ATG Samples Content Exporter

https://aka.ms/dxsdkcontentexporter

Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.

October 9, 2024

The Samples Content Exporter was shipped as a sample in the legacy DirectX SDK. It makes use of the Autodesk FBX SDK to import an FBX file and then export the data as an .SDKMESH. The .SDKMESH format is a runtime geometry format supported by the DirectX Tool Kit for DX11 / DX12 and DXUT, and is used in the Windows sample Marble Maze.

This code is designed to build with Visual Studio 2019 (16.11) or Visual Studio 2022. It is recommended that you make use of the Windows 10 May 2020 Update SDK (19041) or later.

These components are designed to work without requiring any content from the legacy DirectX SDK. For details, see Where is the DirectX SDK?.

Directory Layout

• ImportFBX\

  • Contains the main entry point for the command-line exporter tool and code for capturing data from FBX files.

• ExportObjects\

  • Contains a library of support code for the exporter.

• SDKMeshFileWriter\

  • Contains a library of code for writing out an .SDKMESH file from data captured as export objects.

• XATGFileWriter\

  • Contains a library of code for writing out a .XATG file from data captured as export objects.

.XATG was an XML based format used for older Xbox 360 samples

Documentation

Documentation is available on the GitHub wiki.

Notices

All content and source code for this package are subject to the terms of the MIT License.

For the latest version of this tool, bug reports, etc. please visit the project site on GitHub.

Use of OpenEXR is subject to it's own license terms, and requires the ZLIB library as well. Use of OpenEXR can be removed by undefining USE_OPENEXR from the project and removing the NuGet packages.

<https://github.com/openexr/openexr/blob/develop/OpenEXR/LICENSE>
<http://zlib.net/zlib_license.html>

Build Instructions

Install the Autodesk FBX SDK 2019.2 or later (latest tested version is 2020.3.7) for Windows VS 2019.

http://autodesk.com/fbx

Ensure the environment variable FBX_SDK is set to point to the Autodesk FBX SDK (such as C:\Program Files\Autodesk\FBX\FBX SDK\2020.3.2)

Because VS 2015, 2017, and 2019 are all binary compatible, you can use older Autodesk FBX SDK release if needed by modifying the project to use the '2015' versions of the libraries.

Open the ContentExporter_2019.sln from Visual Studio.

Build the solution

The resulting command-line tool is located under ImportFBX in x64\Debug_201x or x64\Release_201x as ContentExporter.exe

Usage: ContentExporter [options] <filename.fbx>

Disclaimer

.SDKMESH has a long-time samples runtime geometry format for Microsoft since the retiring of the legacy .X file format. It has a number of limitations, and we don't recommend using it as a your production solution for meshes. It is, however, very useful for samples and itself serves as an example of such file containers. The documentation on the format can be found here.

Release Notes

• The VS projects do not support building a 32-bit (x86) version of the exporter. x64 native (x64) use is wide-spread for content creation tools and provides much greater memory flexibility.

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.opensource.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., status check, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.

Trademarks

This project may contain trademarks or logos for projects, products, or services. Authorized use of Microsoft trademarks or logos is subject to and must follow Microsoft's Trademark & Brand Guidelines. Use of Microsoft trademarks or logos in modified versions of this project must not cause confusion or imply Microsoft sponsorship. Any use of third-party trademarks or logos are subject to those third-party's policies.

Credits

The DirectX SDK Samples Content Exporter is the work of Matt Lee with contributions from Chuck Walbourn.

Thanks to Shanon Drone for the SDKMESH file format.