Live Characters plugin

[Frank Verberne]

Hi all,

We have the Live Characters plugin installed, but after adding the Live Characters device in MotionBuilder and turning it online, I can't adjust the settings of live, recording and model binding. One problem could be the license: we didn't get a license with the Live Characters plugin, but we're arranging that now. I don't know if licensing the plugin will solve the problem. Does someone here know that?

Furthermore, I connected an actor to a marker (via Dtrack listener for the coordinates of the marker) and the actor moves when I move the marker. Then I added an avatar in MotionBuilder and I set the input type to Actor Input. When I set the actor on active, the avatar moves with the actor in MotionBuilder. However, when I load a Vizard script that connects to the Live Character server of MotionBuilder, the loaded avatar doesn't move when I move the marker. So in MotionBuilder, the character keeps on moving when the marker is moved after loading the script but in Vizard, the character doesn't move when the marker is moved. I think the solution is that the Live Character device has to be set on active (that's why that was my first question). If anybody knows the solution to this problem, then I would be happy to hear.

[farshizzo]

Is your Vizard script printing out any error messages? Are you running the Vizard script on a different machine than the MotionBuilder application?

[Frank Verberne]

The Vizard script is running on a different computer than MotionBuilder. But after setting the Live Characters plugin online on the computer with MotionBuilder installed, the Vizard script from the other computer does connect to the Live Characters plugin. The avatar in Vizard also takes the initial position of the actor in MotionBuilder when the script starts (so when I put the actor in a weird pose, the avatar in Vizard also has the weird pose), but the avatar won't update it's movements like the actor does when I move the marker that is linked to the actor. Therefore I think that the Live Characters plugin should be set on "Live", but I can't activate that option. The Vizard script doesn't give any errormessages.

[farshizzo]

There is a bug in MotionBuilder where it won't update the motion of the characters when the application does not have focus. Make sure MotionBuilder application is active and has focus while trying to connect from Vizard.

[Frank Verberne]

How do I know if MotionBuilder has focus? It is the only program running on that computer, so I think it won't be able to get more focus than it already has.

By the way, the motion of the actor in MotionBuilder itself is updated like it should ben (as is the motion of the avatar attached to it in MotionBuilder). Only the motion of the avatar from the Vizard script that connects to the Live Characters server isn't updated. So MotionBuilder is active while connecting through it with Vizard. And the server of the Live Character plugin in MotionBuilder is online (green square), but I cannot select the Live option.

[farshizzo]

The LiveCharacter plugin does not need to use the Live option since it is an output plugin. You just need to select the character and go Online.

Try looking at the Communication tab of the LiveCharacter device. When your Vizard script connects does the computer IP address show up in the Clients list?

[Frank Verberne]

After adjusting some things, I got the plugin to work and I now know what the problem was!

I use VNC-viewer to remotely control the pc where the Vizard script is running on. When I closed the VNC-viewer after activating the Vizard script, the problem was solved. I also adjusted the stream rate from 60.00 to 30.00. I don't know if that matters anything. Nevertheless, the problem is solved!

[NI_LAB]

Hi!
Is it also possible to have MotionBuilder not as the active window and still get the motions of the character in Vizard? (we are running MotionBuilder and Vizard on the same machine)