XSI Exporter update

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Sat Mar 27, 2010 3:01 am

Hi guys. I made a few updates to the Softimage XSI exporter:

- A scripting command to export meshes: This is to allow automating the export process.

- Meshes will now be exported with subdivision: Just press the + sign and export. The subdivided version of the model will be the one that's exported.

- Hidden polygons will not be exported as part of the mesh: Now you don't have to mess up the model for the artists when you want to optimize the geometry by remoing parts that are not needed.

- Exports NURBS as well as well polygon meshes. (In progress)

- Ability to set offset to the mesh position and rotation when exporting. Useful in that you don't need to reset the object position to (0,0,0) before exporting. (In progress)

- Compiled against Softimage 2010 SP1 and Ogre 1.7 (static linking. 64bit & 32bit)

My goal is to fully automate exporting and use Softimage as my level editor. I use referenced models in my scene so I can detect that in the script and avoid exporting them as another .mesh file but instead only write their position in the scene file (e.g. XML).

What do you guys think? any comments or suggestions?

PS: Will submit a patch and upload binaries in a few days after I finish the work at hand.

Post by **jacmoe** » Sat Mar 27, 2010 3:39 am

/* moving to Artists forum */

Great news!

progmars · Post by **progmars** » Sun Apr 04, 2010 11:19 am

Oh yes, really looking forward to try it.

When looking for some alternative to Blender (I know, it is a great tool, the problem is - I 'm not so great to use it

), I found out that people have said many good things about XSI.

Will the new exporter support the Autodesk Softimage Mod Tool 7.5 ?

If yes, then it'll be my tool of choice - I have no intention to create something commercial anyway, 3d experiments are just for keeping my brain in shape

. XSI has much more beginner friendly UI then Blender, and as I am more to tweaking exiting free models than creating new ones, Blender would be a bit overkill for my brain. Softimage Mod Tool has some nice templates for skeletons and face modeling for 3d avatars.

Also I'll try Houdini Apprentice, but have no idea, in what condition the exporter is, seems pretty old (4 April 2007). Does it support Houdini 10. -> Ogre 1.7 ? I found an old link http://www.edmstudio.com/resources/ogre ... -demo1.mov, but none of my movie players can play that movie, maybe it is corrupted

And CharacterFX tool would be a good freebie too, if only I had a clear idea, how to get things from it to Ogre 1.7.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 3:31 am

As a programmer, I find Softimage a great tool and very programmer-friendly. And the UI is well designed and intuitive and doesn't feel like a bunch of tools and features hacked together.

The current exporter already works with XSI 6 through 2010. Although I made some major changes, it's pretty much the same except with subdivision support, polygon visibility support, and a scripting command (to export directly from script without using the export dialog). So I'd say go ahead and use the current exporter or ogremax exporter which looks good but last time I tried it it was buggy.

I will upload the exporter as soon as I fix a few bugs in vertex animation and do proper testing.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:27 am

I compiled 32bit as well as 64bit versions:

EDIT: removed the old links. Download from https://sourceforge.net/projects/ogre/f ... p/download

Just place that single file in the plugins folder.

I tested it with my models it seems to be working fine. If anyone please can test it that'd be great. I will submit a patch soon.

Changes:
- Used CGeometryAccessor for reading geometry data. This means faster exporting and subdivision support.
- Polygon Visibility support. Select polygons and go to Property->Polygon Cluster Visibility. Hidden polygons won't be exported.
- Fixed bug when merging many objects causes the bounding box to be larger than it should.
- Added scripting function for the exporter (OgreMeshExportCommand)

polygon9 · Post by **polygon9** » Thu May 06, 2010 10:01 am

Thanks for your plugin.

However, I got error message at XSI startup.
"A procedure couldn't be found library: C:\Softimage\XSI_6.5\Application\Plugins\OgreXSIExpoter.dll. The library will not be loaded."

I use 32bit version, XSI 6.5/WinXPsp3.
I put the OgreXSIExporter.dll file into C:\Softimage\XSI_6.5\Application\Plugins\.
Am I doing something wrong here?
Thanks.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Thu May 06, 2010 1:53 pm

I compiled it a gainst Softimage 2010. So maybe that's why you're getting that error. I will install 6.5 and try it out and let you know.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Sun May 16, 2010 11:10 am

This is the final version:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ogre/f ... p/download

polygon9, please try this one and let me know.

polygon9 · Post by **polygon9** » Tue May 18, 2010 6:56 am

Thanks for update.

There is no error.
However, I could not export .material file.
I tried RealTime shaders for DX9 and OGL.
(Material-DXDraw-DXShade, or Material-OGL13Draw-OGL13Shade)

I use XSI 6.5/7.01 Ess 32bit.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Tue May 18, 2010 7:41 am

That's weird. I didn't touch the material exporting part. I'll double check that to be sure.

I personally don't use the exporter for generating materials for me. I wrote a small Javascript that read the material properties and generates Ogre materials. Then I copy those materials into a .material file. This gives me greater flexibility to use more complex materials.

ben81 · Post by **ben81** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 3:11 pm

Hi,
Updating XSI Exporter is a great news !
Do you plan to support .scene ?
About the materials, softimage 2011 seems to focus on realtimes chagers (HLSL/CGFX) and do not support fix OpenGL pipeline (1.3). It would be great if we can directly export shaders to Ogremax materials !
Kind Regards,

Slicky · Post by **Slicky** » Wed Jun 09, 2010 5:34 am

I'll give this a shot soon. Have you provided the source code changes in case you drift away? If you are willing to share them that is.

thanks for you work and I'll hopefully give you an update soon on how it works.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Wed Jun 09, 2010 6:01 am

Yes the changes are mainstream. Get the code from Mercurial repository.

I have some ideas for further improvements especially when it comes to exporting materials. But I can't tell for sure when that will happen. Maybe a month or two.

cin · Post by **cin** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:58 pm

I am create DirectX material, but it not exported.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 10:58 pm

IIRC there have been some changes in newer Softimage versions. Try dxdraw13 or OpenGL. If these don't work, you can always write your materials yourself in your .material file.

Slicky · Post by **Slicky** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:14 am

I think that the UV's are messed up with this exporter code. I had to go back to the original ogre exporter.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:43 am

Slicky, thanks, I'll look into it. But what version of Ogre are you using?

Slicky · Post by **Slicky** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:55 am

I think 1.7 but I looked at your exporter back when I posted earlier in this thread. After working with it for a while I realized there was an export problem. I tried the older exporter and uv's were fine. I think I tested with a basic checker pattern and tiled uv's scaled but it didn't work. I think there were other problems but I forget. Aside from that I liked the features. I spent some time looking at the code but couldn't find the problem.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:08 am

Will try to fix this soon. I'd appreciate it if you can send me the model that's not exporting properly (or any test model).

Slicky · Post by **Slicky** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:24 pm

I will see if I can find the model. Also do you know about 64bit XSI? I think I need 64bit Ogre build to build a plugin that runs on 64bit XSI.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:06 pm

Once I fix the bug, I'll provide binary libs for 32 and 64bit Softimage so you won't have to compile that yourself. Please let me know when/if you find that model (or any test model that you might have) so I can test on it.

Slicky · Post by **Slicky** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:19 pm

ok thanks but as a general question do I need a 64bit build of Ogre to build a plugin for 64bit xsi? I think I do but it sounds like maybe you've done it before. I tried last night but didn't see an option in cmake for Ogre for 64bit builds.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:25 pm

Yes, if you want to build for Softimage 64bit, you need to compile it against 64bit Ogre. When you first configure Ogre with CMake, it should ask you to choose the compiler and the architecture.

Slicky · Post by **Slicky** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:37 am

Here is a simple test scene. See if you can get it to create a mesh that renders how it appears in xsi.

http://www.mediafire.com/?z8z07d352h3yum0

As far as 64 bit Ogre I am getting closer. I compiled various dependencies. My one missing library is 64 bit freetype. Hopefully I can find and compile ok.

zkam83 · Post by **zkam83** » Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:25 am

Slicky,

EDIT: Oops. I seem to have built the old exporter (which works fine, but lacks the extra features and is slower). I'm now trying to fix the problem with the new exporter and will post again later.

Sorry about the delay. Please give this a try: http://content.wuala.com/contents/zaidk ... 3.zip?dl=1

I didn't make any change other than compiling it against Ogre 1.7.3. Now it seems to be exporting fine.

The package contains exporters for 32bit and 64bit versions of Softimage. They should work on Softimage/XSI 6.5 and above.

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