Simple path animation?

[felixu]

Hello,
I am just testing the 4 Wheeler extended and unfortunately cannot get it to work. What we wanna do is to animate the car along a given path. I did anything as described in the docs, rigging the chassis and wheels, but the result is poor:

• To avoid the impression that the car is torn by a rope I initially placed it alsmost at the same position as the WheelerExt_01_TargetMeshTransform node and set the "follow" settings (under autonomous..) to very strong/tight values. As a result the car is hobbling around in a stange way.
• The wheels do not turn
• The car somehow banks when driving to the left or right, but not just the chassis but the wohle car - the wheels included, thus penetrating the floor. Is a supension-like behaviour possible without having a real suspension geometry rigged?

Why isnt there a simple(r) way to let a car drive along a path? Or am I just not seeing the ovious?

Thank you
Felix

[Carl Buhre]

Hello,
I am just testing the 4 Wheeler extended and unfortunately cannot get it to work. What we wanna do is to animate the car along a given path. I did anything as described in the docs, rigging the chassis and wheels, but the result is poor:

• To avoid the impression that the car is torn by a rope I initially placed it alsmost at the same position as the WheelerExt_01_TargetMeshTransform node and set the "follow" settings (under autonomous..) to very strong/tight values. As a result the car is hobbling around in a stange way.
• The wheels do not turn
• The car somehow banks when driving to the left or right, but not just the chassis but the wohle car - the wheels included, thus penetrating the floor. Is a supension-like behaviour possible without having a real suspension geometry rigged?

Why isnt there a simple(r) way to let a car drive along a path? Or am I just not seeing the ovious?

Thank you
Felix

Hello Felix,

First of all I would recommend loading one of the configuration profiles for Autonomous mode. For example the "Autonomous mode - Tight" profile. You shouldn't use a "Autonomous mode follow strength" value higher than "1". Values above "2" will cause very 'janky' movement.

The wheels do not turn? Are you using an old scene with a newer version of Craft Director Studio?

And for the wheels penetrating the floor, are you using a very big/small scale? The accuracy of Craft 4-Wheeler Extended decreases with the amount of digits it has to use. That is, for example that instead of using "0.001 cm" it has to use "0.00000001" if you're working in KM scale. The more digits, the less digits are available for decimals, thus decreasing the accuracy that sometimes can result in jumpy behavior or that the wheels go through the ground.

Do you think you could send us your scene so we could take a look at it? It would be easier to determine the error that way. Strip it of any sensitive assets and send it to support@craftanimations.com.

[felixu]

Hi Carl,
did you get my Email? My Evaluation license only runs till Wednsday and we need to judge if the Software suits our needs.

Cheers
Felix

[Carl Buhre]

Hi Carl,
did you get my Email? My Evaluation license only runs till Wednsday and we need to judge if the Software suits our needs.

Cheers
Felix

I've taken a look at it Felix but I couldn't tell right away what was wrong with the scene. It's behaving oddly because of the Z-up thing, it's like it sometimes forgets that the scene is using Z-up and that causes it to flip out. I'll hopefully have more information tomorrow.

Send me your HardwareID (found in the License Manager of CDS) via e-mail and I'll extend your trial period.

[Carl Buhre]

Hi Carl,
did you get my Email? My Evaluation license only runs till Wednsday and we need to judge if the Software suits our needs.

Cheers
Felix

I've taken a look at it Felix but I couldn't tell right away what was wrong with the scene. It's behaving oddly because of the Z-up thing, it's like it sometimes forgets that the scene is using Z-up and that causes it to flip out. I'll hopefully have more information tomorrow.

What's causing the odd behavior is that you're using a lot of different objects as ground, in combination with "Use Fast Ray Cast". If you load the profile for Autonomous Mode - Tight and then in the "Ray Cast Parameters" group, disable "Use Fast Ray Cast", you'll be able to record without the car flipping out.