Saving a full character as obj with textures
missuskisses
Posts: 918
I'd like to create a scene with lots of human figures. However, I have so many morphs for G8F/G3F/whatever that populating a scene in DAZ gets laggy and hard to handle. So, I'd like to create a full character that has hair, clothes, pose, etc., and export it as an OBJ and bring it back into the main scene. I have no problems saving the OBJ and reimporting it, but I can't seem to figure out the right settings to export the materials so that those come back as well. Instead, I just get the figure without any textures.
Is it possible to do this, and if so, what settings do I need to use?
Thanks very much in advance!
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Comments
Are you saving a .mtl file with the .obj file? One of the peculiarities of the .obj format is that all references to the textures applied to the various mesh surfaces are stored in a separate text file.
Note that the .mtl file should always be kept in the same location as the .obj file, and remember that it contains only references — the actual texture files are the same ones, in the same /Runtime/Textures/ folder, that the original D|S figure uses.
Something else to remember — the .obj file format is ancient, so it doesn't know about Iray materials, or even the earlier default 3Delight materials used by D|S. If you want your renders to look the same as the originals, save a separate materials setting for each object you save as an .obj, and re-apply it once you've successfully imported the .obj file.
On second thoughts, that last might be your problem; if you're using Iray materials, the .obj export function might not be picking up the Iray settings properly, so they don't get stored in the .mtl file.
Thank you, Spotted Kitty! I do exclusively use Iray, so that may be the problem. Would another export format besides OBJ recognize Iray materials? It just has to be something that DS itself recognizes without loading all that other morph data.
No, they are all for exporting geometry and don't do materials well except for basic textures, but if it's a background character it might work ok.
Have you tried doing the double save I suggested, of the .obj and then the materials settings? I've had to jump through similar hoops a time or three; it's a bit of a nuisance, but not so bad once you get used to it.
Save as an obj; load them in
Copy the material settings over > surfaces tab; select items > copy, then paste; there are specific options to the copy and paste, but only a couple so trial and error should be fine as I can't check.
Delete the items you don't want then save the scene with a different name to the 'proper' scene; restart studio and load scene
Note: save the original scene incase something goes wrong.
I find this quicker than saving individual matial files, but it is potentially less versatile.
Sorry, got tied up with my day (and apparently, night) job...thanks for all the suggestions! I will try these methods.
Just for clarification--so this can possibly work with Iray mats then? Sorry, when reading your original response I thought you meant that it wouldn't even work with Iray. Thanks again.
Yes, when you save as .obj that uses a rough equivalent to the ancient Poser 4 materials standard — saving the Iray materials before you export allows you to re-apply the Iray materials after you import the .obj file.
Awesome! Will give that a shot.
Thanks so much!