DF Modelling Tool: Export seems...borked

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BluntieDK
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2016 10:49 pm

DF Modelling Tool: Export seems...borked

Post by BluntieDK »

Hey all!

I'm about to begin experimenting with creating higher detail buildings for Daggerfall, but I've run into a snag with the otherwise lovely Modelling program.

Basically, the model itself appears to export fine, but the textures exported with it are incorrect or missing entirely, and the mapping coordinates on the model are messed up. I've tried importing into several 3D applications, but with the same result. That leads me to believe that either I am doing something wrong, or that the exporter itself is broken. Can anyone help or give me some tips for what is wrong?

Inside the Modeller, everything is fine:
Image

But after importing into Max, oh dear:
Image

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Interkarma
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Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 1:51 am

Re: DF Modelling Tool: Export seems...borked

Post by Interkarma »

Hey BluntieDK, welcome to the forums! :)

I'm not sure sorry mate. I just tested COLLADA import quickly using Sketchup, and everything came in OK.
house1.jpg
house1.jpg (95 KiB) Viewed 3323 times
Keep in mind that Daggerfall Modelling was written almost 10 years ago. It could be that 3DS max isn't handling the older COLLADA format as successfully as Sketchup.

I know it's a bit clunky, but you might be able to re-export from Sketchup back to a clean .3ds format. Maybe some other converter will be able to do a better job.

Another idea - this below free Unity asset claims to be able to export scenes to OBJ. So you could import models directly into Unity using DFTFU then export again with this asset to a modelling package via .obj. And nice thing is the mesh exported from DFTFU should automatically have correct scale and axis alignment for Daggerfal Unity.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/22250

If that works, it should also be possible to export out entire blocks and cities, something the aging DF Modelling isn't capable of.

Let me know how you go, we're bound to cook up a process sooner or later. :)

Edit: And it just occurred to me - I'll also need to provide some way to correctly wire up doors and interiors for replaced building models. No idea how to do that yet, but a solution usually presents itself. If you can knock up a couple of test buildings (nothing fancy, just for tests), i can look into a workflow.

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BluntieDK
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Re: DF Modelling Tool: Export seems...borked

Post by BluntieDK »

Hmmm...that's very peculiar. Must be something on my end then. I tried importing through Sketchup as well, but the problem was there also. That feels to me like it is the export that goes wrong somehow to begin with - especially because the textures that are exported along with the model are not the same ones I see inside the program either. Thanks for the feedback, and no worries, I'll make do. I'll try the Unity approach you suggest for sure, though.

And I'll get back to you with some models as soon as possible. :)

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BluntieDK
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Re: DF Modelling Tool: Export seems...borked

Post by BluntieDK »

Alright, so I got Unity up and running and managed to export some models. Now the mapping coordinates seem correct, but the obj exporter can't seem to export the textures. It throws up an error going "Could not export texture : Is it readable?". I guess this is to do with the textures in the game not being there as standalone physical files, which confuses the exporter - from what I can gather they are all unpacked from the original datafiles as they are needed. It's just so frustrating - they are right there on the screen inside Unity!

Ah well. I may just have to do it by eye - I can use the untextured models as guidelines, and then try to build something from the ground up, unless anyone have any good ideas or hints as to what might be wrong in my process.

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Interkarma
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Re: DF Modelling Tool: Export seems...borked

Post by Interkarma »

That's a good start! :)

The readable texture thing is likely because I'm setting a flag at texture creation time to make them no longer readable (performance and memory reasons). I've just pushed a change to git that adds a toggle to DaggerfallUnity > MaterialReader to override the default behaviour and always leave textures readable.

Problem may actually be something different (I've never tested that exporter), but hopefully this change will help.
Spoiler!
Setting1.jpg
Setting1.jpg (43.37 KiB) Viewed 3259 times
Are you pulling from git, BluntieDK, or using the downloadable package from below page? If you're using the pre-made package, I'll need to update to 1.6.5 for you to get this change for testing.

http://www.dfworkshop.net/projects/dagg ... for-unity/

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