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urbanlamb - all messages by user

2016/11/15 1:50:51
TRANSPARENT MATERIALS IN FBX FILES Rodrisilva wrote:
Hi guys

After many complaints about Muvizu FBX importing drawbacks I decided to make a rapid tuto about blender model texturing and FBX exporting using transparency (inside same mesh model).
For those who need help or are confused, Blender remains a wonderful free software. Nothing in life will be easy if we do not try harder.



Indeed I just made something (i have not been using muvizu for awhile it would not install on my system for some reason, but I tried tried again and it worked this time) and it worked flawlessly. I was starting to think that something had broken in the fbx export process in blender, but indeed it actually worked better then previously.

I hope your tutorial helps. I dont know if people dont understand me or what, but I have tried explaining this and it seemed not to help.
edited by urbanlamb on 15/11/2016
2016/11/14 16:09:00
Coming to soon to the Muvizu store PatMarrNC wrote:
I have never found a solution to the problem that an imported FBX does not allow me to choose a texture but only a colour


In my experiments, Muvizu only lets you choose a texture if the original material was applied from a file (not from a color table)

To make this easier on myself, in my C:\UT3\ directory where the toto.bmp file is stored I also put a file for a lot of other commonly used colors (same 256x256 size).
C:\ut3\red.jpg
C:\ut3\blue.jpg
C:\ut3\green.jpg
C:\ut3\yellow.jpg
C:\ut3\cyan.jpg
C:\ut3\grey.jpg
C:\ut3\white.jpg
C:\ut3\black.jpg etc etc

Then when I make my models, I always select colors stored in C:\UT3... because they force the inclusion of a filepath, Muvizu considers it to be a texture, and will therefore let you replace it with another texture later.

-------update-------

another way to see if you will be able to pick a texture later is by looking at your material file before you create the FBX. (The material file is the .MTL file that accompanies the OBJ file)

Here are two material definitions. The first one will NOT let you select a texture, but the second one will... and the reason is because the second material has a file name, while the first material is defined by RGB values

newmtl blue
Ka 0.8 0.8 0.8
Kd 0 0 1
Ks 0 0 0
Ns 64 <--- lack of a filename means this material can only be replaced by a color

newmtl banjo
Ka 0.611765 0.611765 0.611765
Kd 1 1 1
Ks 1 1 1
Ns 0
map_Kd /home/pat/Pictures/BANJO.png <--- filename is what tells Muvizu this is a texture

-----------------------------------
edited by PatMarrNC on 14/11/2016



If you have a copy of 3dexchange from reallussion you can set all this there and export it and it will work inside muvizu perfectly. You dont need to mess with the files.

You can also do most of this work inside blender.

This info is inside the wiki.

http://muvizu.com/Wiki/wiki/125


This site also has the tools you need https://clara.io/
edited by urbanlamb on 14/11/2016
2016/11/13 20:57:55
Coming to soon to the Muvizu store Nope can't use opacity mask with fbx only the ASE.

With FBX you use material layers


I said this above.
edited by urbanlamb on 13/11/2016
2016/11/13 19:55:10
Coming to soon to the Muvizu store
I am modeling this stuff! and I didn't use a cube, the box is apart of the truck, my concern is transparent windows.



okay so you put 3 materials on the truck

1 for the windows
1 for the sign
1 for the rest

I am confused as to why you would say that the only option is to put a sign on the side like that and group it. Then your stuck with a truck that can't move ?
edited by urbanlamb on 13/11/2016
2016/11/13 19:29:14
Coming to soon to the Muvizu store clayster2012 wrote:
So far the only useful ways was Pat's idea of a backdrop with texture then place it on the building, also applied one on a truck object then grouped it together like so.



you could uvmap the truck and apply two materials to it so people can change the sign. I thought you were modelling this stuff? then you could uvmap the cube to add a layer so people can just add the texture to the truck and then the truck could move.
edited by urbanlamb on 13/11/2016
2016/11/13 19:11:03
Coming to soon to the Muvizu store in fbx you simply seperate the parts you want to be transparency by putting them on a different material.

models meshs are just the framework.. you then add materials and the materials hold the properties of the object if you have parts of the object that require different properties then others (such as a light or window) you add a second material layer

you then uvmap all the material layers and texture accordingly place the parts of your uvmap requiring one set of properties on one material layer and the other parts of your uvmap onto the other material layer having the other properties.

The only place FBX is not practical (inside muvizu only) is with trees (although I have made other objects in ASE that are not trees, but you run into something called an alpha sorting bug which is characteristic of using alpha masks which is one reason why fbx was invented in the way it was to avoid the alpha sort issues). Anyhow in muvizu you really have no choice but to make trees using ase because for whatever reason -which I never bothered to decide if it was native to unreal 3 or something that muvizu just decided on- alpha masking is not recognized which is kinda wierd, but luckily they allow ase still for trees.

Anyhow the long and the short of it is yes you can put alpha into an fbx object without resorting to trickery and more mesh and flipping it inside out (mesh is one sided ) by adding more material layers.
edited by urbanlamb on 13/11/2016
2016/11/10 18:13:26
Coming to soon to the Muvizu store If you have permission this is different but you should be displaying it and including a license for display somewhere in the description of the asset.

As a creator I have had stuff taken and stolen from me without my permission and it does feel aweful. Its an occupational hazard, but when someone pours their love and often sweat into their creations its heartbreaking to see your creations with someone elses name on it if you have not released it for such use.

Its also one reason why I sell very little these days. I have been modelling for almost 20 years now. I love to make characters and rig them this is one of my favourite things.

https://unity3d.com/legal/as_terms
Unless you have been specifically permitted to do so in a separate agreement with Unity and except as permitted under the Unity-EULA, you agree that you will not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade or resell any Asset that you have acquired from the Unity Asset Store for any purpose.

edited by urbanlamb on 10/11/2016
2016/11/10 17:32:51
Coming to soon to the Muvizu store well lets hope that textures and models being created by someone else who has not given his permission to resell any of his work is not what is happening (we can only hope)

Pat on the head

Its one thing to once and awhile use stuff with appropriate creative commons licenses and "share alike" and give them out for free if you know how to muvizuize them. Its another thing purchasing assets with copyright and using any parts or textures without their permission.

So hopefully that is not what is happening here. Let's just say a few shall we say 'inconsistencies' have been noticed over time. (yeah i wasn't going to say anything but since its out in the open I might as well say something LOL)
edited by urbanlamb on 10/11/2016
2016/10/30 23:56:47
Making your own game is impossible... NOT! Rocque wrote:


Is this the same platform that Unreal Tournament was made from?



the unreal tournament was unreal engine 1 but yeah its the same company. Not really the same engine at this point its turned into something very different .
2016/10/30 16:59:51
Making your own game is impossible... NOT! Oh yeah there are a few of those operations out there. The problem is youtube is yeah its all bots. Kinda making a lot of work for the users its almost like a "guilty until proven innocent" type thing where the bots just cut huge swaths of bans and tagging leaving it up to the users to do the work of the bots.

This is where human eyes are needed but ones that are not biased .. not that wierd system they introduced awhile back. Unfortunately hiring moderators to remove the content has its own perils if you look at what they pay and how content moderators get treated so in this case I almost understand the bots lol.

Many moderators quit cause they get ptsd from looking at all the violent crap 1 per second they can't keep up so its a horrid job I would not wish on anyone. So the alternative is to go start your own or just put up with the bots LOL.
2016/10/30 15:50:14
Making your own game is impossible... NOT! My motto has been for a long long time "its really not that hard" its people making it seem hard, but if you have the will and are willing to put the time into it you in fact can do it.

I find it fun and a challenge. In many cases what stops people from achieving things is a little bit of avoidance to learning new things or fear of the uknown or a mix of the two. I enjoy learning and tinkering and have always wanted to know how things worked.

Given the time and will you can achieve these things.
2016/10/30 14:47:25
Making your own game is impossible... NOT! I know a few people who have even build their own engine and their games are not thrown together lol they are actually very good and all their own art and coding.

Unreal 4 if I used it it would be to bypass coding and I play with it a lot off and on as I have time. I would use all my own art though and I have a few things in mind, but they are not shooters or zombie games (well there might be a zombie but not in the conventional sense) or survival games or anything so would appeal to very few I think, but again my reasons for making things are to challenge myself and for fun.
2016/10/30 14:40:51
Making your own game is impossible... NOT! oh yeah there are a ton of one man show game makers and some of the games are very good. They do it as a side project kinda like you know some people collect stamps or paint or whatever and some years down the line its done and good enough to even sell.

I like new things to do and have been toying with the idea of making a game, but my games would have very little point to them and be a bit off the wall LOL and probably not appeal to many people, but at the same time the point of my making the thing would be to challenge myself and have fun.
2016/10/29 14:26:38
what causes imported FBX files to look scrambled? Make sure to remove all the extra loose vertexes etc. That being said 27k for a model like a car is too much even if it is a good mesh (which if its doing that when your bringing it in something is not right in the mesh) so I would reduce the polygon count anyways.

Anyhow if its being scrambled something is missed somewhere. Myself I have imported objects 55k polygons, but they were extremely large objects that were basically an entire set anyhow.

A car with an interior you could do in 10k or less. If its just a car body 1-2k is plenty really most of the detail is texturing. The mesh is just a cage to hold textures its not really intended to be used for a lot of detail.
edited by urbanlamb on 29/10/2016
2016/10/29 1:04:35
what causes imported FBX files to look scrambled? okay i am gonna correct a bunch of info in this thread. I dont answer much anymore basically because most of what is being asked is covered either on these forums or in the wiki and I feel people should do some research lol but here goes.

the max polygon count for muvizu is about 65k.
You can in fact get an object to work in muvizu close to that limit, but it must be properly made.

Smoothing also does not cause an object to become scrambled.

The causes of this scrambling are due to malformed mesh. If you have a high poly model with a malformed mesh it will get scrambled guaranteed.
Your mesh cannot have any ngons or quads and you can't have any extra vertices. The way to make sure all is okay is to triangulate your mesh inside the modelling software and then check the face and vertex counts. If there are no ngons and the faces match the triangle count your probably safe to import it. If your faces dont match the triangle count you've either got quads or ngons. Most softwares also have a seperate ngon count so you can tall if the faces are quads or ngons.

The best way to avoid issues is to ensure that you model in quads and triangulate your model if you model in quads your guaranteed a perfect triangulation and flawless import. If you leave in ngons your gonna end up with a malformed mesh if you have too many of them in the model even if you triangulate.

here is the wiki page http://muvizu.com/Wiki/wiki/86


that being said you need to model and conserve polygons. When it comes to modelling especially in an engine that is muvizu's age "less is more"
edited by urbanlamb on 29/10/2016
2016/10/23 21:03:17
TRANSPARENT TEXTURES tonyob67 wrote:
urbanlamb wrote:
you can't animate a group so the solution is to animate the scene around the car and leave the car stationary.

or

your can alter the model you will need to put the windows on one material layer and the other parts on another material layer so that you can add a transparent texture to the windows without affecting the rest of the car

...but you said this was too complicated so the solution is as ziggy explained and then you will need to learn to animate the scene around the car and I believe there is an instructional video created and I think it was ziggy who made it. Basically animate the road texture, animate the sceneries and leave the car stationary.


Yes, I know how to animate the scene around the car, I just wanted to know if there is a way to attach the windows to the car, even if you use material layers you need to have the windows separated from the car in sketchup before, and I already made the windows transparent...so I did it, I have my first car with transparent windows, as soonest I finished 2 or 3 more muscle cars I will try to put them in the store as free asset.

Thank you Urbanlamb



There is a way to do it in modelling and have it work inside muvizu but I dont know if sketchup can do it. (see the trees I made they are all one unit), but if this is too difficult the only other option is as I said.

Also remember the characters wont move with the car anyhow so if your putting a character in the car it needs to be stationary anyhow.
edited by urbanlamb on 23/10/2016
2016/10/23 20:24:43
TRANSPARENT TEXTURES you can't animate a group so the solution is to animate the scene around the car and leave the car stationary.

or

your can alter the model you will need to put the windows on one material layer and the other parts on another material layer so that you can add a transparent texture to the windows without affecting the rest of the car

...but you said this was too complicated so the solution is as ziggy explained and then you will need to learn to animate the scene around the car and I believe there is an instructional video created and I think it was ziggy who made it. Basically animate the road texture, animate the sceneries and leave the car stationary.
2016/10/23 19:03:09
Clara.io - Is anyone using it for 3D modelling? i have used it to fix rigging sometimes quickly. It does work but the projects I was using it were not intended for muvizu.

Its a decent software I just dont like online stuff because it may be taken away from me at any point in time so i never rely on something that I can't keep running on my pc if the business decides to go away or gets purchased by some corporate juggernaut
edited by urbanlamb on 23/10/2016
2016/10/23 15:20:45
Exporting from Sketchup or Blender -- Oct 2016 I use both blender and 3dcoat for modelling (depends on the object really), but the information on uvmapping yeah just watch it on youtube it simply takes practice and time to learn. You can then convert it in blender for use in muvizu.

I tend to make characters etc in 3dcoat and object in blender but i often paint my blender objects in 3dcoat. All in all though uvmapping is pretty straight forward once you learn the principles of it all.

retopology is a bit easier in 3dcoat but some stuff doesnt need retopo depending on how it was made. Anyhow this is basic modelling and there are mountains of tutorials on these things already there is not one specific for muvizu the only muvizu part is the getting it into the software after creating

in my case i put a few blender tutorials up on youtube and they are in the wiki but they only cover getting the model into muvizu to use it.
edited by urbanlamb on 23/10/2016
2016/10/19 20:00:56
3D Coat Tutorial for noobs (for Muvizu) dang sexist emoticons Stick Out Tongue
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