Introduction

This documentation provides information on how to use the Maya game translators.

ImportantSince Maya 4.0, we encourage you to use Maya’s API directly. Several new functions have been added to API since the MDT layer was created for Maya 1.0 which means the need to use the MDT layer has reduced.

Maya game translators are provided for licensed Autodesk customers. The source code for the translators as well as the MDtApi is provided so that the supplied translators can be modified for site-specific customizations.

The game translators, VRML2, RTG and GE2, are written with an API interface layer (MDtApi). The MDtApi functions are implemented using the Maya API. MDtApi does not replace the Maya API in any form. The Dt functions are meant to ease the re-use of source code between the translators and different platforms and to provide example API source code.

The game translators are File Translator plug-ins accessed from the File > Export All or File > Export Selection menu items.

Translator processing has two basic stages internally

Creating an internal database of information that allows for relatively easy access to the Maya scene information. This database can be considered as a grouping mechanism.
Running the translator using the information from the data base.

This process divides into separate options that you need to define. The first set of options deals with the setup of the internal database, and the second with the actual options for the translator that you are going to run.

Common options for the internal data base

Animation options: including frame ranges, the level of requested animation
Export Options: including hierarchy information, tessellation parameters, verbose activity reporting
Texture Options: including shader evaluation parameters

Translator-specific options are described for each translator.