Objects

[hyper1]

Otter,

I have a solution to your XFrog 3.5 dilemma.  First, I took one of my stock XFrog library tropical trees, the Eucalyptus and changed some of its parameters.  Second, I saved the changed tree as a .obj export with the .mtl option.  Third, in TG2 I loaded the tree as a "Yes" to the XFrog option.  Fourth, I went to the Surface shader and then to the Multi shader.  Its helpful to select the "Stay Open" option for the next steps.  Fifth, this is where the problem is occuring, go to the shader #s that have alpha images.  In the case of the Eucalyptus I have 2 types of leaves.  Once you are in their window take note of the name of the file of the image which contains the alpha image in the "Color" tab.  Click open the "Opacity" tab and tick "Use Alpha channel" and paste the name used in the Color channel which contains your Alpha channel (note: if you have a separate alpha image use that name).  Now when you render TG2 knows what's happening!  Matt is aware of this problem.

[attachthumb=#]

i have spent the last week trying to get trees from xfrog 3.5 to work in tg2 with zero sucess.

i have exported them from xfrog in EVERY available format.

directly loaded both wavefront obj's and lwo's into tg2. converted to tgo and still get horrible looking trees.

i have exported from xfrog 3.5 in all formats , converted (in blender and several other programs) to obj, loaded into tg2, saved as tgo's

and STILL get crappy looking trees.

what am i doing wrong?

i have no prob using the free xfrog tgo trees.

if anyone has a simple 1,2,3, explanation that works for them please fill me in 


thanks for the help

otter

[king_tiger_666]

3dguy, the only problem with using wings3d that way is it doesn't like to open conplex models... and spits the dumby..


hyper1, nice info i will give that a go after my current render see if i can inprove some tree objs i have that don't open correctly

[3DGuy]

It doesn't open complex models? What do you concider complex?

[king_tiger_666]

a few models i have that have quite a bit of smoothing, are really slow in wings3d...  but then again maybe its some opengl setting i changed...

the voyager model from here is an example www.gepinformatica.it/lucas

[3DGuy]

If you have an ATI card, OpenGL might not be as fast. In 3DSMAX OpenGL is very slow for some reason. I've imported my lowres stargate model having around 50k triangles and had no problems.

[otter5555]

"Otter,

I have a solution to your XFrog 3.5 dilemma.  First, I took one of my stock XFrog library tropical trees, the Eucalyptus and changed some of its parameters.  Second, I saved the changed tree as a .obj export with the .mtl option.  Third, in TG2 I loaded the tree as a "Yes" to the XFrog option.  Fourth, I went to the Surface shader and then to the Multi shader.  Its helpful to select the "Stay Open" option for the next steps.  Fifth, this is where the problem is occuring, go to the shader #s that have alpha images.  In the case of the Eucalyptus I have 2 types of leaves.  Once you are in their window take note of the name of the file of the image which contains the alpha image in the "Color" tab.  Click open the "Opacity" tab and tick "Use Alpha channel" and paste the name used in the Color channel which contains your Alpha channel (note: if you have a separate alpha image use that name).  Now when you render TG2 knows what's happening!  Matt is aware of this problem."


i would like to say thanks to everyone that has tried to help me use my xfrog trees in tg2. the above post WORKS i

otter

[Oshyan]

Glad to hear a workaround has been found. OBJ loading and rendering issues are one of our top priorities for an upcoming patch to the Technology Preview.

Object smoothing/smooth rendering is not currently supported but it will be added before the final Terragen 2 release. Fortunately TG2 can support fairly high polygon models (I've loaded an object with over 1 million before) so you may be able to just use a higher poly version to get smoother results.

- Oshyan

[RedSquare]

I also have hit a brick wall, exported .obj from DAZ with material file, but the images are .png and TG2 spits a dummy. I've converted the .png to .jpeg which TG2 apparantly is looking for, but it still doesn't open.  The internal network shows the various bits and bobs but still it comes out black as others have had.  Any suggestions most welcome.

Cheers

[rcallicotte]

Maybe you've already thought of this, but did you rearrange the MTL file to let the first 16 textures match the ones you want to show and then rearrange your Multishader to have the same order?  I have even needed to go as far as reselect the textures within the Multishader in order to ensure they are showing.

I also have hit a brick wall, exported .obj from DAZ with material file, but the images are .png and TG2 spits a dummy. I've converted the .png to .jpeg which TG2 apparantly is looking for, but it still doesn't open.  The internal network shows the various bits and bobs but still it comes out black as others have had.  Any suggestions most welcome.

Cheers

[RedSquare]

calico - Cheers, thanks for your suggestions.  No I didn't think of rearranging the .mtl file or any the rest as I haven't got a clue about anything to do with objects, textures, alpha channels etc. A veritable dummy as far as any  CG program outside of Terragen is concerned and that includes DAZ and/or Bryce.

[rcallicotte]

So are we all...so much to know so little time.   

An MTL file can be opened with Notepad or Wordpad.  You can see the order of your texture files as they're listed there.  Keeping spacing the same, you can move these sections around and line up the first 16 to matter to you.  For example, if I have a male character that is wearing a leather jacket and pants, I don't care about his torso since its covered.  Anything having to do with arms, legs, torso (covered up) can go to the bottom of my file.  Next, I'll make sure the leather jacket textures and the leather pants textures are at the top; in this case, we need to worry about the first 16 textures until this is fixed by Planetside's programmers.  Line up those 16 textures to what you want to see.

Now, after this, making sure you haven't decimated the general order of the MTL file (I'm sure I could), go to the multishader tab of the object.  Opening the multishader, go to each of the attached shaders and reselect each one to match the order of your MTL file. If you have BUMP maps, place these in the dispacement section of your shader and change its value to .01 to .05, depending on how it helps you.

Good luck.  The more you do, the more you'll learn.

[RedSquare]

CALICO - Thank you very much for your time and info' I shall try to do just that tomorrow evening.

[twistednoodle]

I notice you mention a multishader - can you tell when you use this? 

I also notice that the xfrog files come with close up pics of bark and leaves .... what do you use these for ..... in the multishader? When do you use these?

Last question - when you upload the .tgo object and you just want pine trees, is that all you have to up load?  Just the .tgo for pine trees (referring to the one in the bunch of free stuff that came with tg2).

thanks for your patience - I hope this has been asked elsewhere!

[hyper1]

Twisted,
See my post: Reply #15 on: January 07, 2007, 01:08:02 AM
The Path is Add Object -> Surface Shaders -> Multi Shader

I notice you mention a multishader - can you tell when you use this? 

I also notice that the xfrog files come with close up pics of bark and leaves .... what do you use these for ..... in the multishader? When do you use these?

Last question - when you upload the .tgo object and you just want pine trees, is that all you have to up load?  Just the .tgo for pine trees (referring to the one in the bunch of free stuff that came with tg2).

thanks for your patience - I hope this has been asked elsewhere!