DS exporting and re-importing problems

DrGonzo62

This is probably beating a dead horse, but I can't figure out how to export geometry out of DS and then re-import it. This is mostly for decimator treated objects, like high poly buildings etc.

When I export as FBX, then I lose all location data. Everything imports at the origin upon re-import, but has the original materials still applied.
When I export as OBJ, then I lose the material of the individual objects, but their locations come up correct.

Doing both and then copying the FBX surfaces to the OBJ objects is just too time consuming.

Any advise please?

codex34_f5f1fb6f55

Save the objects materials as a material preset, export as obj, edit, import as obj, load material preset while obj is selected.

Do a quick test with a figure.

DrGonzo62

Thanks for the reply!
I tried, but only one material is applied to the re-imported OBJ.

The source asset is as often comprised of several different geometries (walls, ceiling, floor) and I don't think that a material preset will save more than one geometry's material. I could be wrong though.
When I re-import the OBJ it is just a single geometry with the correct separate material surfaces. Applying the saved material preset to it will only get one material.

My goal here is to get a super high poly asset (2.5 million verts for a dining room? Really?) to a lower poly asset via Decimator.
 

codex34_f5f1fb6f55

Ah ok, in that case i have no idea how to do it in one click, maybe there is a script for it.

IF ALL the surfaces have a unique name, there is a quicker way than copy/pasting the materials manually. If they don't you can use the geometry editor, in the tool settings pane, you double click the surface name under the groups>surfaces and rename it. Then select each model part (node), save as, deprecated, materials preset. This creates a script that will go through the selected node and set the material for surfaces with matching names. After you have saved all your nodes material presets, and they all have UNIQUE surface names, you can save as .obj. When you import it, all the surface names should have the correct unique name, select the .obj node and double click on each of the material preset .dsa files you made, all the surfaces will be set by name.

Best I can come up with short of telling you to copy/paste each material manually. And it allows you to edit the master scene and cut or add parts, as you already have the part presets with their unique names.

Edit - for multiple objects with the same materials, like say 8 dining chairs around a table, you can just save one preset, and let daz auto name the rest, save and load the obj then in geometry editor, click the + next to each material that is the same, set target group - surfaces - choose group, and set to the material named in the preset (hopefully one of those selected with the +)  and then click the blue 'assign to target group' button. You could then delete the empty surfaces by right clicking. This way your preset will still work because of the unique name but all your materials that were the same, were merged. Have a play with it.

Richard Haseltine

Have you tried the Public Build - OBJ export has some changes to how the materials are handled - though that will still only be a limited subset of the surface properties.

DrGonzo62

Hi Richard,
I tried with the latest public and can say that OBJ texture export/import has greatly improved. I just did a quick test with a few objects and the only thing that was lost was the tiling value on one of the objects.
I'll do some more testing today, but this is already looking much better!

Thanks for the tip!