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Home ? Tips & Tricks ? Alternative ASE export

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01/08/2011 20:57:15

tripfreakExperimental user
tripfreak
Posts: 142 		Besides Blender and the Sketchup-Plugin you can also produce ASE files for Muvizu using either the free converter "Biturn" (link here) or "Milkshape" (shareware, link here).

By comparing the ASE files exported from Sketchup and from Biturn I recently found that Muvizu only accepts ASE files containing one GEOMOBJECT (probably depending on the ASE version).
If you simply remove the first GEOMOBJ (only responsible for position and scaling ?) in a text editor then the Biturn/Milkshape file will also be loaded into Muvizu:


Unfortunately, that only works for 3D files with one complete texture for the whole object.
Otherwise, the Biturn ASE exporter generates GEOMOBJECTS for every single texture part (at least that's my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong).

You can easily check this with the free objects from Psionic (see picture, link here):


If you encounter problems like wiggling or maybe wrong import orientations than uncheck the "Keep upright" box before turning.

Good luck and keep on dreamin' ! fingers crossed
edited by tripfreak on 02/08/2011
edited by tripfreak on 02/08/2011
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01/08/2011 21:54:14

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		Interesting, but even using one of the models you did (the cat/rat/dog one) and exported with Biturn, it still gives an error when importing into Muvizu, then lists so many properties on it's tab you can't see the Float/Keep Upright check boxes. Might just be the way I'm doing it though - I did try removing the first GEOMOBJ section, and leaving it, and it didn't seem to make any difference either way. The dog still loaded and looked good, mind you

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that Dreeko's head in the middle of your picture?!
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02/08/2011 05:59:08

tripfreakExperimental user
tripfreak
Posts: 142 		Strange !? Confused

If the dog loads then all other animals should also work.
I really did nothing else than removing the first GEOMOBJ and saving the file.

I could set a download link to the converted files this afternoon if you are interested in comparing or checking my ASE files ?

Since I'm only showing animals in the picture I thought I could also add an octopus and a dragon and give pleasure to a lil' sock puppet.
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02/08/2011 18:00:45

tripfreakExperimental user
tripfreak
Posts: 142 		As announced here is the link to the converted ASE files: ZIP
I also added a small copyright text from Psionic.
Please check if these do the job !?
edited by tripfreak on 02/08/2011
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02/08/2011 19:04:58

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		Okay, tried with your files and, although there was no error message this time, it still comes up with so many properties I cant get to the check boxes to make them float in the air, or rescale them, or whatever, which will make it impossible to animate them... Can you get to them on your version?

BTW the fighter looks excellent! Want that one, definitely!! Thanks
edited by ziggy72 on 03/08/2011
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04/08/2011 14:53:26

mcmillan-raExperimental userMuvizu staff
mcmillan-ra
Posts: 164 		Hi Ziggy,

I think you are probably selecting "Use ID Texture" when importing the objects. If you don't, on the cow or fighter certainly, you will just get a texture and colour picker option.

I suspect we've never really explained what that ID texture means in terms of what we do.

A very quick bit of background on it: When we originally built Muvizu each character or object would have a separate "material" for each colour or texture that you could change. When an object was drawn on screen each material on the object is drawn separately, and there is a big performance impact for doing this. When a few complicated objects (especially characters) were added to a scene the performance would drop very very quickly (say even three or four characters doing nothing would have a big impact.)

So, we joined all of the items that are just colour pickers into one material, and we use a texture to define the individual colours. This is what we class as an ID texture. Each unique colour block in the texture map is mapped to a part of the UV, and a colour picker is added.

If you choose "Use ID Textures" when importing an object then any texture is scanned for blocks of colour, and a colour picker will be created for each of these block. Generally it's not really a problem, but sometimes when you get very detailed textures such as the fighter or the cow you could easily end up with hundreds of them.

I hope that makes some sense.
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04/08/2011 17:25:46

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		mcmillan-ra wrote:

If you choose "Use ID Textures" when importing an object then any texture is scanned for blocks of colour, and a colour picker will be created for each of these block. Generally it's not really a problem, but sometimes when you get very detailed textures such as the fighter or the cow you could easily end up with hundreds of them.

I hope that makes some sense.



Aha! Of course - I always select 'Use ID Textures' without thinking, because that's what you always do...except in these cases! Just check that....

Yep - loads without the huge list of colours, all is cool Cool

Thankyou both (mcmillan-ra and Tripfreak)
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04/08/2011 22:07:23

toonaramaMuvizu mogulExperimental user
toonarama
Posts: 661 		Thanks very much Tripfreak - that is a great find - extremely useful
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05/08/2011 05:54:31

tripfreakExperimental user
tripfreak
Posts: 142 		You're welcome !

Last chance would have been to upload a .set file or convert them as usual but thanks to mcmillan-ra the problem is solved now. I forgot about this option.
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05/08/2011 10:14:16

toonaramaMuvizu mogulExperimental user
toonarama
Posts: 661 		Loaded those models up into Muvizu and I have got to say they look great ans also loaded up very quickly.

From what I can see Biturn will have a stab at coverting most file types although i had a couple of failures converting last night. This could open up a whole new source of free and quality content. (I have found many SKP files mess up when loaded into Muvizu)

I also noticed that Milkshape was claiming that it could "export your model to the new Unreal Tournament Skeletal System, the .PSK files." I guess it would be hoping for too much to say there is some potential here?

Thanks again Tripfreak!
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