Irrlicht Engine

How can I load a 3ds file with all the features possible in 3D Studio Max (materials, transparency, ...). I get only the mesh, no textures, ... Perhaps I forget some important steps. What are the limits? Is 3ds the best format for the transfer? Could you please show an example?

Texture has to be loaded on its own.

node->setMaterialTexture(0, driver->getTexture("texture.jpg"));

That will map the Texture on your objet as good as your unwrap has been made.

--Blender3D

Can I only load the mesh??

I don't know try out with an animation. But be sure: Your Unwrap will be loaded too. You just have to tell the computer to take a texture and map it.

--Blender3D

I think the material support is limited/non-existant.

Material support is there, but not all properties. Textures are loaded automatically if properly attached and exported. Check the command line if there's a note about name changes (3ds only supports 8+3 filenames). Irrlicht 1.5 will even load normal maps for 3ds files.
However, using a b3d exporter might lead to better results, especially for animated meshes, because 3ds animation are not supported.

from the default supported formats by max, i usually go for .OBJ. I usually just use diffuse. then all the rest i need i just fix in code, like if i want transparency.

but i really suggest to use irredit, so you dont need to have code for each object. just fix what you need in irredit (transparency, etc) and you can see immediately the effect. then just load .irr in your app

like if i want transparency.

Could you please give me an example how to make a material transparent? I am not succesful. In irredit it looks transparent, I save it as xxx.irrmesh, but it is not running as transparent material at the engine.

i think the config about the material (e.g. if you set it transparent) is saved in the .irr file and not the .irrmesh file. try load the .irr instead.

I found Panda DirectX Exporter (a plug-in dle file for 3ds max). It directly exports an x-File. This works better than importing a 3ds file or converting it to an irrmesh and then importing to irrlicht. Perhaps helpful information for other developers.

comparing 3DS and OBJ, it seems OBJ is more smooth than 3DS given the same source mesh in MAX. is it because there is more info saved in OBJ? i.e. more normals or whatnot? thanks!

.3ds has no per-vertex normals, and since we don't support the smoothing groups, yet, 3ds meshes will only have per-face normals. And that's often not nice.

thanks thanks....

You may have seen my app.....vrwalking

http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... highlight=


From my experience the best export for irrlicht from 3dsmax is b3d(i have only done static meshes)

Get b3d pipeline from http://www.onigirl.com ..

make mesh and apply b3d brush materials , change transparency....

Export.....

Load in irrlicht .....

Some tweaking can be done in irredit also...may not be needed normally

If two textures are applied the first is taken as diffuse and the other will be considered as lightmap

i hope this is useful