Total letdown

[angry]

This product is not in anyway ready for production use.

My employer wanted me to rig some cars with Craft Director Studio. He thought it would be fast. Unfortunately after hours of frustration I don't have anything to show to him except flying cars when I press record. Tried the tips on "Known Issues" thread, doesn't work, tried all ray cast options, doesn't work, freezed pivots, unfreezed pivots, doesn't work, changed ground plane doesn't work, tried every imaginable parenting combination, doesn't work, moved GravityDirectionMesh to all sorts of places doesn't work, watched the tutorials 100 times, didn't help. In total I rigged the car from 4 times from start to finish but the issues continue. And also when I restart the computer and open up Maya 2009 again, I cannot see the 4wheelext on the Craft Director Studio menu. The list, its just empty.

I have been working professionally for too long to know that when somethings are too good to be true...

Also its a shame that a plugin with 3-4 digit $ price has a forum sticky named "Known Issues" and workarounds

Now if I wasn't under NDA I would have said much more.

[Patrik Martin]

This product is not in anyway ready for production use.

My employer wanted me to rig some cars with Craft Director Studio. He thought it would be fast. Unfortunately after hours of frustration I don't have anything to show to him except flying cars when I press record. Tried the tips on "Known Issues" thread, doesn't work, tried all ray cast options, doesn't work, freezed pivots, unfreezed pivots, doesn't work, changed ground plane doesn't work, tried every imaginable parenting combination, doesn't work, moved GravityDirectionMesh to all sorts of places doesn't work, watched the tutorials 100 times, didn't help. In total I rigged the car from 4 times from start to finish but the issues continue. And also when I restart the computer and open up Maya 2009 again, I cannot see the 4wheelext on the Craft Director Studio menu. The list, its just empty.

I have been working professionally for too long to know that when somethings are too good to be true...

Also its a shame that a plugin with 3-4 digit $ price has a forum sticky named "Known Issues" and workarounds

Now if I wasn't under NDA I would have said much more.

Hi Angry,

I am sorry to hear this. It's not good at all that you are experiencing this struggle.
I believe that the solution for your problem is that you need to go to the "Ray Cast Parameters" in the parameters for the Craft 4-Wheeler Extended and turn off the "Use Fast Ray Cast".
If it then is slow, lower the value of "Ray Multiplier" as well.

If you are still experiencing problems we would very much like to help you out.

//Patrik

[angry]

I have already done that, it doesn't work. And now I'm getting a gather error when I open up the scene.

In know issues thread it says

The 4-Wheeler Extended is scaled much larger or smaller then it's original size and the GravityDirectionMesh linked/parented to one ground mesh. This will cause the vehicle to fly(float) away from the ground mesh.

When I open up a new document in maya and click on 4 wheeler, the car mesh appears on the scene with "352.200" scale. What is the correct scale for it?

[Micael Belin]

Hi Angry,

I have gone through your issues and i suspect you have encountered a problem with the 10.1.1 version of CDS. Which version are you running? If you don't have the version 10.1.2, i suggest you update your software to this version. The gather error was caused by a fault in 10.1.1 and has been corrected in 10.1.2.

The 4wheeler has not been corrected yet unfortunately. We are working on a solution, but i cannot tell when it will be released. Either try switch on/off fast raycasting, which is usually the culprit. Make sure the mesh you are driving on is an editable mesh (in 3ds max) or a simple poly surface (in Maya).
I have uploaded a working copy of the next release on our ftp which will hopefully solve the 4-wheeler fly problem. It is not fully tested yet, so please be aware it might still have problems if you wish to try it.
You can find the prelease version on the ftp:
server: gbg.craftanimations.com
user: public
pass: craft

Navigate to prelease-builds\win and download the bl1517.exe. Run the installer as normally.


The scale in Maya is correct. It is due to the fact that Maya runs in Centimeters in default length units. The scale of 352 then means the car is 3.52 meters in length. You should normally be able to scale it to quite a large span of length without having the simulator go haywire. It's usually the fast raycasting procedure that has a problem with extreme scaling.

[elgibo]

I know I'm dragging up an older post, but I have also been having a similar issue. Tried all the recommended fixes and none of them worked. Something that frustrated me more was the fact that I already had a perfectly working car in the scene. The second car was the problem. The way I fixed it was to simply reset the Xform on the ground plane, as that seemed to be the cause of my problems. (created a new plane which worked ok, so it seemed to be something wrong with the scaling of the original ground plane after having one car applied to it) After resetting xform, everything worked fine again. Don't know if that would sort your issue, but it did for me.

[tweenish]

I know I'm dragging up an older post, but I have also been having a similar issue. Tried all the recommended fixes and none of them worked. Something that frustrated me more was the fact that I already had a perfectly working car in the scene. The second car was the problem. The way I fixed it was to simply reset the Xform on the ground plane, as that seemed to be the cause of my problems. (created a new plane which worked ok, so it seemed to be something wrong with the scaling of the original ground plane after having one car applied to it) After resetting xform, everything worked fine again. Don't know if that would sort your issue, but it did for me.

Don't kill me for bumping a few threads, there are some issues I am finding that I really need to comment on. These issues are two very different things, but I just want to say that I am a bit surprised by the original post and displeasure with the product. Forums in my opinion are not a place to tear somebody down...