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expgame [2020/08/05 16:25] – croft | expgame [2023/11/07 09:31] (current) – steph.jorgensen | ||
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- | ======Exporting to Game Formats====== | + | ======Games export options====== |
- | In game versions of the SpeedTree Modeler, you have the option of exporting | + | You can export |
- | {{ : | + | To export a model for games, select **File** > **Export to mesh** then choose the Games export type. |
+ | For command line export options, refer to [[export_from_the_command_line|Export from the command line]]. | ||
+ | =====Export type===== | ||
- | =====LOD===== | + | ^**Type**^**Description**^ |
+ | |**Games**|Export a model with options optimized for games.| | ||
+ | |**VFX**|Export a model with options optimized for VFX. Refer to [[expstaticmesh|VFX export options]].| | ||
- | These options set which type of geometry from the tree to include: | + | =====Preset===== |
+ | You can choose a game preset | ||
- | Geometry LODs are what you are editing when you make a tree. You can adjust the number of LODs, how the tree changes as it goes down in LOD, and the smoothness of these changes. Please see the [[kclod|Level of Detail]] section | + | ^**Preset**^**Description** ^ |
+ | | **Unity** | Optimizes the export for Unity. | | ||
+ | | **Unity (one draw call)** | Optimizes | ||
+ | | **UnrealEngine (ST)** | Optimizes the export for Unreal Engine | ||
+ | | **UnrealEngine (ST9)** | Optimizes | ||
+ | | **SpeedTree SDK** | Optimizes the export | ||
+ | |**Generic FBX**| Export a generic FBX for use in any game engine or DCC application.| | ||
- | If you enable billboards to be exported, one new LOD is added at the end of the LOD transition. This LOD is a very simple mesh made of pictures of the tree rendered from different views. These billboard pictures are all placed into a billboard atlas. All the same material maps that are exported for regular geometry are exported for billboards, so it can fit into your normal rendering pipeline. The game engines handle removing the views that are not facing the camera, and you are left with a simple picture of the tree in the distance. With this method, you can have very dense forests at real-time speeds. | + | ====Preset options==== |
- | {{ : | + | ^**Control**^**Description**^ |
+ | |**Save new preset**|Save the current export settings as a new preset.| | ||
+ | |**Edit preset name**|Edit the name of the current preset.| | ||
+ | |**Delete preset**|Delete the current preset.| | ||
+ | |**Load options**|Load previously saved export options from an .ini file.| | ||
+ | |**Save options**|Save the current export options to an .ini file.| | ||
+ | =====Show atlas===== | ||
- | =====Include===== | + | At export time, if you are not happy with the automatically-generated atlas layout, you can edit it by clicking the button in the top right of the export dialog. If multiple atlases are being exported, you can choose which one is being displayed. |
- | This section of the dialog features options for extra things that may be included during export. | + | {{edit_atlas.png? |
- | ==Variations== | + | The tools for editing are translate, rotate, scale uniformly, and scale non-uniformly. Once a tool is selected, simply click on a texture |
- | [[toolmaterialsassetsbar|Variations]] may be set up in the material. This option enables the processing of variations on export. Instead of requiring | + | |
- | > | + | > |
- | ==Vertex blends== | + | =====Options===== |
- | Vertex blending is used on small pieces of geometry that need to blend, such as the intersection of a branch to its parent or stitches to a parent mesh. This is done using vertex alphas to fade it out. If the engine does not support per-vertex alphas, or if z-buffer problems are causing the seam blends to flicker, then you may disable this. Even without per-vertex alphas (and thus a hard line where the material changes), the blend pieces usually add to the realism of the tree by hiding the actual branch intersection. | + | |
+ | ====File type==== | ||
- | ==Leaf references== | + | You can choose a file type compatible with [[impue4|Unreal Engine 4]], [[impunity|Unity]], |
- | Leaf References are null objects in the correct position | + | |
- | ==Bones/ | + | > |
- | Some formats, such as FBX, allow you to include bone weighting for further deformation. | + | |
+ | =====Combine===== | ||
- | =====Atlas===== | + | These options are only available when more than one SpeedTree file is open in the Modeler. |
- | Atlassing is the most important aspect of preparing | + | ^**Property**^**Description**^^ |
+ | |**Combine all open trees**|Export all open files in the Modeler and combine them into the same atlas. || | ||
+ | |**Atlas name**|Assign | ||
+ | |**Tree filenames**|Set a naming convention | ||
+ | | ::: | **Sequential** | All model files have the same root name as the current file and are numbered | ||
+ | | ::: |**Tree name**| All model files have the same name as their original .spm file. | | ||
- | |None|This option does not make an atlas. Each material will export its textures separately| | + | =====Grouping===== |
- | |Non-Wrapping|This option looks at the geometry using each material. If the UVs on the geometry fit within 0-1, then its material will be put into the atlas. Geometry that uses wrapping UVs or otherwise has UVs outside of 0-1, such as branches, will be exported as separate textures| | + | |
- | |Everything|This option puts every material in the entire tree into the atlas. Any geometry that has UVs outside 0-1 will be unwrapped before going into the atlas. Without being cognizant of this, you could end up with a suboptimal atlas layout. Enabling V-wrapping (see below) helps branches to not take up so much of the atlas when their UVs are outside 0-1.| | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ==Allow separate atlases== | + | |
- | If you have set materials | + | These options |
- | ==Allow V wrapping== | + | Geometry LODs are what you are editing when you make a tree. You can adjust the number of LODs, how the tree changes as it goes down in LOD, and the smoothness of these changes. Please see the [[kcgameslod|Level of Detail]] section for more information. |
- | When geometry has UVs outside 0-1, they need to be unwrapped in order to be placed in the atlas. If they aren't, these UVs may start referencing | + | If you enable billboards |
- | This is where the V-Wrapping option can help. When enabled, anything that wraps in the V direction will get placed in the atlas such that its top and bottom edge touch the top and bottom of the atlas. Thus, V-wrapping UVs will work just fine and you keep much more of the texture resolution. You still need to be cognizant of U-wrapping, but since branches wrap a lot in V and not so much in U, this is a great feature when putting branches into an atlas. | + | {{billboard_maps.png? |
- | See the picture below for an example of a one-draw-call tree where everything has been placed into the atlas, utilizing V-Wrapping so as not to lose texture resolution on the branches. | + | =====Include===== |
- | {{ :tree_atlas.png? | + | This section of the dialog features options for extra things that may be included during export. These options vary by the chosen file type. |
- | ==Separate Materials== | + | ====Lightmap UVs==== |
- | When placing materials into an atlas, these materials get merged together. While they use the same textures, sometimes you may want to split the materials based on a number of factors. For example, a common situation is that leaves need to be two-sided but branches should cull backfaces. Enabling " | + | Compute and include unique UVs for lightmapping. |
- | ==Ignore smooth LOD== | + | Available for all options but OBJ. |
- | When exporting to formats that split the geometry | + | ====Vertex blends==== |
+ | Vertex blending is used on small pieces of geometry | ||
+ | Available for all options but OBJ. | ||
- | =====Geometry===== | + | ====Vertex color==== |
- | These options modify | + | Override |
- | In formats | + | Available for all options but OBJ. |
+ | |||
+ | ====Bones/ | ||
+ | Some formats, such as FBX, allow you to include bone weighting for further deformation. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Available for FBX and XML. | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====Transform===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | These options modify | ||
=====Textures===== | =====Textures===== | ||
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These options deal with the creation and writing of all the textures needed for the tree during export. | These options deal with the creation and writing of all the textures needed for the tree during export. | ||
+ | ====Packing==== | ||
- | ==Format== | + | Game exporting uses the concept of texture packing, where the material maps used in the Modeler are merged, compressed, or otherwise prepared for use in the final game engine. Every engine requires a different texture setup, and we include a number of them with the Modeler. You are able to switch between them easily, even to [[texturepacking|custom ones you write yourself]]. |
- | This option sets the format of the exported textures. For some game engine, this format is locked to the commonly-used format (usually PNG or TGA). | + | ====Format==== |
- | ==Size== | + | This option sets the format of the exported textures. For some game engines, this format defaults to the commonly-used format (usually PNG or TGA). |
+ | |||
+ | ====Size==== | ||
With the size options, you can set the size of the atlas, the size of the billboard atlas, and the max size of any other texture written. | With the size options, you can set the size of the atlas, the size of the billboard atlas, and the max size of any other texture written. | ||
- | ==Packing== | + | ====Include variations==== |
+ | [[toolmaterialsassetsbar|Variations]] may be set up in the material. This option enables the processing of variations on export. Instead of requiring the final game engine to have shader code that does the variation, the exporter will simply make new materials and textures with the variation information baked in. | ||
- | Game exporting uses the concept of texture | + | > |
+ | =====Atlas===== | ||
- | =====Atlas Editing===== | + | Atlassing is the most important aspect of preparing a tree for real-time rendering. Putting multiple materials into the atlas allows the geometry that uses them to be merged, resulting in fewer draw calls. With aggressive merging, you can make an entire tree that renders in one draw call. |
- | At export time, if you are not happy with the automatically-generated atlas layout, you can edit it by clicking | + | ^**Control**^**Description**^ |
+ | |**None**|This option does not make an atlas. Each material will export its textures separately| | ||
+ | |**Non-Wrapping**|This option looks at the geometry using each material. If the UVs on the geometry fit within 0-1, then its material will be put into the atlas. Geometry that uses wrapping UVs or otherwise has UVs outside of 0-1, such as branches, will be exported as separate textures| | ||
+ | |**Everything**|This option puts every material | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Allow separate atlases==== | ||
- | {{ : | + | If you have set materials to go into different atlases on the [[toolmaterialsassetsbar|material asset bar]], this option can let you enable or disable that functionality. |
- | The tools for editing are translate, rotate, scale uniformly, and scale non-uniformly. Once a tool is selected, simply click on a texture in the atlas and drag the mouse to perform the action. | + | ====Allow V wrapping==== |
- | > | + | When geometry has UVs outside 0-1, they need to be unwrapped in order to be placed in the atlas. If they aren' |
+ | |||
+ | This is where the V-Wrapping option can help. When enabled, anything that wraps in the V direction will get placed in the atlas such that its top and bottom edge touch the top and bottom of the atlas. Thus, V-wrapping UVs will work just fine and you keep much more of the texture resolution. You still need to be cognizant of U-wrapping, but since branches wrap a lot in V and not so much in U, this is a great feature when putting branches into an atlas. | ||
+ | |||
+ | See the picture below for an example of a one-draw-call tree where everything has been placed into the atlas, utilizing V-Wrapping so as not to lose texture resolution on the branches. | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{tree_atlas.png? | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Separate materials==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | When placing materials into an atlas, these materials get merged together. While they use the same textures, sometimes you may want to split the materials based on a number of factors. For example, a common situation is that leaves need to be two-sided but branches should cull backfaces. Enabling " | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Ignore smooth LOD==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | When exporting to formats that split the geometry up for different vertex shaders (such as .ST for UnrealEngine4), | ||
+ | |||
+ | =====Billboard===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Determine how to treat billboards | ||
+ | |||
+ | ^**Control**^**Description**^^ | ||
+ | |**Faces**|Set how many faces to render on a billboard.|| | ||
+ | |**Top down**|Include top-down faces in the billboard.|| | ||
+ | |:::|**Top down height %**|Set where to put the top-down geometry in the billboard mesh (from bottom to top).| | ||
+ | =====Format-specific===== | ||
+ | When exporting an animation, different cache formats have options that will appear in this section. | ||
+ | These options are available for USD and SpeedTree SDK exports. | ||
+ | =====Extra===== | ||
+ | ^**Control**^**Description**^ | ||
+ | |**Show summary**|Shows a summary of the export settings when the export completes.| | ||
+ | |**Skip texture save**|Doesn' |