LMXtra a W3D LightMapGenerator 

calculates Lightmaps inside Macromedia Director™ Version 8.5 to MX 2004 in autoring mode. A new set of texturecoordinates and the lightmap images will be stored as members in your cast. 

LMXtra does not bake Textures, it calculates packed Lightmaps for static models.
Textures can be tiled, scaled, animated, or changed under the Lightmaps.

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How to install
How to use
How to publish
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How to install:

Close Director, download the file < LMXtra.dcr > into your Director / Xtras folder.
You may now run the LMXtra from the Xtras menu within Director.

How to use the LMXtra:

LightMapXtra should run self-explained. But some notes may be necessary:

In the Member Tab choose a W3D Member and the castLib where you like to store the Lightmaps.

• resetWorld(): it is recommended to reset the W3D everytime before starting LMXtra. In order to be able to consider changes to the scene done by scripting, there is no reset by default. So if  you realize unexpected results: check if you did the resetWorld() on startup.
• LumelSize / TextureSize: decide wether you want to render a fixed Lightmaptexture size (TextureSize), or render with the size of a pixel (TexelSize) of the lightmaptexture.
  Be careful setting the value of TexelSize too small, this may result in a very big lightmap and in a long render time.  TextureSize should be a value with  Power of 2 [ 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024]  LumelSize and TextureSize are global settings, changing them will change the Texture/LumelSize settings for all your models.
• pack Lightmaps: All Lightmaps will be combined in one (or more, if needed) big Lightmap with the specified maximum Size.
• scale Lightmaps: supports better use of space while packing Lightmaps.
• use Texture Alpha Channel: detects Alpha Channels in textures and considers transparency while casting shadows.
• LightToTexel / TexelToLight: reverses the rayDirection and will result in slightly different Lightmaps, especially on the edge of two different objects.
  

Model Tab:

• Select  models  to render Lightmaps
• Excluded models will not cast shadows
• specify / adjust the value of LumelSize / TextureSize.
• force smoothing: enebles the renderer to force smoothed or flat surfaces.

• select: Lights can be addet to the calculations inside the Light Tab.
• Color and  Attenuation are not editable yet.
• Blur Amout: enables a wider blurring on this Light
• Remove From World: will automaticly remove the Light from world. They will not be deleted. The shader.emissive of all effected shaders will be set to white, so there is no need for any light source in the scene exept you have models in the scene which should be visible but not lightmapped. For example animated models. Uncheck this option for Lights you want to keep in the scene.
• Hotspot and Falloff for spotlights must be defined manually since  these values are not included in the w3d format.

Global Illumination:

• Passes: Number of Global Illumination loops
• Quality: [1 - 100] to run a faster test use a Number of about [ 10 ]. Values above 50 will be very slow.
• Blur:  defines the blurring for GI Lightmaps
• Ambient: choose a value from 1 to 255.  Low-Lightened scenes  would need a higher value.
• Reflection:  how much light should be reflected by surfaces. [1-255]

Render Tab:

Render button starts the render process on all selected Models and Lights.

The Engine will take 100% of CPU usage! and Your System will lock up ! It may happen that Director seems to hang completely and you dont see the progressbar working anymore, but rendering is still in progress...
There are 4 ways to come over it :

• watch the progress bar (if its there)
• press ESC to cancel the rendering
• minimize Director, work on some other stuff and come back when finished.
• go for a big mug of coffee.....

However if you proved your patience you will recieve a new field member called LMX_init. You may change the prefix. This will effect the naming only.  All information to restore the LightmapTextureCoordinates will be placed in Field Members.
You will also find the LightMaps as Image Members.

Now you can reset your Movie, and press <Map Lightmaps>. The Lightmaps should be placed correctly on the Models.

If You make changes on some of the models or create them at runtime, start the movie and render the Lightmaps when everything is initialized. Be sure to <Map Lightmaps> after initializing your scene as well...

Some copys of Shaders may be created. they use the name <nameOfTheShader_lmx>. Also some new modelResources <nameOfTheModel_lmx> may be created if there are not enough vertices found in the mesh to create textureCoordinates for the Lightmapping.

How to publish:

You will find a LDM, called < LMXtra_Mapper * .dcr>  in the downloaded LMXtra.zip.
Import this LDM into a castLib. Put it as a Sprite to the stage. Now call it like:

LMXMapperSpriteReference = sprite(me.spriteNum)
debug                                   = FALSE
LMX_InitRef                          = member("LMX_init")

tell LMXMapperSpriteReference
    LMXMapper( debug, LMX_InitRef)
end tell

Thats it.

There is a sample movie inside the LMXtra.zip file, which contains a Handler which shows the usage more precisely.

To test your shockwave movie on your Hard Disk with a LDM ( like LMXMapper.dcr ) inside, you need to test it in a folder named <dswMedia>. 

Syntax :
LMXMapper( {debug, initMemberReference} )

• debug:   
  #boolean                     -->  turn on and off error messages in message window.
  [default: TRUE]
  or:  
  #member reference     -->   a #text or #field member to recieve error messages
  [default: VOID] 
  
•  initMemberReference:  
  #member reference     -->  a #field member created by LMXtra. 
  [default: member("LMX_init")]  {optional}  contains initial mapping information.
  

Contact me for questions.

Gunnar Vagt

lmxtra@vagtmedia.de