Ragdoll Woes

[Cryptite]

Can not even the gurus of max 6 figure out my problems? Someone out there has surely learned how to use ragdoll...?

[Alucard1703]

Have you seen this video tutorial? It might help you...
http://mtlstream02.discreet.com/streaming/ms/ragdoll_150k.wmv

[tomjelfs]

I think you'll find your problem lies in the fact that this character has no rigging done to it just a bunch of geomotry inside the mesh. You need to rig a biped/skeleton which ever you prefer before it'll do what you want it to.

Tom

[Cryptite]

Do the hinges I have on the droid not count as rigging it then?

Alucard1703: Ah, thats very nice! Do you have any idea where one can find that script there so they don't have to hand-do the ragdoll setup?

[Alucard1703]

They use the rctRagdollScript.ms script, it is inside your 3dsmax6/scripts folder, do you mean that script?

[Cryptite]

Yep, thats it! Thanks alucard.. Now I got everything up and running and i'm able to do the fun things like in the preview in that video tutorial. However, when i go to solve the reactor dynamics w/ the ragdoll on the biped, things become funky. I realize the problem but i don't know how to fix it. Bip01 is what the whole biped is linked to and thus, if you move it the whole 'ped moves. However, Bip01 is not figured in the constraint systems and thus the ragdoll falls (pivoting) around the static Bip01 thing. Looks rather odd. My new question, then, is how do you figure in the Bip01 control/thing with the constraints to follow through with the falling ragdoll...? You guys get what i'm saying?

[Cryptite]

Ok, well I tried adding Bip01 to the ragdoll system and giving it weight but that didn't do what I needed done and you guys can imagine only what happened... Anyone got any ideas how to alleviate my aforementioned problem?

[Cryptite]

*bump*... No ideas guys?:blush:

[Steve Green]

I may be totally wrong, and I only really looked at the demo features, but from what I could gather you had to rig two characters and swap them over, using visibility keys rather than having one character using biped (or bones) and ragdoll (which is pretty limiting if true)

I believe the script used there is just to ragdoll up a biped because its convenient, and doesn't mean it will take the existing animation into account.

It may be worth you posting this question on the official Max forum at discreet.com, someone who's used it might be able to point you in the right direction.

Cheers

Steve

[ciscocd1]

Here's the Biped/Ragdoll Fix that worked from MaxForums.org-----

3DSMAX Tech : Thought Id Share this Ragdoll fix is max 6
Mad-Dog-Bomber
Yes I figured it out, try this.
make a biped and run that script on it don't use that link or snap shot, just leave it at the basics, Once your
done with that follow these steps, First Create another rag doll contraint then follow these steps below.
Fix_Bip 1
Create a ragdoll contraint on the bip 1 bone
Your newly created ragdoll contraint properties:
Set the Parent to Bip01 Pelvis
Set the Child to Bip01
Leave the rest alone
__________________________________________________
__
Properties for Bip01 (Blue ball in the Bip01 Pelvis)
Mass: 10.00
Friction: 0.88
Elasticity: 0.3
Simulation Geometry: Bounding Sphere< or Bounding box, bounding box is recomended.
THEN! after this go to the Bip01RBCollection, and add the bip01.
Then! go to the Bip01CSolver, and add the created contraint that you just created.

[Cryptite]

Yea, I just read the other thread about it and saw your reply. Thanks for posting it anyhow, appreciate it alot cisco! Cheers!:bounce: I'll be trying it very shortly...

[Cryptite]

Ok, well that works.. Sorta. The new question is how do you blend the animation you had going with a Biped - say, your standard walking animation - into ragdoll taking over. When I solve it, it becomes clear that the two are happening at the same time and it makes my biped start having seizures... Any ideas? I could post up my max if necessary.

[ciscocd1]

Animate your character. If you use footsteps, convert to keyframes before calculating with reactor. In reactor, set the start of calculation 1 frame before you want the reactor animation to begin. For example,
Character hit by a car walking across a street.
Walking from frame 0-200.
Point of impact with car is at frame 85.
set reactor to start calculating at frame 84.

[Cryptite]

That didn't really help. It seems as though my biped is trying to keep the feet hitting the footsteps even though the rest of it is trying to fall over. Do you want to see the .max file?

[ciscocd1]

Did you convert the biped anim from footsteps to keyframes? Try that. If it doesn't work, then post the max file.

[Cryptite]

Maybe I'm not sure what you mean about converting to keyframes but here is the scene file anyway..
Biped/Ragdoll Scene (http://cryptite.f2o.org/fanfilmfiles/bipragdoll.zip)

[ciscocd1]

Here are the changes I made:
1 Select bip01, go to motion panel and click on the button that converts footsteps to keyframes. When the dialog box comes up, uncheck create key for every frame.

2 Select bip01, select reactor object property and check "phantom".

3. Use a reactor plane instead of the box for the ground. You can still render the box but the calculations will be done with the biped and reactor plane.

I'll send you my file

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