Problem with Maya exporter?

Hi,

I made a bunch of sculpties using Maya (16x16 surface and made of deformed spheres - I used lattices to deform the spheres) and they are not exporting properly.

Out of 9 objects, only 3 exported correctly in terms of their shape. I set the exporter to bake surface textures and export them too, but all the surface textures were black. I used a 2d projection and interactive placement to place the textures on the surfaces in question.

I read that there was a problem with the exporter (I am happy to import/assemble manually) - is that true, or is it a problem with my sculpties?

(The ones that exported were really detailed shapes all formed using a lattice - the ones that did not export/import properly were really simple in comparison).

Thanks -2fast

Are these polygonal surfaces or NURBS surfaces? The Maya sculpty exporter is optimized for NURBS. It's not very exact with polygons. If you've been using polys, I'd highly recommend you start over with NURBS.

Assuming you're using NURBS already, then the most common reason for shapes not to export correctly is if you've forgotten to remove history and transformations first. Before you export, do the following:

1. Select all objects you plan to export.

2. Edit -> Delete by type -> History

3. Modify -> Freeze transformations

4. Modify -> Reset transformations

5. Edit -> Delete by type -> History

If you don't do all of those things, your sculpties will usually come out messed up.

Note, deleting history will make your deformers disappear, so make sure you've got your objects shaped exactly the way you want them before you do it.



If this is happening, it's probably because of one or more of the following:

1. You don't have any lights in your scene. This one's pretty easy to figure out. Did you create any lights? If not, then you don't have any. Create some.

-OR-

2. You have lights, but they're badly set up. Make sure your lights are actually illuminating your surfaces. For example, if they're spotlights, are they pointing towards the surfaces or away from them? If they have falloff enabled, are they positioned close enough to the surfaces that the light rays reach them before they die off? Are they colored something other than black? Etc.

-AND/OR-

3. Your surfaces are inside out. You need your normals point outward. If they're pointing inward, then light won't be able to reflect off the surfaces, and they'll end up black. To see which way the normals are pointing, select a surface, and then click Display -> NURBS -> Normals (Shaded Mode). Your surface should now look pretty much like a pincushion, with lines sticking out of it. If the lines are extending not outward, but inward toward the center of the sphere, then you need to reverse the surface (Edit NURBS -> Reverse Surface Direction). Note, reversing surfaces can mess with your texturing, but since you're using projections, that shouldn't be an issue.

-AND/OR-

4. Your shader networks are not correctly set up. Your projections are not properly connected to your shader materials' input channels, and the materials' coloring is actually black. Graph your shaders in the Hypershade to make sure everything's as it should be.



There is currently a problem with automated assembly, but the exporter itself works just fine. Hand assembly is the most reliable way to go right now. You can play with the available auto-assemblers if you want, but you may end up with misplaced objects.



One of the LibSL guys has a fix in the works for auto-assembly. I've used an early version of his new assembler, and it works very well. He's asked me not to distribute it yet, though. Apparently there are some things he wants to add/clean up before it goes public. No ETA, sorry. Hopefully it won't be too much longer.

I would have done this in PM. But you're still a pariah to LL
Could you send me any possible information on this new autoassembler? Or the name of the person/avie working on it. I would be very interested in any updates in this field.

Thank you, Chosen, for taking the time to write such a detailed reply.

I am using NURBS and the problem was with lighting - I was looking at the render and forgot to add a light (so embarrassed). So, the export works now

I also followed the steps you outlined to delete the construction history and freeze transformations. I ended up with sculpties that were missing a some detail, but I think that happened because I set the number of spans too low at 16 x 16 instead of 32x32 (or is it 32x31).

One followup question I have about exporting is about projected textures. Since only one side of the model is visible, the back of the model is not lit (maybe not even rendered). Am I correct in assuming that if I want my object to be textured evenly (all over it) that my only choice is to place the texture as a normal 2d texture instead of as a projection? In that case, I'd have to edit the UV map to get the effect I want - is that right?

Regards -2fast

There's no absolute rule for how many sections and spans you can or can't have in your source model, but I almost always go with 16x15. I have yet to have a sculpty lose any detail from that.


You can't really edit the UV's of NURBS, so that option is out. And even if you could, you wouldn't want to, since it would make for screwed up sculpties. Remember, sculpties need a perfectly uniform UV layout.

As for your texturing options, that all depends on the shape of your model, and the kind of effect you're trying to create. Cylindrical, spherical, and planar projections are great, SOMETIMES. And regular 2D textures work well, SOMETIMES. So do 3D textures, SOMETIMES. There's no universal answer.

Also, keep in mind that even within a single shader, you're not limited to just one option. Your color channel might be a projection, while at the same time, your bump channel might be a 3D texture (I use volume noise quite often for bumps), and your specularity channel might be a 2D texture. Or any other combination you could think of.

Thank you again, Chosen! I'll try some of your suggestions and see how it goes - I am looking forward to finally getting some of my sculpties in-world

-2fast