Finding header information on .dif and .dts formats
by Noah Dyer · in Torque Game Engine · 10/18/2005 (2:36 pm) · 3 replies
My artist is very comfortable with Maya, and is reluctant to give into the idea of creating anything, including interior environments, in a tool outside of Maya (i.e. QuArK or WorldCraft). He'd like for me to write an Maya to .dif exporter, so that he can create every art asset in Maya. I'm a novice programmer (I've got a natural affinity for math and logic, but I didn't write Hello World until about 4 months ago).
I'm kinda at a loss for where to start. Based on what I know, I figure I have to learn what information is stored in Maya and how, what information is stored in a .dif file and how, and what I need to do transfer information from one to the other. But I've searched the internet for information on those file types with no success. Can anybody point me to a good a good starting point?
Also, my artist is concerned that TGE or Maya2dts only supports 2 bones per vertex. I couldn't find anything about that on our forums. Is that correct? If so, is it because of the engine itself or Maya2dts? Is there a reason for it (faster rendering, etc)? Have people already written code to enable more bones per vertex?
I have followed a few tutorials in which I've created file exporting and importing capabilities for a REALLY small 2d game engine and level editor. I've also followed some tutorials where I've created a .tga importer and a .obj importer. After seeing the ease of use the engine and scripting language, I'm afraid that a project like this might take significantly longer than coding a full feature game itself ;)
I'm kinda at a loss for where to start. Based on what I know, I figure I have to learn what information is stored in Maya and how, what information is stored in a .dif file and how, and what I need to do transfer information from one to the other. But I've searched the internet for information on those file types with no success. Can anybody point me to a good a good starting point?
Also, my artist is concerned that TGE or Maya2dts only supports 2 bones per vertex. I couldn't find anything about that on our forums. Is that correct? If so, is it because of the engine itself or Maya2dts? Is there a reason for it (faster rendering, etc)? Have people already written code to enable more bones per vertex?
I have followed a few tutorials in which I've created file exporting and importing capabilities for a REALLY small 2d game engine and level editor. I've also followed some tutorials where I've created a .tga importer and a .obj importer. After seeing the ease of use the engine and scripting language, I'm afraid that a project like this might take significantly longer than coding a full feature game itself ;)
#2
10/18/2005 (4:01 pm)
I appreciate your insight. Yeah, I was feeling like it was probably redundant and counterproductive to undertake the project. Still, I promised the artist I'd do the research. Having your answer to back up mine, I feel completely confident saying, "Stop complaining and do it in QuArK." Hopefully he'll take comfort that he can still model vehicles, players, enemies, weapons etc. in Maya. 
#3
TGE supports an unlimimted number of bones per vertex. Given that the same person who wrote the max2dts exporter (which supports unlimited bones per vertex) also wrote the maya2dts exporter, I would be *really* surprised if he imposed that limitation.
10/18/2005 (5:29 pm)
Maya2Map (if he particularily feels like shooting himself in the foot ;)Quote:
Also, my artist is concerned that TGE or Maya2dts only supports 2 bones per vertex.
TGE supports an unlimimted number of bones per vertex. Given that the same person who wrote the max2dts exporter (which supports unlimited bones per vertex) also wrote the maya2dts exporter, I would be *really* surprised if he imposed that limitation.
Torque 3D Owner Stephen Zepp
There is a max2dif floating around as well, but I would suggest you need to keep something in mind: while it's possible to do what you want, it's like trying to use a hammer to cut a piece of a jigsaw puzzle--not the right tool for the job. DIF shapes have quite a bit of constraints and requirements that are required to work within torque, and Maya isn't going to enforce any of them, and therefore even if you do create beautiful "maps" in Maya, they aren't going to get into Torque without a very large amount of blood, sweat, and tears.