Exporting to VRML

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Most 3D tools have export plugins for VRML. You can export your 3D scene,
but the plugin can only export the data of the scene, that has also a matching
VRML representation. The following elements can usually not be exported:

• custom shading networks (e.g. mental ray shaders)
• special materials (toon shader, ...)
• procedural materials
• bump Maps, specular Maps, ...
• multilayered materials
• animated textures
• physics
• particles, fluids
• complex lighting setups (e.g. global illumination, IBR)
• NURBS

Maya

Make sure that the VRML export plugin has been loaded. You can check
the plugins in the Plugin Manager.
(Windows => Settings/Preferences => PluginManager)

Once you have setup your scene, you can export the scene to a VRML file by selecting File=>Export All/Export Selected.
Select Options to change the default settings. The options window will popup.

Export Options

If you want to export animations you have to check the box Enabled. The export
will automatically generate a TouchSensor for the scene, which will trigger the
animation. To export vertex animations (necessary for bone animations or deformations)
you have to enable Vertices. Maya is also one of the few export plugins, that supports
the animation of material attributes. (Note: This only works for simple material types like
Lambert, Blinn, etc. Only a few material attributes will be exported - color, transparency,
cosinePower, specular Color, Incandescene)

Other important options, that should be checked are Normals and Textures. If you want
to export file textures, make sure to select Evaluate and Original.

All the options are also explained in the Maya Help.(F1)

User Guide => Translators and Exporters => Games => VRML2 Translator => Menus => File => File > Export All > VRML2

Trouble Shooting

The export plugin sets the diffuseColor for all materials with file textures to 0 0 0. The BsContact
renderer uses the diffuseColor to modulate the color value of the texture. So this behaviour leads
to a black surface if a file texture is used. To correct this, open the VRML file with a text editor and
replace all lines with diffuseColor 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 with diffuseColor 1.0 1.0 1.0.

Another limitation of the export plugin is that you cannot set the endFrame of the animation past
1000 frames. The export triggers a MEL command that passes all the arguments of the options GUI.
You can simply copy the command from the ScriptEditor and edit the the animEnd attribute. Run the
script with new animEnd attribute and you can export more than 1000 frames.

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-- SupportMetaio - 2010-03-01