TVM Exporter for 3DSMAX: no materials exported

[likedonuts]

The 3DSMAX (v9) TVM exporter does not export materials.

One additional problem with the exporter exists: The exporter creates groups based on the texture, not the material.

This means that if i use one texture for several materials, i only get one group, which of course is useless if i want to apply different materials in TV. In effect, i have to create many texture files which degrades performance.

When exporting models with many groups, i.e. a character, i have to figure out what group belongs to what material by trial and horror. After that, each material has to be coded and applied. If i change a model by adding/removing textures, materials or geometry, I a have to repeat the process.

This is not efficient. It's difficult to create a good workflow.

/Mike

[sybixsus]

Yes, you're quite right and I've found it slightly irritating myself. However, I guess Sylvain ( or whoever coded the exporter ) would argue that other users might be applying the same texture to several different parts of the mesh, and it would be wasteful to have more groups than absolutely necessary, so an automatic optimization is done. This fits with the TV concept of not using more groups than absolutely necessary.

I think the reason it's done on textures rather than materials is because there probably isn't a direct correlation between 3dsMax materials and DirectX materials. I wouldn't personally have a problem with it being changed to the way you've suggested - in fact I would probably prefer it - but that's my guess as to why it's done the way it is. I would furthermore guess that ModelView has been supplied - at least in part - to allow you to smooth out the workflow and allow you to repaint your objects with the materials and textures you want after you have exported them with the "wrong" textures to ensure that the groups are correct. I use my own custom application which works a bit like ModelView, but quicker and easier because it's customized toward the way my game works and ModelView has to work for everyone.

So yeah, I guess all that boils down to "I agree, it happens, I wish it didn't, but I think you have to use ModelView."

[likedonuts]

Sylv is fixing this as i wright this

[sybixsus]

Great stuff.

[SylvainTV]

And it's fixed.

For some reason, it didn't export the material colors when you have a texture ! Maybe because "texture" is supposed to replace material color in 3DS Max.. Not sure.