Ventuz can load a entire project from 3dmax or not?

[allen hyoga]

My entire project means including a model(.obj) and all texture file.
I found I do many texture effort in 3dmax, but ventuz only can load obj file without these texture.i gotta do more work on texture making in ventuz again and the effect looks not better than 3dmax finally.it is really confused...

if there is a way that can transform the design result（from 3dmax or other 3d designer）to ventuz to use directly ?
any advice is welcome ：）
thanks!

[Oliver]

Generally Ventuz imports textures.

The thing is , that not all modeling tools do the export correctly. You could try another file format (I´d generally suggest .dae) at least with C4d the export of textures/materials is no problem at all...
I will see if I have the opportunity to test the 3dmax .obj export in the near future.

cheers!

[Christian Krix Schmidt]

You should always tweak your imported models in Ventuz to get the best results. For the best Import-Export experience you should go with Collada DAE format as well, does not matter if it is from MAX or Maya or C4D or SoftImage or wherever. Quite recently I seem to have had problem with UV coordinates with Collada so I switched to OBJ temporarily. Annoying but enough for me. Go with Collada and you will have good results. You can only export/import one texture per object (as far as i know) and basic material settings however. They key to nice imported 3D models is Ambient Occlusion. Bake that, import and apply additional reflections and highlights in Ventuz. That will give you the absolut best results. Done right you can achieve photo-realistic renderings with only a few textures/nodes. Have a look at http://www.glarestudios.de/html/realtime.html for a few examples ... in Ventuz!

[allen hyoga]

You should always tweak your imported models in Ventuz to get the best results. For the best Import-Export experience you should go with Collada DAE format as well, does not matter if it is from MAX or Maya or C4D or SoftImage or wherever. Quite recently I seem to have had problem with UV coordinates with Collada so I switched to OBJ temporarily. Annoying but enough for me. Go with Collada and you will have good results. You can only export/import one texture per object (as far as i know) and basic material settings however. They key to nice imported 3D models is Ambient Occlusion. Bake that, import and apply additional reflections and highlights in Ventuz. That will give you the absolut best results. Done right you can achieve photo-realistic renderings with only a few textures/nodes. Have a look at http://www.glarestudios.de/html/realtime.html for a few examples ... in Ventuz!

DAE... I donot think it is a steady format.I upload a attachment which includes max project ,dae ,and ventuz vza.Help me check if it works well in your machine.you can see they show different between max and ventuz.The building lost many texture in ventuz. : (

[Christian Krix Schmidt]

Sorry I am having a few difficulties with your files. Please do not send or use files or archives which use chinese characters in your files and folders. Many systems still have problems with that and cannot read/write files. This will help you minimize problems with specific software. I had a few problems with Maya for example. Second, do not send files saved with the Ventuz PLE version. Either use Express or Professional files. The PLE version is a trial version. No other Ventuz version can open those files. So I could not look at your Ventuz scene. I do not have PLE.

You did not include the textures for the scene so I cannot help you there. But here is whatI can tell so far: You have to correct polygon normals. Some of your polygon normals are facing the wrong way. Ventuz displays single-sided polygons unlike your MAX or Maya viewport that automatically displays both sides. Polygons usually only have one side and a normal indicating the face direction. All of your roofs of the building seem to have the wrong direction. That's why you cannot see them after the import in Ventuz. That has nothing to do with DAE. But if you have problems with DAE then use OBJ. The same rules apply. Especially for MAX, there are a few rules to avoid problems:

EVERY object has to be converted to a mesh.Use only one texture per Material. Depending on your MAX scene you have to select either GroupByMaterial or GroupByHierarchy in the Ventuz importer. But if you want to import textures then you should not use multiple materials per mesh anyways. A mesh with one material and only one texture. Start with that and work your way up from there.

Chris

[Chris]

Hi Allen

I had a quick look at your files. Both import with the same problems...these are exactly what Chris has already pointed out. The normals on all of your roof geometry from 3DSMax are facing the wrong way. There are a couple of ways to sort this out, the best thing to do is go back in to Max and fix them. I haven't used Max for a long time but in Maya there is an option to 'turn off' two sided lighting when you are modelling, this will cause all geometry with their normals reversed (the wrong way around) to show up black; i'm sure there will be a similar option in Max. Once you have found the geometry, select each piece and reverse the normals (as mentioned it should be all of your roof pieces and some of the floor i think)
Once you have done that re import the model in to Ventuz and you should see your model as expected.

I find that with a model with so many pieces it only causes problems and confusion to import the whole hierarchy from your 3D software (Max) You end up(as you have in this situation with a whole load of separate pieces with strange names, half of them you can't see,some you can, some with textures, some without.......confusing
If you break your model down in to manageable pieces in Max and export those pieces individually, you will find it much easier to see what's happening when you come across problems

My experience is obj or dae files are ok for import into Ventuz. Personally I use obj from Maya and dae or obj from C4D.
When you come from using any 3D program like Max or Maya and start using Ventuz, it takes some time to get your head into thinking in a 'realtime' way. We are so used to GI, Final gather, caustics and all the other wonderful rendering techniques.....but you just have to adjust slightly and work a few little tricks (as Chris mentions) and you can achieve great results in V

hope this helped, keep at it

Chris

[allen hyoga]

Sorry I am having a few difficulties with your files. Please do not send or use files or archives which use chinese characters in your files and folders. Many systems still have problems with that and cannot read/write files. This will help you minimize problems with specific software. I had a few problems with Maya for example. Second, do not send files saved with the Ventuz PLE version. Either use Express or Professional files. The PLE version is a trial version. No other Ventuz version can open those files. So I could not look at your Ventuz scene. I do not have PLE.

You did not include the textures for the scene so I cannot help you there. But here is whatI can tell so far: You have to correct polygon normals. Some of your polygon normals are facing the wrong way. Ventuz displays single-sided polygons unlike your MAX or Maya viewport that automatically displays both sides. Polygons usually only have one side and a normal indicating the face direction. All of your roofs of the building seem to have the wrong direction. That's why you cannot see them after the import in Ventuz. That has nothing to do with DAE. But if you have problems with DAE then use OBJ. The same rules apply. Especially for MAX, there are a few rules to avoid problems:

EVERY object has to be converted to a mesh.Use only one texture per Material. Depending on your MAX scene you have to select either GroupByMaterial or GroupByHierarchy in the Ventuz importer. But if you want to import textures then you should not use multiple materials per mesh anyways. A mesh with one material and only one texture. Start with that and work your way up from there.

Chris

Thanks,Chris.I'll try to fix the model at first.
I attach a new file without chinese and a professional Ventuz version.

[allen hyoga]

Hi Allen

I had a quick look at your files. Both import with the same problems...these are exactly what Chris has already pointed out. The normals on all of your roof geometry from 3DSMax are facing the wrong way. There are a couple of ways to sort this out, the best thing to do is go back in to Max and fix them. I haven't used Max for a long time but in Maya there is an option to 'turn off' two sided lighting when you are modelling, this will cause all geometry with their normals reversed (the wrong way around) to show up black; i'm sure there will be a similar option in Max. Once you have found the geometry, select each piece and reverse the normals (as mentioned it should be all of your roof pieces and some of the floor i think)
Once you have done that re import the model in to Ventuz and you should see your model as expected.

I find that with a model with so many pieces it only causes problems and confusion to import the whole hierarchy from your 3D software (Max) You end up(as you have in this situation with a whole load of separate pieces with strange names, half of them you can't see,some you can, some with textures, some without.......confusing
If you break your model down in to manageable pieces in Max and export those pieces individually, you will find it much easier to see what's happening when you come across problems

My experience is obj or dae files are ok for import into Ventuz. Personally I use obj from Maya and dae or obj from C4D.
When you come from using any 3D program like Max or Maya and start using Ventuz, it takes some time to get your head into thinking in a 'realtime' way. We are so used to GI, Final gather, caustics and all the other wonderful rendering techniques.....but you just have to adjust slightly and work a few little tricks (as Chris mentions) and you can achieve great results in V

hope this helped, keep at it

Chris

Hi Chris, thank you for the clear advice.I do think the model normal is the main problem and I have fixed.
Another problem is about the texture in Ventuz.I upload a snapshot showed in 3dmax and Ventuz.You can see the texture ooks different between max an ventuz.I only adjust UV property in max and export a DAE format to ventuz.If i always need to adjust UV property in ventuz once again ? i dont think so ...

[Christian Krix Schmidt]

Ventuz imports UV coordinates. Do you have the same result when using OBJ? Or only with DAE? Do you use UV shells? Do not stack UVs. Do not combine multiple UV sets across meshes, etc. If you run into troubles like these, start of with a straight-forward and simple approach. Take a cube, texture it and import it. If that works, go to something more complex. The problem is either in the Ventuz importer or in your scene. I am having a few issues with the DAE importer and UV coordinates lately. So I switched to OBJ. If you have the same problem with both OBJ and DAE then your UV coordinates in MAX are wrong.

[allen hyoga]

Ventuz imports UV coordinates. Do you have the same result when using OBJ? Or only with DAE? Do you use UV shells? Do not stack UVs. Do not combine multiple UV sets across meshes, etc. If you run into troubles like these, start of with a straight-forward and simple approach. Take a cube, texture it and import it. If that works, go to something more complex. The problem is either in the Ventuz importer or in your scene. I am having a few issues with the DAE importer and UV coordinates lately. So I switched to OBJ. If you have the same problem with both OBJ and DAE then your UV coordinates in MAX are wrong.

You are right, obj is same as DAE.I readjusted the UVs in max and it shows well.
Thank you, chris, it seems that DAE is a steady format in most time : )
And about the texture, only the hand-painted map can be used from max to ventuz directly...what a pity there are so many good texture(material ball, texture baking...) effect in 3dmax : (