Lightmapping and lighting(3DSMax V IrrLicht)

[Murphz]

Hey all,

3dsmax question for all.. The topic lays with light mapping.

It would be great to get every ones ideas and thoughts on this illusive subject and start up what I hope to become a useful resource for people to read in these forums

I'll start off

I have always used lightmapping straight from 3dsmax (Render to Texture) Since using the irrlicht lightmapping feature in irredit I have become a fan... however. I like the way I can have total control over the lighting in 3dsmax.. even if it tends not to be the most resourceful.

So the pros for 3dsmax : total control
Cons: not resourcful i.e the maps dont break down in to sections for each mesh. As with irrlicht you can specify right down to the poly.

Pros for irrlicht.... well the only prblem is the subject of bringing in your own lights from max..

My questions: Is there a way to bring your own lights in from 3dsmax for irrlicht to light map from rather than thier own. ( I find their lights rather cumbersome)

Also Is there a way to break down the light maps for each mesh.(In 3dsamx) i.e I'll have 4 x 128px lightmaps for a section(mesh) rather than 1 x 256. This is more of and issue of performance.

Also is there a way in 3dsmax that it packs the lightmaps exactly.. at the minute they seems to not use such a large area of the map it generates

Hope this all makes sense and look forward to your own questions that I may be able to help with in return for your own fountains of knowledge!

Who is for 3dsmax and who is for irrlicht and why is the major question

[jontan6]

i dont understand lightmapping in irrlicht, do you mean irrlicht can generate lightmap on the fly? how?

[christianclavet]

Hi, Theres are interesting questions. Not sure I can answer since they come with personnal taste.

Right now I'm not using the IRRedit for Lightmapping but Gile[s]. I was working with Newtek Lightwave, but now I know more about 3DS.

I don't know of any "trick" that can import your 3DS lights (or any package) directly inside IRRlicht. The only thing I could propose is do a top down picture with all your lights and try to position the ones in IRREdit at the same position.

Could you explain WHY you would like to match Dynamic lights with lights that are pre-renderered (baked)? Since in IRRedit lights are "nodes", if you are using them as dynamic lights, you can move them on your scene (dynamic shadow casting using the stencil shadows or shaders's shadow if you can implement this.

For me creating the Lightmaps, the package is not important since they will come in form of textures in the model (as a modeling package is not really important to IRRlicht as at least it can be imported). These lightmaps are static (don't move) and the shadowing won't change.

IRRedit is good after that when all is done (lightmapping into ANY software that can do this) and then position your dynamic lights (Lights that will be used for moving objects (ex: player, moving NPC))

For the packing in 3DS max, since you have total control, use the UNWRAPUV modifier to pack the UV as you would like. Use that UV channel then to do the BAKING.

[lomaany]

How to create virtual world using 3d max or Maya? What I am asking is that after the graphic and animation process is over I want the user to use the mouse or arrow keys to navigate through the animation. Rather than designer specified animation. Just tell me where to look for the information. Thanks.

[christianclavet]

You would export the scene into a software that could present it interactively. Using IRRlicht with IRREdit to define the scene and interactions. Or you could take some kind of specialized software that could do some "virtual visits" based on the geometry they are given.