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Model Conversions...

Chris2005Chris2005675 Posts: 3,096Member
A friend of mine is trying to get his models converted, and here is what he had to say...
The Titanic: Lost in the Darkness team is having trouble converting my exterior models for Cryengine. My models are usually exported from Maya in FBX format, imported to 3ds Max, and exported from Max in 3ds format, and then the others import the 3ds format models to Google Sketchup, then, I believe, to Collada for use in Cryengine. However, when exporting FBX from Maya/importing to Max, normals/edges are messed up, creating lighting artifacts (dark and light spots) around various surfaces or openings. When the others import the models to Crysis, they are often further corrupted, having missing or flipped surfaces, or lighting artifacts. It's not on all models, but some. I'm not sure of the cause. I could use some help from people with more modeling experience/know-how, who may be able to convert/fix my models so they can be flawlessly imported to Sketchup/Crysis. Message me if you want to help in converting/cleaning up my models.

Thank you,
Kyle

I told him I'd ask around for him, so any idea's?
Post edited by Chris2005 on
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
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Posts

  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    how about export to collada directly from maya instead of that convoluted process
  • Chris2005Chris2005675 Posts: 3,096Member
    IRML wrote: »
    how about export to collada directly from maya instead of that convoluted process

    I'll let him know...
    AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
    Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB
    1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD
    32 GB RAM
    Windows 11 Pro
  • NanoGatorNanoGator1 Posts: 0Member
    The first question I'd ask is if the normals are okay in Maya before the export. He can check that by turning off 'two-sided-lighting'. It may seem like a no-brainer, but Maya does a good job of hiding that from you in a way that game engines won't.
  • Chris2005Chris2005675 Posts: 3,096Member
    He said, that that'll certainly be a useful feature when checking the normal's, but everything appears to be fine in Maya. He said he should probably use the term "edges" though, as that seems to be the primary problem to him. Some are hardened when they should be soft edges, others are softened, like the edges around portholes and such, or other random surfaces. See this picture for how it looks with the problem:

    398577_10150585044525731_568260730_11348222_504349315_n.jpg

    The problem areas are outlined in green. He said sometimes it's worse. Boolean's seem to be where the worst happens. He said none of it appears in Maya, and it's fairly limited in the Max working window, but when rendering in Max or in the game engine, more of those trouble spots appear.

    He said he should also add that the lighting issues on surfaces (darkened or lightened spots) can also appear in areas where he connected vertices, it seems, or occasionally where an edge was extruded. It's especially a problem in parts of the hull where he had to do more advanced work with the plating, but sometimes it just seems almost random with these trouble spots.

    Here's a shaded wireframe of the hull.:

    408766_10150585077075731_568260730_11348266_75363481_n.jpg
    AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
    Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB
    1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD
    32 GB RAM
    Windows 11 Pro
  • NanoGatorNanoGator1 Posts: 0Member
    Hmm I wonder if the FBX format actually saves normal info.... it may not, that'd explain this problem. He might try exporting it as FBX again but have the setting for 'hard edges' turned on.
  • StarshipStarship464 São Paulo - BrasilPosts: 1,976Member
    IA’m just not experienced as you, but in my adventures importing meshes in 3ds max, sometimes I faced this problem, and it was solved with the use of the somooth modifier applyed. It has two check boxes, and you must switch between them to see which works better. The smooth wonA’t increase the poly count. ;)
    There were times that I needed to rebuild a few components, or weld vertices, or just to rebuild a few faces and apply the smooth again. :)

    Hope that helps.
  • EgeriaEgeria61 Posts: 0Member
    ahh... the joys of multi-stage export & import... We've tried some exporting like this, but not much exporting out of sketchup...

    Its a mess to solve such things, but it would seem to our highly untaught minds on the matter that the advice given here is highly reasonable.

    Reducing the number of programs the model goes through as much as possible is the best thing. It is often difficult to import models into sketchup, and they often require quite a bit of post-import work.
    We've often had models that completely skipped the edge settings when they finally got into sketchup. Chain we've used is mostly (makeHuman/L3DT)>Blender>Sketchup or something like that. Might be that we've been able to skip middle step once or twice, but end result has always required a bit of extra work...
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