[Rigging & Exporting] How To Hide Bones From Exporter [RESOLVED]

[Wobbly]

Heya, new to the tool and looking for some advice.

I've been working on a weapon and I want to export it to source, but I've come across what may be a problem on animating the view-model. When I export the animation and look over the .SMD generated, I see that it is including bones I have hidden and would not like to be seen while continuing to work on the weapon.

Some background: I made an IK rig for Garry's Mod's "citizen hands c-model" to make animating the weapon's client view much easier. I created several helper bones in order to not override any original bones, I renamed them, I added them to a seperate armature/bone layer, I parented them to the original skeleton structure, and I finally hid the IK rig's layers when exporting the animation; however, in the .SMD I still see lines such as " 3 "IK_Hand_R" -1 ".

I want to keep my bone count low and also clean any unnecessary clutter, so it would be helpful to know if it's impossible to completely mask these bones from the .SMD, if I need to restructure my armature, or if it's possible through some general settings - or if I'm just jumping the gun and this is something simple I can fix in the .qc.

[xdshot]

List all needed bones in .qc using $definebone's. Those which aren't listed won't be included in compiled model.

[Wobbly]

Originally posted by xDShot™:

List all needed bones in .qc using $definebone's. Those which aren't listed won't be included in compiled model.

Excellent. Thanks for the speedy response.

[Artfunkel]

You can also uncheck the bone's Deform property, which will prevent them from being exported in the first place.

[Wobbly]

Originally posted by Artfunkel:

You can also uncheck the bone's Deform property, which will prevent them from being exported in the first place.

Sadly, that simply doesn't work. I've tried it with a couple of different rigs, but as far the .SMD's configuration, the bone is still exported (and animated).

Edit: Just noticed you're an officer and may be able to help.

http://imgur.com/ms8HQiF Here you can see that I have deform unselected.

https://github.com/WobblyRunner/Citizen-Hands-IK/blob/master/rig_v_model_ikAction.smd#L11 Example of the .SMD file with "deform" radio box unchecked, but still generating IK_Shoulder_R bones. (Line 11, Line 80, Line 147, etc)

Is it possible that the bone-parent method I am using causes this? Should I instead use bone constraints? However, the IK Hands are also affected and I am using only bone constraints for them.

[Artfunkel]

It's a bug in the exporter. I've got a fix already and will wrap it up with a few other changes I have half-completed this weekend, hopefully.

[Wobbly]

Originally posted by Artfunkel:

It's a bug in the exporter. I've got a fix already and will wrap it up with a few other changes I have half-completed this weekend, hopefully.

That sounds great. Is this[github.com] the git you and your contributors have set up? I'd love to contribute what I can to the project and make a branch.

[Artfunkel]

Nope, this is the repo[github.com]. You don't need my permission to branch, but you may want to ask if I'd take a feature before spending too much time on it!

[Artfunkel]

I just pushed the fix to the repo, let me know if it works for you.

[Wobbly]

Seems to be working as it was intended. Thanks for the quick update.