Opening a saved project in the editor

Questions
1

Hi!
We’re looking into using the editor for editing a project. It seems great!
This would require us to save and open the project in the editor multiple times. But i’m not sure how this works at the moment. When opening a saved .editorproject i’m getting the “Preview scene” anyway. Or it asks if it should append to the preview scene and when choosing no, nothing happens.

/ Christian

2

Pinging @julien-moreau

3

Hey @chribbe!
Happy that you would like to use the editor!
I suggest reading this article about saving/loading Loading and Saving Scenes - Babylon.js Documentation

If you already read, can you ask me what you would like to know? I’ll update the documentation according to your questions for other users :slightly_smiling_face:

Thanks !

4

@chribbe
I can’t reproduce the bug if I open a .editorproject file. Are you opening from your OS file system? Or using drag’n’drop? Or using the toolbar in the editor « Project -> Import Project… » ?

5

Thanks for the link! You’re right - i wasnt really sure on how to do the loading, but it’s more clear now after reading the link. At first i was trying to only open the .editorproject file. Now when i select all the files it works better and stuff is loading! But i’m not sure i really get it still.

This is what i’m doing now:

I have 3 files in my folder
scene.editorproject (got this from using save project in the editor)
scene78883a09-d647-4675-97d7-7a8ce68a2bd8.babylon (got this from the editor using download scene)
test_texture.png (image used for test material)

When i try to select all the 3 files using “import project” or drag n drop. It seems everything is loaded twice (I get duplicates of the objects)

When i select only the scene.babylon file and the test_texture.png it loads correctly. But then i guess i am missing stuff saved in the .editorproject file?

Thanks!

Also, amazing work with the editor. It looks great and runs really well

6

When you drag’n’drop the 3 files, it is doubleness because the meshes are saved in the .editorproject you are right.

To work well using the editor, I suggest in your case:

  • Don’t use the “Import Meshes From…” as it will save the meshes in the .editorproject and they’ll not be updatable
  • Just drag’n’drop your scene, textures, sounds, etc. files so the editor loads the scene
  • Save your project (the .editorproject will be almost empty at the moment)
  • Then only open the .editorproject in future

In a perfect case, the .editorproject file must contain ONLY the delta between the orignal scene file and the editor project (I mean things you can’t do yet in 3ds Max, Blender, etc.)

Following these steps, it will allow the editor to always consider the scene file as updatable and will work just as a linked file. This is typically useful if you work with an artist that still exports new versions of the scene.
The actions “Download Scene…” and “Download Scene As…” are used when you finished adding elements in your scene using the editor (sky effect, water, advanced materials, particle systems, etc., what you can’t do with Blender or 3ds Max yet for Babylon.js). You can see these actions like the final export for your game/application.

Anyway, I found a bug thanks to your test: i’m not able to open ONLY an .editorproject, it requires to have at least a scene file. Fixing ASAP :slight_smile:

Don’t hesitate if it’s not clear, it’ll be a pleasure to clarify :slight_smile:
Thanks for using the editor, it’s always a pleasure to have user and help =D

7

I tried it now several times im not able to save the changes in the scene.
If i open the editor files all changes are gone.

Is there a special step im missing.

  1. drag .babylon file into the editor (dont append)
  2. assing blue shader to both spheres
  3. save editor file
  4. close and reopen editor
  5. drag editor file and .babylon file into the editor (dont append)
  6. i get a red and a blue sphere

here is the scene file.spheres.zip (42.6 KB)

8

Am i the only one with this isssue?

9

8 days with no reply that must be some sort of a record and thank you for your patience. Sometimes tacking a question onto an older post means that it gets overlooked. As I cannot help I’ll ping @julien-moreau however weekends tend to be quiet on the forum and so you may have to wait a day or two more.

10

Hi @oglu !
I’m really sorry for the delay, I missed the notifications so I haven’t seen your answer/question :cry: Thanks @JohnK for pinging!

With apologizes, here is my answer:

  • The editor still works with deltas. Materials coming from the scene (typically Maya or 3ds Max) will not be saved by the editor has they can be modified in your 3D modeler.
  • To have objects saved (materials, meshes, lights, etc.), they must be added in the editor
  • In your case, you have to create standard materials (pbr, or whatever) in the editor and assign it to your meshes.

I plan to add a way to modify properties from objects coming from the scene but it is a heavy feature that must be tested a lot before it can be used. Will let you know once I beging working on :slight_smile:

11

Thanks for the insides. Is there something about in the documentation?

Edit::
If i would assign a new texture to a shader comming from maya the change wont get saved, right?

We would like to assign the lightmaps in the editor cause there is no way to export them from maya.

12

@oglu you are right! The documentation misses details about the delta that the editor saves (Loading and Saving Scenes - Babylon.js Documentation). I have to improve it.

For you until I improve the documentation, the delta being saved is the set of new objects you have added in the editor. The editor can’t handle deltas in objects coming from the original scene file (but I added that feature in my TODO list).

@Deltakosh is it possible to handle light maps in maya with the exporter in future? If yes is it planned to be added? Because I’ll not be able to help right now as the feature request requires me a looot if time to be well tested
Thanks!

13

Thanks Julien.

Therea are two things we could do from the Maya side.

  1. assign a custom attribute to a object and connect the lightmap there.
    or
  2. use one of the non used shader parameter in the Arnold shader and connect the lightmap.

But both is not supported by the exporter.