Okino Website Claims 3DS Exports Cameras

[AGP]

Which, come to think, I'm sure I've seen done. Can we PLEASE get that implemented? It would change my life on 3D/2D hybrids like the game on which I'm currently working.

[fireside]

It is able to do lights and cameras, but a lot of modelers don't put it in their exporter.  Blender doesn't.

[AGP]

I know but I use Max, so I'm covered.

[paulscode]

Interesting idea.  I'm wondering where would that information be used by jPCT, though?  For example, if you loaded multiple 3DS files with various camera informations into different Object3D's, what would jPCT do with that information (since there is, of course, only one Camera for the World)?  Or would the point be to use that information to determine each model's initial scale and rotations, perhaps?

[AGP]

I'm thinking a Camera[] Loader.load3DScamera(String, float) method. That way, you would load the cameras from only the files you wanted, and would set only the camera you wanted for the world at a time.

[paulscode]

Oh, I see - to be able to define various stationary camera-views of a scene.

I could see how that would be useful - might save a little time since setting a camera graphically is somewhat easier than doing it programatically.

I was thinking, without a 3DS camera loader, you could do something similar by placing a seperate object into the 3DS model in the position and orientation that you would like the camera to be.  It could consist of a right-triangle with three vertices ("position", "up", and "look").  Using the vertice positions you could define a camera position, look-direction, and up-direction, and use the Camera.setOrientation() method to move the camera to that view.

[AGP]

No, not just to save time or formultiple views. My background, in this case, is 2D. Several objects on the foreground are 3D. Plus, there's a 3D plane on which the characters walk. But these object won't line up perfectly unless the camera is the exact same way. But there are differences in apperture and other things that just makes this impossible to do manually. I've tried everything. I come close to matching the cameras, but coming close is not nearly enough.

[EgonOlsen]

I took a look at the specs for 3DS that you've provided. Somehow i'm missing the CAMERA_SEE_CONE description, which is actually the most interesting part of it all...
However, to give this try, i need an example. I need a 3ds scene with a camera from which i know how it should look like. Is it actually possible to get the camera settings in 3ds/max (editable in a dialog or something)? So that i could verify that my values from the file are the ones that 3ds uses too?

[AGP]

E-mailed a 3DS of a sheriff sitting down and a camera placed in front of him to you.

I'm not sure what you mean by "is it possible to get the camera settings in MAX in a dialog" but the coordinates for its position are -0.203, -22.073, 6.882. Thanks again, buddy.

[paulscode]

But there are differences in apperture and other things

Good point, camera views are a bit more complicated than just position and orientation.

[EgonOlsen]

I'm not sure what you mean by "is it possible to get the camera settings in MAX in a dialog" but the coordinates for its position are -0.203, -22.073, 6.882. Thanks again, buddy.

What about the camera's orientation and the fov? Can you provide me a screen shot from MAX, that shows how the scene looks like, if viewed correctly?!

[EgonOlsen]

Good point, camera views are a bit more complicated than just position and orientation.

Yes, there's the field of view in addition...and that's the part, that the specs seem to omit...

[AGP]

E-mailed you a screenshot. Thanks again.

[EgonOlsen]

E-mailed a 3DS of a sheriff sitting down and a camera placed in front of him to you.

Well, that file contains no 4700H section, i.e. no camera information is in there...

[AGP]

Do you want the MAX scene itself? Because I re-sent you the 3DS two days ago. But with the MAX scene you could export via other 3DS exporters (like Okino's).