Dts exporting with LightWave 8.5

#1 I've seen something like this, and it ended up as no object in Showtools after I changed a character in Modeller, switched to Layout and I still had the LW2DTS dialog open when I exported from there in Layout - closing the dialog and opening it again, then exporting solved the problem.

Post some screen snaps of your settings in the LW2DTS and I'll try help you out.

#2 I got the screenshots saved but i'm kinda new so how do you get pictures on the forum

#3 You can post your screenshots here and post the link to the image that Imageshack provides you.
reg.imageshack.us/

You'll find tips on setting the link on the forums just below the "Post a Reply" window.

#4 Screenshot of first page settings:

Screenshot of Second page settings:

Problem in Torque:
That small dot that you see is the item that I loaded.
As you can see I need help.

#5 On your second screen, look down to where you see a tab that says "export as", click it and select "mesh" from the list.

Each object that is exported must have this done for it.

#6 You need to set the object to mesh... Click the layer, then from the drop down "export as" slect mesh/node.

#7 Yep, like they said - you need to set it as Mesh. Note also, that there is a section on this same tab called DTS Name. This is where you use some of the operations that max users have. The most popular one is SORT::

So if part of your mesh is transparent, type in the DTS name as SORT::Leaves for example and Torque will know to reorganise drawing the polygons in the mesh so that transparent polys are z sorted to render correctly.

#8 I TRIED IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whatever I'm doing it's got to be wrong. I've tried everything but it still doesn't work, so if someone out there is using the same thing I am, just please talk me through it. Thanks.

#9 @Caleb, please email me your object, and I'll make a quick tutorial for you with the DTS so you can see how to do it. Email the object to admin AT drewfx.com (replace the AT for @)

#10
I sure do feel like an idiot now.
After reading through everyone's suggestions, I found out how to work the exporter. So to everybody out there THANKS A MILLION!!!!!

O ya, just one more thing. I'm using LightWave to do all my modeling, which is great except for the fact that LightWave saves textures as .srf files but I need them as .png or .jpg. So if anyone knows how to convert the files just post it here.

Thanks All.

#11 I just logged in and saw you solved it so do you need me to do anything with your object now? I'm not sure what your settings are, but if you create a surface for an object in Modeller you can assign a png or jpg to it. Then when you output the object to dts, just copy the relevant jpg or png textures to the same folder as the dts object.

In practice you map the object with a texture, but don't export the surface as such - it's just assumed that the DTS will use the same textures.

#12 You people have been so great I've been looking for qustions to ask, and I found one. How do you get textures on an object after you export it? I've map textures on an object using paint to generate the surfaces and I included the surface file in with my DTS. But when I load the object in Torque the entire object is colorless.

Posting suggestions here would be fine but a walkthrough would be nice.

#13 Are you texture mapping your lightwave object first? this will be the same texture that ends up on the dts object. Just put the texture (be it png or jpg) in the same folder as the dts object. I'll texture up the object you sent me to show you.

#14 Here's tutorial on UV Texture mapping in Lightwave. This should help as well.

UV Tutorial 101

it used Corel but any package can be used as long as it imports EPS.

I see you are using Paint so maybe download a trial version of Corel to complete the tut.

EDIT: This tut was designed to show a Lightwave7 users how to do this so ignore the key press suggestion for Surface Editor and Image Editor. You may also need to add the EPS exporter to lightwave. I found mine here... C:\Program Files\LightWave [8]\Plugins\input-output\epsexport.p

To add plugins to Modeller click on the Utilities tab at the top of the screen, then Add Plugins at the bottom of the screen. The EPS exporter will then appear under Utilities/Additional.

When adding plugins, always add the plugin, then shut down the program and restart to save the new configuration.

#15 Caleb I can't email you the tut because you email doesn't accept zips. Please find your tut here. I've emailed you the password.

Caleb Tut