Even Wings3D converted files are crashing :-(

[moodflow]

Well, I decided to go through some of my older foliage .3ds files I had.  I opened them in Wings3D and then saved them as .obj files, to be opened with TGTP. 

Unfortunately, they 'still' crash TGTP, even as "wings3d processed" .obj files.   

I've tried both versions of Wings3D too. 

Has anyone else experienced this?

I think the main thing was, the files were initially .3ds files.   There is likely a parameter somewhere that doesn't get normalized by wings3d, and TGTP can't handle it.

[moodflow]

I was able to partially get around this by loading the 3ds file, saving it as .lwo, then reopening it and saving it back to .obj (hopefully stripping it down a bit more).   I then imported it into TGTP, which then crashed only when I tried to render it.  Initially, it would crash when I tried to import it.

Anyway, before I rendered it, I saved it as a .tgo file, closed TGTP then reopened it and imported the .tgo.  This worked.

[bigben]

In my experience PoseRay is by far the most reliable converter for 3DS, obj for TG2. I've had files that crashed after conversion by both Blender and Wings work just fine when run through PoseRay.

[rcallicotte]

I've found the same thing.  I love PoserRay and it has never failed me.

In my experience PoseRay is by far the most reliable converter for 3DS, obj for TG2. I've had files that crashed after conversion by both Blender and Wings work just fine when run through PoseRay.

[moodflow]

Thanks for the information.

I've found out that most .obj files will 'open' natively in TGTP (but cannot be rendered from there - they need to be saved as .tgo files, then opened, which means you can by pass Wings3D altogether). 

But a few .obj files will crash TGTP just by trying to load them.  In such a case, you'll have to save it back and forth between .obj and .lwo in Wings3D (which I assume 'strips' the file of whatever is causing TGTP to crash).

Once you get the .obj files into TGTP as .tgo files, you'll still need to manually set them up with their colors or textures.  This can be a challenge at times, but most of the time, if they already have a texture (with alpha), it works like a charm.  This works actually well for lower res weeds that don't seem to have associated textures, but multiple parts to color.  Just go in and change these colors to more realistic values, and don't forget to use some translucency (for realism).

[bigben]

Thanks for the information.

I've found out that most .obj files will 'open' natively in TGTP (but cannot be rendered from there - they need to be saved as .tgo files, then opened, which means you can by pass Wings3D altogether). 

I haven't found it necessary to convert to .tgo just to get things to render properly.  The only reason I do this is for convenience or if I include custom surfacing within TG.

PoseRay provides some useful features for viewing and editing surfaces and collects files to the same directory when exporting (and believe me, I have bugger all experience with 3D modelling).

[attachthumb=#1]

Some files have their materials as groups instead (as was the case above, which is why the names have "_material" at the end of them) which can be swapped in PoseRay and manually edited. Usually though, the only tweak you need in PoseRay is to drop the object to y=0 so it gets placed on the terrain correctly in TG.

[moodflow]

Very nice!

I'll definitely take a look at that. 

One thing thats been tickin' me off about Wings3D is, its slower than dirt to respond when files are anything over 1MB.  Hopefully PoseRay won't have the same problems.

[bigben]

I've loaded 80Mb tree models in it with little problem apart from some understandable delays... but the performance of the preview after loading is quite reasonable... and if you're just doing a straight conversion then you don't even need the preview.

[moodflow]

PoseRay was the CALL!

I was able to pull over all of the .obj files I've tried so far.  And the system doesn't lock up either.

Thanks to all for the information.

[rcallicotte]

Something I do that's a little different than Ben is that I (after using PoserRay) always convert the object file to TGO.  This is more for hope that a TGO will be more native in its characteristics to TG2 than another file format, but I have no deep comprehension other than this...hope.  Until I learn more, I can't say this hope is any more than conjecture.  Nevertheless, Ben is probably right about it not mattering, while it is more convenient to use TGO and I've never had a converted file (in TGO format) fail, after converting it from a file I converted using PoseRay.

[moodflow]

Well once I started using PoseRay, things worked out well.  So far, I've converted about 60 or so older .obj files I've acumulated over the years to .tgo files, and then went in and tweaked the settings for translucency for the applicable areas on the foliage, making them all look quite better.

Just like calico, I import the .obj files then immediately save them as a .tgo file and tweak the settings in the .tgo.   I feel once its in .tgo format, TG2 is happy.