How to Test SceneEngine
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Thank you for your interest in SceneEngine and for helping us testing it.
At the moment SceneEngine is only available for Windows 32 bits. Please download the latest set of binaries and follow these steps to test SceneEngine.
Unzip your files
Download and unzip the SceneEngine binaries to an empty folder.
SceneEngine includes 4 sets of files. Executables that create and modify a sample scene, plugins for 3dsmax and Maya, Lua scripts that create and modify scenes (Lua.5.1 console application is included for convinience) and scenes used by these scripts.
SceneEngine/ : SceneEngine executables and dynamic link libraries SceneEngine/plugins/3dsmax/6 - 7 - 8 : 3dsmax plugin for 6, 7 and 8 SceneEngine/plugins/3dsmax/9 - 2008 : 3dsmax plugin for 9 and 2008 SceneEngine/plugins/3dsmax/2009 : 3dsmax plugin for 2009 SceneEngine/plugins/Maya/8.5 : Maya 8.5 plugin SceneEngine/scenes : scenes folder SceneEngine/scenes/maps : maps folder SceneEngine/scripts : sample scripts SceneEngine/system : needed system files
System Files
The folder SceneEngine/system contains the system files that are needed to run SceneEngine tools.
If executing the GMT or SceneEngine scripts give you errors like:
error loading module 'gmt_lua' error loading module 'sceng_lua'
You will need to install one or more these system files.
These files can be copied to the SceneEngine folder, they can be copied to the Windows Sytem32 folder or they can be installed by their original packages:
For boost, select Visual C++ 7.1 and 8.0 Multithread.
DirectX
DirectX is needed by the UVAtlas modifier plugin.
SceneEngine executables
Create sample scene
Double click the application SceneEngine/CreateScene.exe, this application creates the files SceneEngine/scenes/sample01.sceng and SceneEngine/scenes/robot_arm.sceng.
Render the sample scene
The application SceneEngine/ScEngRayTrace.exe by default renders the SceneEngine/scenes/sample01.sceng and creates a file SceneEngine/scenes/sample01.tga. Execute the application and confirm that SceneEngine/scenes/sample01.tga was created and that it looks something like this:
See also Raytracer for mor information about SceneEngine's raytracer.
SceneEngine Plugins
3dsmax Plugin
Visit the 3dsmax Plugin wiki page for information about how to install it and what features are supported.
Maya Plugin
Visit the Maya Plugin wiki page for information about how to install it and what features are supported.
Export and import scenes
Open your application and in the import dialog box, set the file type to SceneEngine (*.sceng). Select sample01.sceng and import it.
SceneEngine plugins support different features in each application, this is one of the areas that need more testing. Please visit the plugin features pages: 3dsmax and Maya to see what features are supported.
Interoperability
If you have both 3dsmax and Maya, you can export scenes in one application and import them in the other.
SceneEngine Lua scripts
The folder SceneEngine/scripts contains a set of scripts that use SceneEngine's Lua modules to create, open, modify and save scenes.
To test these scripts open a command console and change the directory to where SceneEngine binaries are installed, then execute Lua5.1.exe.
In the Lua interpreter, call a script from the scripts folder using the dofile Lua command to execute that script.
c:\> cd \SceneEngine c:\SceneEngine> lua5.1cre Lua 5.1.3 Copyright (C) 1994-2008 Lua.org, PUC-Rio > dofile("scripts/luafile.lua")
The script 'do_all.lua' executes all the scripts.
The page Lua Getting Started contains more information about SceneEngine Lua scripts.
Scene creationg scripts
dofile( "scripts/create_maxobjects.lua" ) dofile( "scripts/create_geosphere.lua" ) dofile( "scripts/create_plane.lua" ) dofile( "scripts/create_teapot.lua" ) dofile( "scripts/create_boxobject_material_texture.lua" ) dofile( "scripts/create_sphereobject_material_texture.lua" )
These scripts create SceneEngine scenes that include nodes, objects, triangular meshes, polygonal meshes, materials and textures. Some of these scripts render the generated scene.
Scene modification scripts
These scripts open scenes created by the creation scripts and do mesh modifications on them.
dofile( "scripts/modify_mesh_delete_faces_verts.lua" ) dofile( "scripts/modify_mesh_detach.lua" ) dofile( "scripts/modify_replace_mesh.lua" )
Rendering and Texture Baking scripts
These scripts open scenes exported by a DCC application and generate textures for them using the Texture Baking option of the renderer:
dofile( "scripts/dice.lua" )
The dice.sceng has a dice modeled in 3dsmax and a low poly version of the dice to which the textures will be baked. This script creates diffuse and normal maps for the dice. The page Lua Texture Baking Dice contains a tutorial for this script.
dofile( "scripts/xs06.lua" )
xs06.sceng is a Macross gun modeled in 3dsmax and a low poly version of the gun to which the textures will be baked. This script generates diffuse, normal and lighting maps, including ambient occlusion.
dofile( "scripts/mayan_skull.lua" )
mayan_skull.scene is a Mayan limestone skull modeled in 3dsmax and a low poly version of the skull to which the textures will be baked. This plugin applies an UV Atlas modifier to the low poly skull to generate a new uvw channel for the baked textures. This script generates diffuse and normal maps.
MaxScript - export_scenglua.ms
The maxscript SceneEngine/plugins/export_scenglua.ms creates a TriMesh snapshot of all objects in the scene and exports them to a Lua script.
Don't forget to set the path where the Lua script will be saved and the name of the sceng file that the script generates.