SPONSORED LINKS
The direct translators for games are installed as a standard part of the Alias software under ODS/Games/.
| The Alias|Wavefront game platform translators are shipped on the standard Alias distribution disk. However, some platform-specific parts of the translators are only available through the use of encryption strings (after authorization) or directly from the game platform manufacturers. |
The plug-in translators and related files are stored in $ALIAS_LOCATION/ODS/Games in the following directories:
PST files required by some of the older Games utilities (such as RTG).
Source code for the Dt API and translators.
To install game platform specific libraries, use the InstallGame script (/usr/aw/alias/ODS/Games/bin/InstallGame):
| If you run InstallGame with no options, it uses $ALIAS_LOCATION/ODS/Games as the source (-f) and destination (-t) directories. |
To unpack available libraries:
========================================================
Alias | Wavefront Game Export Tool 2.0 library installer
========================================================
Enter your ALIAS_LOCATION (press enter to use /usr/aw/alias)
If the default location is correct, press Enter. Otherwise, type the full path to the Alias directory (for example, /usr/aw/alias):
The following games libraries are enabled by this encryption:
Code Description
---------------------------------
N Game Library for Nintendo
...
Which game libraries would you like to install?
Enter the codes for the libraries separated by spaces
or enter "none" or "exit" to exit the installer:
If you don't want to install any libraries, type none.
| If InstallGame does not list any libraries, make sure your encryption string was installed correctly. |
| You do not need to set these variables if you installed normally. They allow site administrators to customize the Alias environment for a special site set-up. |
Set the following environment variables to change where MakeGame, DtExport, and translators look for files:
Directory containing the lib, Dtplugin, and include directories (usually $ALIAS_LOCATION/ODS/Games).
Colon-separated list of directories containing Dt translators.
Directory where exported files are saved.
After you add the games plug-ins to the list of plug-ins in Alias, you still need to load the plug-ins to use them.
Plug-in Manager to display the list of all known plug-ins.
| Click the Load/Unload checkbox again to unload the MakeGame plug-in. If a translator is loaded, clicking the checkbox will unload the translator. Click again to unload the plug-in. |
MakeGame to open the MGame data translator manager window.
The MGame Data Translator Manager window appears.
To use other Direct Translators (for example, custom written translators), choose Custom and type the name of the translator in the DSO Name field.
MakeGame will run the appropriate translator. See the following chapters for how to use the individual Direct Translators.
Pop-up menu of known translators. If you create a new translator you can add it to this list. See Adding a Translator on page 18.
The absolute path to the translator program you want to run.
If the translator you want is not in the Translator pop-up menu, choose Custom from the pop-up menu, then enter the path to the translator in this text field.
Check this box on to load the translator into memory. Uncheck this box to unload the translator from memory.
| You can use this control to reset the options of the translator: unload the translator, then reload it to restore the last saved options. |
Display information on the construction of the Dt database while translating the Alias model.
Use the Direct Translator's graphical user interface.
ON - unload the translator after each use.
OFF - keep the translator in memory for multiple runs.
Translator-specific command line options (usually not necessary when GUI is ON).
All - export all visible geometry.
Picked - export picked objects only (not including geometry below the picked geometry on the node graph).
Active - export picked objects only (including geometry below the picked geometry on the node graph)
World - do not export hierarchy (all vertices use world space).
Flat - one level of hierarchy: transformations use world space, vertices use local space.
Full - export the full dag tree hierarchy: transformations and vertices use local space.
Tris - tessellation creates triangles.
Quads - tessellation creates four-sided polygons (quads).
None - tessellation defaults to four-sided polygons.
ON- always output normals in local space (flat hierarchy).
OFF- output normals in world or local coordinates, depending on the Heirarchy setting.
Scaling factor for vertex coordinates (use to fit model inside a game box).
ON - allow texture to repeat over surface.
OFF - do not repeat texture (force UV repeat to 1).
ON - add procedural effects to the texture before output.
OFF - output the file texture "as is", without any shader effects added.
Width and height of the images that the translator creates to replace procedural textures.
Maximum width and height of the images that the translator creates to replace file textures.
animation range uses the settings in the MetaCycle window (Animation MetaCycle).
Use this option with GUI (in General properties) turned off, since animation settings in the translator's interface will override the Metacycle range.
Show the animation frames in the Alias view windows as they are converted.
first and last frame of the animation cycle to convert.
number of Alias frames to skip between each output frame.
For example, a Frame step of 2 means that every other frame of the Alias animation will be used to create the output game animation.
the proper playback speed of the output animation in frames per second.
Adjust this number to compensate for skipping frames of the original Alias animation. For example, if the Alias animation was created for playback at 60 fps, and you set Frame step to 2, set this field to 30. The animation will be half as fast, but since it only has half as many frames it will appear to play at the same speed as the original.
DtExport reads in an Alias wire file and uses the Direct Translators to output a platform-specific file. DtExport allows you to use the functionality of the MakeGame plug-in from the command-line, allowing batch processing.
| DtExport uses the same translators as the MakeGame plug-in and GameExport 2.1. These translators do not work with older versions of GameExport. |
DtExport -f <inputfile> -e <translator> [-dyzvhWwpSEFV] [-Tx n] [-Ty n]
If you need to add or change the functionality of a translator, you can recompile the existing translators, or create new translators using the Dt API.
| Alias|Wavefront Assist cannot support custom-written or custom-compiled translators. |
Alias|Wavefront provides source code for the translators, including Makefiles you can use to rebuild the translators.
To create or rebuild a translator, you should be familiar with C/C++ programming and Makefiles.
Copy the source files from the Alias installation to your home directory to customize or rebuild the translators. This protects the originals and does not require root permission to modify the files.
mkdir -p ~/games/getopenGL
mkdir -p ~/games/trial/Dtplugins
cp $ALIAS_LOCATION/ODS/Games/source/GetOpenGL ~/games/getopenGL
For example, go to ~/games/getopenGL and type make to rebuild the GetOpenGL translator and create a new GetOpenGL DSO in the working directory.
If you restart Alias, if the $DT_PLUGIN_LOCATION variable is set Alias will search that location for plug-ins before the base (shipped) location.
| You can also use the DtExport command-line tool to test new translators quickly. It uses the same search paths as Alias. |
Once you have tested a new translator, you can add it to MakeGame's pop-up list of translators, and add translator specific options to the MakeGame interface. See Customizing the MakeGame Interface on page 18.
To add a new translator to the pop-up list of common translators in MakeGame:
The index is the new translator's position in the list, starting at 0. The last position in the list is MgNUM_OF_TRANSLATORS-1
If your translator needs a special setting in the MakeGame interface, you can add it by editing the MakeGame source code.
You can add variables of three types:
To add a translator-specific setting to MakeGame:
Initializing per-translator setting variables
After the comment is an array called Mg_Settings containing Name, Type, and VariableAddress fields for the settings variables.
When the user clicks Save in the MakeGame window, MakeGame saves the settings of the new translator in $ALIAS_WORKENV/mgame.settings. MakeGame saves every variable for each translator, prefixed by the DSO name. For example, HrcType (hierarchy type) for the Direct3D translator is saved in the settings file as GetD3DHrcType.
