3D Studio Exporter

Exported Mesh Properties

When exporting a mesh, the following properties (marked with red) are exported for each material used in the exported mesh.

(1) Material name (used in material scripts)
Do not use spaces, use underscores.

(2) Ambient color

(3) Diffuse color

(4) See Diffuse Map (below)
You must specify a diffuse texture map.

(5) Specular color

(6) Self Illumination (also called Emmisive) color

(7) Specular level (also called Shininess)
Value range 0 - 999

 

Everything outside the red sections is ignored by the exporter. Leave as shown.

Always use 'Standard'.
Always use 'Blinn'.

Top Material Level

 

(8) Offset and Tiling

(9) Diffuse Texture filename

 

The Diffuse Map name ('Map #0' in the picture) is ignored.

Everything outside the red sections is ignored by the exporter. Leave as shown otherwise the exported model will not match the model displayed in 3DStudio.

Always use 'Bitmap'.
Always use 'Explicit Map Channel'.
Currently 'Map Channel' is ignored but set it to 1.

Diffuse Map

All the elements shown in red affect mapping coordinates. Obviously the exporter does not save all these fields but it does save mapping coordinates so these affect how the model will be displayed in Ogre.

For other UVW Modifiers, if the parameter modifies the mapping coordinates you can assume it is used in the same way.

 

Always use 'Map Channel 1'.

3DStudio allows multiple UVW Modifiers on the stack but avoid it. Currently the exporter only saves the UVW Modifier with Map Channel set to 1.

Modifier stack - Showing "UVW Mapping" rollout

 

Rules for the mesh to be exported

The object must be converted to an 'Editable Mesh'.

Every face must have a material assigned to it.

Multiple materials are allowed per mesh. Each material can use a different texture file.

 
** CORRECT **
INCORRECT

Before exporting, the mesh must have mapping coordinates applied. If it doesn't, add a UVW Modifier.

If the stack contains a UVW Modifier, either:

  • Ensure no sub-object selections are active and ensure the UVW Modifier is active (left picture).
  • Or collapse the stack.

 

Tips

Always use unique and meaningful material names even if you don't intend to use the names in Material Scripts or source code. Duplicate material names for different materials will cause one of the materials to be displayed as the other.

Use "Editable Mesh" sub-object selections to apply multiple materials to a mesh.

You can use a material script to override the material embedded in the exported mesh. It is advisable to use the same texture while modeling and running OGRE because the mapping coordinates may not match between different texture files.