3DSMax exporter (collada1.4) feedback

Other Standards COLLADA
1

hello colladers!

after some testing of current version of 3DSMax plugIn for Collada1.4,
here comes my small problems&wishes list:

  1. PROBLEMS:

1.1 ANIMATION: TARGET CAMERAS & TARGET LIGHTS import problem:
only the target’s animation is imported
the camera (or light) animation is not imported (or badly exported?)

1.2 ANIMATION OF HIERARCHIES (or groups): SAMPLE
exporting with the “sample” option generates crazy animations for children-objects
[translations seem to be multiplied, and rotations get some weird side-effects]
simple test example:
http://vrlab.epfl.ch/~clavien/TRANSFERTS/animCar.zip

1.3 SKIN EXPORT and HIERARCHIES:
skin modifier is well exported as long as the skinned object is not attached to the hierarchy.
but if the skinned object is attached to any joint, it will replace that joint and get a wrong position
(provoking wrong skin deformations)
see example:
http://vrlab.epfl.ch/~clavien/TRANSFERT … anSkin.zip

  1. MISSING FEATURES:
    if possible, it would be good to export the following parameters as well

  • ANIMATION: curves’ tangents

  • LIGHTS: shadows on/off

  • LIGHTS: shadows color and density

  • LIGHTS: near/far attenuation

  • ENVIRONMENT: Background color

  • ENVIRONMENT: fog (color + near/far density)

  • REMINDER: export/import material-map-amount and double-sided materials; as already posted before:
    https://collada.org/public_forum/viewto … 8137177305

    Thanks a lot for the good work!

2

Sorry about the late reply,

I’ve been holding off answering your post, until the latest version was finally posted: 2.08.

1.1) Should be fixed in 2.08
1.2) Needs to be re-tested in 2.08. First time I hear of it, so I’ll note the issue down.
1.3) I’m guessing this is 3dsMax 8: could you please confirm?

  1. The map amount and the other material flags should be exported in 2.08. I’ll note down the requests you make for the new parameters: shadows on/off, color and density, environment background color/fog color, near/far density, animation tangent values.

Sincerely,

3

i tried latest version of the plugIn (2.08) and here are the results:

1.1) is fixed.
1.2) not fixed. (both 3dsMax7 and 3dsMax8 give the same result.)
1.3) no, previously i was testing only with 3dsmax7.
And current plugIn gives the same result both in 3dsMax7 and 3dsMax8.

  1. DOUBLE-SIDED MATERIAL = OK
    MAP-AMOUNT: yes, map-amount is exported with current plugIn.
    but there is still one problem: when a texture is attached to one material parameter (example to “diffuse”), the color value of that parameter is not exported. But the color should be exported as it is supposed to be mixed with the texture when amount<100%
    could you fix that?

thanks a lot.
regards.

4

Hi Mirouille,

I’ll add 1.3 to our internal issues database, as well.

About 3.2) The export of both color and texture for the diffuse (and other) material parameters, this is a COLLADA 1.4 regression, I’m afraid. I’ll check for a nice way to add this information using the <extra> nodes, but since I’m already screwing that part of the schema for multi-texturing, I might give the option of always exporting both color and texture information for any channel.

Sincerely,