Blender imports rigs badly

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hello there. I've been planning to create animations of models that are 
presented in .smd format and integrate them into the Source Engine. But when I 
import any of those files (no matter if they were created by Valve, models like 
Heavy or Scout from TF2 game, or they are from 3rd party modeler), the armature 
does not look properly. In the attached archive there are screenshots of the 
problem, because I don't know English good enough to describe it by words. At 
least that is not how I expect to see things (like that 
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/w/images/6/69/Blender_25.jpg)
Also in Pose Mode when I select *that tiny* bone and grab it (G) it moves away 
without affecting any other bones, but screwing up the mesh. Though rotating 
affects other bones. I saw some videos on the YouTube, where people imported 
the same .smd files into 3DS Max 2011 and the models appeared correctly rigged 
and they started animating them without additional adjustments (for example, 
grabbing a spine bone would drag legs and upper bones with it, causing a 
natural-looking movement in 3DS Max, but in Blender when grabbing a bone it 
moves alone). Isn't it possible for Blender? Is it an importer script's bug? Or 
is it just my computer that does importing stuff wrong? How to fix it then?

My computer's specs are: Windows 7 x64 Professional Edition, Intel Core 
i7-2600K, Asus P8Z68-V PRO, 8GB RAM, Sapphire Radeon HD6970.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by prompter...@gmail.com on 3 Mar 2012 at 7:23

[GoogleCodeExporter]

This behaviour is as intended. The importer doesn't link bones together any 
more because it's impossible to tell if they _should_ be linked or not; if you 
link one that's actually meant to be unlinked you break animations. The 3DS Max 
importer that you saw has incorrect and potentially harmful behaviour. I need 
to update the screenshot you linked to! :)

You can avoid this issue by rotating a bone's parent instead of trying to move 
it.

I'm hoping one day to add a new bone behaviour mode to Blender that avoids all 
of these annoyances.

Original comment by cont...@steamreview.org on 7 Mar 2012 at 10:46

• Changed state: WontFix

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks for the reply, I didn't know it was impossible. Anyway, I've connected 
and parented them on my own, rigged everything. The animation I made with 
unrigged got really broken, so I will compile this new model separately and 
create new animations for it.

Original comment by prompter...@gmail.com on 8 Mar 2012 at 6:43