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Suppose I wanted to export DTS from an unsupported modeler

by Jeff Osborn · in Torque Game Engine · 06/12/2006 (6:21 pm) · 8 replies

Yes, suppose I wanted to export DTS shapes and animation sequences from an unsupported 3d modeling tool, and I didn't awnt to have to figure out what the format of a DTS/DSQ file was without pawing my way through a bunch of hard-to-understand and poorly commented C++ code.

Is there any resource or document or any other kind of help that describes what the format of a DTS file is?

I've got more than enough work ahead of me just trying to figure out the format of the source modeling tool I plan to use without having to learn MAX to DTS, Maya to DTS, TrueSpace to DTS, Milkshape to DTS, or Blender to DTS. Since all the different modeling tools have plugins to export to DTS (a common format) there must be some place where that format is described.

Right?

Thanks,
Jeff
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Torque Owner Cinder Games
#1
06/12/2006 (7:09 pm)
Well... there's the DTS SDK floating around somewhere.

Torque Owner Rumiko Hoshino
#2
06/13/2006 (6:02 am)
There is DTS Node Listing document(http://fosters.realmwarsgame.com/tools/DTS_Nodes.pdf), but it's abstract.

dtsSDK(and dtsSDKplus) is in Torque\SDK\lib, but I'm afraid reading C++ codes(with Max, Maya examples) is the only way to learn how to use it... Or you can try Blender export codes if you are familiar with Python.

I myself started reading dtsSDK just a few days ago, hoping to make XSI2dtsplus. Not even sure how long it would take, though. I assume it's basically looking for application specific codes that extract object data, then replace them with your 3D application SDK codes.

Torque Owner Jeff Osborn
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#3
06/13/2006 (5:13 pm)
Thanks all.

I had the node listings Doc, Rumiko, you can't get by without it when exporting from Max. It's nice to have an example for that first model... The images get kind of blurry when you zoom in on them in Acrobat, though.

I do appreciated it, and it's not your fault, but someday I'd like the answer to not be "read the code". One of my oldest, favorite sayings is "code is truth", but it would be nice to have some documentation sometime.

It's not that I don't understand code, I've been using C++ fpr years, but sometimes it's nice to know what that integer variable MEANS and the DTSsdk is kind of sparse on comments.

Oh well, time to muddle.

Later,
Jeff

Torque Owner Mike Jarosch
#4
06/13/2006 (5:15 pm)
Jeff,

The dtsSDK and SDKPlus are the only way to go when writing an exporter. What app are you writing an exporter for? I have worked on the trueSpace, max and XSI exporters and would be willing to help you.

Mike

Torque Owner Jeff Osborn
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#5
06/14/2006 (3:31 pm)
It's Lightwave (obj format).

Associate Orion Elenzil
Real Life Plus
#6
06/14/2006 (3:38 pm)
Why don't you want to go from .obj->[milkshape,blender,max]->.dts ?

do you lose animation info or something ?

Torque Owner Mike Jarosch
#7
06/14/2006 (3:41 pm)
There is a Lightwave exporter. It can be found here. Have you tried using that?

Torque Owner Jeff Osborn
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#8
06/14/2006 (3:44 pm)
Well, lightwave is part of the deal... I really can't go into the full format.

Having a Lightwave exporter will be a nice start though.

Thanks