Loading textured Oolite objects into 3d program

[maik]

I started playing a bit with Apple's iBooks Author and it can show 3D objects in Collada (.dae) format. Knowing nothing about 3D modeling I took a look at some of the freely available modelers (Sketchup, Wings, Blender), downloaded Griff's .obj models, and tried to get them into the modeling applications. The intention is to export them into .dae format.

I can load the bare model, but how do I go about texturing it with the .pngs? Or if I use the dat2obj converter, is there any way I can use the resulting .mtl definitions in any of those modelers?

Pointers in the right direction are much appreciated!

Cheers,
-Maik

[Ironfist]

maik,

Please be careful in the use of this software, Apple's EULA can end up being a bit of a problem. See the following link and you can find a lot more on-line. I don't think it will be a problem, but I think it might be against the Creative Commons License terms.

http://betanews.com/2012/01/22/apples-i ... you-think/

Ironfist

[Griff]

Hi Maik
Here's how to get the textures onto the obj's in Wings
1. First of all in Wings Load the ship .obj
File -> Import -> Wavefront (.obj)...

As you've seen, they import with just the default material (a blank grey) applied

2. Load your ships texture image (in my shipset these usually have 'Diffuse' somewhere in the filename)
File -> Import Image...

3. Open the 'Outliner' window in wings
Window -> Outliner
This will give you a list of your current projects surface 'materials' and also any image files you currently have loaded
To apply the image to your ship, just drag & drop the image from it's place in the outliner window list and drop it on the Material
above it in the list (this material will have a different name depending on what ship you have loaded, but it will always have an
icon of a M in a white box
As you let go of the mouse button a 'Texture Type' pop-up will appear, choose 'Diffuse' from the list



4 Editing UV's
if you want to edit the ship's UV's, first select the entire Object (click on it after first clickiing on the "Select Entire Object" button - The red cube on the top menu bar)
Your whole object turns red to show it is selected (you can de-select objects by pressing the space bar), with the object selected go to
Window -> UV Editor Window on the Menu
The UV Layout will appear with the the ships texture already loaded as its background



5 Re-saving the obj and keeping it obj2dattex.py friendly
I don't know if it's me or not but the obj2dattex.py script doesn't seem to work with objects with more than one material
If you want to run this ship through the script, then drag & drop the image onto the Default material icon in the outliner window and delete any other materials (ones with a "White Box M" icon) - you may no longer see the texture being displayed on the ship at this point, bit it all seems to work OK in the final .dat

[maik]

Thanks, Griff, works like a charm!

Please be careful in the use of this software, Apple's EULA can end up being a bit of a problem.

I will carefully review it if I ever get anywhere near to making something publicly available. For now, I'm just intrigued by the idea of authoring Lave Academy textbooks on piloting a Cobra Mk 3 and playing around with the options that iBook Author offers.