How to use the 3DS exporter
Please read 'install.txt' for information on
how to install the exporter.
Features of the exporter:
- exports meshes
- exports bones, vertex assignements and bones animation, using the
skin modifier
- exports .material files, however you are
better to use an OGRE .material script
to define them, since you can then use the full OGRE material
properties.
- exports everything to XML, which allows you to review or alter
the exported details if you wish. The XML must be converted to OGRE
binary format using XMLConverter before runtime use.
How to use
it
- In the 'Ogre Tools' toolbar, click the 'Export to OGRE' button
- Click the 'Select A Mesh' button and pick the mesh you wish to
export
- Tick the'Export Mesh' checkbox if you want to export the geometry
of the object
- Tick the 'Export Skeleton' box if you want to export the skeleton
and animations. Specify the name you want to give the animation, the
range and duration.
- Specify an output file name which will be used as a base for all
exported files
- Click 'Export'
This will create XML files called <outputfile>.mesh.xml and
<outputfile>.skeleton.xml. The former contains the geometry,
material links and bone assignments, the latter contains the definition
of the skeleton and the animation which was exported. Note that it is
possible to have more than one animation for the skeleton in the same
skeleton file, all you have to do is export the animations to separate
files, and combine the extra animations in one XML file by adding the
<animation> node and all it's children to the one
<animations> node on the combined file, with a text editor.
Converting
XML to binary files
Once you're happy with the files, you need to convert them to OGRE's
binary formats to use them at runtime (XML is too inefficient to use
for
large data structures like meshes at runtime).
To do this, you need to use the XMLConverter tool, provided in the Ogre
source tree under ogrenew/Tools/XMLConverter, or available as a
precompiled binary if required. Simply run:
XMLConverter <xml filename>
.. on both the .mesh.xml and .skeleton.xml files, and XMLConverter will
produce .mesh and .skeleton binary files out of the XML. These can then
be placed into your OGRE resource locations for runtime use.
More
information and tutorials
In samples directory, you can found 4 max files which show exporter
features.
Even if standard Ogre maps have been chosen, you may have to specify
where are the bitmaps in the material editor.
But before using these examples, please read the 2 tutorials you can
found here.
The OGRE team would like to thank Etienne 'earthquakeProof' Mallard for
developing this exporter.