lightwave 9.6

News & General Discussion
1

Ok, i just got LW 9.6 and I’m looking for some advice from experienced users of both LW and Unity. I’m fairly new to both.

Ideally, I would like to build a level in LW, with each object mapped and textured, and import it into Unity with its textures intact.

  1. what is the best format to export to from LW that would maintain my textures
  2. should all layers be merged before export?
  3. what scale should everything be set to in LW so that my imported objects are neither ginormous nor microscopic (and quite how do u set that up in LW)?
  4. is it best to create an entire level in LW as 1 file or best to make it in chunks?
2
  1. FBX. And make sure you’re using Atlas textures. I think there’s a bug somewhere that screws with you if you have more than one texture per object. So just break it into multiple objects if necessary.
  2. No
  3. Use meters in LightWave and make sure you’re using real world sizes for things. It will map perfectly into Unity. When we did the stuff for JF&A (NASA lunar rover simulator), we used the exact sizes of the hardware, down to the sizes of the tires. When we imported those into Unity, we imported them at 1.0 scale (Unity’s default FBX scale was .01 in Unity 2.6.1, I’m not sure what it is now). Everything came in perfectly. Physics, everything, ‘just worked’.
  4. I’d say make it in chunks. That depends on what you’re doing, of course. And how large your level is.

-Chilton

3

thank you so much for your excellent reply :slight_smile:
If you find out whether or not the scale has changed in unity 3, I’d love to know.

As I am a novice, can you explain what Atlas textures is? Is it part of LW or Unity? And is it already integrated or a seperate plugin I’d need to buy?

Thanks again

4

No problem. Atlas maps are in LightWave. It’s a setting for the type of UV map to use. When you’re assigning textures, you can choose from a variety of methods to map the surface, and the Atlas style maps straight to the surface, based on the direction that surface faces. For most objects, that’s what you’ll want to use.

-Chilton

5

many thanks once again :slight_smile: