[rant] crosswalk / fbx import

["peter boeykens" <peter_b(at)skynet.be>]

[start of rant]

Any have any ideas what the "rate" value in the import options might be for?
For some weird reason I expected it to be related to frame rate, as in: 
amount of frames per second. I typed all kinds of values, such as 25, 29.97, 
30, 1234,0.0001 to find out that they all have the exact same effect on the 
imported data: none at all. A bit frustrated I tried typing fcukall, and to 
my amusement the tool didnt blink an eye, and happily digested a string 
where a float should apply. No errors whatsoever. Bottom line - the way to 
get a correct import is to set sequence frame rate before calling the 
import, and to ignore the option otherwise.

Also great idea to import the camera onto the default camera that is 
constrained to an interest and set some weird fov value and leave all else 
untouched. At least the resulting imported camera is so far of the mark, 
that there can be no confusion about the need to go in a verify and rectify 
a thing or two.
No worries, giving the camera an obscene name and hiding it in a model 
outsmarts the importer, and a new camera is made, that has untouched 
positional and rotational data. Now if only it was kind of vaguely directed 
at the scene?
luckily, at the end of the day, a bit of swapping axes, adding a couple of 
90 degree rotation offsets, some negative signs and all's good?
Well the rotational values still dont match the FBX data - actually there is 
a one degree offset on all three axes. (wonder who didnt do his homework...) 
But I'm not going to let that hold me back now.

Oh right, camera settings! Luckily in this all-digital age I thought of 
scribling down all values on a piece of paper - so I can now type them in - 
and after a few attempts even conclude that it is actually as simple as 
that? typing the same values in the proper places simply works!!
Repeatedly on over 20 shots now, so I quickly script the thing - takes about 
ten minutes of work - make a little plugin out of it - and yes! now I have a 
tool that fixes all the errors the importer makes. (at least the ones I 
found so far)
the FBX data is consistent between three other 3D applications on import and 
export so I assume they're not collectively wrong.

Lets just hope none of this gets fixed in an upcoming release - I would hate 
to uninstall my first self-installing plugin.

[end of rant] 

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