Exception after svn update when loading blend with animation

Well I just updated the svn copy I use, and now get this nice exception

java.lang.NullPointerException16:52:35.252 [LWJGL Renderer Thread] ERROR d.v.compiler.CompileApplication - Could not convert models/multiuse/characters/humanoid/trooper/elite_trooper_helmet1.blend java.lang.NullPointerException

	at com.jme3.animation.SkeletonControl.cloneForSpatial(SkeletonControl.java:375)
	at com.jme3.scene.Spatial.clone(Spatial.java:1185)
	at com.jme3.scene.Node.clone(Node.java:565)
	at com.jme3.scene.Node.clone(Node.java:1)
	at com.jme3.scene.Spatial.clone(Spatial.java:1172)
	at com.jme3.scene.Node.clone(Node.java:565)
	at com.jme3.scene.Node.clone(Node.java:1)
	at com.jme3.scene.Spatial.clone(Spatial.java:1172)
	at com.jme3.scene.Node.clone(Node.java:565)
	at com.jme3.scene.Node.clone(Node.java:1)
	at com.jme3.scene.Spatial.clone(Spatial.java:1214)
	at com.jme3.scene.Spatial.clone(Spatial.java:1)
	at com.jme3.asset.CloneableAssetProcessor.createClone(CloneableAssetProcessor.java:48)
	at com.jme3.asset.DesktopAssetManager.loadAsset(DesktopAssetManager.java:327)
	at com.jme3.asset.DesktopAssetManager.loadModel(DesktopAssetManager.java:374)
	at com.jme3.asset.DesktopAssetManager.loadModel(DesktopAssetManager.java:378)
	at de.visiongamestudios.compiler.CompileApplication.internalcompile(CompileApplication.java:299)
	at de.visiongamestudios.compiler.CompileApplication.access$5(CompileApplication.java:276)
	at de.visiongamestudios.compiler.CompileApplication$3.call(CompileApplication.java:256)
	at de.visiongamestudios.compiler.CompileApplication$3.call(CompileApplication.java:1)
	at com.jme3.app.AppTask.invoke(AppTask.java:142)
	at com.jme3.app.Application.runQueuedTasks(Application.java:583)
	at com.jme3.app.Application.update(Application.java:596)
	at com.jme3.app.SimpleApplication.update(SimpleApplication.java:231)
	at com.jme3.system.lwjgl.LwjglAbstractDisplay.runLoop(LwjglAbstractDisplay.java:151)
	at com.jme3.system.lwjgl.LwjglCanvas.runLoop(LwjglCanvas.java:229)
	at com.jme3.system.lwjgl.LwjglAbstractDisplay.run(LwjglAbstractDisplay.java:228)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:744)

For non animated models everything works fine, but this one simply crashes when trying to load it.
It seems like it has no AnimControl, but a skeletoncontrol, and when cloning this, the above exception happens.

The first question now would be, is it allowed to have a skeletoncontrol with no animcontrol?
If not I will try to dig into the blender loader in hope of finding the cause.

This looks like the same NPE I got after @Kaelthas changed the importer. See this thread:
http://hub.jmonkeyengine.org/forum/topic/changes-to-animations-loading-in-blender-importer-important-for-importer-users/

I remember ages ago that I had to add a blank animation to one of my models to get it to load. At least at that time, a skeleton and no anim control did not work… so I had to add an animation.

@EmpirePhoenix
could you upload your model ? I will check this out.

And by the way - I think it should be perfectly OK to load skeleton withou animation.
The user might want a node with skeleton but the animations will be added in the runtime.

@Kaelthas said: @EmpirePhoenix could you upload your model ? I will check this out.

And by the way - I think it should be perfectly OK to load skeleton withou animation.
The user might want a node with skeleton but the animations will be added in the runtime.

For what it’s worth, I agree. I was just stating a bit of lore that I picked up sometime back. I don’t think it should be that way but it definitely was that way… at least at one time.