Micro Exporter - Strips of Geometry (rather a strip)

[rcallicotte]

I am not able to export anything other than a strip of geometry with the Micro Exporter.  I've tried all but the TGO export and get the same results.

[Oshyan]

The micro exporter is camera-dependent. Exported geometry will be limited to what is within view of the camera. Does that explain what you're seeing?

- Oshyan

[rcallicotte]

Hi Oshyan.  No, I have a square orthographic view above the terrain I want to export, but it only exports a strip.  I guess I could try it on the default scene to see what happens (or anyone else who has time could).  But, I settled this problem by using World Machine to create the terrain object.  Still...it would be best to understand what's happening in TG3.

[jo]

Hi,

I did a quick test and it's working as expected. Can you please post your project and a screenshot showing what you're seeing when you import it into another app?

One thing to keep in mind is that if you're using an orthographic camera (based on the preset top camera perhaps) the camera may be further away from the terrain than the Farthest distance setting of the Micro exporter. Try turning off the Farthest distance setting or moving the camera much closer to the terrain.

Regards,

Jo

[rcallicotte]

Joe, I'll try this.  Didn't know I needed to remove the Farthest Distance, since I thought this was just like a camera set to infinity.  Thanks.

[jo]

You might want to check out the docs for the Micro exporter:

http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Micro_Exporter

Regards,

Jo

[rcallicotte]

I had read it and saw this - "Farthest distance: This parameter sets the furthest distance from the camera that geometry will be exported. Parts of the terrain beyond this distance are not exported."  This didn't seem to matter to an ortho view.  What am I missing that you understand?

[Oshyan]

Of course it matters for an ortho view. Ortho lacks perspective, but not distance; it does not change the actual distances in the scene. Jo is saying that *if* your camera is very far away from the terrain, or you're for example trying to export a large portion of a planet and the planet curves away from the camera to a distance *further than the "Farthest distance"*, then it might affect your export. However I consider that unlikely since A: use of orthographic camera is generally done to avoid the kind of camera-far-away-with-high-zoom tricks that are sometimes used instead, and B: the default Farthest Distance is 1000 kilometers, so indeed your camera would need to be in space to have any danger of part of the terrain being beyond this limit.

- Oshyan

[jo]

The default farthest distance for micro exporter is 1e+06 but the default distance from the origin of the orthographic preset cameras is 1e+07. If you use a preset orthographic camera to set up the view and copy that to the render camera then the camera will be too far away and you won't get any output from the micro exporter. The best way to deal with it is probably to move the camera much closer to the terrain.

Regards,

Jo

[rcallicotte]

It was about 500m from the terrain facing straight down. 

[Oshyan]

I think there's no getting around the need to share your TGD with us at this point, if you want us to continue diagnosing the issue. If you don't want to share it publicly here you can email it to us at support AT planetside.co.uk

- Oshyan