Archive for July, 2011

ExportLayer v1.3 for modo 501

It exports the selected layer to a file, using the the name of the layer as the filename. It will not export the default camera and the default distant light.

Supports “lazy Unreal collision object naming”. This means that instead of the proper “UCX_$ParentMeshName” style names it’s enough to just name the collision hulls as “UCX“, the script will fix it during export. Just make sure that the collisions are children of the main mesh.

FBX files can be saved with fake Revit signature which makes it possible to link the produced FBX file in 3ds Max 2011 (File Link Manager).

IMPORTANT: Modo 501 SP3 (and possibly earlier 501 versions) have a nasty bug where displaced SDS geometry is frozen without any deformations. The workaround is similarly ugly: I initiate an incorrect file save which makes an error window pop up which forces some kind of an internal update after which the freeze command works properly. So when you see an error popup saying

Scene save was unsuccessful — Not Found File “C:” not written.

well, it’s “normal”… just click OK and wait for the script to finish.
Also, freezing a PSDS surface messes up morphmaps. The workaround for that slows down the export process considerably.
To avoid freezing altogether use the NOFREEZE parameter.

Arguments:
FBX; LWO; OBJ; COLLADA: They define the output format. Default is FBX.
SILENTSAVE: The file will be saved next to the original file. No dialog will be displayed.
NOQUADS: Triangulates the object the exported object.

FBXREVIT: Saves an FBX file and makes it look like it came from Autodesk Revit.
- In this mode NOQUADS and SILENTSAVE are automatically enabled.
- 3ds Max will only recognize an UV if it’s used by at least one image in the shader tree.

NOFREEZE: The geometry will not be frozen.
NORESIZE: The geometry will not be scaled at all.

BAKINGMORPH: The script will attempt to apply the morphmap called “Baking”. The exported file will get the “_bake” postfix.

Changelog:

v1.37:
- Fixed transform problem, should everything work fine on 601.
- Fixed screwed up UVs when SlipUV was turned on.
- After export the original layer is selected.

v1.36:
- Sped up hacky freezing.

v1.35:
- Proper argument handling.
- The export path will be asked if SILENTSAVE is on but the scene has not yet been saved.

v1.34:
- Mesh pivot is used as origin in the exported file.

v1.33:
- Updated Unreal collision naming with support for multiple primitives.

v1.32:
- Fixed default scaling.
- Added the NORESIZE argument to prevent scaling during export.

v1.31:
- Support for automatically applied morphmap.

v1.3:
- Workaround for SDS freeze bug where no deformation is frozen.
- Workaround for PSDS freeze bug where morphmaps are screwed up after freezing.
- Option to skip freezing the geometry.
- Layer subdivision parameter is properly processed.
- Plain FBX saves in binary format (faster save, smaller file) while FBXREVIT saves in text format (slower save, bigger file).

v1.21:
- Workaround for PSDS scaling bug.

v1.2:
- Support for Revit metadata in FBX files.

v1.1:
- Support for lazy collision hull naming.

v1.01:
- Fixed discarded script arguments.

Written on July 25th, 2011
Categories: My projects, Scripts
Tags: export, modo

Gavit Dev Diary #14

It’s been a while since the last developer diary. Unfortunately the project suffered a serious setback on the programming side: I trusted the wrong person and got screwed. I lost a couple of hundred bucks but more importantly so much time was wasted that the planned animated short (showcasing the features of Gavit) can not be finished in time. I’ll have to come up with some other way to effectively present my achievements to potential employers.

~~So if you are an experienced unreal programmer (or you know one who might be interested) please let me know.~~

UPDATE: Never mind, the good people at Digital Confectioners took over the project. :)

Other aspects of the project did advance though: I reported half a dozen modo bugs and implemented a few workarounds for them in my export script. I extended my MetaSL shader library with a few extra nodes and further refined the whole workflow.

But these “under the hood” improvements are boring so let’s see something more visual.

This is Mr Elegant, our first proper (non-test-dummy) character:

Mr Elegant (ingame)

It was modeled by Josh Stoker in ZBrush then it was sent to modo using the excellent GoZ functionality. I used convexity/concavity tracing to generate the base diffuse color map:

The diffuse color.

Earlier I wrote about the theory behind character colorization and here I implemented it. The black/red/green areas are defined as vertex colors on the SDS cage of the high definition mesh then baked down to the low polygon object:

Vertex colors on the high polygon mesh.

This texture along with the extra UV map defining color zones, allow me to separately recolor the skin, the facial hair, the tie, the shirt, the handkerchief, the jacket, the hands, the pants, the shoes, the front of the shoe and the sole.

I combined the “specular” and “specular power” maps into one texture so the final shader uses 4 texture samplers and 99 instructions (although that will go up a bit as soon as the mesh gets skinned).

Written on July 19th, 2011
Categories: Gavit, My projects, UDK
Tags: character, material, shader

Thoughts on Razer Hydra

Back in 1998 I saw an ad in a local PC magazine: it was about a gamepad which registered tilting. I was awestruck by the simple but great idea and a few weeks later I bought a Sidewinder Freestyle Pro. The following years I played Midtown Madness and Freespace 2 with it, many, many hours, and I’m a fan of motion controls ever since.

Read the rest of this entry »

Written on July 14th, 2011
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: razer hydra

Treasure chest

I’m using this treasure chest from Gavit as the example asset in an upcoming tutorial about realtime, high definition texturing and baking:

All the work is done in Max 2012′s viewport with instant feedback. Well except when it comes to displacement mapping which still needs a MentalRay render (last image).

Written on July 4th, 2011
Categories: My projects, Uncategorized
Tags: chest