exporter status overview

[Abel]

According to our website, the main exporters for LuxRender are LuxBlend and LuxMaya. This information is a bit outdated, so I think it would be a good idea to get an overview of where the exporters stand. It would be nice to have a table with at least the following fields before the release of 0.7:

-3d program/exporter name
-general status (fully functional / partially functional / experimental)
-supported versions of 3d program
-supported operating systems (Windows/Linux/OS X, 32/64 bit)
-supported LuxRender versions

does the exporter export:
-geometry
-materials
-lights: meshes, spectra, IES files
-cameras
-motion blur
-textures (procedural/image)
-animations

-documentation status

It would be nice if all exporter developers could provide this information. Also suggestions for additional information that should be listed is welcome.

[Abel]

I think I can actually fill in the one for LuxBlend 2.49 myself.

exporter name: LuxBlend 2.49
3d program name: Blender
supported versions of Blender: 2.49b
supported operating systems: Windows, OS X, Linux, all 32 and 64 bit
status: fully functional

geometry: yes
materials: yes
lights: meshes, spectra, IES files: yes
cameras: yes
motion blur: yes
textures (procedural): yes
textures (image): yes
animations: yes

documentation: in wiki, not complete

[dougal2]

exporter name: LuxBlend 2.5
3d program name: Blender
supported versions of Blender: 2.5 SVN

Supported Lux versions: 0.7

supported operating systems: Windows, OS X, Linux, all 32 and 64 bit; however tested mostly on 64bit linux and windows machines so far.
status: partially functional
geometry: yes, not optimised
materials: yes
lights: meshes, spectra, IES files: basic lights (point, spot, sunsky, area, infinite [via hemi]), no material emission yet, no IES
textures (procedural): yes
textures (image): yes
animations: yes, but not well tested

Exit portals: no

Cameras: Perspective, Environment
Motion blur: limited I think... can't verify right now.
Integrated rendering: yes, if pylux present
Integrated material previews: not yet
Diskless export: yes but disabled due to stability issues
Installer: no
Documentation: none

[dougal2]

My memory of LuxMaya may be a bit off, this is off the top of my head, I will try to verify some of these at some point

exporter name: LuxMaya
3d program name: Maya
supported versions of Maya: 8.5, 2008, 2009

Supported Lux versions: 0.5 / 0.6RC1

supported operating systems: Windows, OS X, Linux, all 32 and 64 bit, mostly tested on windows 32bit.
status: partially functional
geometry: yes
materials: yes, up to LuxRender 0.6
lights: meshes, spectra, IES files: point, spot, infinite, sunsky, mesh lights
textures (procedural): yes, up to LuxRender 0.6 (Lux and Blender textures, not Maya procedurals)
textures (image): yes
animations: yes, both frame-at-a-time and batch mode

Exit portals: yes

Cameras: Perspective, Environment, Orthographic
Motion blur: can't remember...
Integrated rendering: no
Integrated material previews: no
Diskless export: no
Installer: windows and linux
Documentation: limited, basic

[lfrisken]

exporter name: SU2LUX
3d program: Google Sketchup
supported versions: 7, 6?, 5?
supported os: windows, osx, linux? (Through wine?)
status: partially functional(just!).


material editor: not yet
settings editor: yes, but not completely functional.
animation stuff: not really applicable to sketchup, unless I can think up some ingenious hack to implement motion blur.
textures and colours: very basic.
lights: planned, but sun has been implemented.
primitives: planned.
geometry: done for now.
cameras: orthographic, perspective, fov and so on...

integrated rendering: planned
integrated material previews: planned
installer: no
exit portals: planned
documentation: practically none!

I've got am exam tomorrow, but will focus on gettings up to scratch during my next holidays in a few weeks, hopefully in time for 0.7!

[SATtva]

exporter name: LuxBlend 2.49
3d program name: Blender
supported versions of Blender: 2.49, 2.48??

Nope, 2.48 isn't supported, we're strictly 2.49b. Moreover (maybe mention this with an asterisk or just report upstream) there is one more quirk: official Windows version of Blender 2.49b provided in the form of a zip archive and an installer contains different builds with slightly different APIs. In particular, build contained in installer doesn't have getName() method in particle system objects, thus if a user would try to render hair, LuxBlend will crash.

[abstrax]

That's the state of the exporter for CINEMA 4D:

exporter name: LuxC4D
general status: partially functional
supported versions of 3d program: R9.6 - R11.5, 32 and 64 bit
supported operating systems: Windows and OS X, 32 and 64 bit
supported LuxRender versions: 0.7

does the exporter export:
geometry: yes
materials: yes (automatic conversion of C4D materials and Lux materials (except volume materials) and material mixing)
lights: area lights, emission channel, point, spot, distant, infinite, infinitesample, sky, sun, sunsky, light groups
light portals: yes
cameras: yes
textures: only RGB colour and imagemap
motion blur: no
animations: no

documentation: unfinished

[miga]

exporter name: luxsi
3d program name: Softimage (formally XSI)
supported 3d program versions:
* 7.x (Windows / Linux)
* 6.x (Windows / Linux)
* 5.x (Windows)
* ModTool (Windows)

Supported Lux versions: 0.6 (SVN version supports 0.7)

status: partially functional
geometry: yes
materials: yes
lights: yes
textures (procedural): no
textures (image): no
animations: no
Exit portals: yes
Cameras: Perspective
Motion blur: no
Integrated rendering: no
Integrated material previews: no
Diskless export: no
Installer: no
Documentation: yes http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/index.php ... XSI_Manual

I have a new notebook now (finally a 64bit system) + Softimage 2010/2011 and finally an internet connection (moved to another town some weeks ago) so I will do some updates soon!

[hedphelym]

exporter name: Luxmax
3d program name: 3Dstudio Max
supported versions of 3dsmax: 2008 - 2011 (x32 x64).
supported operating systems: Windows, all that 3dsmax supports. 32 and 64 bit
status: almost fully implemented - ( works very well in current release).

geometry: yes
materials: yes (a few shaders left to implement, mix material.)
lights: portals ,meshes, point, spot, environment light \ sky (Skylight object).
cameras: yes \ but not everything is complete
settings editor: yes, but not completely functional (implementing it into camera object).
motion blur: no
textures (procedural): yes
textures (image): yes
animations: no
Integrated rendering: no
Integrated material previews: not yet
Diskless export: no
Installer: no - zip file, manual install.
documentation: None yet.