DAZ Studio importing .3ds file
noahimself
Posts: 41
in The Commons
In the documentation here, it says you can import .3ds files http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/carrara/06_six/06_import_export
But I tried and the option isn't available, wtf?
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You are looking at Carrara, not Daz Studio. There are lots of small apps that will convert a .3DS file to .obj
OH that's dumb of me
I'm trying to export .obj from 3Ds Max, but the textures just won't goddamn load. The .mtl file is there, the textures are there, but it just won't load.
It maybe fine if there's if it's a simple mesh, since you can just apply the texture manually, but there's a ton of crap in the scene and it would drive me insane to reapply and hunt which textures go where one by one
I tried .fbx, .dae, .alc with various settings and just now was trying .3ds to no avail
I think I'm going insane
I feel ya, I load tons of .LWO, and .3DS files into DS all the time after converting to .obj and half the time I have to reload the textures
With 3DS files, I normally import into Poser first, then export that as PP2 for use in DS. Sometimes the textures load from the mtl, sometimes they don't.
So do you guys know any solution? The source file is a .max scene and I'm trying to put it to DAZ Studio
Is it really a thing? That sometimes .mtl file doesn't load textures properly no matter what? Is there really no solution other than manual texture reapplication?
.mtl files are simply text and can often be edited easily. They can contain absolute references to textures in some cases, other cases relative references.
- Greg
What I do is export from Max as .obj (using the Bryce export preset in the Max export dialogue) then import into Bryce. Then export as .obj from bryce and then import into DS.. Note that Max will not embed textures if they are VRay or MentalRay based.(the Max .obj exporter does not handle .mtl file creation at all well, it generally strips out texturing. ) I usually end up re-texuring in DS or Bryce anyway.. .3ds is worse, as it mat not save the relationships between individual geometries in the max file.
Like hacsart, I will often retexture 3DS props once they are imported. One issue I find particularly frustrating is when there are a lot of surfaces, but they are labelled with just a number, or some other meaningless identifier. It makes it much harder to work out what new shader needs putting on each surface.
When transferring meshes between programs there are two simple rules I follow...
1. Expect to always retexture the item in the program it is being imported to. Obj/mtl is a very old format and as such, the mtl file is rather limited and often doesn't get things right if it works at all.
2. Name the surfaces something logical...color01, color02, etc doesn't cut it. If that means renaming them before exporting...then spend the time to do it. It will save a lot of time later.
To expand on algovincian's comment, this is what I do to get the textures to load and to make sure it comes in visable:
I open up the .mtl file and do a find and replace
For example, find the path for loading textures such as: F:\[CAT]_Arch\[SubCAT]_Cities\NYC_Blocks\NYC Set 8 - 1 Block\NYC_Set_8_Max_SC\textures\
Since I had put the texture folder in the same folder as where the obj was I then replaced the above line with: /textures/
To make the obj come in visible then do a find and replace for:
Find: Tr 0.0000
Replace: Tr 100.0000
I chose 3DS MAX as the import option and then I check mark Invert Positive Direction for the X, Y and Z. If you don't check these boxes then all the textures come in backwards. Not so important for certain things but any signs will need a mirror image so they can be read.
I then went to the Parameter tab and put 90 in the X rotation. If the model is big I change the nudge on the translation sliders to 10 to make it easier to get the model in position.
My two cents on how to deal with a converted.3ds model.
...I wonder if you can group like surfaces and give them a logical name like "Windows", "Hull", "Tyres", etc.. using the Geometry Editor to make the job of retexturing a bit easier. Found a beautiful old highway bus in .3ds that I converted to .obj in Hexagon but when I opened it in the Daz Surfaces tab all I got was a very long list of numbers as well.
Yes....but the selection of faces for those surfaces can be a bit of a pain...it is a bit easier if you use one of the wire shaded modes...wire textured is good.
..yes, not as confusing.
Sometimes you get lucky and can select by Surface and use all those cryptic names.
I run all formats thru Ultimate Unwrap 3D when converting and in it you can change the name to whatever you want
Yeah, I most often do the renaming/consolidating of surfaces in whatever I'm using to convert it...usually Blender. But it's not impossible to do with the tools in Studio...just more tedious.
The problem most have is a simple lack of knowledge, DS has two ways to load OBJs & MTLs, first one is File > Import from some where on your computer, like this any MTL needs to have the full texture pathway listed in the MTL, and that includes the drive letter.
The second way is to create an "Other Format" content directory, and access the OBJs from within the Content Library tab, this way a pathway in the MTL like this "map_Ka maps\plastic_crate(grey).jpg", means that the textures just need to be in a sub folder called "maps" next to the OBJ & MTL for DS to see and load them.
Wandering in...
So what you are saying is that Cararra can open a .3ds file and export it as an .obj? I've tripped over an number of rather nice freebies in .3ds format over the years and had to pass on them because I didn't know of any way to access them.
Further complicated by the fact that I'm on a Mac, and 3Ds Max doesn't run on a Mac, never has, and probably never will. I do have a student version of Maya, but I don't know whether it will get into them either.
I did pick Cararra up on a special a while ago. If it can open up or import formats that Studio won't, it might be worth installing it.
Oh yeah, carrara can re-format lots of files. it even reads .FBX format better than DS to the point that you can import the rigging with the .FBX file and pose it how you like. I use carrara as a go between lots of times.
..well considering Ultimate Unwrap 3D costs 60$, figuring out Blender for me is like being at the controls a space shuttle orbiter in an inverted flat spin, and Hexagon's mapping tools have issues, the Geometry Editor looks like my best choice. I do use it a lot for kitbashing.
Yes, this is a problem I come across fairly regularly. I think the thing is that there's no guarantee two different programs will create texture references in the .mtl file the same way — it's an ancient file format, with severe limitations when it comes to complex (by modern standards) material definitions, and it's very easy to do everything apparently right but still end up with an obj/mtl file pair that are "broken" on import into D|S.
First, pull the .obj file into a text editor (that's all it is, plain text) and look for the line starting "mtllib" a few lines down from the top. This gives the folder path and file name of the .mtl file; if there is only the file name with no path, the two files are expected to be in the same folder. Note that it does not have to be this way — if the folder path and actual location of the .mtl file don't match, then the .mtl file will not be found in the first place.
Next, pull the .mtl file into a text editor. There should be a regular pattern of statements for each material in the object; texture file locations are set up in the same way as the mtllib statement mentioned above. This means there are two different ways the textures can fail to load; either the definition is an absolute path that exists only on the computer the object was created on, or the definition is a relative path you didn't know about, so it doesn't match where you actually put the texture files.
All of this assumes that the maps are actually in named slots that the format actually understands. If the diffuse map happens to be in something other than 'map_Kd", then no amount of tweaking paths is going to find it.
...that all sounds like more trouble than just retexturing the item.
LOL, was thinking the same thing!
Like I said a while ago in a similar thread, when translating/importing items I always expect to retexture them...needless to say, I haven't been disappointed yet. If they do come in, hey, it's a bonus!
I understand the comment that it's easier to texture manually rather than go through the hassle, but the import with texture should work. I am a complete noob at Daz3D, so texturing manually will be very hard for me. I can load scenes, Genesis 3 and Victoria 4.2 figures, and pose them etc, but I want to create my own items, particularly jewelry and shoes.
On the other hand I am moderately comfortable with 3ds Max, and I have several decades in the software engineering world behind me, and back then I was a wizz at PD/PSI (Problem Determination/Problem Source Identification).
So ...
I created a minimal box in 3ds Max, converted it to an editable poly, and textured it with a free tilable skin texture I found on the interwebs. I saved it as max, but then I also exported it as obj, and I did set the image path to ./ as suggested elsewhere. I put the skin texture jpg in the same folder as the obj and mtl. I have screenshots, but how to post them here?
Still in 3ds Max, I reset to a blank workspace and imported the same obj file. It imported correctly, with its texture. As it should. So 3ds Max can at least do the round trip, but that doesn't completely rule it out as a source of the problem, it just says look elsewhere first.
I went to wikipedia and the original doc from Wavefront, to read the definition of the mtl and obj files, and then looked at the actual files. They look to be correctly formatted and correctly related to each other.
I then switched to Daz and imported the obj file into an empty scene. It came up invisible, but it was at 0,0,0 and when I hovered the mouse pointer there, it showed up colored orange. I was able to select it. It showed up as just a bounding box. I set the workspace view to texture shaded, but that made no difference. At this point my Daz3d skill runs out ...
In my (former) world, if this had been the product for which I was team leader, before I retired, that information alone would have made me assign a developer to reproduce this problem and find out why it is happening, and at very least, document a workaround. I know Daz3d is free.
Chris Gage
-- Windows 10 Professional -- Daz3D 4.9 -- 3DS Max 2015 --
-- Core i7 4790K -- 16GB -- Nvidia GTX 970 -- Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD -- 2TB HD --
-- Benq 32" WQXD and ASUS HDPro Monitors -- Logitech G710 & G502 --
Possible the surface material is coming in at zero opacity (some apps are like that - it's an app-to-app materials thing). Go the surfaces tab, click on the surface (possibly called 'default') and find the opacity/cutout opacity slider and change it to 1 if it's at zero.
That is one of the problems of the OBJ format...transparency can be handled in two ways...and they aren't compatible.
Yes, this is exactly what I said upthread — there's no guarantee that two different programs will understand each other's exported obj/mtl files in exactly the same way. It isn't a DAZ|Studio problem, it's a result of .obj being such an ancient (in 3d graphics terms) file format. In many cases, there are ways to set up the exporting program so that the importing program can read the file properly, but that is not necessarily the program's default behaviour.
For converting 3DS format to something Daz Studio can use, I would recommend either of these.
Poseray:
https://sites.google.com/site/poseray/home
FBX® 2013.3 Converter:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?siteID=123112&id=22694909