Menu Cells
Export -> Objects
The Export -> Objects commands in the Tools module let you convert an object created in SOFTIMAGE 3D into another format. The submenu displays the Vertigo, Wavefront, and Saturn formats from which you can choose.
Procedure
1. Select one or more objects that you want to export.
- Note:
- If you export a NURBS object to Vertigo or Wavefront, it is converted into a polygon mesh object.
2. Choose the Export -> Objects command and one of its subcommands.
- If you choose the Vertigo command, the database browser appears. Select the object file name to export or specify a name in the File name text box and click Ok.
- If you choose the Wavefront command, a dialogue box appears in which you can convert patch objects to polygon mesh and/or splines (curves) to lines in Wavefront.
When you click Ok, the database browser appears in which you can select the object file name to export or specify a name in the File name text box and click Ok.
- For a description of the options available with the saturnExport command, see the next section.
saturnExport
The Export -> saturnExport command allows Saturn(TM) game designers to export a hierarchy of models, textures, and animation as Saturn data in Saturn's SGL file format.
The hierarchy must contain at least one polygon mesh model. Any other type of model is automatically removed from the exported hierarchy, and transformations are automatically updated to compensate for the removal.
Any periods (.) or hyphens (-) in model or texture names are converted to underscores (_) in order to avoid problems when compiling the resulting files.
- Note:
- All selected models must be in the same hierarchy.
- Note:
- In addition, this command does not automatically tessellate invalid polygons (that is, polygons other than triangles and quadrilaterals) or non-planar polygons. If the model contains such polygons, a dialogue box warns you and gives you the option to cancel or continue.
When you choose this command, the Saturn Export Setup dialogue box is displayed.
Parameters
File Name
Type a prefix for the exported Saturn files in the File Name text box. Alternatively, click the Select button to open a file browser and select an existing file name.
If you enter a valid Saturn suffix (.mdl, .txr, or .mtn), it is ignored and only the prefix is used.
Generate Geometry (.mdl)
The Generate Geometry (.mdl) option generates an .mdl file containing the geometry information, including:
- Points
- Polygons: vertices and normals
- Polygon attributes: materials, texture references, and Saturn attributes
- Models
- Model transformations
- The hierarchy structure
The Saturn Export command automatically generates Saturn attributes in the SGL geometry (.mdl) file according to the first three characters of the material name. To specify Saturn attributes, use the following conventions when naming your materials:
| Character | Value | Meaning |
| 1st | S | Single_Plane (default) |
| | D | Dual_Plane |
| 2nd | N | SORT_MIN |
| | C | SORT_CEN (default) |
| | F | SORT_FAR |
| 3rd | O | MESH on |
| | N | MESH off (default) |
- Note:
- Two polygons cannot use the same material if you want them to have different Saturn SGL attributes.
The Model Shading option allows you to include the Saturn SGL shading attribute for the exported models.
Generate Textures (.txr)
The Generate Textures (.txr) option generates a .txr file containing the model's texture data. SOFTIMAGE 3D generates one rectangular texture "slice" for each texture-mapped polygon.
Saturn supports only quadrilateral polygons and rectangular texture maps. In contrast, SOFTIMAGE 3D allows you to apply a texture over multiple polygons. In addition, a polygon can use any region of a texture. Because of this, a resampling process is used to generate the rectangular texture slices. Each pixel in the resulting texture slice is computed from the pixels in the original texture.
The Smoothing option controls the smoothing of colours when textures are resampled. When this option is selected, a bilinear interpolation method is used to enhance the quality of the generated texture slices. When this option is not selected, each pixel in the resulting texture map uses the colour of the closest pixel in the original map.
- Note:
- When this option is selected, the smoothing process might generate colours that were not used in the original texture map.
The Use Projected Polygon Area option controls how textures are resampled. If this option is selected, the texture slice size is computed from the actual polygon surface area in SOFTIMAGE units. The resolution of the generated texture slice is obtained by multiplying this surface area with the Sampling Density value.
When this option is not selected, the resolution of the texture slice is obtained from the resolution of an average rectangular area corresponding to the region of the texture used by the polygon. This value is then multiplied by the Sampling Density value. In this case, the size of the texture slice depends on the resolution of the original texture map.
The Sampling Density option specifies the degree of resampling in texture elements (texels) per SOFTIMAGE unit. The default is 40. Use higher values to keep more detail, and lower values to eliminate detail.
Generate Animation (.mtn)
The Generate Animation (.mtn) option generates an .mtn file containing the model's animation data in time (that is, local transformations of the models from frame to frame). If the values for one frame are identical to the previous frame, the animation data is not exported.
Detection of Shared Textures
In SOFTIMAGE 3D, polygons of the same model or of different models can use the same regions of the same texture maps. The Saturn Export command automatically detects such cases of shared textures and generates only one sliced texture map that is referenced by all polygons sharing the texture (as referenced in the polygon attributes section of the .mdl file).
Shared textures are detected even if rotated or flipped. In these cases, the polygon attributes in the .mdl file are updated accordingly.
Coordinate Systems
To compensate for the differences between the coordinate systems used by SOFTIMAGE 3D and Saturn, the Saturn Export command automatically inverts the y and z values of vertex positions and polygon normals, as well as translations and rotations. The differences in the coordinate systems are described below.
| SOFTIMAGE 3D | Saturn |
| Polygon edges are drawn counterclockwise. | Polygon edges are drawn clockwise. |
| The y-axis goes up. | The y-axis goes down. |
| The z-axis is directed out from the screen. | The z-axis is directed inwards. |
The x-axis is the same for both systems.
Scaling and Viewing Problems
If you export a hierarchy in which models have scaling values other than (1, 1, 1), and use the Viewer -> saturnViewer command, the result looks different on the SOFTIMAGE 3D display than the CartDev Saturn development system.
This is because SOFTIMAGE 3D uses non-classical transformations by default, while Saturn uses classical transformations. The difference between these systems is the order in which the translation, rotation and scaling matrices are applied:
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to convert non-classical transformations into classical ones. When SOFTIMAGE 3D exports to Saturn format, it generates new local transformations so that objects appear to be positioned and scaled correctly on the Saturn.
There are two workarounds for this problem:
SOFTIMAGE 3D Reference - 19 APR 1996