Loving the Micro Exporter

[Hetzen]

I've got around to using the Micro Exporter today, and I've got to say it's a really awesome feature that I'm going to be using a hell of a lot more from now on.

Saving the landscape through a top down orthographic camera lens as an OBJ, dropped straight into max in the correct scale and position. The polygon mesh created is very usable as a shadow matte object, and positioning of other objects relative to the landscape has exponentially been made easier.

I created a sphere with radius 500m in TG, brought it into max, measured it and found it was 1000m across as it should be. I then made a 500m radius sphere in max, and aligned it up, exported and reopened in TG, where it was in precisely the right position.

Awesome work guys.

[rcallicotte]

Let's see the result.   

[Mandrake]

Another request, pretty please, show us that node system and explain the export process.

[Mandrake]

Typical..

[Tangled-Universe]

There's not much typical I suppose...
Exporting the terrain with the micro exporter just needs 1 single node, so there's no node network involved.
The micro-exporter saves the geometry from the render to the harddrive.
If you hook up an orthograpic camera above the terrain and render it, then it will save that visible section as .lwo or .obj, depending on how you defined the filename.
You'll need about 0.5 detail at most for the majority of purposes. The greater detail, the more subdivisions by the renderer, thus the more triangles in your output.

All of this information can be found on these forums. That information applies to the old exporter though, but the same principles apply.
The new exporter doesn't perform culling and such, that's the primary difference besides the things Hetzen mentions.

One thing which can't be found here on the forums is that you'll need to disable "microvertex jittering" and "detail jittering" in order to get gap-free geometry.

Cheers,
Martin

[Mandrake]

Thanks for your austere explanation TU, and I had searched out this node, but things looked bleak. Using the search engine will often tie you into conversations that assume you understand the context in which it's applied.

Following your example, I come up with this. Look right?
I take it that this object will be at the same coordinates it is now, when I import it to my modeling program?
As long as I'm set up in meters, zed is still zed and this section of the map will be off where it's supposed to be and at the same altitude.
Thanks for the help.

[dandelO]

Kenny, I think the exporter node should be created inside the render node you're using, that way it will be assigned to the micro exporter input automatically, just make sure you assign it in the render node output tab before hitting render, as it needs plugging in.

[Mandrake]

Yes, your right, and this is exactly what so difficult about tg2.
and who'd figure it would be in the internal network node of the camera.

[dandelO]

Using the 'create new micro handler' option from the panel tab you're showing here does it for you.

[Matt]

It doesn't have to be in the internal network, it can be anywhere as long as it is connected to the "micro exporter" connection. Most connections in Terragen work this way.

[Mandrake]

Yes, works fine. I was trying to do it manually.
I'm telling you man someone over at Franks place should break out the Camtasia and sell some videos..

[Hetzen]

Another request, pretty please, show us that node system and explain the export process.

Sorry Mandrake, I've not been around much to help out. Seems others have jumped in.

@Calico Would love to show you what I've been working on, except I have NDAs I need to adhere to, and then I would have to shoot you  .

[rcallicotte]

@Hetzen - I appreciate the "heads up".   

[rcallicotte]

Thanks for explaining TU.  I didn't see Mandrake's request.