Help Exporting LWS files

[BjornLo]

I recently bought a LW8 and Bryce combo. Byrce5.01 and 5.5c can both import LWO and LWS 5.6 files. But since I bought 8, this has proven to be a problem.

Modeler can export LWO but not LWS to formats Bryce supports.
LW layout can not export LWS to even 5.6, that I can see.

How can I more easily export LWS 8.x files to LWS 5.6 and/or 3ds? I tried deep exploration, but the newest LWS files just cause it to crash.

Thanks in advance.
-Bjørn

[Silkrooster]

The problem is Bryce is still very old program. Even with the 5.5 upgrade a lot of the code is still old. Hopefully these problems will be taken care of in ver.6.
For now, in modeler you can go to file menu the export, then export Lightwave 5. The problem with lightwave 5 format is that it does not support textures, or at least I could not get them to work. Bryce also supports 3ds, obj and dxf which is supported in Lightwave. 3ds and obj supports textures and dxf does not support textures. If you use the 3ds format you will have to triple your objects first as 3ds only supports triangles not quads.
Hope this helps.
Silk

[MonroePoteet]

There were very significant changes in the scene file content at LW V6.0 (and later). Specifically, this is when channels were implemented, which caused major changes in the scene file format. Although Layout will read scene files prior to V6.0, I don't think there's any good way to "downgrade" a post-V6.0 scene file to pre-V6.0 format. From my (limited) knowledge of the new data flows and advanced functionality availability in later LW versions, it'd be really tough, if not impossible.

It's probably easier to try to get Bryce to read newer versions of LWS files than to get Newtek to provide a "downgrade" functionality.

If your primary concern is importing LW camera motion into Bryce, Bryce may provide some other way of doing so, like reading a text input file with X,Y,Z,H,P,B values. If so, you might be able to convert a Motion-Baked .MOT file into an appropriate format to be compatible with whatever Bryce will take.

mTp

[BjornLo]

Thanks for the comments guys.

on LW 5.6, I think it does support textures since I seem to recallo having used textured 5.6 objects in Bryce 5 & 5.5.

Exporting one LWO at a time via the modeler is worse then no solution at all. Since with any but the most simple of objects, they will be comprised of multiple LWO files and a single LWS project file.

3d studio max, Cinema4d and so on can all export its project files to formats other apps can use, why can't LW do the same?

I need a way to load a LWS and save it as any other format. I would prefer LWS 5.6, as that imports so nicely. I don't like OBJ, since that often fuses the various meshes together. But even that is better then what I can do now.

Is there no way for this expensive software to allow me to use the work I create in it to be useable in the software it was bundled with?
Please don't tell me what Bryce should or should not do. Nor how I should export 1 mesh at a time when I thought I was being clear that I this does not work for any but the most simplistic of items. Just to be clear, I do not need motion, light, or anything else. All I need to import is the entire collection of meshes as a single group. I don't know of any application that can export those things, but wanting to export a complete group of meshes all at once should be do-able.



Can LW in any way export a LWS file to any other format that is either useable by Byrce or useable by Deep Exploration?

Thanks in advance.

[MonroePoteet]

I just noticed under the File=>Export tab in LW V8.3 there's a "Save 5.6 Scene". Might work for Bryce.

mTp

[Silkrooster]

I just tried the 5.6 lws file export and it appears to not work. I receive a bad media error in Bryce and when I tried to load that file back into lightwave, lightwave crash, but it had to do with my video driver.
The funny part is I did not see any lwo files in the same directory. To my knowledge in order for a lws file to work it also has to have the lwo files as well.
I just tried lwo and obj format. The image map does not transfer for either of them. The lwo format retain the channel data, but the obj file imports as grey. If I give the obj file a uv map in layout, it does not import into Bryce.
So I guess 3ds is the only format that transfers uv maps.
Silk

[Adrian@Stufish]

If you really have to export a motionless LW scene into Bryce then just 'save transformed' each object in turn as 01, 02, 03 etc.
load them all as layers into a single object.
take that into Bryce.

[BjornLo]

If you really have to export a motionless LW scene into Bryce then just 'save transformed' each object in turn as 01, 02, 03 etc.
load them all as layers into a single object.
take that into Bryce.

This does work, but what a clumbsy cludge. Wouldn't it be better if Lightwave could do what other high end 3d apps can, and export their stuff in a friendly manner.

For example, with 3d studio Max I can export all the meshes as a single 3ds. Even C4d and Cararra have this ability.