Collada

[Toronto]

Is anyone working on a pluggin to import/export the Collada file format which is now considered an industry standard format.

[Mossie]

This is already in the latest version, without animation, as AC3D doesn't have this feature.

[Toronto]

Thanks Mossie,
I did not see Collada listed on the features page which lists the other import/export files.

http://www.inivis.com/features.html

[Gus]

I did test it with the "Blue Mars" project that uses Collada, but sadly AC3D failed the test, so it needs fixing/updating.

However, Unwrap3d Pro did pass the Collada test. Tested Milkshape3D's Collada and it passed compatibility...

For your information here's link address to Blue Mars project:
http://www.bluemarsonline.com/

[Mossie]

So which part of the test did it fail?

Any indications would be useful for Andy to fix, if it is not to do with animation.

[Gus]

Failed to import; mesh cannot be found.......

<bmImportCmd> log start, file"C:\Blue Mars Tools\Developer\Game\Objects\MyData\ac3dcrate\ac3dcrate.log"
bmImportCmd v3.6.0 : 19 June 2009

Command line:
 bmImportCmd.exe -log -autoProxy -useFauxMap -fauxMapFilePath textures/ar/Common/ar_solid_255_255_255_diffuse.dds -mtl -texturePath objects/mydata/ac3dcrate/ C:\Blue Mars Tools\Developer\Game\Objects\MyData\ac3dcrate\ac3dcrate.dae C:\Blue Mars Tools\Developer\Game\Objects\MyData\ac3dcrate\ac3dcrate.cgf

Progress:
--> Executing name fix pass.
--> Executing triangulator.
--> Executing check pass.
  ERROR : checkPassFn() : No valid mesh geometry found, ..\ColladaCry\check.cpp
  ERROR : processSceneGraph() : Process function failed, ..\ColladaCry\process.cpp
  ERROR : main() : Data check failed, .\main.cpp
--> Aborting.
<bmImportCmd> log ends

Originally Posted by mossie

so which part of the test did it fail?

Any indications would be useful for andy to fix, if it is not to do with animation.

[epatel]

I have used Blender successfully to convert Collada to AC3D

http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/features/

[Andy]

Don't assume that it's AC3D's Collada output at fault here - it could be the way it's being interpreted by your loader.

I'm not saying that there may not be a problem in AC3D's output - bugs happen. It worked with the loaders we tested.

If you can send me a simple file e.g. a plain triangle that does load in, we can check it against the AC3D output of a similar model. Better still, ask the developers of the loader what they think is wrong with AC3D generated Collada and report that. Once we have this info., I'm sure we can fix it.

[Gus]

I did more tests, this time tested Bonzai3d and Sketchup and they both worked with Blue Mars development SDK......

For you reference and testing here's a simple cylinder exported from Sketchup as .DAE and imported into Blue Mars item editor.......




http://wildwestgames.org/cylinder.dae




Preview inside Blue Mars Item Editor

Originally Posted by Andy

Don't assume that it's AC3D's Collada output at fault here - it could be the way it's being interpreted by your loader.

I'm not saying that there may not be a problem in AC3D's output - bugs happen. It worked with the loaders we tested.

If you can send me a simple file e.g. a plain triangle that does load in, we can check it against the AC3D output of a similar model. Better still, ask the developers of the loader what they think is wrong with AC3D generated Collada and report that. Once we have this info., I'm sure we can fix it.

[Dennis]

I've been working with the Collada format lately, and thought I'd take a swing at this one.

I compared a cylinder exported in AC3D against the exported cylinder provided in the above link. The fundamental difference is that the cylinder in the link above uses <triangles> to describe geometry, while AC3D uses <polylist>. Both formats look syntactically correct, however, and I can find no problems in the AC3D export --- I was also unable to get any other Collada importer to break when loading an AC3D Collada file.

I've attached a cylinder exported from LightWave -> Collada - can you see if that one imports? ( NOTE: I had to rename it to cyl_lw.dae.txt - you can rename it to cyl_lw.dae )

If the attached file imports, then we can more easily compare the AC3D and LightWave files, since they both use the same geometry descriptors.