FBX help needed DAZ to Lightwave

wsterdan

I bought the Game Dev Tools when they first came out, and paid for all upgrades, but never had the need nor time to use them. One of my paying 3D gigs is for a local chain of fitness centres; since the late 90s I've used Lightwave to create a 3D model of their layout using very stylized, very, very low-resolution characters for their advertising.

I'm now tasked with doing two new floor plans and updating three others, and I thought I might try using some DAZ figures, taking advantage of the Game Dev tools and Lightwave's instancing; the problem is that I've never really tested or worked with Decimator, Texture Atlas, or the FBX export. On top of that, I had to upgrade Lightwave from version 8 to version 11, and since I've spent most of my recent 3D time in DAZ instead of Lightwave, I have to get back into that flow as well as learn the new tools.

As always, time is at an absolute premium (evenings and weekends, when I'm not doing overtime on my day job).

I was wondering if someone who's been working with this could give a brief, step-by-step workflow and save me a day or so of testing.

The goal: I start with Genesis, clothing and a Stepper loaded and posed. I want to end up with a fairly low-poly, static version inside Lightwave (with lighter-weight textures and pose intact) that I can use for instancing.

Do I decimate, then texture atlas, then FBX or export as .obj?

The only PDF for FBX I can find shows older options (eg. a custom Lightwave option that I assume is no longer needed).

I did a couple of quick tests just exporting as FBX and .obj; the FBX lost almost all textures (I assume that's where Texture Atlas will help) and poses (Genesis came out in T-pose, though clothes were in place, and the stepper appeared, untextured, two feet above Genesis' head); .obj came though pose and placement intact, but textures still pretty much gone (again, Texture Atlas will solve?).

I'm sure I can figure it out given more time for testing, but a quickie recipe will save me time I can use for building the rest of the gym.

Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Walt Sterdan

Daily_Doodler

There's a lot of questions there! being more interested in animated characters I've learnt that you must bake you work if posing in the 'Animate' timeline, this could possible solve the stepper issue. Experience also tells me that you should crack out an obj and move on if time is precious. O B J's aren't to heavy but you've probably got loads of the little devils. gav