5

Microsoft Direct3D

In This Section:

• Converting to Direct3D Format 66
• Using the Direct3D Translator 68
• Testing the Output 72
• AWViewer Reference 76

This section describes how to use the interface of the Direct3D-specific Direct Translator.

For information on how to run the translator, see Installing the MakeGame Plug-in on page 4 and Using Translators from the Command Line on page 14.

Converting to Direct3D Format

GetD3D Translator

GetD3D converts Alias wire models to special Direct3D file formats.

Special Features

• Hierarchical animation is converted for flat and full hierarchies.

• Keyframe sampling at fixed frame intervals or adaptive intervals within specified tolerances.

• Textures are saved in ppm format with lengths that are powers of 2 (required for proper viewing in Direct3D object viewers).

• Per-polygon shaders and textures are supported.

• Multiple characters are exported (each in their own files) if more than one MetaCycle character exists in the Alias wire file.

• MetaCycle information and polyset animations are exported as separate ASCII files.

• Triangles and Quadrilaterals are converted as primitives.

• Instances are converted intelligently.

• Binary file format support.

• Mesh vertex colors can be exported instead of materials.

Limitations

• Procedural textures with 3D parameterization are not converted. For solid and environmental textures, no texture is exported. For mountain, highlight, and curvature textures, the textures are converted to solid color.

• Colors are exported as RGB values. GetD3D does not currently support index colors.

• Texture repeats and texture offset are not converted. Use texture sampling instead.

• Lighting and camera information are not supported by the Direct3D file format.

• CV animations on surfaces are not translated. Use polyset vertex or cluster animation for similar effects.

Installing

See Setting Up the Demo Viewer on page 72.

The Direct3D translator does not require any special installation. However, you must install the Alias|Wavefront Demo Viewer on a PC (or PC emulator) to view the output.

Using the Direct3D Translator

Options

When you run the translator from MakeGame, the Direct3D Options window appears. Use this window to set the options described below, then click Begin Translation to start converting.

Frames Only

Outputs frame hierarchy only.

Animation

Outputs frame hierarchy with animation information.

Uniform Frames

Outputs keyframes at uniform intervals.

Adaptive Frames

Uses the Adaptive Tolerance value to reduce the number of keyframes required while preserving the original motion.

Keyframe data is only exported for levels with animation. (For example, in a moving arm, only the animation data for the shoulder is exported if the elbow and hand are not moving)

Adaptive Tolerance

The higher the tolerance, the more keyframes are removed and the lower the motion fidelity.

Use a high number to eliminate a lot of keyframes if the original animation is much smoother than you need. Use a low number if you don't want to sacrifice smoothness.

Scale Factor

The translator scales the whole model by this factor before conversion. (This is in addition to scaling applied by MakeGame or DtExport.)

No Materials

Does not output any material information.

Materials Only

Outputs material information but no textures.

Materials with Textures

Outputs material and texture information.

Mesh Vertex Colors

Outputs mesh vertex colors instead of materials and textures.

If you rendered the model with pre-lit polygons in Alias, you can export the mesh colors instead of materials.

Normals

Outputs normal information. If no normals are output, Direct3D calculates them using polygonal order.

Reverse Z Polarity

Converts geometry, normals, and animation from right-handed (Alias) to left-handed (Direct3D) coordinates.

If you turn this option off, the model will appear as a mirror image in Direct3D.

MetaCycle

Outputs MetaCycle information. MetaCycle information is saved in a separate file (see Output on page 71).

Verbose

Displays updates during the conversion process.

Binary File Output

Saves the output as binary data instead of text. Binary files are usually much smaller than text files.

File Downloading

When using AWviewer 2.0, this option is not necessary. You can use File Monitoring in the File menu instead.

Saves the output under the name test.x in the directory specified by the $DT_DOWNLOAD_DIR environment variable. (If you are exporting multiple characters, only the last one is saved as test.x).

Set $DT_DOWNLOAD_DIR to a directory accessible to the PC development environment and use this option to streamline the testing cycle. This directory must be world-readable and world-writable.

GetD3D Command Line Options

If you turn the GUI checkbox off in the MakeGame window, enter the following options in the Option field to control the conversion.

MakeGame options	Descriptions
-a n	Use adaptive keyframe sampling with tolerance n (where n is 0 to 1). The higher the tolerance, the more keyframes are removed and the lower the motion fidelity.
-b	Output binary data (instead of text).
-d	Use file downloading (save the output under the name test.x in the directory specified by the $DT_DOWNLOAD_DIR environment variable).
-g	Open the option window (GUI mode).
-n	Output MetaCycle information. MetaCycle information is saved in a separate file (see Output on page 71).
-v	Print updates during the conversion process.
-f	Output frame information only (no animation data).
-m[0|1|2]	Material information. Use one of the following: 0 = do not output material data. 1 = output material information. 2 = output mesh vertex colors instead of materials.
-t[0|1]	Texture information. Use one of the following: 0 = do not output texture information. 1 = output texture information.
-N[0|1]	Normals. Use on of the following: 0 = do not output normals information. 1 = output normals information (default).
-s factor	Scale model by factor before converting.

The command line options duplicate controls in the GUI window. See Options on page 68 for a description of the GUI interface.

Alias Environment Variables

$DT_DOWNLOAD_DIR

Direct 3D requires all frames and meshes in a scene to have unique names. If there are duplicate names, geometry may become mixed up.

The shared destination directory where files are placed for downloading to a PC for testing. (This variables is used when you use File Downloading or -d).

• Parameters - a valid path to a directory

• Default - none

Output

Filenames	Contents
<scene>.x	Geometry, hierarchy, materials, textures, normals, and animation information.
<scene>.x.metacycle	MetaCycle information (if any).
<scene>.x.vanim	Vertex animation information (if any).
<texture file>.ppm	Portable pixmap (PPM) versions of textures.

You can export mesh colors instead of material definitions. This is a good alternative if your rendering engine can't calculate lights fast enough. The trade-off is that the lighting effects will be static throughout the scene.

Binary files are much smaller and load faster than text files. Only use text files when you need mazimum portability (since plain text files can be moved to any platform), for you want to visually inspect the files.

Testing the Output

Setting Up the Demo Viewer

The Direct3D demo viewer (AWViewer) is distributed in source code and executable form. To use it you must first copy it to your PC.

1

Copy the PC viewer files and directories from $ALIAS_LOCATION/ODS/Games/source/GetD3D/tools/AWViewer/* to the PC.

2

On the PC, double-click the AWViewer.exe icon in the AWViewer/Release folder.

Customizing the Demo Viewer

You can use the source code to customize the viewer, or use it as an example of how to use MetaCycle and vertex animation data. To rebuild the viewer with revised source code:

1

Recompile the AWViewer source code.

This is easiest if using Microsoft Visual C++, since you can use the project file, AWViewer.mdp. You may need to change your Build settings to point to the correct include and library paths.

2

Use a text editor to add the following line to your autoexec.bat file:

SET AWPATH=<directory>/app-models

(Replace <directory> with the path of the directory you copied the files to.)

If you do not want to edit the autoexec.bat file, copy the files pointlight.x, dirlight.x, movie- camera.x, and arcball.x from app-models into the same directory as the executable.

3

Double-click the icon for the new AWViewer.exe, or run it from an MS-DOS prompt.

Using the Direct3D Demo Viewer

Before You Begin

The Demo Viewer is designed for use with a three-button mouse. Please note the following when using the mouse:

• Many PC mouse drivers let you simulate the middle mouse button by clicking the left and right mouse buttons at the same time. Consult the manual for your mouse.

• If you have a three-button mouse, check the mouse driver to make sure the middle mouse button is active (some drivers map the middle mouse button to a macro or key combination).

Viewing the Model

1

Make sure the Camera tool in the toolbar is selected. If it is not selected, click it with the left mouse button.

You can also switch the Camera tool on or off by double-clicking the left mouse button, pressing the space bar, or using the Edit menu.

2

Drag with the left mouse button to tumble the camera around the center of the view.

3

Drag with the middle mouse button (if your mouse has one) to pan the camera around the viewing plane.

When Auto-center (in the Interface menu) is off, you can drag along the sides of the view to twist around the line of sight.

For convenience, the speed of the pan is scaled to the distance to the camera. When you are far away you pan quickly, but when you are in close you pan slowly.

4

Drag right with the right mouse button to zoom in. Drag left with the right mouse button to zoom out.

Selecting and Manipulating Geometry, Lights and Cameras

1

Click an object with the left mouse button to select it.

2

Drag with the left mouse button to tumble around the selected frame's origin. The origin is shown as a red-green-blue rotation manipulator.

When Auto-center (in the Interface menu) is off, you can drag along the sides of the view to twist around the line of sight.

3

Drag with the middle mouse button to move the object around the viewing plane.

4

Drag with the middle mouse button while pressing the Ctrl key to move the object's rotation pivot point.

Using MetaCycle Controls

There are several ways to control MetaCycle animation in the Demo Viewer:

Snippet	Toolbar	Keyboard	Four-button Gamepad (*)
Up	U	Cursor Up	upper button
Down	D	Cursor Down	lower button
Left	L	Cursor Left	left button
Right	R	Cursor Right	right button
North	N	Numeric Pad 8	direction pad up
South	S	Numeric Pad 2	direction pad down
East	E	Numeric Pad 6	direction pad right
West	W	Numeric Pad 4	direction pad left

(*) Four-button Gamepads (such as the Gravis GamePad Pro) are configured as Joystick 1.

Viewing Vertex Animation

If you created a vertex animation file (.vanim) for the scene with the translator, the Demo Viewer will automatically load the animation.

Use the VCR controls in the toolbar to view the animation.

Tips for Increasing the Frame Rate

There are several ways to improve the playback rate:

• In the Interface menu, choose Hide Manipulators. This reduces the number of objects the viewer must redraw.

• Reduce the size of the view window.

• Zoom out so the model appears smaller.

• Close all view windows except the one you are using.

• Select less complicated rendering options in the Render menu (for example, use fewer lights, turn on flat-shading).

• Turn off Recalulate Normals in the Rendering menu to speed up vertex animation.

AWViewer Reference

Toolbar

To hide or display the Toolbar, choose Toolbar from the Interface menu.

Open

Click this button to open an existing document.

Help Buttons

Click the question mark button to view help instructions.

Click the pointer-question mark button for context sensitive help. The mouse pointer changes to an arrow and question mark. Click anywhere in the Viewer to get help.

Camera Buttons

These buttons control the camera. Y and Z provide YUP and ZUP camera orientations of the scene. The camera button toggles between Camera and Object selection mode.

Metacycle Buttons

Click these buttons to view MetaCycle snippets.

Animation VCR Buttons

File menu

New

Creates a new scene using a default model.

Open

Opens a Direct3D scene.

Import

Imports a Direct3D object into the current scene.

Update Files

Reloads all documents that have changed since they were opened (useful when testing).

File Monitoring

When file monitoring is on, the viewer automatically updates the files at regular intervals.

Load Backdrop

Loads a Windows bitmap (.bmp) or Portable pixmap (.ppm) file as a backdrop for the scene.

Close

Closes the current scene. Any other view windows of the scene will close also. If you have made changes to the scene since it was last saved, the viewer will ask you if you want to save the changes.

1, 2, 3, 4

The file menu displays the filenames of the four most recent scenes. Choose the filename to open the scene.

Exit

Closes all scenes and quits AWViewer.

Edit Menu

Camera Mode

Switches the Camera tool on or off.

See Viewing the Model on page 74.

Alternately, you can switch the Camera tool on or off by double-clicking the left mouse button, pressing the space bar, or using the toolbar.

Delete Selected

Deletes the currently selected object or light.

Delete All

Deletes all objects and lights in the scene.

Reload Scene

Reloads the files of all the objects in a scene (useful for resetting objects to their saved positions).

Window menu

New Window

Opens a new window with another view of the current scene.

Cascade

Arranges the windows so that their title bars are visible.

Tile

Arranges the windows in tiles.

Arrange Icons

Lines up minimized windows.

1, 2, 3

A list of open windows. Click on the name of a window to bring it to the front and make it active.

Interface menu

Toolbar

Shows/hides the toolbar at the top of the window.

Status Bar

Shows/hides the status bar at the bottom of the window.

Auto-Center

When this option is on, clicking in a view window centers the view on where you clicked.

Turn this option off to twist around the line of sight by dragging along the sides of the view.

Animation Messages

Shows/hides animation information in the window titlebar and frames-per-second display in the status bar.

Hide Manipulators

Turns off light, arcball and camera manipulators.

Rendering menu

The Rendering menu controls the shading, dithering, geometry and color model parameters of the active view in a scene.

Flat Shading

Shades the objects with flat colors.

Gouraud Shading

Shades the objects using the Gouraud shading model.

Phong Shading

Shades the objects using the Phong shading model.

Dithering

Turns dithering on/off.

RGB Color Model

Uses RGB color model.

When this option is OFF, the scene is rendered in monochrome.

Recalculate Normals

Recalculates the normals of surfaces as they move during vertex animation (turn this option off to increase the speed of vertex animation).

Points

Draws only the points of the scene (fastest).

Wireframe

Draws the scene in wireframe (faster).

Solid

Draws the scene using solid polygons.

Lights menu

Lighting

Turns lighting on/off.

Add x Light

Adds a new light to the scene.

Textures menu

Nearest Pixel

Uses the nearest pixel in the texture to decide color.

Interpolate Pixel

Interpolates the pixels of the texture to decide color.

No Mipmaps

Does not use MipMaps for texture mapping.

Closest Mipmaps

Uses the closest Mipmap for texture mapping.

Interpolate MipMaps

Interpolates the MipMap for texture mapping.

Help menu

Help Topics

Displays an index of help topics.

About AWViewer

Displays the version number and copyright information of the viewer application.