How to get an animation from XSI to XNA

Question

Hello everyone.

I have a basic animation in XSI working perfectly. Just two cubes one goes up ( frame 15 ) then down again ( frame 30 )so the entire animation is 30 frames long.

The problem is that I don't know how to export this model and see it in a XNA application. Google hunting didn't offer any enlightenment which is why I turn to you.

Thanks in advance! ( for any hint or example or guidance )

Answer 1

You will need to write an Importer and maybe a Processor for the XNA Content Pipeline because XSI is not supported by default. XNA use a special format (.xnb) and the purpose of the Content Pipeline is to convert any file format to .xnb format. It is quite a large topic if you are not familiar with content pipelines (like me !) so I suggest the link above and also Shawn Hargreaves post on this subject with links to examples you can use.

Answer 2

Are you using the XSI Mod Tool ? That should allow you to export your model directly to your XNA project.

EDIT: Already posted this as a comment, but just in case you didn't see that here it is as part of my answer. This page has a huge (video) tutorial on how to build, skin, rig and animate a model in XSI, and then use it in XNA. Although it targets XNA GS 2.0 the same principles should still apply.

Answer 3

You could try to export your model from XSI in a format that Blender can understand (assuming you don't want to license a commercial package just for exporting some models) that also retains animation data. Then, from Blender, you can export to a format that XNA is more familiar with. It's a bit cumbersome, but it might work.