Copyright: Copyright (c) 1995 Okino Computer Graphics, Inc.


3D Studio Geometry Import Converter

This geometry import converter reads in Autodesk 3D Studio '.3ds' binary format files in their entirety. The converter extracts and converts all 3D Studio data to equivalent NuGraf internal data representations. An imported .3ds file should render exactly as it would in 3D Studio (including all textures, the background color scheme and any atmospheric effects).

You may notice that a .3ds file takes longer to load into NuGraf than with 3D Studio. The reason for this is that the geometry data is optimized as it is being loaded into NuGraf; in particular, redundant texture and U/V tangent coordinates are deleted, and bad texture coordinates are eliminated. These optimizations will significantly reduce the amount of memory that the geometry data consumes. Also, U and V tangent vectors are automatically computed if texture coordinates are specified for the geometry (these vectors are required for bump mapping).

IMPORTANT::

You must modify the environment variable 'NG_SEARCHPATHS_3DSTUDIO_MAPS' contained in the 'setup.win' file (located in the 'runtime' subdirectory) so that it points to the directory where your 3D Studio texture images are stored (usually in 'c:\3ds4\maps'). If you do not set up this path properly then the renderer will not be able to find the texture images referenced by the .3ds files.

Dialog Box Options

Compute Normals Using Assigned Smoothing Groups

If this checkbox is check-marked (the default) then vertex normals will automatically be computed based on the smoothing information associated with each object in the 3D Studio file. This smoothing operation will allow the imported objects to appear smooth when rendered. If this checkbox is un-checked then no smoothing will be performed resulting in objects which appear to be flat shaded when rendered.

Report Statistics About the Geometry File

If this checkbox is check-marked then parsing statistics will be displayed in the message window after the 3D Studio file has been imported.

Print Warning Messages

If this checkbox is check-marked then warning messages from the 3D Studio file parser will be printed out to the message window.

Output Parsing Information to File debug3ds.txt

If this checkbox is check-marked then the contents of the 3D Studio binary file will be verbosely described and output to the file debug3ds.txt.

Selective Loading

The following checkboxes allow all or only some parts of the 3D Studio file to be loaded:

Cameras

If checkmarked, then load in the camera definitions.

Lights

If checkmarked, then load in the light definitions.

Objects

If checkmarked, then load in all of the objects.

Materials

If checkmarked, then load in all of the material definitions.

Background, Cueing, Fog

If checkmarked, then load in the background definitions, the depth-cueing parameters and the fog parameters.