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New Features

These are the new features and improvements that have been incorporated into the Crosswalk toolset since the last Crosswalk documentation update. For more details on fixes and changes, see the Crosswalk wiki.

Crosswalk for Softimage

dotXSI Import and Export

Crosswalk now plot action sources along with the current animation in the timeline. The Animation Plotting and Animation Resampling options also apply to action sources.

Animation plotting for action sources currently only supports static values and function curves. Shapes and other types of animation sources are not supported.

Animation Plotting

You can choose to plot all animation. When you plot an animation it is evaluated frame by frame and function curves are created. Plotting creates one key per frame of animation. The plotted animation is applied directly to the object.

Animation plotting is performed when you explicitly select the Plot All Animation checkbox, but plotting is also performed automatically or “under-the-hood” in cases where objects are driven by constraints and expressions or when IK animation is automatically plotted to FK (if Preserve IK Chains is off). Plotting is always done in these situations regardless of the Plot All Animation setting and it will use the Animation Resampling options when generating the function curve data.

The general rules for animation plotting are as follows:

1. When Plot All Animation is on:

• Animated parameters are plotted.

• Animation in action sources are plotted and stored again with their respective action source. When the animation in action sources are plotted, the contribution of the mixer tracks and the associated action clips are not taken into account. The plotting timeline range for action sources is defined by the action source’s own internal start and end frame.

• Constraints, expressions, and custom operators are transformed into plotted animation.

• IK chains are preserved, if the option to Preserve IK Chains is on, but their animated parameters are plotted. Otherwise IK chains are transformed into nulls with the plotted animation.

2. When Plot All Animation is off:

• Animation function curves are preserved.

• Constraints, expressions, and custom operators are transformed into plotted animation.

• When animation items such as constraints, expressions, and custom operators are stored in action sources, they are not plotted automatically. Plotting these types of animation items in action sources can be time-consuming so the Plot Non-FCurve Action Sources option is off by default when the Plot All Animation option is off.

• IK chains are preserved, if the option to Preserve IK Chains is on, and the IK animation is exported. Otherwise IK chains are transformed into nulls, and the IK animation is plotted to FK.

Timeline Animation Plotting Range

Sets the time span (from start to end frame with a frame step) for the animation plotting. The Start, End and Step options only apply to timeline animation or, that is, to animation in the scene (and not in the mixer). Therefore, these options have no effect on the plotting of action sources. The plotting range for action sources is defined by the action source’s own internal start and end frame.

COLLADA Import and Export

The camera aspect ratio is now exported and imported in the COLLADA file format. It corresponds to the element <aspect_ratio>:

<camera id="cameras_0">
       <optics>
          <technique_common>
              <perspective>
                 <xfov>53.638000</xfov>
                 <aspect_ratio>1.333333</aspect_ratio>
                 <znear>0.100000</znear>
                 <zfar>32768.000000</zfar>
              </perspective>
          </technique_common>
       </optics>
       ...
</camera>

The spot light cone angle is now exported and imported in the COLLADA file format. It corresponds to the element <falloff_angle>:

<light id="lights_0">
   <technique_common>
       <spot>
          <color>1.000000 1.000000 1.000000</color>
          <falloff_angle>90.000000</falloff_angle>
       </spot>
   </technique_common>
</light>

FBX Import and Export

• Crosswalk for FBX is now also supported on Linux.

• Crosswalk for FBX is now XNA compatible.

• The user interface for both the FBX exporter and importer has been completely rebuilt. All the options that are still there work exactly as they did in the previous version.

Export Options

• The Scale Factor option was removed from the Export FBX dialog box. This option never worked.

• There is a new option for exporting the current selection. The corresponding FBX batch processing command is FBXExportSelection <bool>.

• The Resampling and Rate options were merged into a single option called FPS:

• There is a new option that ensures the proper tagging and export of any supported object that is being used as an envelope deformer. This option enables FBX to XNA compatibility. The corresponding FBX batch processing command is FBXExportDeformerAsSkeleton.

• At the end of the export process a custom property named ExportFBXOptions is added below the scene root. This property stores the FBX export options that you set and they are read back into the Export FBX Options dialog box when the scene is exported again.

For more information, see the Export FBX Options Dialog Box [Properties Reference].

Import Options

• The Add to new scene option was removed and replaced by the Add to scene option:

• The Scene Scaling > Factor option was removed from the Import FBX dialog box. This option never worked.

• The Resampling and Rate options were merged into a single option called FPS:

For more information, see the Import FBX Options Dialog Box [Properties Reference].

Autodesk Crosswalk v3.3  <   >