Point Storm - .mdd and .pc2 point cache motion data for LightWave > Unity

[escape_artist]

Hi all
I've just had my latest Unity Extension asset accepted for sale on the Unity Asset Store and think it could be of interest to some of you.
Point Storm allows you to import .mdd point cache files generated from LightWave into Unity. It integrates with LWO Importer so that vertex order can be easily mapped 1:1 but it also works as a standalone product - you can use fbx (for example) and so long as the point counts/orders match, Point Storm will work.

Point Storm can also match the point cache data to the closest vertex, which means it's possible to apply the motion data to any mesh. This can be useful if you have high-resolution point cloud data and you want to apply it to a lower-res mesh, or if you simply can't easily get the point counts to match.

Here's a few screenshots:
View attachment 148959
View attachment 148960
View attachment 148961

And here it is on the Unity Asset Store
Check if out for a full list of features.

Please let me know if you find it useful or if you have any problems with it. I'm always happy to receive feedback.

-Chris

 

[Areyos Alektor]

Fantastic! I just took it. It is a valuable tool and allows to change approach to importing data into Unity. Not only for convenience and resource savings but also in terms of creativity

I haven't had time lately to generate MDD for testing but now that it's available it becomes essential

 

[escape_artist]

Fantastic! I just took it. It is a valuable tool and allows to change approach to importing data into Unity. Not only for convenience and resource savings but also in terms of creativity

I haven't had time lately to generate MDD for testing but now that it's available it becomes essential

Thanks! I hope it's useful to you.
If you do create some cool mdd videos and feel like sharing, I'd love to see them!

 

[escape_artist]

Point Storm is now up to version 1.2 on the Unity Asset Store.
It now has several more powerful features when importing:
- Added frame sampling option, allowing drastic reduction in memory requirements, often with no perceptible loss of visual fidelity.
- Option to reverse winding order of generated mesh, in case normals appear flipped.
- Resulting mesh can be set to read/write enabled. Default is OFF

And a few bug fixes:
- meshes consisting of multiple submeshes (varying surfaces) are correctly translated.
- high-res meshes ( >65535 triangles) are properly supported

-Chris

 

[chunderburger]

hi, thanks. picked this up.

 

[sgmusic]

Hey - Just purchased this from the asset store yesterday and Im having trouble getting it to work. I created a character in iclone and animated it using Akeystu and exported the fbx file. The character comes into Lightwave perfectly and I usually just save out an MDD so there is much less lag on my system when I render my scene in lightwave. I have started tinkering with Unity and attempted to use the same model object and mdd file in Unity using your Point Storm asset and I run into a couple of different problems. When I import the model into Unity, the object and all of the textures come in fine but when I import the mdd and try to select the mesh Point Storn doesnt recognize my model as a mesh to be selected and I get an error that says it needs mesh filter and mesh renderer componets attached. I dont even know how to continue from this point because my modem has been broken up into several diffrent parts based in the surface names and when I select the model name Point Storm doesnt even list it as a mesh. I am following the pdf manual. What am doing wrong or is there something I am missing in the process either to prepare the model to be used by the asset or within Unity to get it to recognize my model and properly apply the mdd motion? Thank you

 

[Sensei]

@sgmusic As always, if something does not work, make simpler example (e.g. box), then if it works, go further adding stuff bit by bit at a time..

 

[chunderburger]

I had same issues as you with Point Storm and ended up switching to Alembic in Unity to get motion in but it makes enormous files (30gb in my case) to get motion to play correctly on a very complex rig with motion modifiers and nodes (baked out Alembic anim)

The unity alembic support only just works and there is an alembic helper on github, I think.
Materials keep getting lost if you do a change, so you need to keep that in mind.