In ICE, you can pull an attribute from a node context and write it back to a UV property, but I wouldn't exactly say it's a stable or recommended workflow. Honestly, updating your exporter would be simpler, but in that case you almost certainly will encounter the previously mentioned aggresive ICE optimizations...
On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Eric Cosky <e...@cosky.com> wrote: > Thanks! That’s very helpful. I suppose it’s probably possible to add some > nodes to push the attributes into the cluster so the exporter will see the > final results..? I’m not sure what the limits are there with respect to ICE > working with UVs like this. While I’d hoped to not have to specialize the > ice tree, if this is a valid option it might be easier/simpler to do this > than modify the exporter to look for the ice attributes. **** > > ** ** > > *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: > softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Steven Caron > *Sent:* Thursday, May 09, 2013 3:55 PM > > *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > *Subject:* Re: Looking for exporting tips with ICE topology - SI2014**** > > ** ** > > create copies from mesh uses an ice attribute called 'Texture_Projection' > it doesn't set the uvs of a cluster property directly. you want to get the > ice attribute and you will probably be good.**** > > ** ** > > > http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/softimage2013/en_us/sdkguide/index.html?url=si_cpp/classXSI_1_1Geometry.html,topicNumber=si_cpp_classXSI_1_1Geometry_html,hash=a6175a2d732e2f4dd00ebb25435bb163d > **** > > ** ** > > On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 3:01 PM, Eric Cosky <e...@cosky.com> wrote:**** > > Makes sense. I’d have hoped the results of the “Create Copies from Polygon > Mesh” node wouldn’t be subject to that kind of logic though. For example, > here’s the tree I am using in my scene: > https://www.dropbox.com/s/dlay4s9y5a30clm/XSIFloatingView_2013-05-09_14-40-40.png > **** > > **** > > I’m not much of an ICE guy, but I don’t see how to hook in a log values > node without digging deep into the Create Copies node.**** > > **** > > The other thing is, it does have the correct UVs if I render it, just not > at the time of export (but not consistently.. which is stranger than never > having the right uvs). This leads me to believe I am not requesting the > data correctly, somehow. I’m just using a geometry accessor, the > ga.GetUVs() and then the uv ClusterProperty.GetValues(). Maybe this is > giving me the raw, unprocessed pre-ice UV data and I need to look somewhere > else for the final result. That wouldn’t explain why one model has the > right data and the other doesn’t, but maybe that could be a different kind > of issue.. who knows. **** > > **** > > Thanks for the suggestions/comments**** > > **** > > **** > > **** > > **** > > **** > > *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: > softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Alan Fregtman > *Sent:* Thursday, May 09, 2013 12:52 PM > *To:* XSI Mailing List**** > > > *Subject:* Re: Looking for exporting tips with ICE topology - SI2014**** > > **** > > The "aggressive optimization" problem is that ICE won't evaluate chunks of > a tree if it doesn't feel you are genuinely using it.**** > > **** > > So if I make some crazy math and store an attribute, if I don't use the > attribute anywhere, it actual doesn't really exist and its tree won't > evaluate fully. "Show Values" forces it to eval, as it needs this to > display the values.**** > > **** > > **** > > On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 3:17 PM, Eric Cosky <e...@cosky.com> wrote:**** > > I’m not familiar with the ice optimization problem but it sounds like a > reasonable explanation for what I’m seeing. Thanks for the suggestion.**** > > **** > > **** > > *From:* softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: > softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Fabricio Chamon > *Sent:* Thursday, May 09, 2013 12:12 PM > *To:* softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > *Subject:* Re: Looking for exporting tips with ICE topology - SI2014**** > > **** > > Probably hitting the ice optimization problem? Make sure your UVs are > correctly set by putting a log values just before your set data node.**** > > **** > > 2013/5/9 Eric Cosky <e...@cosky.com>**** > > Hi, > > > > I've recently started using ICE modeling to help with some low poly models > with tiny textures. The general idea is to make very small components, set > up the UVs as needed, then make a larger model that is composed of many > copies of the component. I like this approach because it lets me adjust > pieces after they have been put into place, including the texture > projections which will be propagated at any time in the future when the > original model changes unlike how clone seems to work. With the low > poly/low > res textures, it's not always obvious what the best look is going to be > until it's all together so being able to edit everything including texture > projections is pretty helpful to the workflow. Here's an example: > https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36497436/misc/ice-model.jpg - the ring > is made of the two parts shown in front, and it's using just a fraction of > a > 128x128 texture. If anyone is interested in looking at the scene, it's > here: > https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36497436/ThunderMoon/Portal.zip > > > > > > The modeling technique generally works as expected, but I am finding that > the UVs are not reliably available in the final ice model during export. > For > instance, the inner ring was exporting the UVs correctly, but not the outer > - all UVs on the outer were the same (I think [0,1], possibly the original > projection values which ICE was supposed to override). The exporter is > written in C++ and works correctly for exporting UVs on normal models, but > it seems like I have to freeze the modeling to get the UVs to be available. > Is this a typical thing to need to do with ICE modeling? Hopefully freezing > isn't a requirement for proper export. The strange part about it is the > inconsistency between the two ring parts, how one of them exports the uvs > properly and the other doesn't despite being identically configured (as far > as I can tell). This isn't a huge problem, just a workflow thing I'm trying > to understand & optimize before diving into more assets. If freezing is > required, so be it, would be nice to know if I'm just doing something wrong > though. > > > > Also, I am occasionally finding SI2014 gets into a strange state where one > or more of the ICE models just doesn't appear. It is selectable, but has > zero triangles/verts. When this happens the only thing I found to make them > reappear was to move the object in the hierarchy, which of course seems > like > a bug but perhaps I am just missing something here. If nobody else is > seeing > this I wonder if it has something to do with the use of RTShaders. I was > thinking perhaps shuffling the current frame to/from the first frame of the > scene might help but it doesn't, the only thing that fixed it for me was > moving the objects in the hierarchy. > > > > Any tips or suggestions on typical problems & workarounds for dealing with > ice models in the context of exporting the assets would be appreciated, > thanks.**** > > **** > > **** > > ** ** >
