LightWave
to DTS Exporter Documentation
For Version 17-05-02
Written by David
Wyand
Table of Contents
Introduction
Included Files
Acknowledgments
Limitations
Using the Plug-in's Interface
Creating and Using Nodes
Using Surfaces
Appendix A: List of Plug-ins
Introduction
The LightWave to DTS Exporter plug-in will save all objects within a LightWave
scene to the Torque Game Engine DTS format. The exporter is actually a series
of plug-ins, the main one being a Master Handler, which allows its setting to
be saved with the LightWave scene file.
This documentation has been written for version 17-05-02 of the exporter, which is the first release version. With this version, all of the features that are present in the official MilkShape DTS exporter are present in this LightWave one. This includes: exporting of meshes (polygons), exporting of nodes (nulls and bones), and the exporting of animation sequences (both forward and inverse kinematics based). There are still a number of features of the DTS format that are not yet implemented, and there are some limitations to be aware of. Please read the following sections for these details.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at TheHeadGnome@gnometech.com. The PC and Mac versions of the plug-in are hosted at www.gnometech.com.
Acknowledgments
I'd like to thank C J "ceej" Silverio for compiling the OS9 and OSX
versions of the exporter. I'd also like to thank Kevin Ostrowski for being the
only "official" beta tester for the exporter. Without their help,
the product would not be what it is today.
Included
Files
The ZIP archive that included this documentation should have also included a
couple of other directories:
LWBox.lws | Has an object set up with planar projection mapping |
LWOffsetTest.lws | Has an object that is positioned off-centre and rotated to demonstrate world transformation of vertices |
LWPlane.lws | The planar object is set to export as a billboard |
LWRampScene.lws | Has multiple objects including some with UV mapping, and a collision mesh |
BFG.lws | A rifle replacement for the FPS demo. It shows off the use of nodes for mount points. Rename the generated bfg.dts to weapon.dts and place it and bfg.png in fps\data\shapes\rifle and start up Water World. Also includes BFG43.lwo which has not been merged or tripled for you to look at. |
MaterialTest.lws | Demonstrates how to use the TorqueDTS_MaterialAttributes shader and the various LW surface properties to produce different surfaces. Examples include: transparency, additive transparency, environmental reflections, and a few more. |
BoneTube.lws | A tube with three bones that demonstrates forward kinematics based animation and multiple animation sequences. |
TinManAnim02.lws | An example animated player using forward kinematics. Includes the following animations: root, run, back, and celwave. |
SpiderBotAnim14.lws | An animated spider that demonstrates both forward and inverse kinematics based animation. The appropriate 'cam' and 'eye' nodes have been included so that the spider could be a player replacement. |
Limitations
For those that want to get started with the plug-in right away, here are some
of the limitations with this version of the plug-in. Most of these will disappear
with future versions, and others are just a part of the design (LightWave and/or
the DTS format).