Intersense Server & 3d Max

[Hodge1620]

Matthias mentioned to us that the latest version of the Intersense server was compatible with Vizard and would speed the load-up time for us. However, I haven't been able to connect to my tracker while the server is running. I suspect that this may be because I tested it out with Vizard 2.15b. Is support for the intersense server limited to the most recent version(s) of vizard or are there server configuration settings that I am missing?

Also, I noticed on the front page that you now support 3D max's 3DS file format in vizard. Is that also limited to the latest version(s) of vizard? Also, is there any loss in features from the 3DS file (such as texture richness, animation, etc) when they are loaded into vizard?

Thanks,
-Eric Hodgson
Miami University

[tobin]

For quite some time now Vizard has supported .3DS importing. However, unless you're using content already created in that format WorldViz generally does’t recommend it as a 3D file format. Its biggest drawback is that texture filenames cannot exceed 8 characters in length (not counting suffix). If DOS style naming is acceptable to you then .3DS should be fine. Still, we generally don't see any differences between .3DS and .WRL, and since that latter allows normal file naming it's our recommendation.

That said, WorldViz is recently began recommending a Vizard native file format which can now be generated for use with Vizard 2.5 and higher. We provide an exporter to a file format called OpenSceneGraph and the advantages of this over .WRL and .3DS are numerous. To see a description of all the scene features that are handled by this format, please browse here:

http://osgexp.vr-c.dk/documentation/HOWTO.htm

To download a Vizard 2.53 compatible 3DS Max export plug-in, please click here:

http://www.worldviz.com/download/files/vizard253_max7_export_plugin.zip

Besides the scene export features that are available in this plug-in, it does a much better job handling textures (e.g., multi-textures, baked shells, etc.) and has an optional binary format that produces .IVE export files that load into Vizard lightning fast (e.g., 500K polygons in less than 1 sec).

The plug-in can optionally create a subfolder during the export process that contains all the file’s textures. This makes for a clean workflow allowing you to link to disparate files across folders yet collect them all centrally during the export process so Vizard can properly find them. What's more, you can now use MAX's procedural textures and the plug-in will even generate appropriate bitmaps and Vizard materials for you automatically.

The binary format (.IVE) not only loads incredibly fast but it can optionally have all the files textures embedded within the single file. It makes for a large .IVE file but then both geometry and textures will load extremely quickly.

Please view the "readme.txt" file contained in the above zip file for installation and usage instructions.

[Hodge1620]

Thanks for the file format info. One question... The file name for the plugin is "vizard253_max7_export_plugin" which would lead me to believe that it is built for 3DS Max version 7. Does this plugin work for earlier versions? (We are currently running version 5.)

Also, do you know anything about the intersense server problem mentioned in the original post?

[tobin]

Please try:

http://www.worldviz.com/download/files/vizard253_max5_export_plugin.zip

[farshizzo]

Hi,

We've only tested it out on version 2.5 and above, but it should work on older version. You just need the latest IServer from Intersense and latest plugin from us. Send me an email at lashkari@worldviz.com and I'll send you the latest plugin.