Version problem

Richin Thomas K

Is there any way to open 3.1 version spine file in 2.1 version spine? Atleast json file?

BinaryCats

You will have to alter the json file.

iirc one of the changes was skinnedmesh was changed to weightedmesh from 2->3 (?)

Richin Thomas K

thanks 4 the reply. But i didnt get you.. can u just elaborate please?

Actually i did animation in version 3 spine. But i need to open that spine file in version 2 ..

Nate

You can export to JSON, then use Import Data to bring the data into an older version of Spine. However, you may need to edit the JSON data to match the old version of Spine. Eg, for relatively recent changes to the JSON format you'll need to renamed "weightedmesh" to "skinnedmesh" and delete any "shear" timeline entries.

Richin Thomas K

Thank You, Ill check now

Nops, still error, i changed the spine version and code also..then also not working

BinaryCats

why do you want to change the version

ditchman

...i guess for the same reason i do. I have created animations in the latest version of spine, but the code team are using spine version 2.1 runtimes, and don't want to update for some reason. I have to open them in an older version (2.1.27) and re-export them. however the spine version 3 files i have created will not open in this version - I'm guessing this must be a fairly common problem. I came across this thread searching for answers, this was all I could find - i will try this 'Json text edit method' myself and get back with my results

unfortunately I was not able to Import by removing shear keyframes and renaming 'weightedmesh' to 'skinnedmesh'... i was able to import a spine json created in 3.2.01 into 2.1.27. but the file had no weighted mesh or shear information.

BinaryCats

Why are they running such old code? its relatively easy to update to the latest. even if you have made changes to the runtimes you can diff the clean version of what ever one you are using and see all your changes.

that code is so old, I wouldn't be supprised if you have missed a bunch of optimisation because you don't want to update.

If you really have to use that version, you're better passing the json off to a coder and let him deal with the mess they have created. most likely he will be able to edit it better than you can/

Richin Thomas K

😢

Nate

Richin Thomas K wrote
Nops, still error, i changed the spine version and code also..then also not working

The Spine version in the JSON data is not important. What do you mean by "not working"?

Richin Thomas K

i need to open spine 3 v file in spine 2 v, so i tried by exporting from spine 3 and tried to import into spine 2, but its not importing,showing file error, so any way to fix it?

BinaryCats

but why?! someone may be able to help you do what you need in v3 if you say why!

Kazzy

How about opening a spine 3.3.03 file in version 3.0.10?

I have always tested out some of the latest changes made in Spine, but our studio can't just update on the fly randomly and export untested stuff into Unity where we have an active game in the iOS and Android stores.

We have tried to update our runtime to work with the latest versions of spine, but it proves difficult from time to time, particularly with sweeping changes (which are awesome and to be expected, but we don't exactly have to time, say, redo every animation that had a Flip in it to now scale to Flip, if that makes sense). We always eventually do update, but this is why maybe a developer wouldn't just keep up to date with the latest version of Spine. Forgive me, I'm not technical, so perhaps I'm not being specific enough. Just going off the issues we've experienced.

So Spine 3.3.03 is the first project version I've encountered that doesn't seem to offer backwards compatibility. I was dumb, didn't save a backup version of a file, and then upgraded to Spine 3.3 to play with the pathing. Unfortunately, I save the file... When I Went to open that file in a previous version of Spine, I keep getting an error. I was an even bigger idiot, had also exported the 3.3 json data, so I didn't even have the old data to import into an old version of Spine. I assume I'm SOL and will have to go ahead and remake the animation, but if there's something I can do to the JSON file to allow retrofitting, that would be awesome!

In the attached image, you can see I've attempted the only things I could think of... changing the spine version, and you can't see it in the json file, but I have also eliminated instances of shear values. Is there anything else I can do to maybe resolve this?

Thanks!

BinaryCats

I understand what you said, but Everybody on in the studio should be running the same version. Here, we have several people that run spine (artist, animator developers). As I am the spine guy I dictate what version we should be running. Currently we are running 3.1.05 and where the path stuff looks cool, but I'm not letting the spine users update, unless its just to test - and then make sure that they know that they NEED to downgrade after their test. No work can be done on a different version, even if its just a patch.

What usually dictates when we upgrade is when the Runtime(s) have been updated. But currently its having a build due. We have edited spines runtimes in a few places (added root motion for example), and yes it is a pain in the ass to update. But it takes a few hours at most, maybe a day if you have heavily modified runtimes.

Besides waiting for runtimes to update or having builds due, I like to wait a month from official release of a version. If you look back through spines change log, each version will have about a month of fixes, before that version is totally bug free.

I understand this doesn't fix your problem, but it may prevent it in the future.

As for flipping, We had a lot of animations which had flip keys, at it was actually quite easy to fix. talking 40 anims in less than an hour. What you need to do is open two instances of spine, one on latest and one back when flip was a thing. and just fid all flip keys in old version, and add them back in as scale*-1.

Nate

Richin Thomas K wrote
i need to open spine 3 v file in spine 2 v, so i tried by exporting from spine 3 and tried to import into spine 2, but its not importing,showing file error, so any way to fix it?

If would like to get help but all you say is it "shows an error" or "is not working", then there is very, very little we can do to help. Explain what you did and show the error you are getting so we can help you. However, see the link below which I think will solve your problem.

For Richin Thomas K, Kazzy, and others that are having trouble with versioning, please see this post:
Spine editor and runtime version management

Erika

Kazzy wrote
How about opening a spine 3.3.03 file in version 3.0.10?

I was dumb, didn't save a backup version of a file, and then upgraded to Spine 3.3 to play with the pathing. Unfortunately, I save the file... When I Went to open that file in a previous version of Spine, I keep getting an error.

OH! That's something you can solve! Go to Spine>Settings and then scroll down to the Backups! Saved my life (I mean days of my life) more than one time!!
You should have dozens of backup files in there! Good Luck mate.