object format

[Thejazzshadow]

I was looking at buying some xfrog plants. What is the difference between tgo and obj formats? Is one better than the other?

[Oshyan]

TGO is a Terragen native object format that allows Terragen-specific texturing and other node data to be included in the file. OBJ is a much more widely supported standard. Terragen 2 can load both object types, but TGOs are more guaranteed compatible. The advantage of OBJs is they could be loaded into other applications, while TGOs are only supported in Terragen 2.

- Oshyan

[Thejazzshadow]

Does the tree frog software export/import tgo objects?

[TheBlackHole]

I think you import as OBJ, then, for your own use, export as TGO after making your new shaders.

[Oshyan]

Xfrog software exports OBJ format objects. The TG2 OBJ reader is optimized for working with Xfrog objects.

- Oshyan

[cdicthomas]

Oshyan what happens if you answer yes to the prompt "Is this obj from XFrog" when adding .obj reader objects that are not from XFrog.  I have been coverting some of my models using 3ds Max to obj file format but the mapping path info doesn't seem to be importing into TG2 properly. I'm sure it's something that I am doing, but I just seem to import white non-mapped meshes with no texture coloring.  Could you describe the relationship between the "MyObject.obj" file the associated .mtl file and more importantly where should the image maps be located that are creating the surface textures? Thanks.

CT

[jo]

Hi,

If you answer yes to that prompt it converts dimensions and orientations plus makes a few tweaks to the appearance of certain specially named groups in the file. I don't think it's anything to do with your problem.

You need to make sure that the path to the MTL file specified in the OBJ file doesn't have any spaces in it. That's the biggest problem people come across. If your software lets you set that then check that, otherwise open the OBJ file in a text editor and look for a line which starts with "mtllib". It works best if the MTL file is in the same folder as the OBJ file and the MTL file doesn't have any spaces in its name. I don't think the locations of the images should be any problem.

Regards,

Jo

[TheBlackHole]

Go into the internal network of the object. Then go into the internal network of the parts shader. There are your materials. Edit each one to point to the texture file, then export as a TGO. Your maps are in the object and will only disappear if they're deleted.

[cdicthomas]

Thanks TheBlackHole and Jo.  I will give it a try and get rid of spaces in the file name.  I will let you know if that fixed the problems.

CT

[Thelby]

Go into the internal network of the object. Then go into the internal network of the parts shader. There are your materials. Edit each one to point to the texture file, then export as a TGO. Your maps are in the object and will only disappear if they're deleted.

Be prepared to Work for what you get. I just converted some 180 X-Frog plants that were in .MAX format to .OBJ format and I am now in the process to convert them to .TGO. Some of the plants have more than 20 parts, but I, like you had problems with the .MLT finding the correct texture map because 3DS Max wants to create it's own color file on Export and it confusses TG2 and other 3D apps I am converting the objects to, that is even with No Spaces being in the file names. So in this case it is not TG2's fault.
I said "NO" to the plants being X-Frog after finding it was easier to do this.

[pfrancke]

I hope I'm not too off target on this, but I'll share my workflow hoping it is useful (and to be corrected if someone should know those things that I don't).

This is for DAZStudio3 object exports.
1)  Edit the mtl file and replace "/Maps/" with "Maps/"
2)  Edit mtl looking for jpg and basically putting a line feed behind each jpg - making it easier to look at
3)  load obj into tg2
4)  for each material in tg2 I verify that the mtl items are:
     a)  map_Kd  into "color image"
     b)  map_Ks  into "reflectivity image"
     c)  map_Bump into "displacement image"
     d)  map_D into "opacity image"
5)  Then while still in tg2 I right click on obj and save it as a tgo
6)  I delete the obj (taking note of position and rotation)
7)  add it back in as a tgo file.