Difference between revisions of "Process"

Latest revision as of 19:26, 23 April 2010

Anatatorium / realXtend Export Process

Amira:

1. Select object and check number of faces. It cannot exceed 64,000, although 10,000 or less is optimal. Higher face counts does not necessarily result in higher detail in realXtend.

2. Save data as Wavefront OBJ

Blender (Tested on version 2.49b)

1. Default cube is selected – press delete and accept.

2. If you have a number pad press 5 to switch to Perspective mode, if not, click View, then select Perspective.

3. Click File -> Import -> Wavefront OBJ.

4. Keep all defaults except take off X-90 (this will rotate the objects unnecessarily).

5. Bring in all files that will eventually fit together in realXtend (they should automatically fit together in Blender).

6. In the Object Mode (which is the default) press ‘p’ to see the models problem areas. This is how it will look in realXtend. Press ‘esc’ to go back to Object Mode.

7. Right click a single object to select it. Then in the “Object Mode” menu select Edit Mode. The object should now have a yellow vertex skeleton. If it is dark blue, click Select -> Select inverse.

8. In the Panels bar, select Mesh -> Normals -> Re-calculate Outside (This forces all faces of the object to face the same direction, as they are one-sided).

9. To set the model as smooth rather than polygonal, in the Panels bar select Editing -> Link and Materials tab, and click Set Smooth.

10. Repeat steps 7-9 for each object.

11. Right click any location to set the cursor (the cross-hairs). Do not move this until Step 12 is complete.

12. In the Object Mode, left click an object to select it. In the Editing Panel, under the Mesh tab, click Center Cursor. This will shift the anchor point of the object to where the cursor is currently. Each object has a separate anchor point and if they are not aligned here then alignment in realXtend will be impossible.

13. Repeat step 12 for each object without moving the cursor. Moving the cursor will result in un-centered objects and will ruin later steps.

14. To paint the objects (highly recommended), in the Mode menu select Vertex Paint. Make sure to still be in the Editing panel.

15. Under the Paint tab, select a colour, change opacity to 1.0 and size to 64

16. Paint the object (as it will only allow one to be painted at a time). To revolve around, if you have a number pad use 2,4,6, and 8 to move. If you don’t have a number pad, hold alt (opt on a Mac) and click and drag. Vertex paint will paint the entire object regardless if another object is in the way, although you will not see this in Blender. As long as you paint over the entire area of the object, even if it is hidden behind other objects, it will still be painted.

17. In Object or Edit Mode, go to Select -> Select all by type -> Mesh.

18. Click File -> Export -> OGRE Meshes.

19. Keep defaults. Choose a destination path. Export. You may (probably will) get an error message, “Error: Face(s) without material assignment…” Ignore this.

20. Repeat steps 7-19 but choosing “Recalculate Inside” in step 8 in order to make the models double sided in their final form. Be sure to rename/move the first set of exported meshes to avoid the second set simply replacing the old.

Mesh Conversion

1. Move exported .mesh.xml files to the RexMeshTool subfolder in the rexexporttools_0.3 folder. Do not move any .mtl or .material files.

2. Open command prompt. Type: cd \Desktop\rexexporttools_0.3\RexMeshTool and hit enter. If you are unfamiliar with command prompt, this is setting the directory for the next bit to the right folder. For example, typing “\des” and hitting Tab will auto fill in “\Deskptop” for you, just be sure you have the right folder/file/etc.

3. Type OgreXMLConverter.exe filename.mesh.xml and hit enter. This will run a short conversion to create a .mesh from the .mesh.xml.

4. Repeat for all your meshes.

RealXtend

1. Launch realXtend server (probably called StartStandaloneRexServer.bat). Wait until OpenSim.exe window says “Startup took 0m __s”

2. Launch realXtend Viewer. Login username@ipaddress.

3. Inside realXtend, File -> Upload 3D Model and find your meshes one by one.

4. Right click anywhere on the land and choose Create.

5. Left click anywhere to create a Primitive (default is cube, the shape doesn’t matter).

6. Go the the reX tab -> Display tab and in the Mesh Name menu select your mesh.

7. It will likely upload as an absolutely massive object. In the Object tab, under the Size section, change all the numbers to be the same (.100 or .150 works well). Also select Phantom to make the primitives non-physical (i.e. so you can walk through them).

8. Select View -> Object list. Double click each mesh one by one and change the position co-ordinates to be exactly the same.

9. Done.