Native BVH (Biovision Hierarchy) Skeleton Animation Support

Feature requests
1

I’ve been experimenting with importing BVH (Biovision Hierarchy) motion capture files directly into Babylon.js but noticed that the engine doesn’t natively support this format. BVH is a widely used format for skeletal animation and motion capture data, and having direct support would greatly streamline workflows—especially for developers working with third-party motion capture pipelines.
Feature Suggestions:Native BVH parser for skeletal hierarchy and keyframe animation.
If this is something the core team would consider, I’d be happy to help with testing or providing sample files. Alternatively, if there are existing community plugins or workarounds, I’d appreciate any pointers!
Thanks for your incredible work on Babylon.js!

3 Likes
2

Can you share links to specs and maybe a testing file or 2?

3

Check this one too: Biovision BVH (motion capture) File Loader - Feature requests - Babylon.js

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@wenjun_lu thanks for bringing this topic up. For me it is also super important. I tried to make it work in the past without success but yesterday I could make it work.

This is my first attempt to submit it to Babylon.js let’s see how it goes. Once the playground with these changes is complete, would be great if you could help me to test it.

I can send you instructions soon.

CC @Deltakosh

2 Likes
5

Hello @wenjun_lu sorry for the delay.

Today the new code was merged and the bvh loader should be working without issues. I fixed a lot of bugs with the rotations, now all the CMU animations and mixamo animations should work out of the box.

The way it works is you load the file and the result has a list of skeletons with a single skeleton.

If you want to try a playground, make sure to use this link until the next version of Babylon.js is released: https://playground.babylonjs.com/?snapshot=refs/pull/16586/merge

Edit: I prepared a playground but it requires a public bvh file that I couldn’t find: https://playground.babylonjs.com/?snapshot=refs/pull/16586/merge#3YU4K1#1

Please, let me know if you find any issues.

1 Like
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I want to add some playground examples but I need to host the BVH files publicly.

@wenjun_lu is it possible for you to share some bvh examples?

@Deltakosh do you think it’s ok to submit some motions from CMU to the Babylonjs Assets repo?
https://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/

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As long as it is compatible with their licensing :slight_smile: