• Editor
  • Converting 4.2 to 3.8

We have received bunch of .spine project and we worked on 4.2.
Now we sent them back and they cannot work with it due t)3 error attached.

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Exporting JSON file with 3.8 didn’t work as it says

Does anybody know how to have fixed the issue?

Also do you have any idea why the developer won’t do the free upgrades? Any downside of the latest version?

Thanks

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Your first image shows the 4.2 runtime cannot run 3.8 data. Open your project in the 4.2 editor and export the data for 4.2 to match the 4.2 runtime you are using.

Your third image shows you are using a 3.8 runtime. Why? You showed you are using 4.2 runtimes above. Anyway, to load the 4.2 project into 3.8, run the 4.2 Spine editor, export the data as 3.8, run the 3.8 Spine editor, import the data, save a .spine project file for future use, and export the 3.8 data. Do not try to use the 3.8 data saved by the 4.2 editor directly in a runtime, you should use it only to import into the 3.8 editor so you can export it properly from 3.8, ensuring compatibility with the 3.8 runtime. However, I suggest doing none of that. Instead use the 4.2 editor to export 4.2 data and use it with the 4.2 runtime. This will give you all the latest features and the best performance and support from us. You may need to update your game from 3.8 to the 4.2 runtime.

Hi Nate,

Thank you for your explanation!

We are really new to the Spine and only have latest one.

  1. We opened .spine project made by 3.8 on 4.2 and complete the animation. Exported JSON, atlas and PNG as requested (along with .spine and images folder)

  2. Sent them back to engineer who only have 3.8 and got errors as first 2 phot shows.

  3. They asked us to export in 3.8 on our end we got the error as it shown on 3rd photo.

It’s really complicated for us. How can we make it work without loosing anything that we created?

The engineers told us they can not update their software to 4.2 due to past and current project they have which doesn’t make sense to us.

TIA

  • Nate ответили на это сообщение.

    ddd Sent them back to engineer who only have 3.8 and got errors as first 2 phot shows.

    Yep, this can't work. The editor version used to export must match the runtime version, eg 3.8 and 3.8, or 4.2 and 4.2.

    ddd They asked us to export in 3.8 on our end we got the error as it shown on 3rd photo.

    The third photo doesn't show an error, it shows warnings. The export succeeded. You can import the 3.8 JSON into the 3.8 editor, make sure the animations work correctly, then export 3.8 data to give your developers.

    ddd How can we make it work without loosing anything that we created?

    Using 4.2 to export to an older version is going to lose data. For example, all your Bezier curves will change to linear. If you don't want to lose anything, your developers must update the runtime to 4.2.

    ddd The engineers told us they can not update their software to 4.2 due to past and current project they have which doesn’t make sense to us.

    It involves some work for the developers to upgrade to 4.2 from 3.8. If they have many skeletons that use 3.8 data, then they would need to update all those to 4.2 data by exporting them with 4.2. That isn't hard if they have all the .spine files, but for some reason many people throw away the .spine file and keep only the exported data. Then they need to import that data, save a .spine file, then re-export with 4.2, which is a little more effort. When you have hundreds of skeletons, it can be a lot of effort. We provide some scripts that can help.

    Using 4.2 is muuuch better than 3.8. 3.8 was released more than 5 years ago. 4.2 has tons of features and fixes that can make it worth the upgrade.

    If the developers still cannot update to 4.2, then you'll have to export 3.8 data, import it into the 3.8 editor, and then fix your animations using 3.8. I'm sorry that this creates a loss of work! It's very important to match the editor version with the runtime version. When going backward in editor versions the older version will be missing some features that are only in the new version and it's likely your project will need to be fixed up.

    • Erika оценил это.

    Thank you for your input. We don’t have ability or time to make one in 3.8 so developers need to update the software to 4.2.

    Just curiosity, where can I get the 3.8?

    • Luke ответили на это сообщение.

      Luke Thank you!

      Out of curiosity, if you upgrade to the 4.2 to work on 4.2 .spine project file, would it possible to switch back from 4.2 to 6.8 or older version on the editing software to work on 6.8? And switch back to 4.2 for 4.2 .spine file?

      If so, would you tell me how to switch the version on the software?

      Thanks

      • Misaki ответили на это сообщение.

        ddd I don't know where the "6.8" number came from, but I'll guess and answer that it probably means 3.8: You can always change the editor version from the Spine launcher or the Spine settings. However, Spine projects saved in 4.2 will not open in 3.8. There is a way to downgrade to 3.8 itself, but it is impossible to open a .spine file saved in 4.2 directly in 3.8, because downgrading requires exporting the skeleton data once created in 4.2 as a JSON file and then importing it.

        See the following section of the User Guide for information on how to switch versions in the Spine launcher:
        https://esotericsoftware.com/spine-getting-started#Running-Spine

        See the following section on how to switch versions from Spine Settings:
        https://esotericsoftware.com/spine-settings#Settings

        If you have no choice but to downgrade from 4.2 to 3.8, you can refer to the procedure described in the following thread:
        https://esotericsoftware.com/forum/d/16597-4104-ffd-keys-breaking-glitch/7

        • ddd ответили на это сообщение.

          Misaki Thank you! Sorry for mistyping. I meant 3.8 instead of 6.8.

          Thank you for the instructions and clarifications!
          We will let them know that they can upgrade their software to work on our 4.2 files and they can always switch back and forth to work on their current or past files built with 3.8.

          This was very helpful and wish the developer knew that.

          Thanks again for your support!