Maya 2014

[Aurelia Chauveau]

Hi Guys

 

Just wondering if anyone has been using Maya 2014 for uploading into SL? Rigged and non-rigged mesh? And if so, what is your process? do you export in .fbx format and then use the 2013 fbx converter to convert to .dae for upload into SL?

[Astrid Kaufmat]

Hi ,Aurelia

No with maya 2014 you can export your mesh as they are as collada_fbx (.dae)

That thing you talked about was not even a must for previous versions but it was recomended for complex geometry or models with more materials or textires to avoid errors.

[Aurelia Chauveau]

oh ok great thanks for letting me know, I just used the fbx converter each time, for older versions anyways LOL.  So Maya 2014 supports multiple materials?  - silly question, I'm sure it does LOL. I might just go have a play thanks for answering

[Astrid Kaufmat]

yes you can use multiple materials without any difficult. just for istance make a cube  and assign to each of its 6 faces a different material. once in world you can simple edit it like you'd edit any classic secondlife primitive object, tick the box" selected face" and you can select each of those  polygons (group of polygons) that share the same material, changing the color or putting there any texture you want.

This for rigged or not rigged mesh:both of them can have multiple materials.

Just be cheap with that feature and use it only if needed, for istance if a part of yur mesh would need a stand alone secondary texture for more details . Calculate pro and contra everytime

You can add up to 8 different materials for each mesh. once in world with a very short scriptie you can assign them different textures and stuff same was as in the past yo'd have controlled via script diffeent textures for different faces on a prim.

 in case you want more fun you can also experiment for each face different normal maps,specular maps  quickly generated with maya substance plugin ( it's not active by default but in your plugin manager)

[Amilia Zabaleta]

Thank you so much for posting this - a big "whew" re. direct export to .dae files in Maya 2014.

Having said that, I'm having loads of trouble with the Maya 2014 to SL transition on my new, fabulous and expensive machine.  I am trying to figure out if it's a Windows 8 issue, an "old files into new" issue (the "export to OBJ, then reimport" scheme), or a material/LOD issue.  Or did  I forget to check the right box when I reinstalled 2014 on the new machine?

I did copy over my old settings into Maya 2014 - so that part is working right.  The biggest problem has been that the steps that worked pre-new machine aren't working anymore.  Of course I'm still learning, but what could be so radically different at this point?  The two most difficult issues have been getting the following warnings when I export to Collada:

"The plug-in will tessellate meshes with smooth mesh preview according to corresponding preview division levels maya error message"

and:  "While reading or writing a file the following notifications have been raised.  Warning: Null not supported by COLLADA. Node tiarabasetrial will lose its geometric information. The node transforms will be saved."

And then when trying to upload to SL: "material of model is not a subset of reference model sl"

Any insights (constructive, please) would be much appreciated.  I want to get back in the groove.  I guess the main question is, is there a way to "wipe clean" the model to get it to work?  Much thank yous in advance..