Documentation/Tutorials/Export models from Autodesk 3ds Max
From NeoAxis Engine Wiki
| Language: |  English •  Русский |
Status: | Approved |
Contents |
Introduction
In this article, we shall demonstrate how to export models and materials from the Autodesk 3ds Max.
The NeoAxis Engine SDK contains an exporter that supports exporting from 3ds Max. You can use it to export models, materials, animation, and complex scenes consisting of multiple objects.
The exporter will export the files in the following formats:
- .mesh - the format of three-dimensional models. Format OGRE mesh.
- .skeleton - a skeleton format for storing models. Format OGRE skeleton.
- .highMaterial - a material format in the NeoAxis Engine.
- .scene - an intermediate format for the import of a scene (a group of objects in the map editor).
Installation
To install the exporter, go to the SDK\Tools\Exporters\3dsMax folder and run NeoAxisEngineExporterInstaller_3dsMax.exe.
Check the versions of 3ds Max that you have installed on your machine and click Install. When the installation is complete, you will receive the following message.
Once this installation is completed, the exporter is ready to use.
Exporting a static model
As an example, lets export a sphere object with its texture from 3ds Max.
The first step is to configure the menu of the exporter. Click on the tab, Utilities, and then click Configure Button Sets.
In the window that appears, select the NeoAxis Engine Exporter from the left Utilities list and drag it to the place of one of the elements in the right Utilities list. Then click the OK button.
Now the NeoAxis Engine Exporter will be available in the Utilities list.
Now you can click the NeoAxis Engine Exporter button and click on Settings.
The first thing you need to do is specify the path to the directory "Data" of your project. The exported model and material will be located here. To select a folder to export, click on the "...".
This will now enable you to export the models to the same directory. To add a field to the list of exported objects, click the + button.
In the object list, select the item you wish to export and click OK.
Once the item is added to the list of objects, the configuration is complete. Press OK.
Now we return to the Utilities tab. With NeoAxis Engine Exporter tab selected , click Export.
To start the conversion, click on the Export! button in the pop-up window.
The conversion process now takes places and resulting messages will appear in the window. Once you see the line "Export is successfully finished!" the export process has finished.
To view the result of the export process, open the Resource Editor and check the object.
Export animated models (for example, skeletal animation)
The major difference in the export of an animated model from a static model is that you have to specify the list of animations that you wish to export. To do this, you should set the Animations property of the object to be exported in the Settings window.
Add to the list all the required animations.
Each animation is characterized by a unique name, type, start frame and end frame. All these parameters must be specified for each animation. Finally, if you wish to export skeletal animation, set the property ExportSkeleton to True. This property is responsible for exporting the file with a skeleton three-dimensional model.
Now the animated model is ready to be exported.
Export a scene (group of meshes)
NeoAxis engine supports the export of a scene created in 3ds Max. This will export all the objects along with the relative positions of the objects in the scene. This is stored in an intermediate file format .scene. The exported scene can be directly imported in to the Map Editor. Let us consider an example with three entities in our scene.
You must add all the objects that you want to export to the list in the Settings window. In our case, this will include the three primitives in our scene. In addition, you must set the ExportScene property to True. These and other scenes settings are available when you select the root object in the list.
For each exported object, you must set the ApplyWorldTransform property to False. This is necessary so that the object is exported without a global transformation, which will be stored in a scene file.
Now all we must do is export the scene and import it in the Map Editor. Import the scene by selecting Import objects in the Scene File Import menu, which, in turn, is located in the File menu.
The scene objects will appear on the map as static objects.
Full description
A large number of different parameters are present while exporting objects. These parameters are divided into general settings and object settings. At the same time, all settings are grouped by type.
General Settings
Material
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| ExportMaterials | If set to True, the materials are exported along with the object. |
| MaterialsDirectory | Path to the directory where the materials are exported. It is relative to the "Data" directory. If no path is specified, the materials are exported to the "Data" directory. |
Meshes:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| MeshesDirectory | Path to the directory where the meshes are exported. It is relative to the "Data" directory. If no path is specified, the meshes are exported to the "Data" directory. |
Scenes:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| ExportScene | If true, the models are exported to an intermediate file format . scene, with which you can quickly import all the objects in the scene on the map in Map Editor. |
| SceneScale | The factor with which the scene should be scaled. This is used to adequately represent the scene in the Map Editor. |
| ScenesDirectory | Path to the directory where the scene is exported. It is relative to the "Data" directory. If no path is specified, the scene is exported to the "Data" directory. |
Textures:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| BaseMapFormat | Format in which the textures are converted, except for normal maps. |
| ExportTextures | If true, the textures will be exported along with the object. |
| NormalMapFormat | Format to convert the normal map. |
| TexturesDirectory | Path to the directory where the textures are exported. It is relative to the "Data" directory. If no path is specified, the textures are exported to the "Data" directory. |
Object Settings
General:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| AllowMergeSubMeshes | If true, submeshes that have the same material and vertex channels will be be merged to one. |
| EdgeList | If true, the mesh is exported with a list of its edges. This is only needed for stencil shadows. |
| Name | The name of the object scene. |
| Tangents | If true, the mesh will be exported along with PTT. This is only needed for normal maps (Normal Mapping). |
| VertexColors | If true, the top mesh will be exported along with its assigned colors. |
Transform:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| ApplyWorldTransform | If true, the mesh uses global transformation. Thus the top of the mesh is placed in the same coordinates as on the stage. |
| Scale | Scaling factor of the object. |
Animation:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Animations | List of animated models. |
| ExportSkeleton | If true, the model is exported with the file skeleton. |
| FrameStep | This value indicates how many frames of animation in the simulation package will account for an animation frame in the exported object. |
| MorphInterpolationError | Interpolation error in calculating the key frames in the morph animation. When the value is greater, key frames are smaller and, accordingly, the file size of the model is smaller. When the value is less, animation is better, but the key frame will be bigger and the file size of the model will increase. |
LODs:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| LODsCount | The number of LODs(simplified copies with fewer polygons) on an object. More details about the automatic creation of LOD can be found here. |
| LODsDistance | Distance to the camera, after which the next level of LOD begins. |
| LODsReduction | Percentage of faces, removed at the LOD, compared to the previous. |
Scene Export Only:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| AllowDecals | Enables / disables the attachment of decals to the object. If disabled, the decals will not appear (for example, traces of bullets and explosions). |
| CastDynamicShadows | Enables / disables the generation of dynamic shadows on the object. |
| CastStaticShadows | Enables / disables the generation of static (lightmaps) shadows on the object. |
| Collision | Enables / disables the collision properties of the object. If disabled, other physical bodies (eg characters) will pass through this object. |
| CollisionMaterialName | This parameter affects the properties of the interaction of physical bodies. Choose from 4 values - Metal, Wood, Rubber, Ice. For example, if you set this parameter to Ice for a card box and approach it and push it, the character will ride and slide like on ice. |
| CollisionSpecialMeshName | This option allows you to change the geometry of the collision of the object. This can be used to facilitate the rendering of complex physical objects. If you specify a different mesh, then the collisions will compute it exactly, and it will be on a visible mesh specified by MeshName. |
| ForceMaterial | Choose to specify a different material for the object. |
| ReceiveStaticShadows | Allows you to draw shadow on this object. If enabled, the shadows cast by other objects will be drawn on the object. |
| RenderingDistance | This option allows you to specify the distance, after which the object is not drawn. If the value is set to 0 it will be drawn at all times. |
| RenderQueueGroup | Defines the rendering of the object relative to other objects. |
| SplitGeometry | This option allows you to automatically cut the mesh into small pieces as defined by the SplitGeometrySize. This allows the scene manager to clip the geometry of the objects that do not fall into the screen in a better way. This is used for large objects (such as rooms, buildings, in which a character will appear). |
| SplitGeometryPieceSize | This option allows you to specify the size of the cells cut. The higher the value, the larger cell. See SplitGeometry. |
Export of materials
The table below presents a mapping of the NeoAxis Engine Exporter parameter to the 3DS max material parameter.
| NeoAxis Engine | 3DS Max |
|---|---|
| Diffuse1Map | Structure and assignment of Diffuse Color. |
| DiffuseColor | If the material texture is assigned to the parameter Diffuse Color, then it uses its Amount. If there is no texture, then uses the color option Diffuse Color. |
| SpecularMap | Structure and assignment of Specular color. |
| SpecularColor | If the material texture is assigned to the parameter Specular Color, then it uses its Amount. If there is no texture, then uses the color option Specular Color. |
| SpecularShininess | Calculated by 3DS Max based on the Specular Level, Glossiness and Soften parameters . |
| EmissionMap | Structure and assignment of Self-Illumination. |
| EmissionColor | If the material texture is assigned to the parameter Self-Illumination, then it uses its Amount. If there is no texture, then uses the color option Self-Illumination or the value of Self-Illumination if no color is specified. |
| NormalMap | Structure and assignment of Bump. |
In addition, the export of materials takes into account the Opacity and 2-Sided parameters. The materials in the NeoAxis Engine for transparency is influenced by two parameters: AlphaBlend and the alpha parameter DiffuseColor. AlphaBlend includes transparency and the alpha channel in DiffuseColor indicates the degree of transparency. If the 2 -Sided property is enabled then the NeoAxis DoubleSided material parameter is set to on.
