Greetings!

Welcome to Scifi-Meshes.com! Click one of these buttons to join in on the fun.

LIGHT WAVE USERS, help please

spacefighterspacefighter2 Posts: 0Member
i came across foundation3d.com ( http://www.foundation3d.com/index.php?categoryid=38&p13_sectionid=91)a while back and they have many excellent models including a lot of sci fi ships. now i am a blender user, and when blender imports a lightwave object(.lwo) all the textures are lost. i would assume that, as .obj is a fairly universal format, lightwave will export to it whilst preserving all geometry and texturing. can someone who uses lightwave please import a few of the models( i will specify which if anyone agrees to help, you may do as many or as few of those listed as you wish) on foundation3d into the program and export them as .obj s for me to import. as long as texturing and geometry is preserved i am happy(p.s. please ensure that where the model is divided up into a number of objects in light wave it is still divided up into those same objects in obj). if anyone is willing to help please post here or PM me once some kind person offers to perform the process i will tell them which models i want converting and also we can discuss if there is anything a novice 3d "artist" like me can do in return if you wish. thank you for reading, please help, thank you again.

if you have any issues or problems regarding this please PM me or post here.
Post edited by spacefighter on
Tagged:

Posts

  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    Yes, Lightwave does have a .obj exporter. Though, as I'm fairly new to the software myself, so I don't know about converting. Though, you could do it yourself, Lightwave has a 30-day free trial:

    https://www.lightwave3d.com/try/

    It's fully featured, it just has a 30-day limit, more than enough time to convert a few models. And, if that expires, there's also a free trial of AccuTrans:

    http://www.micromouse.ca/

    I haven't used AccuTrans to convert Lightwave to anything, but I know it can convert TrueSpace models to Lightwave fairly easily, so I don't see why it can't convert .lwo to .obj. Also, it's only $20 (USD) to obtain a license for AccuTrans, which is fairly cheap. (though, I would suggest the trial first to make sure the program fits your needs)
  • spacefighterspacefighter2 Posts: 0Member
    that is a lot of bother really, i may consider it but as i do not have a credit card there may be problems, do they want card details before download?

    still hoping someone may perform conversion for me, thanks.
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    It's a free trial. I don't think you have to enter anything before you download. At least, that's the case of AccuTrans, I don't know about Lightwave because I never download a free trial from them. In fact, I didn't even buy my software from them, I got it off of Ebay.

    And, if you can't be bothered to at least try to do this yourself, why should somebody else be bothered to do it for you?
  • spacefighterspacefighter2 Posts: 0Member
    why should somebody else be bothered to do it for you?
    because they already have the program, for them it is a matter of opening a file then exporting it(i assume, lightwave cannot have too many difficulties exporting can it?), for me it is a matter of downloading lightwave, installing it, opening the file, then exporting. not to mention that from downloading the free trial i will probably find myself unable to repeat the process in a few months time should i see an lwo file i want. sorry if i sound really nasty but please note, I HAVE OFFERED SOME SERVICES AS A NOVICE 3D "ARTIST" TOO ANYONE KIND ENOUGH TO HELP. if i was in their position i would take up the offer(i could model something for them, me and the person would have to come to an agreement, or i could get any 3d warehouse model(s) into obj format for them(i should think whatever software you use there are some models on there you want but just cannot use thanks to format problems)).
  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    ....i would assume that, as .obj is a fairly universal format, lightwave will export to it whilst preserving all geometry and texturing....
    you request is kind of futile - OBJ is a geometry only format so you won't get any texturing

    also the LW demo is tiny, only takes a few minutes to download and install
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    The materials are saved to a .mtl file. Most .obj importers can read those, though success varies by program.
  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    yeah just the problem is lightwave doesn't export mtl (in my experience at least)
  • spacefighterspacefighter2 Posts: 0Member
    IRML wrote: »
    yeah just the problem is lightwave doesn't export mtl (in my experience at least)
    i was going to say that obj files can have textures i can find many examples online but technically they are .obj files with the .mtl s and texture images in some kind of .zip or .7z archive. blender and many other programs export obj with the mtl files, does light wave not do this? surely it must? thanks.

    p.s. what about .3ds with the textures if the files are not too big although on my computer blender crashes if i try to import a .3ds file of over around 10 Mb
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    IRML wrote: »
    yeah just the problem is lightwave doesn't export mtl (in my experience at least)

    Ah. Well, in that case, one would probably be better off using something like AccuTrans. It probably creates .mtl files. I can't say for certain because I've only ever used it to export to .lwo format. Too bad it doesn't export to Blender format, then you could skip .obj entirely. ;)
  • spacefighterspacefighter2 Posts: 0Member
    does anyone know if lightwave will export obj with mtl(have asked lightwave support about this), might anyone be willing to try exporting as .3ds or collada(.dae). thank you.
  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    ok I've just checked and lightwave does actually export MTL, maybe the OBJ exporter has been updated since I last tried
  • charonjrcharonjr0 Posts: 0Member
    I can try doing this for you, spacefighter, but I can't guarantee the results. I am using 11.5. You can email the mesh, etc. to [email protected] and we will see if this works.
  • spacefighterspacefighter2 Posts: 0Member
    charonjr wrote: »
    I can try doing this for you, spacefighter, but I can't guarantee the results. I am using 11.5. You can email the mesh, etc. to [email protected] and we will see if this works.
    i sent you a PM at some point yesterday, details and further notes are in it. thanks.
  • LonewriterLonewriter236 Posts: 1,078Member
    Yes, Lightwave does have a .obj exporter. Though, as I'm fairly new to the software myself, so I don't know about converting. Though, you could do it yourself, Lightwave has a 30-day free trial:

    https://www.lightwave3d.com/try/

    It's fully featured, it just has a 30-day limit, more than enough time to convert a few models. And, if that expires, there's also a free trial of AccuTrans:

    http://www.micromouse.ca/

    I haven't used AccuTrans to convert Lightwave to anything, but I know it can convert TrueSpace models to Lightwave fairly easily, so I don't see why it can't convert .lwo to .obj. Also, it's only $20 (USD) to obtain a license for AccuTrans, which is fairly cheap. (though, I would suggest the trial first to make sure the program fits your needs)
    My complaint with AccuTrans is it does not support .max format.
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    Lonewriter wrote: »
    My complaint with AccuTrans is it does not support .max format.

    Yeah, that's a bummer. You've got to pay big bucks to convert Max files. I'm also surprised that it doesn't support Blender format. Max I can see, that's a proprietary format. Blender is open source, there's really no excuse for that.
  • SebastianPSebastianP171 Posts: 0Member
    I'm actually working on converting these models (there were 18 in the package sent to me), but I'm pretty sure some of them will never come out right due to the exporter not being able to make sense of the node editor (or for that matter, texture opacity settings etc). The simpler files take no time at all, but some of the ships are easily as complex as mine (or worse), and the authors knew what they were doing with the material editor. I'm learning more from looking at some of the BSG files than I was from watching the KURV studios tutorials, and they made the original as-used-on-the-show ones. o.O
  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    fbx works really well for max/lightwave

    you will have to rebuild the surfaces no matter what, but mental ray can handle most common things LW nodes can do, and LW can handle pretty much everything mental ray can do
  • MadKoiFishMadKoiFish9714 Posts: 5,302Member
    Yes FBX is far superior to any of the already mentioned export types. just make damn sure you have permission to convert or make conversions of these meshes. Already transmitting them outside of F3D is breaking that forum's TOS.

    ANYHOW if fbx is used right you should at least retain some materials but most important you should be able to export out ngon surfaces sans all the triangulation mess that obj and 3ds makes. Materials always suffer in conversions, just as default expect none of them to transfer.

    It is beyond me why you did not ask there instead of leeching down assets then coming here to ask for help. F3D has a very large LW user base.
    Each day we draw closer to the end.
Sign In or Register to comment.