[Maya2osg-users] Transform nodes

[Jean-Sébastien G. <jea...@cm...>]

Hello all,

I'm wondering about the export of transform nodes. Currently, if you use 
"Group selected object(s)" in Maya, what you get is not a Group, but a 
Transform. All the time.

The problem is that Transforms are more costly in cull time than Groups. 
So if what you really wanted is a Group, but you get a Transform, you 
will pay a non-zero cost each frame even if the Transform's matrix never 
changes.

On the other hand, the obvious criterion that could be used to create a 
Group instead of a Transform on export (the Transform's matrix is 
identity) does not necessarily hold true. A modeler might have placed a 
Transform at the origin, but wanted the program to find it and modify it 
at runtime. The fact that its matrix is identity in Maya doesn't imply 
that it will always stay identity.

So, how could we "flag" Transforms that should become Groups on export? 
Is there already such a thing in Maya? (I didn't see it, but perhaps 
there is) If not, then we should probably add a button on the shelf that 
creates a Transform but with a specific custom attribute that the plugin 
will look for on export and use to determine that this Transform should 
be exported as a Group.

Do you have another, less messy, idea? Thanks in advance,

J-S
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Jean-Sebastien Guay    jea...@cm...
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