Will Bb3 Support Mtl. Files For Color & Texture?

Discussion in 'Buildbox 3.0' started by Hue Buildbox, Jul 18, 2018.

  1. Hue Buildbox

    Hue Buildbox Administrator Staff Member

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    Most 3D modeling software export mtl. Files when exporting obj. files. I'm quite sure people are going to make complex 3D objects. Will BB3 support mtl. or maybe dae.?
     
  2. jmiller8031

    jmiller8031 Avid Boxer

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    Typically game engines use their own shader logic and it's not recommended to import a shader in a different format. MTL is short for material and is a form of shader, meaning it contains both color and shading data for the 3d mesh's vertices. You just want the color data since BB3 has it's own lighting and shading techniques. To get that color data you need a texture map in the form of a PNG. Alternatively, you can skip the texture map and just use BB3's built in shader and change the color and light properties of each imported 3D object.

    Think of it this way, color aka texture is just that, pixels with a certain color. Shading, on the other hand, is how the 3D object reacts to simulated light, as in is it glossy, rough, reflective, refractive, transparent and so on. Importing MTL data wouldn't make sense considering you have to use BB3's internal shader. Someone could write a translator of sorts that accepts that data, but OBJ is so old, that it's kind of pointless these days.

    OBJ is a universal format that's ancient and all 3D modeling apps will accept it. They use the MTL data to create a basic shader once you import it. If the MTL data is missing, they assign the default generic shader. The caveat is that 3D game engines render in real time, and 3D modeling apps by default, do not, and that is why game engines typically have their own shaders and why this will probably always be a manual process. Some 3D modeling apps, however, do support game shaders and the ability to export the data, however, OBJ is not the supported format for those exports.

    In short, we need FBX and a cross compatible shader language to get a quick import solution. PBR is the standard right now, but I don't know what direction BuildBox is heading. PBR is overkill for mobile games in most cases.

    DAE is Collada and no one really uses that outside of Google Sketchup. It's one of those quirky open source formats you never know if it is going to work right. The industry standard is FBX.
     
  3. Phill Mason

    Phill Mason Serious Boxer

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    Nice explanation @jmiller8031 thanks. It'll be interesting to see what BB3's plans are on the upcoming webinar, hope they cover this area in some detail, would be great to know what the workflow is.
     
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  4. Hue Buildbox

    Hue Buildbox Administrator Staff Member

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    So now we just need to here from BB Staff about whether or not BB3 will support fbx.
    Come'on Staff shed some light on this PLEASE!
     
  5. micdune

    micdune Boxer

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    Asked the question a while ago, it will eventually but just not yet.
     
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  6. Argent Arts

    Argent Arts Boxer

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    Besides FBX, BB may want to consider glTF support:

    https://www.khronos.org/gltf/

    glTF is a great way to get multiple objects, textures, materials, animations, and more out of your 3D program and into game engines that support it. In my opinion, it's better than FBX (and not tied to Autodesk licensing).
     

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