New OBJ importer/exporter (exports UVs)

#1

Through a little bit a convincing, I modified my OBJ exporter/importer to now export UV coordinates (it already imported them). It seems to work ok with some caveats:

  1. It uses the COLORMAP as the source for the UV coordinates. If you don’t have a colormap, no UV coords will be exported.
  2. It works for version 10, not 10.5. There is a problem with exporting currently in 10.5 (I will talk to Hash about it).
  3. You have to manually add the maps to the .MTL file. If you are using a painting program (ZBrush, DeepPaint, etc) it might do it for you. If not, I can tell you how.
  4. Last colormap on an object wins. If you have more than 1 colormap on a patch, the last one I find is the uv coords it will use.

I may update it in the future so that you can select which map you want to read UV coords from, but right now this seems to fit the need expressed to me.

You can download it at: http://12.213.91.41/AM/OBJ10.hxt

Enjoy…

#2

Thanks walasek!

I already use this plugin quite a bit to import models from wings and now its better. cool!

#3

I was just going to ask what this plug is for … not being all that clued in yet. So its for going from Wings to A:M? And other prog’s too?

#4

Originally posted by modernhorse
I was just going to ask what this plug is for … not being all that clued in yet. So its for going from Wings to A:M? And other prog’s too?

Basically there are several very common file formats for storing information regarding the meshes and actions of models. Probably the most common are .3ds (3d Studio Max format, .OBJ (Wavefront format), .DXF (???), .X (Direct3d format).

This plugin allows you to read model from the .OBJ format into AM, and write AM models out to the .OBJ format. This makes it easier to transfer models between the different applications (most apps can’t read AM’s native model format).

It is most useful (in my opinion) for modelling in AM, exporting to .OBJ (with UV coords), and using a painting program (like DeepPaint, ZBrush,etc) to paint textures, bumpmaps, specularmaps, etc on the model. Then just use those maps in AM…

There are of course other uses: Getting a lot of premade objects into AM (from .OBJ, .DXF, and .3Ds - there are tons out there), Uses for game engines - especially with the .X export, etc…

Hope that helps

#5

Walasek -
Yes it did. Thanks very much for the information. Oh and thanks also for the work on the plugin, even though I don’t use it - YET. :stuck_out_tongue:

#6

I tried installing this in to the hxt folder in 10n but it doesn’t work. I’ve checked everywhere for “import obj”, (under Wizards, Import, etc,) but it doesn’t show up anywhere. Strange!

#7

Originally posted by My Fault
I tried installing this in to the hxt folder in 10n but it doesn’t work. I’ve checked everywhere for “import obj”, (under Wizards, Import, etc,) but it doesn’t show up anywhere. Strange!

Look under plugins->

#8

Yeah, not there.

What’s weird is if I take out the new obj10.hxt and put your the last version in, it shows up fine. For some reason I am only having difficulty with your latest version and v10n on my computer.

Strange!

#9

My Fault -

I would download it again. Maybe you got a bad download and it is not recognizing it as a “true” hxt file.

#10

I’m having the same trouble. I’ve downloaded a couple of times and it’s not showing up at all.

#11

I will try it out under 10.0n…

Maybe something changed…

#12

Ok, I just tested my latest version against 10.0n and 10.0m (both the dongle and CD versions). Everything is working fine. I even deleted my 10.0 installation and installed fresh, and using my web browser to download the obj10.hxt plugin. It works. So there must be something else wrong, either a corrupted download - that is cached, or some sort of system thing that is not appearing on my system. The file size of obj10.hxt should be 229k (233,552 bytes size/233,984 bytes on disk). You should be able to rt click on the hxt file and goto Properties to see relevant information.

If you don’t have this size, or suspect a corrupted download: Clear your browser’s cache and download again.

This is PC only, and my system specs are:
P4 600 Mhz Intel
Windows 2000 Professional SP (whatever is the latest)
384M memory
GeForce 4 Ti4200 (with the very latest drivers)

Make sure you put the obj10.hxt in the HXT subdirectory…

#13

OK, I uninstalled all occurences of Animation Master off of my computer. I then went through my registry and removed anything that was Hash, Inc. and then shut down. Once I started up again I installed AM v10n. I doublechecked my obj10.hxt and made sure it was the same file siz as you mentioned, it was. I placed the obj10.hxt file in to the hxt directory. I started up AMv10 and the obj plugin was still missing. I rebooted and retried, same outcome, the new hxt doesn’t show. Just for the heck of it I removed the obj10.hxt and put in your last obj.hxt, which worked perfectly.

Here is the OBJ10.hxt that I have been using. Can you see if this one works for you? If it doesn’t, that would mean the obj10.hxt I have is corrupted. If it does work then maybe there is something on your machine that you have that I do not. Is the machine you use the one you developed the plugin on?

I appreciate you taking the time to sort this out

#14

I’ve done the same thing as MyFault and same result. This thought occured to me. I’m on Windows XP home edition. Any chance that’s the cause?

Sean

#15

Woops, forgot to mention, I’m on:

P4 2.53Ghz Mhz Intel
Windows 2000 Professional SP (whatever is the latest)
1024MB memory
GeForce 4 Ti4200 (with the very latest drivers)

#16

I just tried your version, and it works… hmmm…

Did you use the OBJ10.hxt with 10.0m or earlier versions? If so, did it work? Yes, I am using it on the same machine that I developed it on. I can try a different machine, but most have my development environment on them.

What could be happening is that hash (in the 10.0n install) updated one of the msvc dll’s. It wouldn’t install on my machine, since I have the latest and greatest, but it might on yours. That might cause the problems, but I can’t see why an earlier version of the plugin would work…

I will try to test with a different computer, and also try to find the corresponding dll’s that are needed. Did you try installing the v10stuff.exe file from the hash ftp site?

Very strange…

#17

walasek
I tried to import obj files as props directly into the choe, but if I attach maps or anything it directly crashes, should your plugin also work for that, because I think it’s a great thing to import and use as original polygon models for excample for background images, but if I cant import textures or so and only can render it with a white texture I can’ use is…
thanks for replay…!

#18

Pablo,

Could you send me the model & maps that cause it to crash. Also, what program created the OBJ file in the first place? Please send em to awalasek@attbi.com…

thx…

#19

Installed the v10stuff.exe and it still doesn’t show. Maybe I’ll see if I can update the msvc dll’s and see if that fixes anything.

#20

I may know what the problem is. I compiled this newer version in debug mode - that what was up there on my website. I put a newer version (one that is compiled in release mode) up there now.

Go ahead and download the OBJ10.hxt file again - should be smaller this time (around 96kb). Just delete the bigger 229kb version and put this one in its place.

The older one might need the microsoft debugging dll’s which most people dont have. That could be the cause…

Let me know if it works now… (sorry for the problems).