History: Easy Ogre Exporter

Author: Bastien Bourineau / Arkeon

Contributors: BJoe

Project: Easy Ogre exporter for 3ds Max

Type: Plug-in

Supported Versions: 3DSMax 9 to 3DSMax 2013

Documentation:

Sources: Scol projects SVN

Binaries: Plugins

Status and bug reports: EOE Redmine

Forum thread: OGRE Forums Thread

Concept

The objective for the Easy Ogre Exporter is to be the most simple as possible but with a lots of direct conversions from max scenes, and sure to be free and LGPL.

Current Version

Current version is 0.996

Features

• One click export from the Max export menu > Ogre scene
• (DotScene|.scene) export
• Manage all Ogre versions
  • exports node hierarchy
  • exports node animations
• Mesh binary export for each objects in the scene
  • shared or Dedicated geometry option
  • vertex Colors
  • normals
  • multiple UV sets
  • tangents
  • edgelist
  • poses from the max morpher
• Skeletons
  • multiple Skeleton Animations
  • multiple root bones
  • standard structures and biped
• Animations
  • animations from the main track separate bt time tags or from the motion mixer if available
  • nodes animations from the main track or from the motion mixer for each node in the dot scene
  • poses animations from the main track or from the motion mixer
  • morph vertex animations from the main track or from the motion mixer
• Materials
  • Standard materials conversion
  • Architecture materials conversion
  • Mentalray Arch / Design materials conversion
  • ambient, diffuse, specular and self illumination colors
  • specular level
  • multi textures
  • multi uv
  • transparency level
  • material options like "double sided" or "wire"
  • Shaders (CG) automatic generation for pixel lighting and normal / specular maps / ref cubemap
  • Automatic basic technique for non supported hardware when shaders are used
  • export the textures files
  • optional textures conversion to DDS format with size optimization
• Lights and cameras
• Automatic unit conversion to meter
• Automatic LOD generation
• Small dialog interface for a minimum of setting like the Ogre version for meshs, prefixs, directories, and some advanced options

What coming next :

• Setup for quick installation

How to Contribute

Gives some feed back if you found some mistakes on the materials or animations conversions.
If some developers with an experience on the Max SDK want to participate please do.

FAQ

1 How to install the exporter ?

• Chose your max version from the SVN directories and copy the "EasyOgreExporter.dle" file in your max "plugins" directory and restart 3ds Max.

2 How to export my scene ?

• Just select the "Export" command in the Max menu and choose the "Ogre Scene(*SCENE)" format
• To export only the selected objects use the Max menu "Export selected"

2 Witch Scene parameters are exported ?

• The scene ambient color and background color are exported in the dot scene file

3 How can I change the units setting ?

• The units are taken from the max System Unit Setup, and converted to meter.
• To get 1 max unit = 1 ogre unit then just change the max system unit to 1 Unit = 1.0 meter

4 Witch objects user properties are available ?

• Objects attributes can be added from the Object property dialog in Max
• renderingDistance, this attribute is exporter in the ogre scene file, it define the visibility distance of a mesh
  • ex : renderingDistance=10.5
• noLOD, override the LOD generation for the specified object
  • ex : noLOD=true

5 How can I manage the alpha textures on materials ?

• The alpha is used from the diffuse texture with a PNG or TGA bitmap
• To disable texture alpha use the "Alpha source" texture setting and set it to NONE
• To change the alpha rejection just disable "PreMultiplied Alpha" option on the diffuse texture with an alpha channel (ex: usefull for folliages)

__6 What extra material setting can I use ?

• on standard material you can use :
  • the "Wire" option to render your material in wire mode
  • the "Faceted" option to render your material in flat mode
  • the "2-Sided" option to render your material on both face sides

7 On witch material texture should I set my lightmap ?

• you should use the ambient texture on standard materials

8 Witch max materials are exported ?

• The "Standard material" is the most supported and permit to control the ambient, diffuse, specular, self illumination and bump textures (with shader generation)
• The "Architecture material" and "Mentalray Arch / Design" only support the material colors and diffuse texture

9 How can I set the animation intervals ?

• This can be defined from the Max Motion Mixer by using clips.
• The animations can also be defined directly in the track line using time tags (the time tag interface is on the right bottom of the track line).
• how it works ?
  • add a time tag on the first key of your animation with the desired animation name
  • add a time tag relative to the first tag to set the last animation key

10 How can I use the vertex animations ?

• Vertex animation works with the "Edit mesh" modifier, just add an animation key and move the vertices.
• The "Edit poly" modifier is not supported for this case by Max SDK export interface.