Hello,

I am trying to import a model that contains various parts that share materials. Each of these parts is its own group in my source model, but upon importing into Esenthel, they are grouped solely by their materials... is there any way to preserve the original grouping? (ie: each group becomes a mesh part?)

Needing this to allow each part to be hidden/shown for customization.

I've tried importing as .X, .FBX, and .DAE with the same results... any other format support this?

Thanks!

As far as I know, each mesh part can only have one material. Therefore this would not be possible as it would mean that the mesh part would need to use two or more materials. The only way for this to work would be if all parts had the same material, which you could do by stiching all the textures together into an atlas.

It depends on the engine, how does handle this. I ve seen engines, which were able to do exactly this. You had main mesh, under mesh you had mesh parts and each mesh part was made from 1-n parts - each with just one material.

So technically it is possible and it is VERY usefull, because you can prepare many variations of same mesh by just turning mesh renderer on/off on some mesh parts and you are saving memory, because you have many instances of same mesh (for example ship with sails up and down, I dont need two almost similar meshes, but I have one mesh with both variants of sails and just adjusting mesh renderer on it).

I think you misunderstood me. Each mesh part uses 1 material. But several different parts use the same material.

Example: The model contains 8 heads, each using the same "head.png" material... but different geometry. Model caints 8 hair meshes - each using "hair.png" but different geometires. Source model has groups called head1 - head8 and hair1 - hair8. When importing this into Esenthel... it creates 1 part for all 8 heads, and 1 part for 8 hairs... when what I want is 8 head parts and 8 hair parts...

OK, I see what you're saying now. Esenthel would probably need to add an option to the Model Editor to turn on/off automatic grouping by material on import.

Why can't you have them all as separate models?

Have you tried to import with no textures and set the textures inside the Esenthel model editor? You should be able to preserve each part this way.

If you import with no textures, it will probably just merge it all into one group... not sure though, haven't tried it. Not sure what program you use, but in 3ds max, you can set a different material for each part and the materials can share the same texture. I'm pretty sure EE will preserve the group based on these materails and not the textures then. So you could probably trick it into doing what you want.

Also, I just realised, there is a "Split selected to new MeshPart" option in the menu. You could select all the polys you want then use this to split them into a separate part.

I don't think it's problem of Esenthel Import, but rather export from your original format. You can send me the .dae .fbx files with textures so I can confirm that.

Fatcoder and Esenthel are correct. Usually when you export your model in 3ds, Maya, and Blender they will preserve the parts that you have regardless of textures. Just make sure that the model is split into the parts you need it to have before you export it. I use all 3 of these programs and haven't had any issues with Esenthel merging my parts. You may want to double check your model before exporting it. If it is a purchased model, you may need to edit it yourself either in one of these programs or in Esenthel's model editor.

In the Esenthel model editor you are able to remove textures and replace them, resize them, rotate them, and scale them to custom settings. You can also select vertices and split them into parts (with or without textures on them). You are also able to join parts with the same name, or with the same material, or both. These options are all on the Mesh menu.

All - You are correct - As I was preparing to send the model to Esenthel for inspection - I discovered the material merge is occuring outside Esenthel - my apologies for the false alarm, and thanks for the info and helping me find the source of the issue.

(12-18-2011 05:18 AM)fatcoder Wrote:  Why can't you have them all as separate models?

I think this is correct solution. We have body parts/equip as separate meshes too. It is far more efficient to load only what is needed, instead of loading one mesh containing everything. Imagine, that you have 100 parts of equipment.

And correct me if i am wrong, but EE is able to stich multiple character meshes rigged on the same skeleton to one skinned mesh on the fly out of box, so there is no performance penalty (if you not stitch parts to one skinned mesh and you only link them on one skeleton, each part behaves as separate skinned mesh and it generates huge performance penalty, it can be easily something 8 vs 50 drawcalls on one character).