LightWave
to DTS Exporter Documentation
For Version 17-05-02
Written by David
Wyand
Appendix A: List of Plug-ins
TorqueDTSExporter
This is the main plug-in for exporting DTS files. It is used from the Scene->Master
Plug-ins button. Please see the Interface section
for details on how to use it.
TorqueDTS_MaterialAttributes
This plug-in is used to set up a number of material attributes that cannot be
accomplished through the native LightWave surface panel. It may be found under
the Shaders section of the LW surface panel.
The Transparency Type parameter can have values of: Normal, Additive, and Subtractive. Please see the Surfaces section on how it affects materials. The other two parameters are used to set the 'NoMipMap' and 'MipMapZeroBorder' flags for the Torque material.
TorqueDTS_IKChannelCreator
This plug-in is used when an object or bone is animated with Inverse Kinematics
(IK). LightWave does not allow a plug-in to have direct access to the IK data
at any time, which prevents the TorqueDTSExporter from creating the appropriate
keyframes when using IK. This plug-in will read the IK rotation for the given
object/bone and create new keyframe channels for it. It does this whenever there
is a frame change within the Layout interface. This is why the TorqueDTSExporter
runs through the timeline when exporting animations.
You could manually add this plug-in to the object/bone's Motion Options, but there are usually quite a number of bones in an animated player. This would get rather tedious. Therefore, once you have setup the IK hierarchy (or any time you change it), click on the Setup for IK button on the Animation tab. This will cause the plug-in to go through each of the objects and bones, and if IK is used on any of its motion channels, the Channel Creator plug-in is added. See the Interface section under the Animation tab for more information.
TorqueDTS_AnimSequence
This plug-in is non-essential for the exporter to work, but is handy when working
on animations. It displays the current animation sequence name, and this start
and end frames for the sequence for the current location on the LightWave timeline.
To use it, add a NULL object to the scene. Open its Object Properties, and add the TorqueDTS_AnimSequence plug-in using the Add Custom Object drop down list. Double click on the plug-in to open its interface:
You may choose how you'd like the text displayed (left, centre or right), and how high on the y-axis you'd like it displayed (this gets it out of the way of the Null's axis). See the Tin Man or SpiderBot example scenes on how to use this plug-in.
In its current release, the two lines of text are displayed a fixed distance apart. Unfortunately, this means that when zoomed far out of the LW scene, the text can run into itself. A future release will attempt to correct this.