices all over the place). How do I fix this? I'm just using the default import/export settings - do I need to change them?
 
ck3_model_bug.png
Here I just imported female_clothes_secular_fp1_common_01.mesh into blender (settings: import mesh, join materials, import skeleton, import locators) then immediately clicked save mesh (settings: export mesh, export skeleton, export locators). If I click "split all vertices" on the export, it looks even more spiky and messed up.

If I follow the same steps for a different file, female_clothing_secular_indian_nobility_01.mesh, for example, the model doesn't load at all and the character shows up naked. The vast majority of the clothing meshes I've tried importing/exporting end up disappearing rather than showing up spiky.

Even though they are messed up inside CK3, I can re-import the meshes and they look fine in Blender.

The blender log doesn't display any errors - it shows "finished importing" and "finished exporting" from io_pdx_mesh.

I have a few mods enabled but I don't think they should be interfering with this considering everything displays fine before the export. I can take more screenshots but I don't know what info would be helpful. I wish I could compare the files before/after. I'm curious to know how the file is changed by the export.
 
Hey Ross-g any reason why the tool would crash maya 2019.1 to desktop once I run the 'import io_pdx_mesh;reload(io_pdx_mesh)' command in phython in maya as instructed in the installation steps?
I have the pdx_exporter plugin working fine in maya (I also had this plugin working on my old pc so I do know it worked in november-december with this same software setup) and I installed the io_pdx_mesh folder into my documents/maya/scripts folder as instructed.... it just CTDS Maya anytime I try and launch the python command :/
any major steps or issues I might have overlooked which could cause this?

​

 
the_marmalade said:
but I don't know what info would be helpful. I wish I could compare the files before/after. I'm curious to know how the file is changed by the export.
Click to expand...
If you're able to attach the before/after files (either here or open a Github issue) I can compare them to see what differences appear. It might be useful to also include the rest of your mod setup, as the .asset file is quite important and used to setup everything from shaders to blendshapes. If you're not doing anything more complex than basically replacing the vanilla .mesh file then I suspect this is a blendshape problem (tldr - blendshapes are used to morph meshes into different shapes for gaunt/fat/muscular bodies etc). If you're changing the base clothing then it likely invalidates the vanilla blendshapes. There is a larger blendshape problem in general that I'm trying to solve, but it's difficult without a clear specification of the format from PDX.


olupien said:
any reason why the tool would crash maya 2019.1 to desktop
Click to expand...
None that I can think of! A hard crash is certainly unusal. I am able to run the tool fine in Maya 2019.2.
Before running the startup command, can you open the script editor first (button with a (;) logo in the corner) and then run the command to watch the output?
eg
View attachment 727023
 
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