topic Re: traffic simulation error in 3ds Max Design Visualization Workflows Forum

traffic simulation error

jessica.miller — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:31:09 GMT

I'm working with 3ds max 2019 & Synchro10. I've output a .sim to import using civil view & I keep getting a non- compatibility error. I orginally got the error with a Synchro7 file. I have updated the .sim to Synchro10. I'm still getting the error. Any advice will be much appreciated.

Re: traffic simulation error

dbhinnant — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 12:28:18 GMT

I was not aware that Synchro could export to Max. Please share if you find a solution.

Re: traffic simulation error

jessica.miller — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 15:42:08 GMT

That's what I needed to know. I found confirmation after more digging that the only .sim file it will read is from a Quadstone paramics software, another simulation software. I'm trying to get a model pushed out of it to see if it works for what I'm wanting to do. I don't need to design traffic. I need a dummy model to do some testing. We don't do traffic models. If anyone can share a model, large or small, that would be ideal & greatly appreciated!

Re: traffic simulation error

dbhinnant — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 15:50:27 GMT

I recently found out that TransModeler can also output an FZP file. I can share one of those it would help.

Re: traffic simulation error

jessica.miller — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 16:31:19 GMT

Thank you for that bit of info! I'll look into that program as well. I would be grateful for you to share. Is that another simulation software? I need something that animates traffic for me instead of using individual car paths in 3ds max. I'm guessing, aside from design, that's the purpose of the import capability.

Re: traffic simulation error

dbhinnant — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 18:25:08 GMT

Yes it is a simulation program. I've tried a couple of times to upload a file but the post failed every time.

Re: traffic simulation error

dbhinnant — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 18:36:16 GMT

I deleted most of the lines of text from the file thinking it was the size keeping it from posting. Maybe it's the extension? If this one goes through change the .txt to .fzp.

Re: traffic simulation error

jessica.miller — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:12:02 GMT

I'm gonna say that worked to download. Thank you for your willingness to share! I'll report back if it works for what I need.

Re: traffic simulation error

jessica.miller — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 14:27:26 GMT

It worked to bring it into 3dsmax. I lose all animation when taking it into UE4. Any suggestions?

Re: traffic simulation error

Francisco_Penaloza — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 15:55:22 GMT

how are you exporting to UE4?

for most animation, you should use FBX and be sure that you are baking the animation to frames.

Now if you need simple traffic animations and visualizations, maybe you should look into Lumion or Twinmotion, those real-time engines are very easy to use, their simulations are simple too, no complex traffic situations, but good enough to display moving cars.

If you are interested in something more complex you can look into this City Traffic plugin for 3D Max.

https://rendering.ru/citytraffic.html

We use all the time and it works great, on this one you can create systems and more complex simulations.

Re: traffic simulation error

jessica.miller — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 00:55:51 GMT

I've tried game export & I've tried exporting a .udatasmith file. I have an .fbx b/c I exported that out of Infraworks360. I'll try that export from 3dsmax. I'm not sure I can bring the .fbx into UE4. I'm definately going to have to look at "baking the animation". I'm a newby when it comes to max, & not even sure what that means...

I have looked into Twinmotion & that is what lead to UE4. Last I knew I cannot import traffic models into Twinmotion. I was lead to believe I can using UE4. From what I've seen of Lumion, it's an architects tool, where the model is central. I'm working with miles of highway to present. You are right though, Twinmotion is crazy easy to use & presents in the manner we want in our VR models.

City traffic looks like something that may work. We aren't designing traffic though, just presenting it. I'm also not sure about spending any money at this point. Would you be able to share a video, or link to a video, that shows what the city traffic outputs, or does?

Re: traffic simulation error

Francisco_Penaloza — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 01:43:23 GMT

Jessica, I am not sure how is your background with any of these software but I would like to clarify a little some concepts to help you to make the right choice for your project.

3D Max can do almost everything the only drawback ( if we can call it that way) is rendering time. Since 3D Max uses Raytracing render engines. Rendering animation would be a long process, for that, you'll need more than one machine or a long time to process your frames, this will also depend on how long your animation is and what render engine you are using. This is a typical workflow and we all deal with it.

In the recent years, real-time software had jumped into the stage, software such Lumion, Twinmotion and others that died trying 😛

Lumion and Twinmotion they were designed originally for Architects or similar professionals. The idea was to leverage real-time tools that would let you do things that it will take way longer with 'traditional' ray tracing software. Quality is not the same but is getting better.

Twinmotion and Lumion are turnkey software, you can do a lot but no many customizations, but that's what makes them a good choice when deadlines are tight and quality is not that important.

Beyond that, we have Fully developed Game Engines such as Unreal, Unity, Crysis, and others.

Now here you have to build everything and import animation or create them inside this engine.

Do not think that because you can place easily animate cars in Twinmotion would be able to do the same inside Unreal.

For car animations, you need to import them from other software or create a tool, script, coding inside Unreal to run the simulations.

The learning curve of Unreal is way steper than Twinmotion or Lumion, is just like learning 3D Max, but with a different set of mind, Unreal or any game engine is all about optimisation, where 3D Max as long you have lots of RAM and powerful machines you'll be fine.

If you have traffic simulations done in infraworks, you can export those to Unreal. You can use FBX, that's the formats that Unreal works with, actually is a great format, you'll keep textures, basic materials, animations and more.

If your software can export an FBX, Unreal will be able to open it. Now like with everything nothing is easy or a simple click of a button, the process is complex and require time.

If you have no experience in any of these tool, I would strongly recomend to try Lumion, or Twinmotion. You can do more than nice houses or isolated buildings, Lumion can work with very large projects too. Actually, it has an option to load cities from Open Map, basic buildings and streets.

I don't work for Lumion or Twinmotion team :), actually, I barely use them, most of what I do is 3D Max and VRay, Unreal, but this doesn't mean I don't recognise the power of those tools.

Hopefully, this clears things up a little.

Forgot, to add a sample of Traffic plugin for 3D Max, This was done years back, by the end you can see the traffic-stopping on red lights or stop sign, that you can setup.

https://vimeo.com/220433929

This other video I just did it to test an option to avoid objects, here you can see how the system (cars) avoid the 'Drunken' Walker, pretty cool.

https://vimeo.com/51538608

Best luck.

Re: traffic simulation error

jessica.miller — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 01:46:07 GMT

Thank you for all of the information. I truly appreciate it. Twinmotion would be my first choice of all of these! I know none of them. I was able to set up an intersection in it in a bout 2 hours my first time in the program. It works great for still shots of what we do. We are an engineering firm presenting highway interchange models. It's limited for what we need; hence my interest in UE4. I did request a trial of Lumion, so I'll give it a go too.

I've exported my traffic using a .fbx. I found the check box to bake animation. I import it into my layer in UE4 & this is what I'm getting. Also no animation.

Here's what I'm starting with in 3dsmax.

Re: traffic simulation error

dbhinnant — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:42:31 GMT

Jessica,

Here is an example we did using CityTraffic. It's a great tool but takes some time to understand it's quirks. We did have to get some help on signal timings from our traffic engineers to make this work.

https://youtu.be/IJEa615aH5g?t=77

Re: traffic simulation error

dbhinnant — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:48:23 GMT

I should add that dealing with miles of highway with heavy traffic would require a lot of cars. This can eat up resources pretty quick with CityTraffic. The cars will need to very lightweight. It looks like you are using the Civil View cars which are too detailed for a very large project.

Re: traffic simulation error

jessica.miller — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 14:18:28 GMT

That makes sense. I have no idea about the cars used. That image is of a model that was given to me. I may have gone through & swapped some cars, in which case, yes, they would be civil view cars. Where does one get cars that are not "heavy"? If I am understanding, means high number of polygons, right?

Re: traffic simulation error

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 13:51:54 GMT

Is it possible to export Simulation City Traffic to the Infraworks program?

I tried and every time a failure appears
Even though I am Exporting The Simulation of Civil View in 3D Max for the Infraworks program without any problem

I worked bake animation But it doesn't work

Re: traffic simulation error

jessica.miller — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 17:31:49 GMT

I'm not certain. I do know you can import a number of files into Infraworks. One of those being an FBX. I would think you could export an FBX from City Traffic. If so, use that to get your traffic into Infraworks.

Re: traffic simulation error

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 10:21:20 GMT

Big thanks for the link.