Clone Object as instance in OgreMax

This article transferred from: http://www.dinohensen.nl/3d-modelling/clone-object-as-instance/

Autodesk 3DS Max + ogremax exporter

The goal of this tutorial are to create instances of objects instead of copies to improve loading time in games developed u Sing the Ogre3d Graphics Engine in combination with a so-called dotsceneloader. A dotsceneloader is a library that loads a '. Scene ' file generated by OgreMax exporter. OgreMax exporter is used to export 3D scene ' s created in Autodesk 3DS Max. The problem is this sometimes when you want a lot of same objects in your scene, and you had to clone those objects, seems OB Vious ... But if you haven ' t found out all tips and tricks about the settings that is available in OgreMax and AutoDesk 3DS Max, Then you is left with only a options:learn how to use 3DS Max and OgreMax exporter follow this tutorial

The first option is very time consuming. By the time you even found some tutorials/books on this, you allready forgot what do you were looking for! So I suggest your follow this tutorial!

When using the "standard" clone defaults, an object cloned would actually be copied. When exporting the scene as a. scene file, an object copied a hundred times, would generate hundred meshes. These meshes'll all is the same, but only has a differente name. When loading a game, all of these meshes still has to be loaded even though they is all the same meshes. For Example:you has an object called sphere. When you copy it a hundred times the meshes generated would look like this:

Sphere01.mesh
Sphere02.mesh
Sphere03.mesh
.....................
.....................
Sphere100.mesh

It makes no sense loading the same mesh a hundred times, so follow these steps to avoid this:

Preparations:Goto:OgreMax, Scenesettings, Meshes (TAB)

At the general Settings sections make sure the ' Check for Mesh Instances ' is checked:

Step 1:select The object you would like to clone:

Step 2:with the "Select and Move tool selected" Holding shift while moving the object.

Step 3:in The Popup-dialog, choose "Instance":

Now press OK. You should now see this:

Export Scene, Step 4:ogremax, export
Conclusion:now look at the. Scene is created. You'll see that both the original object and cloned object, share the same mesh. This is the save lots of loading time when often using the same meshes.