3D Models not showing

[Anderconsu]

Hi, I don't know if this was adressed or asked before but I can't see any 3d model in the editor, not even the dome example. I reinstalled with no luck, everything else works fine not sure whats wrong.

[Tim]

Hey, have you had a look at this guide (which is slightly outdated) if you have followed all the right steps? At the bottom of the guide, you can also find a sample model file you can use to test that there is no general issue with your setup:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=768436684

If the sample file works, there is likely a problem with your model. Make sure the scaling is not super tiny or super large, Wallpaper Engine kind of interprets model sizes similar to how Unity would, so try to export your models in different sizes and see if that changes anything.

[Anderconsu]

Originally posted by ultio:

Hey, have you had a look at this guide (which is slightly outdated) if you have followed all the right steps? At the bottom of the guide, you can also find a sample model file you can use to test that there is no general issue with your setup:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=768436684

If the sample file works, there is likely a problem with your model. Make sure the scaling is not super tiny or super large, Wallpaper Engine kind of interprets model sizes similar to how Unity would, so try to export your models in different sizes and see if that changes anything.

When i try that model a "fbx-tokenize(offset 0x34) block offset is out of range" error appears on the screen and then "assimp exception ocurred" pops up.

[Biohazard]

I'm afraid that example model is definitely not going to work because Autodesk is unfortunately stuck in the year 2015 with their SDKs that provide FBX support to other programs and I exported that model with a newer version.

In any case, the dome template should work and display the dome from the inside and the reflective grid at the bottom, just like the 3D car wallpaper that comes with the program. If this isn't working I would suggest to reinstall the program because something fundamental seems to be wrong.

Make sure to delete the whole folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\wallpaper_engine before installing it anew because Steam won't delete the configuration files, for example.

If reinstalling doesn't help, please share a screenshot of what exactly you're seeing when you use the dome template.

[Anderconsu]

Originally posted by Biohazard:

I'm afraid that example model is definitely not going to work because Autodesk is unfortunately stuck in the year 2015 with their SDKs that provide FBX support to other programs and I exported that model with a newer version.

In any case, the dome template should work and display the dome from the inside and the reflective grid at the bottom, just like the 3D car wallpaper that comes with the program. If this isn't working I would suggest to reinstall the program because something fundamental seems to be wrong.

Make sure to delete the whole folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\wallpaper_engine before installing it anew because Steam won't delete the configuration files, for example.

If reinstalling doesn't help, please share a screenshot of what exactly you're seeing when you use the dome template.

The dome seems to work, I have downloaded various 3d models from free3d and turbosquid (to clarify I'm new with 3d models i just wanted to make my own 3d wallpaper testing things)
and the only one that "works" is an audi r8 model https://imgur.com/FdPfP2Y

Depending on the file extension different number of materials are shown, all with "diffuse_x" name and I don't know what is what because the downloaded model comes with less number of texture files.

The other models are shown like this https://imgur.com/nUwLcrK (it doesn't matter if I change the material texture for any other one)

I have to be doing something wrong since i don't know how to make 3d models and maybe I am missing something.

[Biohazard]

Originally posted by Anderconsu:

The dome seems to work, I have downloaded various 3d models from free3d and turbosquid (to clarify I'm new with 3d models i just wanted to make my own 3d wallpaper testing things)
and the only one that "works" is an audi r8 model https://imgur.com/FdPfP2Y

This is generally a problem, because most random models from the internet will just be broken. For example, in your image, I can already see that the model mixes up the 'winding of triangles' which makes some of them just invisible from the side you actually want to see them and vice versa. But Wallpaper Engine needs this to be consistent.

Originally posted by Anderconsu:

The other models are shown like this https://imgur.com/nUwLcrK (it doesn't matter if I change the material texture for any other one)

The model might be too large. Like ultio said, Wallpaper Engine uses a similar scaling as Unity, that means 'one unit' is already quite enough - think of 'one unit' equals 'one meter'. That model might be defining 'one unit' as 'one centimeter' and that just makes it a hundred times too big and you will have to scale it down or it won't show up. (Or it might be the other way around and it defines one unit as one kilometer and thus will now be super tiny.)

------

The .obj format will be the most stable because it has the least features which means the chance of the model being broken doing something unsupported is lower than with the other formats.

For realtime rendering like in Wallpaper Engine you want to have fewer triangles and some textures. Most models from the internet have lots of triangles and no textures (or many dozens of empty textures, really bad) at all and instead vertex colors (which is just bad for this use case and thus won't be supported). You could try free models from the Unity asset store because those are meant for the same use case. But still, those are tailored specifically to work in Unity, if they do anything fancy that only exists in Unity then they won't work the same here again.

It's basically not a good idea to try learn using models here at the end of the pipeline. Models will work best if they are created or ported specifically for Wallpaper Engine, that's just a common problem with 3D because there are way too many model formats that all include application specific things.

[Anderconsu]

Originally posted by Biohazard:

Originally posted by Anderconsu:

The dome seems to work, I have downloaded various 3d models from free3d and turbosquid (to clarify I'm new with 3d models i just wanted to make my own 3d wallpaper testing things)
and the only one that "works" is an audi r8 model https://imgur.com/FdPfP2Y

This is generally a problem, because most random models from the internet will just be broken. For example, in your image, I can already see that the model mixes up the 'winding of triangles' which makes some of them just invisible from the side you actually want to see them and vice versa. But Wallpaper Engine needs this to be consistent.

Originally posted by Anderconsu:

The other models are shown like this https://imgur.com/nUwLcrK (it doesn't matter if I change the material texture for any other one)

The model might be too large. Like ultio said, Wallpaper Engine uses a similar scaling as Unity, that means 'one unit' is already quite enough - think of 'one unit' equals 'one meter'. That model might be defining 'one unit' as 'one centimeter' and that just makes it a hundred times too big and you will have to scale it down or it won't show up. (Or it might be the other way around and it defines one unit as one kilometer and thus will now be super tiny.)

------

The .obj format will be the most stable because it has the least features which means the chance of the model being broken doing something unsupported is lower than with the other formats.

For realtime rendering like in Wallpaper Engine you want to have fewer triangles and some textures. Most models from the internet have lots of triangles and no textures (or many dozens of empty textures, really bad) at all and instead vertex colors (which is just bad for this use case and thus won't be supported). You could try free models from the Unity asset store because those are meant for the same use case. But still, those are tailored specifically to work in Unity, if they do anything fancy that only exists in Unity then they won't work the same here again.

It's basically not a good idea to try learn using models here at the end of the pipeline. Models will work best if they are created or ported specifically for Wallpaper Engine, that's just a common problem with 3D because there are way too many model formats that all include application specific things.

I just tried lowering the scale of .obj format models until they showed up at 0.01 scale
Thank you very much for the explanation I really appreciate it <33