Installing Maya 2018 Exporter

There's been a lack of documentation on how to get asset from Autodesk Maya 2018 to Kenshi. I did a little research. Fortunately a sourcecode and binary release for OGRE Maya Exporter came out a few years ago on a lesser known OGRE forum site, and the plugin (and its sourcecode) are available on Github as well. I took the challenge to install and test the plugin so that the process can be documented for future modders that want to use Maya 2018 for Kenshi content creation. I hope this willl save future modders from having to go through the convoluted process of Maya -> Blender -> Kenshi, thus saving time, headache, and countless frustrations.

Ogre Maya 2018 Plugin Installation:

1. Download Maya OGRE3D Exporter v1.0.0 Release from Github[github.com].
   
2. Extract the files from the ZIP package.
   
3. Copy the ogreExporter.mll file and OgreMain.dll to the Maya binary folder (for 2018 on Windows this resolves to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2018\bin).
   
4. Copy the plugin file, ogreExporter.mel, to the scripts directory (most likely at C:\Users\<You>\Documents\maya\2018\scripts).
   
5. If you have a userSetup.mel file in your Maya scripts directory, simply add source ogreExporter.mel; to the end of the file. If you do not have a userSetup.mel file yet, please copy the included file to your scripts directory.

Verifying Installation

1. Go to Windows -> Settings/Preferences -> Plug-in Manager
   
2. Scroll down until you see ogreExporter.mll and verify Loaded and Auto load are checked.

Exporting Asset from Maya

At the top menubar, you should see Ogre option.

From the menu, Ogre -> Export

At the Ogre Exporter menu, follow the screenshot to double-check your settings, then hit Export.

Note: There will be no prompt/warning/notice when export is completed. Check the output directory to see if your newly created MESH file is now there.

Note: If this is your first time working in the tool, I suggest that you create a very primitive model to test and become familiarize with the export plugin and the export/import workflow.

Importing Asset in to Kenshi Forgotten Construction Set (FCS)

Follow this tutorial, "A Mediocre Guide on How to Mod Kenshi using Blender Template"

1. Skip to Part II for texturing and exporting texture to DDS with Photoshop.
   
2. Skip to Part III for importing asset in to FCS.

Playtest your asset in Kenshi

1. After you are done importing asset in to game based on the tutorial I linked you in the previous section, then you're ready!
   
2. Launch Kenshi and start a new playthrough, make sure you're playing as a correct character start.
   
3. Open up your inventory and drop the new asset to the ground.
   
4. You should now see your new asset.
   
5. You are done! Congratulation. Now go experiment with Kenshi and Maya and see what you can come up with. Experiment to see what is possible in the game!

Special thanks to the following authors for the exporter plugin:

• Barte "velocity_" Perte, Bitgate, Inc.
  
• Francesco Giordana, sponsored by Anygma N.V
  
• Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Institute of Animation's R&D Lab