Vertex groups export error

Support Animation and Rigging
1

Hello,
I have a model consisting of several parts. And an Armature to skin it to. I skinned every part of the model to corresponding bone of an Armature. Skin has to be clear, without empty vertex groups in it. Thanks to VANDERHORST and DanPro I did this. Now I need to export it to fbx, so that it preserved these features. But when I export it, I get weird results.
In blend file I have clear legs skin. Only leg bones. See pic.

vg1.jpg1058×749 224 KB


In fbx I have ALL bones of the Armature in the list. And I cannot delete them from this list! (because they are not there in blender…)
vg2.jpg839×599 212 KB

Attachments

vg3.jpg924×846 221 KB

2

In case with arms I have clear vertex groups with export to fbx. See 2 screenshots. (sorry, the previous one is in the previous post…)

vg4.jpg678×775 171 KB


This is the blend file:
vertex_groups_export.blend (4.49 MB)

3

I figured out that I have ALL vertex groups exported in 2 cases:

  1. When there is HIPS bone present in skin. I tried to skin using “Assigned Automatic from bones” with HIPS and I tried to skin without HIPS automatically, adding HIPS later as “Add a new vertex group”. Result is the same.
  2. This very error appears when I skin using “Assigned Automatic from bones” and some bone is a direct child of HIPS. For example, UpLeg. When it is present in skin, I get all bones in export list. But I can add UpLeg not automatically, but later, manually using “Add a new vertex group”. Then I get clear vertex groups exported.

How can I export my mesh to fbx, containing HIPS bone in its skin, without getting all bones listed in vertex groups in result?

Thanks for any reply.

4

Hmmm. I was told here that blender foundation is not going to support fbx format further, for it belongs to Autodesk. Is it really true?
But game developers still require mostly fbx files with animations for use in their engines. What do animators do then?

5

All in all, we put our models to Unreal Engine to examine this question. For UE it seems just the same, whether all skeleton bones were in skin, or not all of them, or just one… It shows all bones (vertex groups) in its list. Meanwhile some bones have 0 verts and some are weighted. So it makes sense to do clear skinning just for convenience, to avoid excessive vertex groups in skin.
While for game engine this makes no difference, whether a vertex group has 0 verts (but is present in skin), or it is deleted from skin at all.
If this is not so, please write your thoughts.