new content exporters??

#1 Collada is an open standard that should in theory expand the number of tools that can be used for torque simply because torque specific exporters shouldnt be needed.

That being said i'd love to see some of the clever people post something that would help us integrate different 3d files, ms .x for example

#2

Quote:Collada is an open standard that should in theory expand the number of tools that can be used for torque simply because torque specific exporters shouldnt be needed.

you tried exporting a character with collada?
even Tom Spilman said for characters it would be best to export as DTS.
using the ancient exporters??

#3 Ancient exporters? Wouldn't that be a guy chiseling the model out of marble? :D

Collada's not Torque related, the exporter is in the "export" selection of any/most modeling apps.

Nothing wrong with the Blender DTS exporters, and I'm not using the most modern version.

#4 The beauty of supporting Collada is that it is one of the few formats out there that almost every 3D application on the planet can natively do. On top of that this also means that each application developer is responsible for creating and maintaining their Collada support. The only catch of course is keeping up to date with the ever changing Collada specs, but thats a hell of a lot easier than trying to write plugins for every application on the market that indies choose to use. As such from an end user perspective all you really need to do is ensure that you are trying to work with the latest exporters available for your 3D app.

With regards to new DTS tools, I know GG has a guy whose sole job it is now to make these tools and upgrade them, so hopefully we will see the fruits from this labor soon. Though I do believe (and let GG confirm or deny this) that DTS support will only officially be for a certain few select applications that are both easy to support and used frequently enough to make it worthwhile. Applications outside that list will need to be maintained still by community/volunteer efforts.

#5

Quote:even Tom Spilman said for characters it would be best to export as DTS.

I did?

Quote:where are the collada exporters??

There isn't a specific Collada exporter for Torque... Torque imports Collada DAE files directly.

Quote:where are the new DTS exporters??

There are no new DTS exporters. Hopefully the old ones are burried in steel box and covered over with concrete... with luck you'll never see them again.

#6 I know that I have said that DTS is still probably best for Character work (since I havent seen anything in Collada that can replicate everything that the DTS/DSQ can do).

#7 I believe it was Matt Fairfax who said it was probably best to continue using .dts/.dsq for animated characters.

Quote:There are some challenges with Collada because it doesn't have the same "NeverExport" masking capability that the DTSDSQ exporter has. With careful construction of your model this shouldn't bother you.

In general, it is far easier to use Collada for static geometry than it was to use the DTS exporters.

For animated characters, I would still say that you are going to get better results with the DTS exporters if you take the time to learn the ins and outs of it.

#8 and so, the answer is?

#9 I just exportet a character in Maya 2k8 and imported into T3D without much problems (beside being a noob at that exporter), and it seemed to work fine.

So, with chance of sounding dumb, what do you need a "new" one for (what is the so called "new" thing supposed to be in the DTS format ?) :)

#10 @Bo

Well various items are broken in the DTS exporters and they dont support the T3D DTS options of the 2nd UVW channel and things like that.

#11 Just out of curiosity, what's broken in the DTS exporters? I haven't had any issues with them in T3D, but I haven't gotten to the more complex issues like exporting rigged, animated characters.