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Custom Canvas and Objects?
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 2:10 pm
by medea1993
I'm a roll, so let's keep going... In Pyware, it was easy to move hashes, numbers, add lines, etc... to the field. It seems like all of that is "locked" in to the canvas that is used in Envision. Does anyone have a way to create a canvas from scratch? Or modify the existing one for a football field? Just to be clear, I don't mean adding an image file and using that (like you would for a screen printed floor). I mean to take a football field and move the numbers to the edge of the field, off the marching surface. Or add an extra front boundary line to the field that is already there.
I would just like some more options but I don't know how to create/edit the canvas that holds the lines/hashes/field number info... Any suggestions or examples would be great!
For the objects, how can we create a 3D object to drop in to the program? I love the pit equipment and would like to be able to make 3D objects for my props so they look like the props instead of big blocks. What app do you use to create these 3D objects? I work at an engineering firm, so I'm sure I have access to the right software if I knew what I needed. Thanks!!!
Re: Custom Canvas and Objects?
Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 12:20 am
by box5Nick
Currently you can't edit the placement of field numbers although that is on our update last of things to do. And hashes are currently bound to the presets at the top of the canvas editor.
As for making props, we are using Maya for all of our modeling and animation. Currently our exporter only works from a relatively old version though, so you might need to pass any new objects through us to get them in.
Re: Custom Canvas and Objects?
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 10:38 pm
by JRVidal99
I was just curious if any updates/progress has been made on importing custom objects.
What file extension is required to import custom objects? I figured out the uniforms are .tga files and have been successfully creating shows with custom uniforms and canvases. I would like to import custom props/3D objects to really take the design presentation over the top.
Re: Custom Canvas and Objects?
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 11:39 pm
by William
Hi JRVidal99,
I believe you asked this question in a chat to our facebook group, to which I just responded before I saw this post. I think the answer is interesting enough that I'll share it here as well:
Adding your own 3D models to EnVision is not officially supported but you're welcome to give it a try. I can point you in the right direction but I won't be able to give you much in the way of support.
EnVision uses Cal3D for rendering 3D objects. It is an open-source character animation library that has its own 3D model format. A quick google search will get you links and references on how to export to this format from the various 3D modelling programs.
The best place to load new 3D models into EnVision is through the Prop tool->Choose 3D Model. This list is populated by reading the contents of the EnVision/data/Pit directory, which is in the EnVision installation folder. There you can see examples of 3D meshes that we already have in EnVision. Each mesh has 4 associated files: .xmf, .xrf, .cfg, and an image file. The .xmf (model file) and .xrf (resource file) are generated by the 3D modelling software via a script. The image file (mostly tga) is just the texture file, and the .cfg (configuration) file ties it all together. The xrf, xmf and cfg files are all text based so you can open them in any text editor and inspect them. All 4 of those files need to be present for the model to load properly. Make sure to note the format of the .cfg file and make changes as necessary.
I think each model also needs a skeleton, even if it doesn't move. In which case it can juts be a single bone. All existing pit models use the pit_skeleton.xsf file, so have a look at that also, I'm not sure if you'll be able to reuse it or not.
At any rate, I'd love to see some new and interesting 3D models in EnVision so definitely let us know what you come up with. Last note: any models you create won't be shared with others if you share your show, so you'll have to get them to add all those files manually if you want to do that.
Have a great day!