Lightwave Models to XSI - How To?

#1

I’ve been a Lightwave user for many years but I’m seriously thinking of changing to XSI. I’ve tried the free demo (which has now run out) and was really impressed.

I had one important question. Is there any good way to transfer LW objects to XSI along with their textures? I have thousands of LW models I’ve created over the years and this is quite important. While I was on the free trial I could get the geometry to transfer but could not get the textures to transfer. I tried FBX, Collada, .obj., Point Oven etc. to no avail. Was I doing something wrong? Is there a way?

Thanks for any help!

#2

If you are using canned textures. You’ll have to find a way to bake the stuff out of lightwave. Might want to ask the lightwave people as this might be a problem on the lighwave end.

Also make sure you are constructing shaders properly and linking the shaders to the proper texture images. (press 7 to acess the render tree for a given object. ctrl+7 to access material manager, alt+7 to check your objects uvs.)

#3

Thanks. Yes, the shaders are all there but it looks like the textures would all have to be manually re-linked and placed. I’ll try baking. Looks like LW’s export is not that great (no surprise).

#4

Hi,

There is/was a LW to .hrc converter, the old Softimage|3D format. XSI can still import it, so you might give that a try.
I used it a couple of times in the past, and almost all stuff was imported. I can recall the import even setting up basic materials and textures.

edit: not sure if this is the one I used, but here’s one:
http://www.dstorm.co.jp/english/plugin/object.htm

Let us know if it works for you.

rob

#5

Thanks! I’ll give it a try.

#6

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