Collada export

[Soth]

Hi,
Is crashing like crazy, after 10 attempts I managed to export scene to Quest 3D but then Quest is crashing while loading this file.
Lightwave 9.5, 9.6, 32/64 bit, Vista, Layout (I am trying to export animation), scene is quite big, 1.5M polys. It was quite stable (crash every third export attempt) :D until I introduced nulls and parenting in the scene.

[Soth]

Its me again. Is there any manual for Collada exporter?
Ive tried DirectX exorter from DStorm, is crashing as well. Scene ios so simple. I replaced all objects, now Im having onlyu 60k polys, still crashing... help!!!
p.s.I've removed nulls and hierarchy information, now everything seems to be working fine. Looks like Callada support is not very usable at the moment... :(

[Soth]

Lightwave 9.6 crash, 9.5 scene gets exported but is empty. Is anyone here using this Collada plugin???

[Soth]

OK. I have two exporters 'Export COLLADA' - not working at all and 'Export Collada' second one is working except that:
1.moved null after importing again is in point 0,0,0
2.pivot point manipuopations did not get exportet
3.animation is gone
That for 9.5, 9.6 is not exporting anything, just crashing...
And when importing, cannot this file requester to generate object files open in content directory? Or at least have line to paste directory path...

[carllooper]

Yep - DStorm plugin crashes me as well. Might need to use an older version of LW ...

Carl

[carllooper]

Collada works for me [ v 9.6 | 32 bit ]. It's just the DStorm X File export which is crashing.

Export of an lws scene file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<COLLADA xmlns="http://www.collada.org/2005/11/COLLADASchema" version="1.4.1">
<asset>
<contributor>
<authoring_tool>Lightwave 9.5</authoring_tool>
</contributor>
<created>2009-08-12T16:51:00Z</created>
<modified>2009-08-12T16:51:00Z</modified>
<unit meter="0.01"></unit>
<up_axis>Y_UP</up_axis>
</asset>
<library_animations>
<animation id="Apple_Apple1rotation_Y">
<source id="Apple_Apple1rotation_Y-input">
<float_array id="Apple_Apple1rotation_Y-input-array" count="1">0 </float_array>
<technique_common>
<accessor count="1" offset="0" source="#Apple_Apple1rotation_Y-input-array" stride="1">
<param name="TIME" type="float"></param>
</accessor>
</technique_common>
</source>
<source id="Apple_Apple1rotation_Y-output">

[carllooper]

I tested each version of Lightwave in my archive from 9.6 backwards, to see which would work with DStorm's DirectX exporter.

Thankfully version 9.3.1 works.

Versions after that (LW9.5 and LW9.6) will crash when trying to use DStorm's Direct X Exporter.

I also discovered that LW9.5 and LW9.6 scene files (with only a plain rotating box in them) can't be loaded by versions of LW earlier than 9.5

Carl

[carllooper]

I should add that LWO files from 9.5 and 9.6 still loaded into 9.3.1 okay.

Carl

[toddpickens]

I am not having trouble getting a solid collada export, but I am having trouble getting it with anything but flat shading.

I examined the dae file that it outputs, and the shading model seems to be "blinn" only.

..from the file..
"<library_effects>
<effect id="Default-fx">
<profile_COMMON>
<technique sid="common">
<blinn>
<diffuse>
<color>0.784314 0.784314 0.784314 0</color>
</diffuse>
</blinn>"

I assume I'm doing something wrong here. Is there anyway to control this? i would like the get phong or blinn-phong shading out of it.

[carllooper]

The shading you see on the screen depends on the application that is reading the collada file. The collada format is a platform independant transport format. It is also an xml file, which means it is an "extensible markup" file.

The extensibility of the file means you can write your own shade reference in there, but your destination application may not know what that means.

If you have documentation on how the target app interprets a collada file (what terms it recognises etc) you can replace the blinn reference with what your target app recognises. Or if your are coding the target app yourself you ultimately define what "blinn" means - or what any other reference means!

I know this isn't much help. What application are using to render the collada file?

Carl

[jaxtone]

Wow... I must have missed the finelined parts when I purchased Lightwave 9! Didn´t know that fabolous script skills were absolutely necessary when you wanted to export from Lightwave´s Collada output! :hey:

Sorry, I´m just joking but admit I am impressed by your skills and ambitions trying to heal the leaks of a sinking ship by the mean of that LW 9 will have no future in a world where more softwares communicate without friction.

But tell me this, what about the "import" function of scenes from different 3D-softwares that fluently communicate through the Collada interface... have you mastered that to?

Collada works for me [ v 9.6 | 32 bit ]. It's just the DStorm X File export which is crashing.

Export of an lws scene file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<COLLADA xmlns="http://www.collada.org/2005/11/COLLADASchema" version="1.4.1">
<asset>
<contributor>
<authoring_tool>Lightwave 9.5</authoring_tool>
</contributor>
<created>2009-08-12T16:51:00Z</created>
<modified>2009-08-12T16:51:00Z</modified>
<unit meter="0.01"></unit>
<up_axis>Y_UP</up_axis>
</asset>
<library_animations>
<animation id="Apple_Apple1rotation_Y">
<source id="Apple_Apple1rotation_Y-input">
<float_array id="Apple_Apple1rotation_Y-input-array" count="1">0 </float_array>
<technique_common>
<accessor count="1" offset="0" source="#Apple_Apple1rotation_Y-input-array" stride="1">
<param name="TIME" type="float"></param>
</accessor>
</technique_common>
</source>
<source id="Apple_Apple1rotation_Y-output">

[carllooper]

For what purpose are you using Collada?

The purpose of Collada is to facilitate data communication between otherwise incompatible 3D platforms.

Which is to say that Collada is better than nothing at all.

Collada is based on the assumption that the data that would be exchanged between different 3D systems would be the same data - if it wasn't differently formatted.

But by definition of "different" systems the data is formatted differently.

So Collada provides yet another format BUT more importantly - the data is marked up in both machine and human readable terms, eg. tags that name shading data as "blinn".

Now by "human" is meant a computer programmer. The programmer can read the term "blinn" in the file data and guess that the data means blinn data - so s/he can then implement the translation of that data into how s/he otherwise formats "blinn" data.

Once the implementation is done the machines are in communication with each other.

Carl