4.1 to 4.2 mesh triangulation error when opening project after saving

jhoferLNW2332

Our artist is upgrading a 4.1 project to 4.2 and is encountering a message error upon loading the newly saved 4.2 project (after using project import > skeleton > older 4.1 project file) They had several incremental saves along the way. We found two versions where the suggested upgrade method works and then the next project where it breaks.

Could I email someone to find out if this is something we can fix on our end or if it's a new bug?

Spinebot

Yes, you can email the Spine team to get assistance with your issue. Please send your project file to contact@esotericsoftware.com, explaining the steps you took and the error message you encountered when upgrading from 4.1 to 4.2. The Spine team often requests project files to diagnose problems, suggest fixes, or identify bugs. Make sure to include details about the incremental saves where the upgrade method worked and where it subsequently failed, as this information could be crucial for troubleshooting the problem.

Nate

Thanks for the project files. The warning occurs because this mesh has an internal vertex outside the hull:
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It is only a warning, so everything is the same as it has been -- the project isn't damaged and nothing was changed due to this warning. However, in 4.2 the binary format relies on the triangulation having a number of triangles based on the number of vertices. Exporting your project to binary will give a file that can't be read by runtimes.

While it's not illegal, it's not generally useful to have an internal vertex outside the hull of a mesh. To be honest, it's so rare we overlooked that this could happen. We added the warning just to be sure a flag was raised if a project somehow had the wrong number of triangles.

In 4.2.05 we've fixed the binary export and we'll improve the warning, and probably add a warning when exporting.

jhoferLNW2332

Ahh, interesting, thanks Nate! Is the solution simply to have the artist find and delete that vert? Ideally we would like to use the binary export but if there isn't another option we could use the json export if it means the work is saved. Any question I could ask the artist that might help narrow down how it happened in their work flow?

jhoferLNW2332

Oh shesh, I re-read and see you fixed the binary export. So even if it has that floating vert is present the runtimes will still work if I'm understanding correctly.

Nate

Yep! It's not invalid and exports will work fine now. However, that vertex is not generally useful, so a warning about it is output when exporting (with a clearer message). There is no longer a warning when doing import project. You can ignore the warning (or uncheck Warnings) or have the animator delete the vertex or move it inside the hull in edit mesh mode.