Wow, excellent answer, thanks!!
Sorry for the delay, I was absent the whole week-end
-NBC
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Question
What is stored in a .3ds file?
Hello!
I can't find on the internet what is actually stored on a .3ds file. What I need to know is:
1-Textures:
a. Are they applied with UVW map or they support different kind of materials? how it works?
b. Can an object have multiple textures on the same surface?
2-Object representation:
a. If I have one object with multiple instances of that object on the scene, will the 3ds file store it as different objects or will it know that it's the same object, but only repeated?
b. (OPTIONAL) I will be integrating the 3ds files in C++ with irrlicht, do you know if it uses all the properties of 3ds files?
Thank you very much
NBC
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by: bham3dmanPosted on 2009-09-18 at 10:01:29ID: 25367843
Greetings NBC,
1a. UVW coordinates are stored per vertex in the exported mesh and a vertex in a 3DS file can have only one texture coordinate.
1b. If a vertex in a Max file has multiple mapping coordinates, it is split into multiple 3DS vertices on export.
Standard materials are supported for export and retain pointers to applied texture maps. Other materials are not supported for export and thus do not retain pointers to texture maps - however, texture coordinates are stored. Also, composite and procedural maps don't export.
2a. Instances of objects are retained. Only the coordinates of the instanced objects are stored - not separate vertex/texture coordinates.
2b. I don't personally have any experience with irrlicht but it looks as though the 3ds format has good support. I know that irrlicht supports both mesh and animation from 3ds files - I can't imagine that it would not support texture coordinates.
3DS files store the following:
Backgrounds (solid, gradient, and bitmap).
Fog, Layered Fog, and Distance Cue.
Ambient light level.
Subtractive transparency is converted to "Filter" transparency, and the filter color is set equal to the diffuse color.
Transparency falloff settings.
All map channels that are enabled. Map channels that are turned off in the .3ds file do not import.
All map parameters, including UV transforms, Negative, Mirror, and Rotation. Some Map Parameters such as Blur, Luma, and RGB and Alpha work much differently. These values are converted to new values that produce a similar effect.
Mask bitmaps are imported as a mask texture.
When materials with both Texture 1 and Texture 2 are imported, a composite texture is created and added to the Standard material's Diffuse channel.
Reflection maps, auto-cubics and mirrors.
Automatic reflection map Nth frame and Map Size settings.
SXP translation for Marble and Noise materials.
3DS/DOS IK joint parameters.
3DSurfer patch data.
Other resources:
http://www.martinreddy.net
http://www.wotsit.org/list
Good luck.