Softimage DTS Exporter Utility

Softimage DTS Exporter Utility

I have been spending my spare evenings over the last few weeks working on the automation tools for the XSI... I mean Autodesk Softimage DTS exporter. Here is a screen shot of how it looks so far:



The DTS Utility is a scripted XSI plugin written in JavaScript and should be very easy for anyone with basic programming skills to modify if they choose to do so. All of the automation tools have been broken up into Custom Commands to allow for even more flexibility.

This means that you can assign Keyboard Shortcuts to any or all of the DTS automation commands, you can drag and drop the Commands onto buttons, shelfs, toolbars, custom layouts, use them in your own scripts (in any script language supported by XSI), or whatever else your work flow requires. I will finally be using the exporter to create game content so the refinements that result from my use will get rolled back into the utility as well.

I have been targeting XSI 6.x with both the compiled exporter and the scripted UI so it currently works with XSI 6+ and XSI ModTool 6+. Once ModTool is updated to 7.5 I may consider targeting a newer SDK if there is a benefit.


Softimage DTS Exporter Documentation

I decided its also time for a facelift to the Dark Industries website. I am just about finished with the graphics for the new design and as part of the website update I will be rolling out web and video based documentation for the Softimage DTS exporter. My goal is to make it the most complete DTS documentation available. There is a quite a bit of information on the DTS format on the GG website but its really fragmented and requires a lot of effort to really get a handle on what exactly DTS is and how to work with its features.

I plan to go into quite a bit of application specific detail (on XSI specifically) and cover the things not generally covered by any of the existing purely DTS related documentation such as, working with materials, shaders and render maps, getting complex rigs to export, working with Motion Capture data, etc. I have the documentation system already installed and ready to go, so once the Exporter Utility is finished I will begin compiling the content and recording videos.

Given that Torque3d will change up the Art pipeline in Torque I will also be writing tutorials and info on COLLADA related Torque asset creation with XSI. Given that the COLLADA tool chain its still being written the new pipeline info will be added after the most of the other content is completed.

I know some of you might be thinking "Wouldn't it be better to use TDN instead of creating your own?". I write web based software on an almost daily basis so it is actually a lot easier for me to customize an existing system that I have full source for than to work around the limitations of someone elses system. A lot of what I plan on writing will be application specific as well, if any of my general DTS content ends up well received I will have no problem contributing it to TDN or other Torque documentation.


Autodesk Softimage 7.5

My update to Autodesk Softimage 7.5 from 7.0 should be arriving in the next few days so I am now assimilated into the Autodesk family. Softimage 7.5 isn't that big of an update, mostly just bug fixes, one or two new features and a change over to the Autodesk Flex licensing from the old Softimage SPM licensing. Autodesk is currently promoting a decent upgrade promotion to update and get on maintenance so I figured I'd jump in.

Still lots to do and not enough time to do it all in.