https://www.posetteforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2467
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duttond
Thursday, 05 October 2006, 04:53 PM

file conversion
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I have several ways to create large areas of randomly generated cities and the output is to POVRAY 3 or VRML 2.  All the programs and converters I have can only read VRML 1 or POVRAY 2.2.

Does anyone know of a inexpensive, or free, file converter that will go from VRML 2 to VRML 1? VRML 2 to Wavefront OBJ? VRML 2 to 3ds? VRML 2 to Lightwave?  POVRAY 3 to POVRAY 2.2? POVRAY 3 to (any of the above)?

NOTE: I also found out that my IE at home interprets VRML but the one at work does not...I'm still investigating that one. If I figure that one out, I can post planetary systems, cities and other 3d objects on my web page so anyone can wander around in them.  That will be a kick.  :grin:


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Tormie
Thursday, 05 October 2006, 06:56 PM


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:oops: I really don't know the format duttond, I hope the other friend know it  :pray:


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ahjah
Thursday, 05 October 2006, 08:40 PM


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Hi duttond!
There's a thread about a free proggie called PoseRay
http://posetteforever.com/viewtopic.php?t=1885
This should do the job  :grin: It loads VRML 1 and 2, as well as all the native PovRay stuff. And a lot more. A "must have" IMHO :thumb: 
For visualisation in your browser go
http://www.parallelgraphics.com/products/cortona/

@ Tormie
VRML ( *.wrl) is a file format used for virtual reality such as 3D chat and other online 3D visualisation


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duttond
Friday, 06 October 2006, 11:03 AM


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Thanks but I've tried PoseRay...When I load the model from POVRAY 3 or VRML 2, it says the model has no facets, no verticies or both no facets and no verticies.  :sad:


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Tormie
Friday, 06 October 2006, 11:13 AM


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:mmmh:  :mmmh:  :mmmh:


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ahjah
Friday, 06 October 2006, 12:14 PM


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:mmmh: It worked for me.
Have you tried the newest version? The latest release is only two weeks old


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duttond
Friday, 06 October 2006, 12:15 PM


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Possibly not...I'll give it a try.


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duttond
Monday, 09 October 2006, 03:08 PM


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I tried the latest version of PoseRay and I still get "No faces" and "No verticies" errors.


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ahjah
Monday, 09 October 2006, 05:01 PM


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:mmmh: Maybe you could mail or post one of the files for further investigation, if it's not too big...
Something could be messy with the file itself :eh:


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duttond
Tuesday, 10 October 2006, 11:03 AM


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Here's a file created by CityGen version 0.9...
http://www.duttond.topcities.com/Star_Trek/CityGenV0_9.wrl 

...and another created by Fractical World Editor version 1.6...
http://www.duttond.topcities.com/Star_Trek/FractalWorldExplorer1_6.wrl 

I have problems reading either one in PoseRay (no faces on the first and no verticies or faces on the second).  There's no need to hurry on this as I'm going on vacation tomarrow and won't have email or Internet access until I return on the 19th.


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Tormie
Tuesday, 10 October 2006, 04:07 PM


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Have fun and rest a lot duttond :thumb:  :grin: !!


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duttond
Tuesday, 10 October 2006, 04:11 PM


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On Friday, I'll be going to a PhotoShop CS conference but, for the rest of the week, you can bet I'll be relaxing - away from the stresses of the job.  :roll:


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ahjah
Tuesday, 10 October 2006, 04:14 PM


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Just made a quick check of the files and had the same problemes.
I'll compare them to some working files I have on my HD somewhere, the next days.
Happy holydays, duttond! :)


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ahjah
Tuesday, 17 October 2006, 11:30 PM


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I'm sorry, but I didn't have the time for further investigations, yet.
I'll stay tuned, anyway :liar:  :wink:


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melamkish
Thursday, 19 October 2006, 02:15 AM

Re: file conversion
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Hi duttond!

Haven't been around a lot lately since my head is always inside a wireframe working on several modeling projects.

You may want to upgrade to citygen v1.5. I looked at one of your files and it was generated by version 0.8/0.9.

I have used v1.5 to generate a city and exported it with the "export to pov" feature and then rendered in povray v3.6 with no problems.  It appears that this native "pov" export feature was added in a later version of the citygen.  The vrml format I am not familiar with.

I will try to take a look at some programs I have and see if I can add anything else.  As far as no vertices/faces etc, that is usually a file incompatibility error, or the method in which a particular program saves a file in a non-native format.  I had this problem when I was working on my first model, the PF Country Club.  I was using a CAD program, and trying to convert it to obj format by going thru Poseray.  My CAD program had various ways of grouping objects, and if I used one which was incompatible with Poseray, I got the same error message about no vertices/faces, etc.

I know this is not a specific answer, but maybe it can help point in the right direction.


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melamkish
Thursday, 19 October 2006, 02:21 AM

Re: file conversion
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One thing I just noticed.  I hope we are talking about the same citygen program. I noticed that your file extension is .wrl and the file format of citygen v1.5 is .cty.  

The program I have is here

http://members.tripod.com/~DCieslak/util.html


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melamkish
Thursday, 19 October 2006, 02:43 AM

Re: file conversion
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I just opened your CitygenV0.9.wrl file using vrml in my CAD program, exported it as a 3ds file and successfuly opened it in Poseray.  The file openes upside down, but that should not be an issue. I also imported the 3ds file into poser, it would appear successfully, but the exported obj will not open in my modeling program.

Further checking in my CAD shows that the entire city is one group, with no individual points or lines.  Also in Poser, at a reduced scale of only 1%, the city was extremely large.

This is begining to intrigue me, so will play a bit more and see what I can figure out over the next few days.


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melamkish
Thursday, 19 October 2006, 03:05 AM


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Well, last word for tonight.

One of my modeling programs will import VRML.  I opened the file, re-exported it in that programs native format, opened it in another modeling program and exported it as an obj, which I successfully opened in Poser.

I guess what this tells me is that the file appears to be in good condition, but may not convert properly depending on the implementation of the conversion format used by conversion programs. I can only add, make sure all your conversion programs are up to date with the most recent bug fixes. This may help solve your problem. :)


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ahjah
Thursday, 19 October 2006, 10:37 PM


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Thanks for this information :thumb: I was hoping, you'd join this thread :grin:


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Tormie
Thursday, 19 October 2006, 10:42 PM


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Thanks Shawn  :thumb:


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duttond
Friday, 20 October 2006, 10:57 AM

Re: file conversion
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[quote="melamkish";p="33104"]You may want to upgrade to citygen v1.5. I looked at one of your files and it was generated by version 0.8/0.9.
[/quote]

I upgraded to citygen v1.5 and I still can't read it with PoseRay (same "no faces, no verticies" errors). I don't believe I've ever had problems reading the citygen files with PovRay but I still need to convert POV files to OBJ, 3DS or some other format that I can read in Poser or Bryce.

Thanks for your efforts so far.


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melamkish
Friday, 20 October 2006, 01:12 PM


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It may only be an issue with the older version files. I'll take a little time tonight and see if I can generate a v1.5 file in citygen, export as a pov file and see what Poseray does.

Theoretically, if Poseray can read the file, it should be able to convert it to an obj.  Will let you know what I find out.


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melamkish
Saturday, 21 October 2006, 03:22 AM


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It would seem that citygen v1.5 may not be 100% compatible with POVray 3.6.  When I try to render in Povray I keep geting parse errors, which makes me believe it lags a few revisions. These syntax errors generated by citygen may be why the file ends up with no vertices or faces in Poseray.

The very first time I tried doing this same thing, I was able to correct the file errors and get a successful render, but that was over 6 months ago. I will have to do some more experimenting to figure out what I did.  Once I get that far, I can see if Poseray can convert a POV file to OBJ.

But this may or may not be possible.  The technical information buried in the POVray help file states that it is easy to convert to, but difficult to convert from POV to other formats.  This is because POVray is similar to a scripting language and the data is not stored in the same manner or format used by most rendering platforms.  So, although Poseray can read v3.6 POV files, it may not be able to convert the data to an obj file.  I will continue to research this weekend and see if I can get an answer.


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duttond
Monday, 23 October 2006, 11:17 AM


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[quote="melamkish";p="33125"]It would seem that citygen v1.5 may not be 100% compatible with POVray 3.6.  When I try to render in Povray I keep geting parse errors, which makes me believe it lags a few revisions. These syntax errors generated by citygen may be why the file ends up with no vertices or faces in Poseray.
[/quote]

I had the same problem...for each error, the line before ended with a number.  When I put a semicolon after the number to terminate the line, everything worked fine.  I have also used the modified file in Poseray but got the same errors.

[quote="melamkish";p="33125"]
But this may or may not be possible.  The technical information buried in the POVray help file states that it is easy to convert to, but difficult to convert from POV to other formats.  This is because POVray is similar to a scripting language and the data is not stored in the same manner or format used by most rendering platforms.  So, although Poseray can read v3.6 POV files, it may not be able to convert the data to an obj file.  I will continue to research this weekend and see if I can get an answer.[/quote]

 :sad1: Yes, that is a possibility.  If that is the case, I'll have to try navigating around the view and rendering it in a 2d format to use as a background for Poser or Bryce - that's what I do with Terragin. In my experience, the navigation is the hardest part of this method.  There are some city generator includes (separate product) that I also have and it takes me 20 to 30 renders to edit the source manually and get what I want.


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melamkish
Monday, 23 October 2006, 12:24 PM


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I finally got a good render by inserting "#version 3.51" before the first two declares. No other changes. After saving the file it would still not open in Poseray.  

I hit the search engines and could not find reference to any conversion programs other than Crossroads, which now has a dead link, and one shareware file converter with a restricted demo. The demo skips every fifth vertex/face in the conversion, so I skipped downloading.  The full registered version requires a payment and license. If you want the link, let me know and I will PM it to you.


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duttond
Monday, 23 October 2006, 12:29 PM


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[quote="melamkish";p="33147"]I hit the search engines and could not find reference to any conversion programs other than Crossroads, which now has a dead link, and one shareware file converter with a restricted demo. The demo skips every fifth vertex/face in the conversion, so I skipped downloading.  The full registered version requires a payment and license. If you want the link, let me know and I will PM it to you.[/quote]

Not at this time. I don't like paying for something in the "hope" that it will be useful.  :uuh: 

Maybe sometime in the future after I've exhausted all the possibilities and REALLY want the conversion, I'll change my mind.  :)


