@Vermeer:
Talking about a tool to use as level editor for Irrlicht, have you checked DelEd? It exports perfct X files that Irrlicht can read without a problem and a lightmapper is on the way. It also supports plugins; the latest I saw is a Quake 3 map importer. It's still free, I think it's a good piece of software to grab before it becomes commercial.
http://www.delgine.com/
then if you need lightmaps you can buy the pro version, or perhaps even the community will post a free lightmapping plugin. IMO it's a great level editor, extremely configurable, and an easy learning curve.
cheers!
ps. Those PulsarLmTools look great! I'll write Jeroen (DelEd) about them to see if they can be oncluded as plugins.
free compiler with lightmaps?
I know about deled, but I haven't tried it, only look at features and what people say about it.
Forgetting about the thread purpose, I rather prefer for my self a fully featured modeller than an editor, that export to any mesh format as I can always convert it later...what I want is to make complex, realistic geometry in a modeller style.
About lights...latest thing I read about Deled is that is going to support lights but not lightmaps.
In an x you cannot export lights. You can in an ASE, and in a 3DS, not in obj,neither in dxf. Basicly is those two formats supporting lights export.
So, if deled has or adds lights support, great as it would serve you to build the geometry (well, not exactly, as I think it has not got too many modelling features, but you can import meshes from..another package) it'd be nice as it'd be reaching a software that alows to be the workflow a bit more compact.
Now that you ask me, I wish much luck to deled creators, and I think the pro version would be sweet thing to buy.
I my self just prefer way more to not use what is called level editor, but a powerful modeller (Wings, with some help of metsaequoia and Truespace 4.3 if I feel in the mood, though can do all with Wings) , an extremely good (too) uv mapper, Ultimate Unwrap (40$) , that in same level of things, I have no limits with it, and such a jewel for lightamps like is Gile[s] (40$) .but again, that's me, and as u see, it involved 40$. Indeed, I 3d paint with Deep paint3d (that costed WAY more than those) -you can do practically the same if your projects are non comercial, with Tatoo. (and if wanna go comercial later on, is 80$)
I am a bit more about specialized tools than level editors. But if i were after a level editor, I probably rather prefer Deled to quark, for example. (while maybe quark is the best tool to do certain type of maps which aren't the kind I'd be willing to create)
I say this as I have been asked
(and anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if in the future you may do it all with Blender , if they continue at this pace... )
Forgetting about the thread purpose, I rather prefer for my self a fully featured modeller than an editor, that export to any mesh format as I can always convert it later...what I want is to make complex, realistic geometry in a modeller style.
About lights...latest thing I read about Deled is that is going to support lights but not lightmaps.
In an x you cannot export lights. You can in an ASE, and in a 3DS, not in obj,neither in dxf. Basicly is those two formats supporting lights export.
So, if deled has or adds lights support, great as it would serve you to build the geometry (well, not exactly, as I think it has not got too many modelling features, but you can import meshes from..another package) it'd be nice as it'd be reaching a software that alows to be the workflow a bit more compact.
Now that you ask me, I wish much luck to deled creators, and I think the pro version would be sweet thing to buy.
I my self just prefer way more to not use what is called level editor, but a powerful modeller (Wings, with some help of metsaequoia and Truespace 4.3 if I feel in the mood, though can do all with Wings) , an extremely good (too) uv mapper, Ultimate Unwrap (40$) , that in same level of things, I have no limits with it, and such a jewel for lightamps like is Gile[s] (40$) .but again, that's me, and as u see, it involved 40$. Indeed, I 3d paint with Deep paint3d (that costed WAY more than those) -you can do practically the same if your projects are non comercial, with Tatoo. (and if wanna go comercial later on, is 80$)
I am a bit more about specialized tools than level editors. But if i were after a level editor, I probably rather prefer Deled to quark, for example. (while maybe quark is the best tool to do certain type of maps which aren't the kind I'd be willing to create)
I say this as I have been asked
(and anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if in the future you may do it all with Blender
, if they continue at this pace... )Finally making games again!
http://www.konekogames.com
http://www.konekogames.com
"ps. Those PulsarLmTools look great! I'll write Jeroen (DelEd) about them to see if they can be oncluded as plugins."
I think that Jeroen already understood lightmaps is clearly a selling point. It may not compete with Gile[s] in radiosity quality, but with something even like lmtools, I suppose he could make good sells at 1/2 of the 40$ price of giles, more counting in that Deled also serves better as a level editor...maybe, as I don't now deeply yet my Giles, and have not installed Deled. I was going to do till I discover lightmaps were going to be left out of the free version. I would have done exactly the same than what he's done, to make at least some sells...
is the value added needed, as for 20$ , some may just buy milkshape, that has many modelling features and has served to build loads of levels and character models.
I dunno. I think I am going to try it, and see how it is. I think Jeroen has been too generous if he allowed plugins to make lightmaps; it can kill his sells, and that's no good...But then he's being really generous.
And btw, my approach is surely not good for anyone else than me Is just I have been asked about it 
I think that Jeroen already understood lightmaps is clearly a selling point. It may not compete with Gile[s] in radiosity quality, but with something even like lmtools, I suppose he could make good sells at 1/2 of the 40$ price of giles, more counting in that Deled also serves better as a level editor...maybe, as I don't now deeply yet my Giles, and have not installed Deled. I was going to do till I discover lightmaps were going to be left out of the free version. I would have done exactly the same than what he's done, to make at least some sells...
is the value added needed, as for 20$ , some may just buy milkshape, that has many modelling features and has served to build loads of levels and character models.
I dunno. I think I am going to try it, and see how it is. I think Jeroen has been too generous if he allowed plugins to make lightmaps; it can kill his sells, and that's no good...But then he's being really generous.
And btw, my approach is surely not good for anyone else than me
Is just I have been asked about it Finally making games again!
http://www.konekogames.com
http://www.konekogames.com
I'm downloading and gonna try it, though I doubt I'll use it, as have all what I need already. Just for curiosity and to give an opinion out of something more than feature list, own workflow with othr tools, and known limits.
Anyway, if I give an opinion, it'd be good one, as what I am reading is every user is happy with it
Anyway, if I give an opinion, it'd be good one, as what I am reading is every user is happy with it
Finally making games again!
http://www.konekogames.com
http://www.konekogames.com
anyway, back to topic:
Anim8or has the 3 main type of lights needed for complex lighting: spot, omni, infinite. Blender has also area lights. Wings I think is only omni and area lights.
Again...i must insist...Anim8or is waaay easy. And still, is extremely good for scenery building in what is: materials, cameras, and lights.
Blender in the other side, is not just freeware but open source. But judging by statistics I have seen in loads of artists comunities (other than blender only ones like Elysiun or blender.org) and the average newcomer or coder, will find it really hard, also hhaving to deal with all the coding for the engine, etc.
I conitinue "voting" for Anim8or in first place, and Blender in the second, for the python possibilities, and freedom to dig as much as you want, as well as is the most powerful here. But withthe age I have become a practical person; I vote for anim8or then, for this (and even for scene building fo rothe rthan lightmaps.)
While I continue voting for Blender to make character animations: simply, no other free tool doing bone weighted animations so well...
I do this as I know in many cases the person who do the levels, even in indy projects (a coder that hard learned to do it, or just a level artist) is different to the one who animate characters: wouldn't mind then to give support th two packages for different tasks: what I s more, I think they both are ideal and have a great future.
I have used a lot of 3d softwares and digged to the last method with them; I 'll try now Deled, because I suspect I may like it,(even if I not include it in my workflow) and because so I'll be able to give some opinion.
Anim8or has the 3 main type of lights needed for complex lighting: spot, omni, infinite. Blender has also area lights. Wings I think is only omni and area lights.
Again...i must insist...Anim8or is waaay easy. And still, is extremely good for scenery building in what is: materials, cameras, and lights.
Blender in the other side, is not just freeware but open source. But judging by statistics I have seen in loads of artists comunities (other than blender only ones like Elysiun or blender.org) and the average newcomer or coder, will find it really hard, also hhaving to deal with all the coding for the engine, etc.
I conitinue "voting" for Anim8or in first place, and Blender in the second, for the python possibilities, and freedom to dig as much as you want, as well as is the most powerful here. But withthe age I have become a practical person; I vote for anim8or then, for this (and even for scene building fo rothe rthan lightmaps.)
While I continue voting for Blender to make character animations: simply, no other free tool doing bone weighted animations so well...
I do this as I know in many cases the person who do the levels, even in indy projects (a coder that hard learned to do it, or just a level artist) is different to the one who animate characters: wouldn't mind then to give support th two packages for different tasks: what I s more, I think they both are ideal and have a great future.
I have used a lot of 3d softwares and digged to the last method with them; I 'll try now Deled, because I suspect I may like it,(even if I not include it in my workflow) and because so I'll be able to give some opinion.
Finally making games again!
http://www.konekogames.com
http://www.konekogames.com
-
nitroman
True.My bad. I still think Anim8or is a better scene builder. Even more, the works done there can be reused for scene building as it allows more camera stuff, camera following a path, etc.
But ok.
But ok.
Finally making games again!
http://www.konekogames.com
http://www.konekogames.com
hmm...
wings is multiplatform...Are you a linux user?
While I am a freak -and old user- of Wings for modelling, all my fears are about its limits in scenery features... -like lighting and cameras.
I now realize that Anim8or is only windows...and for some reason there's a resistance for linux users (I've been having win and linux in same machine for years, anyway) to use wine...Steve reports Anim8or runing fine in Wine, in linux machines.
But ok, the "philosophy" of open source and all that.
In that case, Blender matches more that model, and imho, is more featured for scenery building.
but hey, if its chosen Wings, I think it's great , it's my first modelling tool by far... (even at jobs where they have Max 6 purchased...)
hmm...even more...the recent improves in lighting (i havent have used lights in long time, that's why i did not remember well that) in WIngs (maybe for Yafray) may make it ideal.
wings is multiplatform...Are you a linux user?
While I am a freak -and old user- of Wings for modelling, all my fears are about its limits in scenery features... -like lighting and cameras.
I now realize that Anim8or is only windows...and for some reason there's a resistance for linux users (I've been having win and linux in same machine for years, anyway) to use wine...Steve reports Anim8or runing fine in Wine, in linux machines.
But ok, the "philosophy" of open source and all that.
In that case, Blender matches more that model, and imho, is more featured for scenery building.
but hey, if its chosen Wings, I think it's great , it's my first modelling tool by far... (even at jobs where they have Max 6 purchased...)
hmm...even more...the recent improves in lighting (i havent have used lights in long time, that's why i did not remember well that) in WIngs (maybe for Yafray) may make it ideal.
Finally making games again!
http://www.konekogames.com
http://www.konekogames.com
-
nitroman
Why you want the camera to follow a path in the lightnap?
We are talking about lightmaps and not about rendering an animation and/or movie...
I'm missing your point.
Personnally I don't like the need in anim8or to do the modeling of objects in a seperate editor than the final scene.
Of course anim8or have more advanced lights settings but I doubt that montecarlo shadows settings or its other advanced light settings would be compatible with fsrad or other lightmapper. Nor useful.
we only need light position, color, orientation, intensity, etc.
Most modelers (including wings) can do this.
anyway, this discussion is good because we give a lot of ideas.
let's continue to think and surely there will be a good and free lightmaper available to Irrlicht users.
We are talking about lightmaps and not about rendering an animation and/or movie...
I'm missing your point.
Personnally I don't like the need in anim8or to do the modeling of objects in a seperate editor than the final scene.
Of course anim8or have more advanced lights settings but I doubt that montecarlo shadows settings or its other advanced light settings would be compatible with fsrad or other lightmapper. Nor useful.
we only need light position, color, orientation, intensity, etc.
Most modelers (including wings) can do this.
anyway, this discussion is good because we give a lot of ideas.
let's continue to think and surely there will be a good and free lightmaper available to Irrlicht users.
"I'm missing your point."
Ok. Then I'll explain better.
"Why you want the camera to follow a path in the lightnap?"
I admit it. This is only for lightmaps.But..well, I dont know a word about code so I could be wrong, but.... well, if thi sthing gets done..maybe the experience on making the export for whichever the format/tool, could serve another coder to evolve it to make it act as a full editor to export full level to Irrlicht.
That's why, I wished it to be a software with more features for scenery.
Camera path...there I'm a bit caught, but I did suspect that parsing from the an8 text format, the coders could take that dat to reproduce the camera path for example, for realtime intro movie making, if you know what I mean. Like this , several other camera and light settings that you have available in Anim8or. This way, a level is more graphically controlled and build, the artist then can help here, but as well, it'd be easier for a coder to make it graphically...
Is not for the exact lightmap thing. Is as I see it also as a possible start on dealing with one of these tools (imho Blender could do very well also, but I am pretty sure newcomers have it way easier with Anim8or, that has been made since start almost like a 3d learning tool. ) As I think is better to use them as are fully featured modeller/scenery builders.(being Blender the most powerful)
"We are talking about lightmaps and not about rendering an animation and/or movie..."
I hope you understood now the above paragraph..as I can't explain any better.
"Personnally I don't like the need in anim8or to do the modeling of objects in a seperate editor than the final scene."
Well, this either would have to do with lightmaps
I never use ANim8or for modelling. As I said sometimes, I usually use each tool for what I think is better. I don't use Anim8or as I prefer Blender for integration, and animation stuff , but i recon that it'd be the best for a coder with near to zero knowledge of 3d art softwares.
I mean, I even don't really care of what is used here, I have giles, and dont plan on using Irrlicht (for being in other project)
"Of course anim8or have more advanced lights settings but I doubt that montecarlo shadows settings or its other advanced light settings would be compatible with fsrad or other lightmapper. Nor useful."
Who knows? FSRAD is not a basic lightmapper. It does radiosity. I don't know what can be ported or not. Have you looked in its insides? Do you know how to port the stuff..? If so, you may help Trancos and Jox.
"we only need light position, color, orientation, intensity, etc.
Most modelers (including wings) can do this."
I am not sure on what we need. In Giles there way more parametters, for what I am seing. In max, also. But anyway, I am not meaning it has to be that complex, but is good to look alaways for a possible future and choose the least closed possibility...though here I'd really vote for a way easy UI like Anim8ors to make coders life easier, as I see , most projects here is all about the only coder making his/her levels...
"anyway, this discussion is good because we give a lot of ideas."
Indeed...I had forgotten that Wings latest versions had added really advanced lighting and materials features, surely to improve Yafray renderings.
"let's continue to think and surely there will be a good and free lightmaper available to Irrlicht users."
I think what you say about Wings could be done: use it for port the scene&lights in a text format so to open that in FSRAD.
I am not sure how that would be...probaly needed is install the free environment Erlang, code it in that kind of code (said to be not low level, and easy)
There are many gentle coders (in wings forums, the people use to be very gentle) in the coding section of wings forums... May someone ask there
At the end, is something that ,at this point it's more stuff for the people to code it...I see things in a point the 3 tools will have its advantages :
- Wings : multiplatform (MAc OSX , linux, windows ) Easy to handle (what I said that ANim8or couldbe mor einmediate is as some people still, very few, don't find their way in wings at first...) .Probably the best modeller out there (for me, it's the best, I enjoy even just looking at the empty interface )
As I see, more light types than Anim8or.
-Anim8or. Mainly its button based interface, all so clear, is easier to understand for every one. (the separation of modeller/skeleton mode/sequence /scene...is a probaly inspiration in the good old 3ds for Msdos..I made a big master of it...Was really nice. It has it's logic. For what I see people understand it palmost instantly. And for the masses, it is a factor to consider...) Who knows if the montecarlo shadows or othe radvanced features maybe translated.
-blender. power. It has a lot of light types and every scenery thing is tweakable, It has a great future and is open source like wings. Python is easy as basic to code. Lots of docs and helpful coding tools for it, even one to code inside blender...(don't ask me...)
IMHO, the 3 are avaliable to set lights for porting in a text file towards fsrad.
Maybe they could grab them and just pick the one that find easier..
My point is mainly...always to try and join efforts...
indeed, in that respect, if I werent so afraid of many coders dont liking the hard learning of Blender as they already have a lot of work with code and would prefer at some point quick helper tools, and not needing to go and read the big blender doc...
BUT..for those patient or simply, with lots of free time, and Blender/lopen source lovers...which are the many of us... well, for them, it'd be ideal if slowly Blender becomes (one of the) an option to build game levels and let them exported towards irrlicth. Consider that with the latest Ben x exporter, it can alreayd do character ANimations for irrlicht... (some user could load an x file of mine done with that beta) ...so , One Package To Rule Them All...joke...I mean, they re use the knowledge needed for both tasks, using same package, and allowing a lot of integration...
The BIG barrier I see is...Blender is great but requires quite a time to handle it, this is admitted even by very fan people of Blender. I mean: I understood Anim8or in the very fisrt day. Also its ui is very standard.
Is a matter of making a balance of advantages, and coding matters, of course.
(sorry the syntax errors, I am writting really quick)
Ok. Then I'll explain better.
"Why you want the camera to follow a path in the lightnap?"
I admit it. This is only for lightmaps.But..well, I dont know a word about code so I could be wrong, but.... well, if thi sthing gets done..maybe the experience on making the export for whichever the format/tool, could serve another coder to evolve it to make it act as a full editor to export full level to Irrlicht.
That's why, I wished it to be a software with more features for scenery.
Camera path...there I'm a bit caught, but I did suspect that parsing from the an8 text format, the coders could take that dat to reproduce the camera path for example, for realtime intro movie making, if you know what I mean. Like this , several other camera and light settings that you have available in Anim8or. This way, a level is more graphically controlled and build, the artist then can help here, but as well, it'd be easier for a coder to make it graphically...
Is not for the exact lightmap thing. Is as I see it also as a possible start on dealing with one of these tools (imho Blender could do very well also, but I am pretty sure newcomers have it way easier with Anim8or, that has been made since start almost like a 3d learning tool. ) As I think is better to use them as are fully featured modeller/scenery builders.(being Blender the most powerful)
"We are talking about lightmaps and not about rendering an animation and/or movie..."
I hope you understood now the above paragraph..as I can't explain any better.
"Personnally I don't like the need in anim8or to do the modeling of objects in a seperate editor than the final scene."
Well, this either would have to do with lightmaps
I never use ANim8or for modelling. As I said sometimes, I usually use each tool for what I think is better. I don't use Anim8or as I prefer Blender for integration, and animation stuff , but i recon that it'd be the best for a coder with near to zero knowledge of 3d art softwares.
I mean, I even don't really care of what is used here, I have giles, and dont plan on using Irrlicht (for being in other project)
"Of course anim8or have more advanced lights settings but I doubt that montecarlo shadows settings or its other advanced light settings would be compatible with fsrad or other lightmapper. Nor useful."
Who knows? FSRAD is not a basic lightmapper. It does radiosity. I don't know what can be ported or not. Have you looked in its insides? Do you know how to port the stuff..? If so, you may help Trancos and Jox.
"we only need light position, color, orientation, intensity, etc.
Most modelers (including wings) can do this."
I am not sure on what we need. In Giles there way more parametters, for what I am seing. In max, also. But anyway, I am not meaning it has to be that complex, but is good to look alaways for a possible future and choose the least closed possibility...though here I'd really vote for a way easy UI like Anim8ors to make coders life easier, as I see , most projects here is all about the only coder making his/her levels...
"anyway, this discussion is good because we give a lot of ideas."
Indeed...I had forgotten that Wings latest versions had added really advanced lighting and materials features, surely to improve Yafray renderings.
"let's continue to think and surely there will be a good and free lightmaper available to Irrlicht users."
I think what you say about Wings could be done: use it for port the scene&lights in a text format so to open that in FSRAD.
I am not sure how that would be...probaly needed is install the free environment Erlang, code it in that kind of code (said to be not low level, and easy)
There are many gentle coders (in wings forums, the people use to be very gentle) in the coding section of wings forums... May someone ask there
At the end, is something that ,at this point it's more stuff for the people to code it...I see things in a point the 3 tools will have its advantages :
- Wings : multiplatform (MAc OSX , linux, windows ) Easy to handle (what I said that ANim8or couldbe mor einmediate is as some people still, very few, don't find their way in wings at first...) .Probably the best modeller out there (for me, it's the best, I enjoy even just looking at the empty interface
) As I see, more light types than Anim8or.
-Anim8or. Mainly its button based interface, all so clear, is easier to understand for every one. (the separation of modeller/skeleton mode/sequence /scene...is a probaly inspiration in the good old 3ds for Msdos..I made a big master of it...Was really nice. It has it's logic. For what I see people understand it palmost instantly. And for the masses, it is a factor to consider...) Who knows if the montecarlo shadows or othe radvanced features maybe translated.
-blender. power. It has a lot of light types and every scenery thing is tweakable, It has a great future and is open source like wings. Python is easy as basic to code. Lots of docs and helpful coding tools for it, even one to code inside blender...(don't ask me...)
IMHO, the 3 are avaliable to set lights for porting in a text file towards fsrad.
Maybe they could grab them and just pick the one that find easier..
My point is mainly...always to try and join efforts...
indeed, in that respect, if I werent so afraid of many coders dont liking the hard learning of Blender as they already have a lot of work with code and would prefer at some point quick helper tools, and not needing to go and read the big blender doc...
BUT..for those patient or simply, with lots of free time, and Blender/lopen source lovers...which are the many of us... well, for them, it'd be ideal if slowly Blender becomes (one of the) an option to build game levels and let them exported towards irrlicth. Consider that with the latest Ben x exporter, it can alreayd do character ANimations for irrlicht... (some user could load an x file of mine done with that beta) ...so , One Package To Rule Them All...joke...I mean, they re use the knowledge needed for both tasks, using same package, and allowing a lot of integration...
The BIG barrier I see is...Blender is great but requires quite a time to handle it, this is admitted even by very fan people of Blender. I mean: I understood Anim8or in the very fisrt day. Also its ui is very standard.
Is a matter of making a balance of advantages, and coding matters, of course.
(sorry the syntax errors, I am writting really quick)
Finally making games again!
http://www.konekogames.com
http://www.konekogames.com
Great to see that the discussion is going on! Wings3d makes a pretty good impression to me. Especially because it supports also area lights. Even though the manual says: "Wings supports four types of lights; Infinite, Point, Spot, and Ambient." I have read in some forum that there is ways of setting up area lights. Maybe the manual is not quite up to date?
I still like the idea using *.3ds because it makes is open for more routes.
Btw I have released the LMTS loader class here:
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... hp?p=19060
I still like the idea using *.3ds because it makes is open for more routes.
Btw I have released the LMTS loader class here:
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... hp?p=19060
-
nitroman
Maybe the manual is not quite up to date?
yes.
the manual draft 1.6.1 was done on June 12 2003
It refers to version 98.10 and now there is 98.24 (so there were 14 new versions between, not including the subversions (a,b,c,...))
But there is a version 1.7 of the manual that is started to be written... the problem is that Wings is upgraded very often (sometimes 2-3 new versions are released in a month) so the manual is difficult to keep up to date.
I think that they will wait the release of wings1.0 before they really finish the manual.
anyway, I didn't test it because I don't use presently yafray or other renderer like the new toxic one (very promising...), but area light are added in wings because it is included in the light menu...
I agree with you at 100% . But is there a free software that can export lights to 3ds?I still like the idea using *.3ds because it makes is open for more routes.
(I will check if Wings can do it... But I don't think so... )COOL! I'm checking it right now.Btw I have released the LMTS loader class here
I will give you comments tomorrow.
Yes this thread is one of the most active one of all the forum. It is very interesting.Great to see that the discussion is going on!
I like to read all the brainstorming that was done (thanks vermeer)
Good luck jox, I stay tuned.
"Maybe the manual is not quite up to date?"
Actually, it isn't....we use to just dig a lot each update, and more or less are aware to every added bit, though Wings -though limited almost to modelling- is getting huge...
"I still like the idea using *.3ds because it makes is open for more routes. "
What nitro mentioned is an important point...may not be much softwares exporting the light in 3ds files...
Anim8or doesn't, I found the othe rday doing a search in the forums...said by Steve, the author.
Lithunwrap or Ultimate unwrap dont even have lights...
Bob holocomb 3ds exporter for Blender doesn't, it has a comment where it more or less says there could be light support in future...
scorpius 3ds exporter in his suite for Blender...i don't know.
Open fx www.openfx.org I plainly don't know.
An issue I have for testing this is unlike ASE, x or OBJ, 3ds is binary only, so I can't just open the file in note pad to check...
But can try and test in deep exploration demo if it loads a new light...maybe.
Downloading Open Fx (minimal version) to test... (openfx.org)
WOHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! years with no real update, and now I go to download....openfx version update!!!!
let's see...
I never mentioned, but Openfx is a very nice and free 3d full package...
there want bones and weights, but pretty nice thing, anyway...Point to point modeller, also.
euh, anyway, since is not a big update.Whooops, no minimal distrib of latest version, only the 45 megs one...well, let's go for it...
it's open sourced gnu style.(VC needed)
seems windows only. You may load the given binary in wine.
BTW, it's based in the old coemrcial package called SoftF/X
I'lm downloading.I'll tell u all if I think it exports lights in 3ds. As much as I remeber, 3ds was supported.Remember anyway 3ds kills smooth shading (need to be able to restore later) in many occassions, has a 65k tris limit and does not allow share uvs (lots of seams then)
btw, a tool I was near to mention the other day but finally didnt...I prefer OBJ thousand times to 3ds, based on experience...pitty OBj does not support light, but...There's a package that can import OBJs, add a light, and export in a modified OBJ format that support lights writting in it....
Poseray. :
http://user.txcyber.com/~sgalls/
hhmmm...no, I perhaps was wrong.Seems it only exports as povray lighted file...
But remember 3ds compatibility wont be such...you are seing close to none, or none of the packages do export the lights in 3ds...compatibility lost...
NO.Again I was wrong. Definitely my memory was playing fair...it exports as OBJ with -surely- lights in , in an special obj format (not compatible) but that wouldnt matter, as users can import 3ds, obj standard and dxf into this scene builder...
[brain storming continues bellow ]
It's only 700ks. I'll make a deep review of it now, I think can be very interesting. Windows only, the pitty.
=========
Geometry:
* 3D Preview of geometry using OpenGL with image export.
* Import mesh geometry from most OBJ, 3DS and DXF files.
* Geometry transformation: Translate, rotate, scale and axis transpose with automatic normal update.
* Normal transformation: smooth and flip.
* Vertex transformation: change winding order, weld.
* UV transformation: transpose, flip u, flip v, scale/translate u, scale/translate v.
* Displacement mapping
* Export Wavefront OBJ files with the applied transformations and materials
* Export POV-Ray 3.5 code using mesh2{} or mesh{} definitions.
* Export of Moray v3.x UDO files.
* Easy setup of placeholders for POV-Ray geometry."
==========================================
yummy....OBJ...quads respected....unlimited polies count...No double Uv channels unless this thing do wonders...
thi sthing allows welding and normals stuff...the main to geometry fix needed all the time = yum ^2
"Vertex transformation: change winding orde"
WoooOOOooAH... (I know why I say this )
The important part...
"Lights + Camera:
* Interactive camera and light setup.
* Import Camera and lights from Poser 4.03 and Pro Pack scene files (*.PZ3 or *.PZZ files)
* Light editor with options for color, intensity, position, rotation, light type and shadow.
* Camera editor with options for angle, type, position, rotation and focal blur."
Seems allow light creation and editing but also import from poser (seems done by a poser user)
Windows only
I am starting to doubt if OBJ original implementation did support camera an dlights...the fact is no free tool suport it for their obj implementation... :
"Get Camera from OBJ file ,Get Placeholders from OBJ file, Get Lights from OBJ file"
maybe POser OBJs exported files do... ?
My mentioned problem with smoothing lost in 3ds files, look :
"Automatically calculate normals Some OBJ do not have normals specified. If the file being loaded is 3DS or DXF normals are always calculated regardless of this setting."
hey.This thing seems a full powerful thing, for free...worth a glance...
"Quick Lights sub-tab:
* Controls the position and pointing of lights on the scene. If there are no lights in the scene this tab has no effect. For detailed light controls the main lights tab should be used.
* Lights on toggles the lights on the scene. All geometry is full bright when lights are disabled.
* Show light locations will toggle the preview of the light shapes on the geometry. Parallel lights are shown as arrows, point lights are shown as a cross of 3 lines, area lights are shown as an sphere which diameter is the light size and spot lights are shown as a cone.
* If show light locations is enabled then when you select a light it will drawn in thicker lines than the others."
Seems then has spot, ambient, omni, and paralell (infinite) types.
geometry...yummy....flip uvs, build normals (smoothhading if lost) , welding vertices (it does it slow for non optimized, but hey, don't use it if impatient ) , tiling uv for textures..., moving somehow the UVs.(limited, I suppose.Not an uvmapper, u need to uv map ouside, as usual)
yiha. You can apply a grey map to make a displaced mapping geometry (read, zbrush effect, in a rough way)
ortographic and perspective camera. global intensity control for the lights, if wished. As always, area lights are the ones to give real sof shadows...
Light settings are saved to any exported OBJ files
OBJ OUTPUT TAB:
save obj and mtl, Save Light and Camera information.
said to be tested with :
3DExploration 1.8, Poser 3, Poser 4, Poser Pro Pack, Cinema 4D XL 7.2, Rhino 2, Wings3D, Xfrog and UVmapper 0.25e
woah. At least is a great discovering. A nice 3ds, dxf converter that allows fixing smoothing, welding, etc.
But IMHO could be very useful for lightmaps. Only is th etpitty that is windows only, while Blender and Wings are multi platform.
read and understands obj groups. Supports a load of 2d formats.
Important limits:
-OpenGL in Windows is usually limited to 8 lights. (happens allways in ogl) Seems internally are written more if added, though. A display in preview thing, only.
-does not show shadows (again, preview only thing...)
-may break models if large scale (scale, not poly count.A matter of scaling th emodel previous to import...)
-lighting is vertex based in preview.Blocky for low pol models (this tool is though for hi res, poser-povray) .No worries as what we mind is the obj export with lights positions and settings.
HEHE... if one disables the opengle preview, no worries fo r brute hi res sceneries...
"I have a very large model with a million triangles and I keep running out of memory. It worked fine before version 2.6.
Suggestion: For that size model make sure that you uncheck Enable OpenGL preview"
Since u can disallow opengl and build the lights, no limits, like there are in wings...(for performance)
anyway , I don't see any of us making a million tris scenery anytime soon...(he recommends good swap windows file for this---)
All this info extracted and selected from here:
http://user.txcyber.com/%7Esgalls/poser ... is_PoseRay
lawyers stuff:
# This program is distributed free of charge.
# You can use this program for any purpose you see fit.
# You cannot directly or indirectly sell the program.
darn it....it should be multiplatform...
Actually, it isn't....we use to just dig a lot each update, and more or less are aware to every added bit, though Wings -though limited almost to modelling- is getting huge...
"I still like the idea using *.3ds because it makes is open for more routes. "
What nitro mentioned is an important point...may not be much softwares exporting the light in 3ds files...
Anim8or doesn't, I found the othe rday doing a search in the forums...said by Steve, the author.
Lithunwrap or Ultimate unwrap dont even have lights...
Bob holocomb 3ds exporter for Blender doesn't, it has a comment where it more or less says there could be light support in future...
scorpius 3ds exporter in his suite for Blender...i don't know.
Open fx www.openfx.org I plainly don't know.
An issue I have for testing this is unlike ASE, x or OBJ, 3ds is binary only, so I can't just open the file in note pad to check...
But can try and test in deep exploration demo if it loads a new light...maybe.
Downloading Open Fx (minimal version) to test... (openfx.org)
WOHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! years with no real update, and now I go to download....openfx version update!!!!
let's see...
I never mentioned, but Openfx is a very nice and free 3d full package...
there want bones and weights, but pretty nice thing, anyway...Point to point modeller, also.
euh, anyway, since is not a big update.Whooops, no minimal distrib of latest version, only the 45 megs one...well, let's go for it...
it's open sourced gnu style.(VC needed)
seems windows only. You may load the given binary in wine.
BTW, it's based in the old coemrcial package called SoftF/X
I'lm downloading.I'll tell u all if I think it exports lights in 3ds. As much as I remeber, 3ds was supported.Remember anyway 3ds kills smooth shading (need to be able to restore later) in many occassions, has a 65k tris limit and does not allow share uvs (lots of seams then)
btw, a tool I was near to mention the other day but finally didnt...I prefer OBJ thousand times to 3ds, based on experience...pitty OBj does not support light, but...There's a package that can import OBJs, add a light, and export in a modified OBJ format that support lights writting in it....
Poseray. :
http://user.txcyber.com/~sgalls/
hhmmm...no, I perhaps was wrong.Seems it only exports as povray lighted file...
But remember 3ds compatibility wont be such...you are seing close to none, or none of the packages do export the lights in 3ds...compatibility lost...
NO.Again I was wrong. Definitely my memory was playing fair...it exports as OBJ with -surely- lights in , in an special obj format (not compatible) but that wouldnt matter, as users can import 3ds, obj standard and dxf into this scene builder...
[brain storming continues bellow
]It's only 700ks. I'll make a deep review of it now, I think can be very interesting. Windows only, the pitty.
=========
Geometry:
* 3D Preview of geometry using OpenGL with image export.
* Import mesh geometry from most OBJ, 3DS and DXF files.
* Geometry transformation: Translate, rotate, scale and axis transpose with automatic normal update.
* Normal transformation: smooth and flip.
* Vertex transformation: change winding order, weld.
* UV transformation: transpose, flip u, flip v, scale/translate u, scale/translate v.
* Displacement mapping
* Export Wavefront OBJ files with the applied transformations and materials
* Export POV-Ray 3.5 code using mesh2{} or mesh{} definitions.
* Export of Moray v3.x UDO files.
* Easy setup of placeholders for POV-Ray geometry."
==========================================
yummy....OBJ...quads respected....unlimited polies count...No double Uv channels unless this thing do wonders...
thi sthing allows welding and normals stuff...the main to geometry fix needed all the time = yum ^2
"Vertex transformation: change winding orde"
WoooOOOooAH... (I know why I say this
)The important part...
"Lights + Camera:
* Interactive camera and light setup.
* Import Camera and lights from Poser 4.03 and Pro Pack scene files (*.PZ3 or *.PZZ files)
* Light editor with options for color, intensity, position, rotation, light type and shadow.
* Camera editor with options for angle, type, position, rotation and focal blur."
Seems allow light creation and editing but also import from poser (seems done by a poser user)
Windows only
I am starting to doubt if OBJ original implementation did support camera an dlights...the fact is no free tool suport it for their obj implementation... :
"Get Camera from OBJ file ,Get Placeholders from OBJ file, Get Lights from OBJ file"
maybe POser OBJs exported files do... ?
My mentioned problem with smoothing lost in 3ds files, look :
"Automatically calculate normals Some OBJ do not have normals specified. If the file being loaded is 3DS or DXF normals are always calculated regardless of this setting."
hey.This thing seems a full powerful thing, for free...worth a glance...
"Quick Lights sub-tab:
* Controls the position and pointing of lights on the scene. If there are no lights in the scene this tab has no effect. For detailed light controls the main lights tab should be used.
* Lights on toggles the lights on the scene. All geometry is full bright when lights are disabled.
* Show light locations will toggle the preview of the light shapes on the geometry. Parallel lights are shown as arrows, point lights are shown as a cross of 3 lines, area lights are shown as an sphere which diameter is the light size and spot lights are shown as a cone.
* If show light locations is enabled then when you select a light it will drawn in thicker lines than the others."
Seems then has spot, ambient, omni, and paralell (infinite) types.
geometry...yummy....flip uvs, build normals (smoothhading if lost) , welding vertices (it does it slow for non optimized, but hey, don't use it if impatient
) , tiling uv for textures..., moving somehow the UVs.(limited, I suppose.Not an uvmapper, u need to uv map ouside, as usual)yiha. You can apply a grey map to make a displaced mapping geometry (read, zbrush effect, in a rough way)
ortographic and perspective camera. global intensity control for the lights, if wished. As always, area lights are the ones to give real sof shadows...
Light settings are saved to any exported OBJ files
OBJ OUTPUT TAB:
save obj and mtl, Save Light and Camera information.
said to be tested with :
3DExploration 1.8, Poser 3, Poser 4, Poser Pro Pack, Cinema 4D XL 7.2, Rhino 2, Wings3D, Xfrog and UVmapper 0.25e
woah. At least is a great discovering. A nice 3ds, dxf converter that allows fixing smoothing, welding, etc.
But IMHO could be very useful for lightmaps. Only is th etpitty that is windows only, while Blender and Wings are multi platform.
read and understands obj groups. Supports a load of 2d formats.
Important limits:
-OpenGL in Windows is usually limited to 8 lights. (happens allways in ogl) Seems internally are written more if added, though. A display in preview thing, only.
-does not show shadows (again, preview only thing...)
-may break models if large scale (scale, not poly count.A matter of scaling th emodel previous to import...)
-lighting is vertex based in preview.Blocky for low pol models (this tool is though for hi res, poser-povray) .No worries as what we mind is the obj export with lights positions and settings.
HEHE... if one disables the opengle preview, no worries fo r brute hi res sceneries...
"I have a very large model with a million triangles and I keep running out of memory. It worked fine before version 2.6.
Suggestion: For that size model make sure that you uncheck Enable OpenGL preview"
Since u can disallow opengl and build the lights, no limits, like there are in wings...(for performance)
anyway , I don't see any of us making a million tris scenery anytime soon...(he recommends good swap windows file for this---)
All this info extracted and selected from here:
http://user.txcyber.com/%7Esgalls/poser ... is_PoseRay
lawyers stuff:
# This program is distributed free of charge.
# You can use this program for any purpose you see fit.
# You cannot directly or indirectly sell the program.
darn it....it should be multiplatform...
Finally making games again!
http://www.konekogames.com
http://www.konekogames.com
about open fx:
" fairly well under these by using the WINE"
"There are plans afoot to port it to Linux/*BSD platforms"
"There is a lot of interest within the development team to make OpenFX as cross-platform as possible, starting with Windows and Linux"
may it have a future for many users here...
It has nurbs, basic texture mapping, boleans, poit to point modelling, nice render...all unrealted features to this thread
70%...I'll tell you all if Open fx export lights...as u see, trying to find at least a tool exporting 3ds with lights in, so that your effort would serve...But if we find only one...it'd be as just doing it for a native format, hehe.
" fairly well under these by using the WINE"
"There are plans afoot to port it to Linux/*BSD platforms"
"There is a lot of interest within the development team to make OpenFX as cross-platform as possible, starting with Windows and Linux"
may it have a future for many users here...
It has nurbs, basic texture mapping, boleans, poit to point modelling, nice render...all unrealted features to this thread
70%...I'll tell you all if Open fx export lights...as u see, trying to find at least a tool exporting 3ds with lights in, so that your effort would serve...But if we find only one...it'd be as just doing it for a native format, hehe.
Finally making games again!
http://www.konekogames.com
http://www.konekogames.com