Tips for Active Worlds users

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Amabilis Forum: User's Tips: Tips for Active Worlds users
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  By Alex Grigny de Castro on Sunday, April 22, 2001 - 09:40 am:  

3DCanvas is a modelling program, that exports and imports DirectX X ascii text files from the main File menu. Using two programs I made and Accutrans3D, most objects can be transfered to and from 3DCanvas to RWX files.

RWX (or other files supported by Accutrans3D) to X:
Load your object in Accutrans3D, save it as 3DStudio 3DS file making sure the "avatar" checkbox is NOT checked.
Start my program 3ds2x, select the scaling you want and load the 3ds file: this converts it to the X format that 3DCanvas can import.

X to RWX:
Export the scene (NOT the object by right clicking on it) using "File | Export | DirectX (.x)" menu option.
Start my program x2rwx, load the file, and follow the instructions on screen. You can save the converted RWX file, which can be either used directly or loaded in Accutrans3D for further processing.

NOTE 1: 3DCanvas has a bug when exporting X files: it reduces the precision of vertex positions to 3 significant figures. This is a known issue, hopefully the next version will fix this.

NOTE 2: due to differences between DirectX and Renderware rendering, some 3DCanvas options will not work for us. When texturing, make sure you always use a Flat Wrap (which is no wrapping at all). Cylindrical and Spherical wrappings do not work for us, because no UV information is stored or can be stored (texture boundaries run accross faces). Another good method, if you have the Pro version or have paid for the pluggin, is to use the UV Map Object tool to UV faces: this does store UV information correctly.

NOTE 3: our objects, when imported to 3DCanvas, appear very small on screen. Therefore, when changing from RWX/COB or other to X, you should apply a scaling factor, 10 is usually ok. You can do that in Accutrans or in 3ds2x. Conversely, when changing from X to RWX, scale down your object by 0.1 in x2rwx or in Accutrans, to get it to the right size for Active Worlds. One unit of length in 3DCanvas is equivalent to one Active Worlds coordinate, i.e. 10 metres.

Accutrans3D: http://www.micromouse.ca/
3DCanvas: http://www.amabilis.com/
3ds2x and x2rwx: http://www.imatowns.com/xelagot/links.html

XelaG
(Alex Grigny de Castro)

  By Alex Grigny de Castro on Sunday, April 22, 2001 - 09:48 am:  


NOTE 4: when texturing, do not flip the textures, because Renderware will flip and mirror them if you do that.

[u]NEWS FOR ACTIVE WORLDS USERS[/u]

RWXThing is now available. You can load an RWX file and change it to a DirectX file for import in 3DCanvas. The advantage of using RWXThing instead of Accutrans3D is that polygons are preserved, and RWX Clumps do not get split up into several objects when more than one material is used.

RWXThing also has export to Viewpoint compatible MTX + OBJ + MTL format

RWXThing and x2rwx:
http://www.imatowns.com/xelagot/links.html

NOTE 1 of the previous posting is now outdated: the export precision bug has been fixed and is now sufficient for most purposes.


Alex

Check the LP/PRO "General Discussion" group for a new converter: X2RWX.  

For PRO users, it allows converting objects and avatars to RWX, and animations to SEQ.  

Non-PRO users can convert objects and avatars, but avatars will have to be tagged manually.  SEQ files can not be made properly.

Downloads at http://www.imatowns.com/xelagot/links.html

XelaG