xGen - mesh smooth issues

[Anonymous]

Hey there,

I'm trying to do this : 

1. Add a smooth mod to the mesh

2. Add xGen to smoothed mesh and groom it

3. Set divisions of smooth node to 0 for better playback

4. Animate

5. Set smooth back to original value when xGen was added

6. Update xGen and have it work.

I'm getting really broken results (see pic below!) with 95% of the fur missing. The remaining 5% is fine and clustered around the left of the face. The grooming cards look 100% correct all over the character yet updating the preview does nothing to change the result. Importing the description/collection/groom also does nothing to help it, same result as below.

Anyone know what's up?

Thanks,

Ricky

[pshwayka]

Keep in mind that xGen binds to faces, so when you modify the division level of your mesh xGen gets confused. (In fact, you probably saw warnings when you did that.) I would avoid doing that if at all possible.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your reply pshwayka. Yes, for my first atempt I did add the fur to a low res mesh and found it breaks after smoothing. However this version is applied to a smooth mesh and the issue I'm having is just being able to temporarily change the division from 2 to 0 and back to 2. Simply doing that breaks the fur. As far as I'm aware, the mesh should be identical each time it's set back to 2 though? I checked the vert numbers and they don't change after doing this.

I have found a work around, which is to save out two rig files. One with fur and one without. Just seems a hacky and that it should be fine to toggle smooth off then on again. My memory is being filled up with xGen workarounds and quirks.

[pshwayka]

After you go from 2 divisions down to 0 and back to 2, have you tried selecting the faces and doing a Descriptions->BInd Patches->Replace with Selected Faces? I just tried it with a simple plane, and it seemed to work.

[Anonymous]

Each time I try to add or replace faces the grooming gets reset. Had you groomed the hair in your test pshwayka?

I'm assuming it's a matter of then re-importing the groom, so it's a little better than having to import the collection/description again too like I did yesterday. 

Here's the warning/cause of this break when reducing the smooth divisions :

// Warning: XGen(1):  Some faceIds found to be invalid so were removed. Check your bindings.

Maybe there's a way to have it ignore changes to the mesh thus leaving the temporary "invalid" faces alone?

[pshwayka]

Yes...sorry, I forgot to mention that. You do have to re-import your groom once you increase your subdivisions again. And that warning you're seeing is the one I was referring to earlier. Also, see no way of having xGen ignore changes to the mesh.