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So you read the Importing tutorial and now you want to find out
how to get things out of Bryce? Well there is no simple one answer
to this one. The answer depends on what you want to export (object/material/mesh/sphere)
and what format you want to export to.
If you are looking to export to a native Bryce file, things just
got real easy. You simply open the preset library that contains
the object/material/sky that you wish to export and click the 
button at the bottom of the window. If on the other hand, you are
looking to use your item in another program other than Bryce, the
how and why just got real complicated.
First lets look at how to export objects from Bryce so they are
usable in other programs. Pay attention here because this is very
important: You can ONLY export
terrains, lattices,
rocks and previouslly imported mesh
objects. You can't export anything else, no groups, no booleans,
no spheres, no lights , no toruses. (I have a crude workaround for
these later).
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| Exporting Terrains & Lattices |
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The export procedure and the results are almost identical for these
two objects since a Lattice is simply a double sided terrain. To
export these, select the object and click the 
chicklet to enter the Terrain Editor (TE). Look at the bottom and
you will see the button.
This will allow you to export your terrain/lattice to a multitude
of formats and it will also export your matierials along with it.
I am afraid you are going to loose a lot of detail when you export
them though.
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| The image on the left is a terrain in Bryce.
The image on the right is the same terrain, exported to 3DS with materials.
It was imported back to Bryce and rendered along side of the original.
Notice the loss of the very fine details and the marginally similar
material. Don't expect your beautifull procedural Bryce material to
export in all its glory. |
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| Exporting Rocks & Meshes |
| Exporting rocks and meshes is identical since a rock
is really a mesh that was randomly generated. You will, however, loose
your materials when you export. Materials are only exported with terrains
and lattices. You can export a simblance of your material (covered
later). |
| Select your rock or mesh and click the
chicklet to bring up the edit mesh dialog. Leave everything here alone
(unless you want to alter it before exporting). Press CTL-D
(this is an easter egg). If you don't have the Edit Mesh dialog up,
CTL-D will duplicate the rock or mesh,
inside that dialog, it brings up a SaveAs window. Choose your file
format and click save. |
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| Exporting Materials |
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Exporting materials from Bryce is not really an easy task if you
want to use that material in another program. You will have to convert
the material to an image file. Now if you are using a picture texture,
simply open the Material Editor (ME) and then open the Photo Library
by clicking on the pink button (
) above the channel that contans the image. Click the 
button below the image. Open your favorite image editor (PhotoShop
or Paint Shop Pro for example) and Paste the image in from the clipboard.
You will need to do this for the alpha channel as well.
If you are using a procedural texture and not a photo, the task
of getting the texture out in a usable format got a bit harder.
Unfortunately there is no real "export" of these types
of materials. What you will need to do is simulate the export of
the material by rendering the material from above.
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Your first order of business is to fix the sky so that you minimize
shadows. Click the 
button on the Sky palette to enter the Sky Lab. Turn off Link Sun
to View. Change both azimuth and altitude to 90. This put the sun
directly overhead. If you had a custom sky going, change the sun
color to full white unless you want your material tinted. I suggest
using the default sky for this.
Click the  to return
to the wireframe view.
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Once you are back to wireframe, you will need to make some choices...
- Do you want the material distorted by the object or not?
- Does the material render differently on a flat or curved object?
- Is the material Altitude sensitive?
- Does it have a bump channel?
All of these things will change exactly the way you will render
the material for export.
As an example, lets export "Clown Collar"
from the "Wild and Fun" Library.
Create a terrain. Apply the material to it. Change to the overhead
view by pressing NUMPAD-2. Now enlarge
the terrain so it is as large as the render view. Click the render
button. What you end up with is something like what you see on the
right here. This is what you would want to export for a terrain
(if it didn't export the material that is).
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| Now, delete the terrain and apply the material to the
ground plane. What you get when you render is pictured on the right
here. It looks very different than what the first one did. This is
because the first render distorted the material based on the shape
of the object it was applied to. Your choice on how to render the
material for export will depend largely on the object it is going
to be applied to and on the material itself. Rendering one of the
snow topped terrains on a flat surface will not yield anything like
what would be on a 3D object. |
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| Depending on what appication you are intending
on using the material in, you will probably be better off creating
a material in that application rather than using this picture technique,
but again, this all depends on the object, material and application. |
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| Exporting "Non-Exportables" |
| Yea, yea...if they are not exportable then
how can you export them? Right? Well, you can export SOME things so
that they are usable in other applications. A prime example of this
would be a boolean group. Since the group is not exportable by normal
means, you are left with only one alternative if you MUST export it.
Unfortunately, results are mixed and rarely yield acceptable results
in the other applictaion but I wll explain the general method here
as best I can. |
First, start a new scene. Create a Cube and place it
on the ground. Create a cone, make it half it's original size (NUMPAD-/).
Place it on top of the cube, What you should have when you render
it is something similar to what you see here. The exact size and relationship
here is not important, this is just a sample object to export. Select
both objects and click the 
chicklet to group the cube and cone. |
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Now for the trick part. Switch to the overhead view
again (NUMPAD-2). Size the group so that
they almost fill the working window. Click the small triangle next
to the render buttons ( ).
Select  from
the list. Click render. What you get is similar to what you see on
the right here. Save your rendered image to disk. Open it in your
image editor and crop it to a square (yes it must be square no matter
what object you rendered). |
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Now, create a terrain. Click the
chicklet to enter the Terrain Editor. Click the Pictures tab and
load the image you saved from the above render. You will need to
adjust it slightly, maybe a little  .
and 
are good tools here. Click the
to return to the wireframe. Position it beside the original group
and render. You should have something like the image on the right
here. The terrain is the smaller of the two here. Notice it is very
close to the original group in shape. Unfortunately, this is about
as close as you are going to get. Now you can export the terrain
(with materials btw) for use in another program.
So far, this is the only way I have been able to export things
I needed and the results are usually poor to average. The key here
is to render at 1024x1024 and use the largest grid setting in the
terrain. Then using
the highest polygon count you can so maintain detail.
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| Depending on the application, you might
be able to use the greyscale altitude render as a source for "lofting"
and the results will be better than using a terrain in Bryce to convert
to polygons. |
