Speed Readouts

[ddustin]

Is anyone aware of a script or applicaton that will allow for a realtime display of speed of an object in 2ds Max?
I know we can use the spline speed controller and watch the Current velocity of the Cariage Node as it moves through the scene, but typically the vehicles are lagging behind.

Ideally it would be linked to any object in the scene and give a speed value.

This doesn't need to be a free application, we'll buy one (assuming it is reasonable) if needed.
Thanks,
David

[ddustin]

I found Bobo'a SpeedoMeter v0.2 and it seems to work well.

David

[YMangolds]

One thing i've found to fix that is to compare the spline speed controller and the vehicle's scales then put values for their speed settings based on ratios for that. So a vehicle half the size of the spline speed needs to go twice as fast to keep up with it.

[Luigi Tramontana]

Correct.
More exactly you multiply the gas pedal max value to the scale (divided by 100) to get the actual maximum speed (in scene units per second). This is something we might change for future releases, but for now this is the only feasible method for the presets to work with all different kinds of scales, because for example many animators work in cm but use 1 cm as 1 meter (due to dynamics etc which work in cm by default). The 3D industry is not very standardized when it comes to units and true scale. For an engineer or for the advanced Craft-user this might be a bit annoying.
There is a speedometer in the configuration window of the 4WExt, but if you wish to keyframe the speed there is a hotfix coming up before christmas with such capabilities in which you can control a 1D rotator with a virtual input that the 4-wheeler will output. I will announce a beta version here as soon as it is available (hopefully in a couple of days).

Best,
Luigi TA

[Luigi Tramontana]

Ok, it was an easy fix, now it is included.
The below link is a 32-bit beta version of the upcoming hotfix release of 4wext.
Simply copy it into x:\program files (x86)\craft animations\director tools\plugins and overwrite the old dll (or move the old dll to another folder just in case).
After creating the car select the Factory Settings preset to make everything correct.
The enhancements are much improved skid braking, improved and more stable autonomous mode, camber angle, tire pressure, and virtual inputs for the velocity.
Now also with steering wheel.
http://www.craftanimations.com/files/BE ... tended.dll

[ddustin]

Luigi,
Is there a 64 bit version available?
We would like to test it as we have a very special gift for finding flaws and breaking things.

Thanks for all the fantastic feedback.

David

[Luigi Tramontana]

Hehe, I'll check with Micael tomorrow since he handles our 64-bit compiler. We are on a really tight schedule now before chrismas so perhaps he will not have the time. However, our hotfix release is due sometime around new year.

[Luigi Tramontana]

Ok, here you go.
The below link is a 64-bit beta version of the upcoming hotfix release of 4wext.
Simply copy it into x:\program files (x86)\craft animations\director tools\plugins64 and overwrite the old dll (or move the old dll to another folder just in case).
After creating the car select the Factory Settings preset to make everything correct.
The enhancements are much improved skid braking, improved and more stable autonomous mode, camber angle, tire pressure, and virtual inputs for the velocity.
Now also with steering wheel.
http://www.craftanimations.com/files/BE ... tended.dll


How to use the virtual input:
Create a 4wext.
Create a 1Drot.
Open its input settings and press the roll advanced button.
Choose Device to be 4wext, and choose Velocity (percent of max) as Control.
Set the deadzone to 0.0.
Optionally in the config you can increase the resp fact, roll the cage 90 degrees and increase the max to 3.14.
Optionally you could also move the cage in front of the front window and Link/parent it to the car, then look through the driverCam (and increase the steering noise to say 0.01). And of course model your favourite speedometer.

[ddustin]

We installed the 64 bit dll and cannot open previously created projects that use the 4wext.
We get an application error and the app crashes to the report screen.

The 32 bit version does the same.

Will we not be able to use previously created files with the new version (that would be bad)?

(we did mention we could break it... right?)

EDIT: Reinserting the original dll, and removing the craft 4wext from the scene, then saving as different file name, then placing the beta dll back in, allows me to open the previously created file.


David

[YMangolds]

this is the only feasible method for the presets to work with all different kinds of scales, because for example many animators work in cm but use 1 cm as 1 meter (due to dynamics etc which work in cm by default). The 3D industry is not very standardized when it comes to units and true scale.

That is a very good point. Even if you're very careful about scale units when dealing with cross-app scenerios it's very easy for it to turn into a nightmare or even a catastophy. We've had productions where we needed to change internal scale on a shot to shot basis, and our most common setting in Maya is to use 1 unit = 1 cm = 1 foot (which can be tricky). So I love the fact that CDT is flexible enough so that it isn't dependant on real-world units.

A solution that includes the best of both worlds and wouldn't be too tricky to impiment would be to add a feature that allows someone to match the scale's settings of one cdt element to another cdt elelement. For example, a typical workflow for creating background civilian traffic for us is to first create a spline speed controller and get it working at a comfortable speed. Then bring in a bunch of pre-rigged cars, trucks, etc and daisy-chain them to the spline speed controller. The new feature would allow us to first select the vehicle(s) then select the spline speed in the CDT GUI. hit a button, and it would add a multiplier to the gas setting of the vehicle(s) to make them relative to the last object selected (the spline-speed). An alternative would be to add a line at the top of the vehicles settings window that lets you choose which element to make it relative to. Another way (though it might depend on CDT heirachy being set up in specific ways and might not be ideal for very complex scenes) would be to make a CDT element's gas relative to it's parent in the CDT GUI (so if a bunch of vehicles were children of a spline speed controller in the CDT GUI thier gas would be relative to the Spline Speed).

Using any of these methods would keep CDT unit independant but allow vehicles of all shapes and sizes to travel at speeds consistant to eachother.

[ddustin]

We have just tested Bobo's DIMaster application.
Using the note function in the application you can link it to a dummy linked to the car body (you need the dummy or you get an error).
This way you can have a digital speed readout.
The app is free.
I still like the Luigi's solution when you would need an analog guage (which happens a lot), this just give a digital alternative.

David

[Luigi Tramontana]

We are looking into the crashes. It seems as if it has something to do with the latest maya adaptor. Meanwhile you may take this maya2008 32-bit adaptor and throw it into the maya plugins directory.
http://www.craftanimations.com/files/BE ... or2008.mll

About the scaling, we have a feature planned which is a spinner in the main dialog called "Creation Scale Multiplier" which multiplies a scale factor to all nodes created by a plugin on creation. This does not help ease the velocity settings but will at least enable you to work with eg cm or inch in maya having all cameras and vehicles being scaled down to that "world" scale.
We will also discuss Yuris' suggestions.

[ddustin]

Luigi,
I should have specified.
We are using Max 2009.

David