So I’ve implemented dynamically loaded md5s, Hellknight loads up just fine, no problems with either mesh or anims…

BUT

once I start loading my own md5s, the mesh loads and displays just fine, but on the anim loading, I have a bucketful of problems.
I compared hellknight’s anims with my own and in the Notepad they have the same structure and everything, one difference is however if I look at it in HEX mode, Hellknight uses 0As for line feeds but my file uses 0D0As. I replaced them with a tool, but still a no-go.
The runtime problems at loader3d.loadData time vary from misinterpreting an obvious String for an Object (ParseUtils.as) through to a comma being added to the beginning of the String object somewhere along the line right to number of frames being misinterpreted.

While I could circumvent some of this by tinkering with Away code, the weird part is, Hellknight’s anims didn’t have a single problem. Still, my anim files look EXACTLY as those from the example.

So the question is: Is there a specific way .md5anim needs to be created, saved or “pre-processed” in order to load successfully ? I’m using the der-ton’s md5 exporter for 3ds max, my max version is 2009 Design.

Do your animations play in Prefab?

Yes, Prefab doesn’t complain about them.

OK I have an update on the situation.

As it turned out, after re-exporting md5anim from Max, both Prefab and Away3d play it without any complaints code-wise. So that’s one problem gone.

However the inclusion of anim now makes the mesh distorted. This is not the case when I inspect the model with Modelviewer from der-ton.

I have included a screenshot.

Looks like a joint index issue. I’ve seen this problem on some Collada’s too.

So… eh… do you by any chance know why it’s only happening in Away3D and Prefab and not in the actual Modelviewer ?

Further info:

I downloaded the latest dev git branch and obviously overwrote the away3d folder - the old bugs came back. So I investigated into why and I identified 2 things that seem to make all the difference.

1, ParserUtils.as

public static function toString(data : *, length : uint = 0) : String {
  var ba : ByteArray;
 
  length ||= uint.MAX_VALUE;
 
  if (data is String) {
                        return String(data).substr(0, length);
  }
            ......
}
Doesn’t work. For some reason, at this point a comma gets inserted at position 0, so the next operations don’t see the keywords properly and the whole thing crashes with Unknown Keyword error.
So I use this instead to make it work: return String(data).substr(0, length).replace(”,MD”,“MD”);

2, asset loading

During md5anim file loading using LoaderMax, I found even if I load the file as plain text, I need to parse it into my anim array as a String, otherwise the above function will return null instead of actual data and obviously crash parsing. So I use this:

public function onMd5AnimLoaderComplete(e:LoaderEvent):void {
  md5anim_data[anim_name] = String(LoaderMax.getContent(e.target.name));
  }

Doesn’t matter which md5anim file I use, newly produced or the old batch, these problems prevent it from successful loading.
Looking at these weird errors I wonder if away3d has been developed on Macs or something with different filesystem and maybe not finetuned for Windows platform, I don’t know. I don’t see a logical explanation why this keeps happening to me.
What bugs me the most is that the .md5mesh is parsed with 0 problems and it’s a plain text file as well. I don’t need to do any fiddling with code to make that work. My bet is that there are some hidden bugs in the md5anim parser.

My bet is that there are some hidden bugs in the md5anim parser.
That’s possible, please fill a bug report + files to reproduce.

I wonder if away3d has been developed on Macs…
The majority of us are on macs, but David who wrote the md5parser is pc based.

Thanks Fabrice, I’ve asked David for some insight first, as I don’t really want to raise an alarm over my possible lameness.

As to the joint index issue, I solved it - in Skin Modifier I forgot to add clavicles as bones and therefore the resulting .md5mesh was generated with 3 root joints instead of 1.
Now all is fine, the mesh animates great in all apps. Thanks for your advice!

I’m wondering if there is anything comprehensive and definitive written about exporting MD5s for Away3D.

With all this tinkering around, I’ve got a pretty big picture now that I might put into some advice sheet or something, if you guys are willing to hang it up somewhere here.

Maybe an editable post in a sticky thread or something that people could find all the relevant info in. Might save people a lot of time googling stuff.

Just an idea.