United3dArtists Archive

JimB · Post by **JimB** » 21 Nov 2011, 10:12

Yet another one goes freeware WorldWeavers DXStudio Pro.
http://www.dxstudio.com/index.aspx"

Peter · Post by **Peter** » 23 Nov 2011, 22:10

Ok, I tried it briefly.
It seems pretty good. It runs somewhat slowly with my system, which is about 10 years old.

I can easily import geometry with material & animation from truespace 7.61 workspace. I've only tried simple animations & models so far. DXStudio loads .x files.

It has the ability to render a scene to image sequence or movie files, I haven't tried it yet. That could be pretty nice for us movie makers.

I can see it as a tool to add post processing (it has a number of DX effects) & most importantly, to add particle effects like smoke or flames, etc. to your animations.

I need to explore it more deeply.

Peter · Post by **Peter** » 24 Nov 2011, 15:18

Object with multiple materials imported OK.

Normal map images need to be manually reloaded to the imported object.

Soft shadows not yet implemented.

Slowdown I reported was only with anti aliasing turned on.

Internal material editor looks good - has detail map & AO map slots to presumably mix with the surface texture. Haven't tried it yet.

It has a key-frame animator built in to add motions to objects.
So far I think skeletal animations need to be imported with the mesh object.

seppgirty · Post by **seppgirty** » 28 Nov 2011, 23:27

i was looking at this and it appears you have to know java. does it come with a bunch of scripts or do you have to write everything yourself? i'm more of a modeler than a programmer...... looks cool though.

Peter · Post by **Peter** » 30 Nov 2011, 01:13

seppgirty wrote:i was looking at this and it appears you have to know java. does it come with a bunch of scripts or do you have to write everything yourself? i'm more of a modeler than a programmer...... looks cool though.

Sorry for the delay.

I was able to do all tasks through the GUI, even setting up an animation. I didn't see the need to use scripts.

Prodigy · Post by **Prodigy** » 01 Dec 2011, 00:25

i'll give it a try.. thanks for share!

seppgirty · Post by **seppgirty** » 02 Dec 2011, 23:06

That sounds very promising Peter, because i am horrible at programing and scripting. more of a drag and drop man. i'll have to give it a go........

Also, if you want to sell a game made with this do you have to buy a license or pay a royality fee? i can't find anything on the site about it.

nigec · Post by **nigec** » 10 Jun 2012, 18:07

bit late but... I found DXstudio fun to use, the only complain really was the outdated and often incomplete documents, support was picking up a bit on the forum.
I totally went sideways and built a batch rendering utility with it, but with it using Java and needs the player some things were less than ideal so I moved on to AutoIT
Maybe when I get a better pc I might have a go at a 3D game with it

here's a pic of the batch utility

BNG · Post by **BNG** » 21 Jun 2012, 14:01

Here's an article on how to export an X model out of Truespace for use with DXStudio. The article only lists one option, but you actual have several export options: The default 7.61 X, Clintons FBX, the default TS 6.6 X, and if you have the TrueX TSX exporter any of these models are insertable in a DX project.

I'm curious, has anyone actually tried using DXStudio for some kind of project? It looks really interesting, but it looks like much of it is the domain of game programmers and such. I've inserted several of my X models originally made for Battlezone II Combat Commander, and they all seem to load without issues. I plan to visit the DX forums just to see if I can learn anything new about using it.

Exporting from TrueSpace
This is a small tutorial on how to export a mesh from TrueSpace into DXStudio.

Exporting
Step One
First make sure, you are working with the Workspace of TS 7.6

To Export a mesh make sure you have the mesh selected otherwise it wont be exported properly, after you have made your selection click on 'File > Save'.

Step Two
Choose a name for your exported mesh and choose the .x file format.

Step Three
If your model doesn't contain any animation data, setup the settings as shown below on the exporter and click the Export button.

However, when exporting characters or any animated models you might need to add the animation data to the exporter settings like this

If your model has a good set of textures (PNG or DDS with alfa channel, normals etc) you usually don't need to check option "Copy textures" in the dialogs above. But you should check this opotion if you have textured the model within TrueSpace, or if you want to convert your textures to another file format like PNG.
If you decide to use this option, you should first make sure, that the textures exported from TS 7.6 have the correct resolution set. You will find these settings in the 'Model side' which you reach by click on the handle shown below.

True Space will export by default only textures with 256 x 256 resolution. You can set texture resolution up to 2048 x 2048 in the dialog as shown below. These settings will also affect the exported texture and not only display of the scene!

Step Four
To add the mesh into DX Studio document simply open or create a new 3D Scene and under the meshes tab add your mesh.x
Final thoughts
This article suggests export to the binary x.file. If you wish to reduce the file size, you can export also to compressed x.file.
By some models can the option 'Split hierarchies' be used if you have problems with the way described above.
Both options are also configurable in the exporter dialog.
Last edited by Funkas on 09 November 2009

MikomDude · Post by **MikomDude** » 21 Jun 2012, 16:44

It looks fun and is pretty easy to use. I exported my Mars colony and loaded it into the editor. In less than half an hour I had a working preview.

Feel free to check it out, the download is hosted on ModDB/Gamefront since the file was to big to upload here (11 MB) http://www.gamefront.com/files/21879596 ... ony_3D.zip

Important: Use the W-A-S-D keys to move around in the scene and hold the right mouse button to look around.

Math Path · Post by **Math Path** » 22 Jun 2012, 17:10

Hey BNG,
Thank you for quoting my article in their wiki about import of x-files.

Indeed it's not complete list of possibilities to achieve this. It's just the option that worked for me completely flawless even for animated character models. Unfortunately the quote, you were kind to provide, doesn't contain images in text. For those who are interested here is the link to this article.
http://www.dxstudio.com/guide_content.a ... 38fc7bb2c2

@MikomDude:
You put a nice futuristic scene together. Well done work with Mars-feeling

My personal opinion about DX Studio is a well designed and easy to use engine for rapid development of games and another 3D applications. However there are some serious problems with the future of the software. Giving it for free was the attempt to gain more interest for the product while the development should be founded on the base of side projects not related to DX Studio directly. This lead in short time to kinda impasse. Due to the lack of updates, bug fixes and not clearly defined road map for further development two last years didn't result in any progress. Another problem is partially lacking or not up to date documentation. The community with many skilled developers just disappeared. That reduced interest in the product in return. That what you can observe today is best described as "no demand, no progress". Today their forums looks rather like an abandoned place. It is almost impossible for new users to get information they need for first footsteps. But anyway developers are still there and provide some help. Although if you ask, when is some progress supposed to take the place, you will hear always the same answer: soon! I hear this since two years...

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 22 Jun 2012, 17:32

Thanks Math Path! I loved your tutorial that I put it into my blog. I hope you don't mind!

Very cool. I'll also promote your software in my blog, being freeware and also realtime.

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