To get this to work with Irrlicht, I had to write a windsoft dll plugin and a OCTTools style Irrlicht loader. Both of which are pretty easy, especially thanks to Murphy and the OCTTools sample loader.
I got both of those done and got this as a sample result
.
If anyone is interested, PM me here and I'll send the code.
Last edited by dhenton9000 on Wed Nov 02, 2005 9:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cool...I had the feeling long ago it could be useful for someone...but did not expect someone even workout a loader...Kudos!
heh, at the end this engine is gonna have more art workflows than anyother out there...and that's good: in the end, more artists get attracted
Blender have a bit of lack in this area, but can be perfectly combined with any lightmapper thanks to wonderful OBJ format and a code or tools. (ie: obj2mim)
vermeer wrote:windsoft.com is another thing now...seems company dissapeared...lol...glad I downloaded the lightmap maker just in time...
anyway, I have Gile[s] and pretty much sure will only use Murphy's tool in the future
Try http://www.windssoft.com note the double "s". I just tried it and they are still there. The download of LMMaker once took me overnight, but I downloaded it yesterday and all was well.
Can any of these formats (not the LMMaker of course) make use of global illumination/radiosity produce render to texture lightmaps from 3dsMax? I.e the formats that will load meshes from max with lightmaps baked in - will they work equally well with the nicer GI render or do we have to stick to basic scanline rendering??
It is related to this topic because IF max + my3d or whatever can not do that, then what is the best alternative (LMMAker I checked out and it had great lighting results but was akward to use imo - giles I used in the past with the 2 sets of uvs hack and that worked ok but again is not as good to model in one app then have to lightmap in another).
Lightmapping tools is one of my favorite subjects in Irrlicht development. Gonna dl and try your code now. Just one question, or better said, 2:
1. Is that bump/parallax-mapping in your screenshot?
2. Can your tool load difuse maps (mix the 2 channels: difuse+lightmaps generated by LmMaker)?
thnx!!!
@Guest: Someone around was experimenting with 3dsmax+GI systems+My3d and achieved some interesting results. I myself tried 3dsmax+FinalRender and was able to render to texture ok but probably I needed to improve my Lighting solution. On the other hand, Giles has got a GI option when you render your lightmaps. I'm sure there's something of what you need here.
dhenton you ROCK. This is awesome. And sorry for letting you down in this other thread. I had some health problems and could not participate for quite a while. Afterwards i was too yellow. Well, i still am thats why i am posting anonimously. I am autistic, just afraid of too intense contact.
I like you very much.
Lightmapping tools is one of my favorite subjects in Irrlicht development. Gonna dl and try your code now. Just one question, or better said, 2:
1. Is that bump/parallax-mapping in your screenshot?
2. Can your tool load difuse maps (mix the 2 channels: difuse+lightmaps generated by LmMaker)?
There's no bumpmapping, but in LLMaker you can preview the mixing of lightmaps with texture maps (I think thats what you're asking).
well, sort of. When LmMaker exports to .X it exports 2 meshes: 1 one with the geometry and another one with the lightmaps.Usually the one with the geometry has the difuse map info. It's the engine's job to mix these 2 together to get the lightmapping ilusion and the shadows baked on top of difuse maps.
So in the end my question would be: are there difuse maps on your example?
By checking the app I downloaded I see you just gotta have the lightmaps and textures by the .irr file and the unse your irr loader.
afecelis wrote:well, sort of. When LmMaker exports to .X it exports 2 meshes: 1 one with the geometry and another one with the lightmaps.Usually the one with the geometry has the difuse map info. It's the engine's job to mix these 2 together to get the lightmapping ilusion and the shadows baked on top of difuse maps.
So in the end my question would be: are there difuse maps on your example?
By checking the app I downloaded I see you just gotta have the lightmaps and textures by the .irr file and the unse your irr loader.
mmmm, time to experiment
I guess I don't know what's a diffuse map. Maybe this will answer things. The .irr contains UV information for both the lightmap and the texture (diffuse map). The loader for Irrlicht then uses the LIGHTMAP meshbuffer which contains two sets of UV coordinates and loads them. The .irr file is just a text file. Its true that irr file tells the loader to go find some bitmaps, some for the lighting and some for the colors. All those bitmaps are external.
Very well done dhenton9000, I also like free lightmapping alternatives. I experimented with Lmmaker for some time but I encountered a problem. Lmmaker treats objects that can be lightmapped as surfaces or terrains.
With an object with a relatively small number of poligons,imported as a surface lightmapping works fine , exporting fine with the lightmap texture generated. Unfortunately when the object is very high poly ( like a city for example ) the lightmap calculation slows down dramatically.
With the object imported as terrain lightmapping is much faster - from what I understand because it uses vertex lightning ( I think ). This works with high poly objects , but maybe the lightning quality isn't very high. The big problem I encountered here was exporting. I don't know what format would suport vertex information ( .x maybe ? ) or how to import this information into Irrlicht.
. 
