What are the benefits of using tgo versus obj?
.tgo objects are Terragen's official object format, so they will be most reliable. .obj objects can be imported into almost anything ever, and so you will be able to use them in applications beyond Terragen. The format itself is rather fragmented, however, so some .obj files will render inconsistently and not load correctly.
Thanks. I have no trouble with .obj loading in TG2 so I'll keep to it. I thought maybe tgo would eliminate the damned "Preparing Object" delay every time I work in my scene.
you still get that delay with tgo models
The main advantage of TGO's is that they maintain TG2's specific approach to texturing models, so any texturing changes you make once an OBJ is loaded in TG2 will only be maintained if you save the model in TGO. Of course they will also be saved in the .tgd, but for separate object use in multiple scenes TGO is the way to go.
- Oshyan
What is "TG2's specific approach to texturing models"?
Procedural, internal shaders, mult-shader, chained shaders, etc. OBJ only supports base color, image mapping, specular, and other basic surface properties. Complex procedural texturing, which is TG2's forte, is not possible.
- Oshyan
Quote from: Oshyan on June 24, 2008, 02:05:28 AM
Procedural, internal shaders, mult-shader, chained shaders, etc. OBJ only supports base color, image mapping, specular, and other basic surface properties. Complex procedural texturing, which is TG2's forte, is not possible.
- Oshyan
I use complex shaders on my models, I just extract the shader tree from the obj loader and set it up on the main workspace (most of my models share shaders). If I want to use a set of models and shders in another tgs I export a clip file.
That's certainly a valid approach too, but for exchanging models with TG2-based texturing there really is no cleaner, easier solution than TGO. That's why the format was created. You certainly don't have to use it if you have alternate approaches which work better for you.
- Oshyan
The difference is that in my way the shaders are outside of the model package (as far as TG is concerned), and that in a tgo they are internal? Is that right?
Essentially, yes. When included as in a TGO the textures don't need to be hooked back up again. It's much simpler for most people, especially with models that have multiple textured areas and require complex attachments to multi-shaders.
- Oshyan