W3D output not working

[3dg]

What version of Cinema? What is your file? Is it a very dense mesh? Lots of objects in the scene? Are you using any plugins?

There are many reasons why something would not export properly using the Shockwave 3D exporter.

Most files have to be made with this goal from the beginning...you can't just take any old Cinema file and expect it to export.

Now, assuming you already know this, can you give a little more detail? Would love to help if I can.

Gary

[grubGrob]

Well the one im using at HOME is PC 8.5 and the one where i work is MAC and its a recent version.

and none of anything has been overly complex. really all basic stuff...

I was really keen to import some 3D scenes into director and control the camera type of thing. As i managed to make a fully navigateable scene with hotspots and links in a director presentation.... very neat.
I managed to work around by exporting to 3D MAX and then to w3d, i had to re skin everything but that was all basic too.

So to fix my problem I have used 3dMAx and now im working on MAYA. damn these 3d programs ars soooooOOOooo different to a few years ago . I remember when SoftImage and Lightwave where shooting it out and Harry and HArryette where catch words. truth is I was always in the director chair... now im working it myself... and its great. even if i feel like i cant do a single thing right.

really impressed with maya, and 3d MAX seems to do anything. Cinema 4D seems a light version of both but i love the use of textures and bumps and the like with the really intuative interface.

Anyway the urgency has gone , but I still cant export to W3d from cinema 4d on any registerd version I have. So I was wondering if anyone else was having this problem

cheers for your quick responce, but its been a big weekend for me.

grubGrob

[rendermania]

I've exported tons of W3D stuff from Cinema to Director, and not even using a version as recent as 8.5 (think it was back with R7). Shouldn't be a problem at all, unless you have stuff in your scene that Director won't support. It runs on a thoroughly outdated DirectX 7 engine and doesn't support bump mapping, SLA shaders, SSS or anything that goes beyond Phong+texturemap+specular+environment map, or simple camera keyframes and lights with intensity and RGB value. Cinema 8 should export bones to director okay, but do make sure you clean up your scene before you try to export it. Take out any non realtime 3D related tags or plugins. Make your objects editable as well. Textures should be square (e.g. 256x256, 512x512 etc) to get best results/performance in Director. The exporter also Shouldn't crash Cinema - maybe its the little pre-save W3D export preview window doing it. Check that your OpenGL/DirectX install on the machine is up to date.

For significantly better performance/visuals and much easier visual authoring, I'd recommend looking at Virtools or Quest3D. There's no export to either directly from Cinema, but Cinema->Maya via FBX -> realtime app will work fine. Director's 3D hasn't been updated at all since it was introduced, and there are much better products for doing this stuff now.

[grubGrob]

Ok so far the only thing i might have done is a BUMP map... cause what i tried to export was really basic. A not very big and not very complex 3d map (a topographical map) with not much detail. and in 3 colours.

what happened was the machines just froze... and had to be rebooted... I just thought it was odd that it happened on my PC and ON the MAC.

I tried with different test objects too... all to no avail. the test objects where VERY basic. Also when im told to do an assignment in DIRECTOR i must do it director. my finnished result was good by the way. A map you could fly thru a topographical map. what was a really cool thing was the panorama picture i put on a sphere around the object so no matter where you where in the enviroment you had a background behind it... turned out very nice... but like i said i exported to 3dMaxand re skinned everything.

thanks for your responce... oh by the way if you did not want to use director ... what would YOU use.... Ive got money on that your gonna say FLASH....


grubGrob

[scunge]

...for where we are now in 2004. Macromedia doesn't seem to care to further develop 3D in Director and there are at least a dozen companies out there capable of doing interactive 3D with authoring enviroments more intuitive and powerful.

I wont name all of them but here are a few.
Anark Studio, http://www.anark.com/
Wirefusion, http://www.demicron.com/
AXELedge, http://www.mindavenue.com

All of these apps have strengths and weaknesses but they are all better alternatives to Director for doing web 3D. Anark has licensed a game engine and the rendering is beautiful, Wirefusion has the attraction of not relying on plugins, if you have a browser that is Java 1 compliant (which is pretty much everyone) you can view a Wirefusion presentation easily. AXEL has the best interactivity and the most intuitive program but the rendering still has to catch up with the other two. It would be easy to do your project in one-third to one-fourth the time if you used these apps instead of Director.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.