Forum Discussion
assistance with scientific visualization
Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me with a mini-project I'm working on. I was wondering how easy it would be to add some objects to the sixense tuscany demo. I have VRML2.0 files of 3D reconstructions of parts of neurons that we put together from series of electron microscope images. Our lab specializes in serial section reconstruction of electronmicrographs of hippocampal tissue to study learning and memory at the level of single synapses and dendritic spines. I would like to eventually reconstruct an entire pyramidal neuron complete with all intracellular organelles and cytoskeletal structures (which are readily visible in our electron microscope).
The VRML 2.0 files I have are from segments of oblique dendrites from hippocampal area CA1 and are up to about 5 micrometers in length. This 3D reconstruction spans several hundred ultrasections, each one is actually about 45 nanometers thick, so you can imagine that it would take an enormous amount of work to reconstruct an entire neuron at this scale (on of these neurons can span several hundred microns to almost a millimeter in its full arborization).
Anyway, I was hoping I could just drop them into the tuscany house as objects that could be picked up and waved around as proof of principle to my boss that we could/should spend some resources to do an entire cell. I was able to import these objects into unreal as static meshes that I could place around environments, but I would like to be able to use them in Unity and that I am not sure how to do. They are not very large, up to a megabyte or so, so I could send someone a few of these files if you know how to add them to the scene and get it to run. Thanks guys!
The VRML 2.0 files I have are from segments of oblique dendrites from hippocampal area CA1 and are up to about 5 micrometers in length. This 3D reconstruction spans several hundred ultrasections, each one is actually about 45 nanometers thick, so you can imagine that it would take an enormous amount of work to reconstruct an entire neuron at this scale (on of these neurons can span several hundred microns to almost a millimeter in its full arborization).
Anyway, I was hoping I could just drop them into the tuscany house as objects that could be picked up and waved around as proof of principle to my boss that we could/should spend some resources to do an entire cell. I was able to import these objects into unreal as static meshes that I could place around environments, but I would like to be able to use them in Unity and that I am not sure how to do. They are not very large, up to a megabyte or so, so I could send someone a few of these files if you know how to add them to the scene and get it to run. Thanks guys!
4 Replies
- I don't believe Unity supports VRML, but you should be able to convert it the a format that does work.
- As Cyber said, Unity doesn't support VRML format natively. You would have to roll your own importer, or convert to a format that Unity supports.
Unity natively supports FBX (Autodesk), DAE (Digital Asset Exchange: Collada), 3DS (3D Studio Max), DXF (DirectX Format), and OBJ (Wavefront) file formats. It also supports a variety of proprietary file formats from 3D modeling software, including Maya and Lightwave, but you need additional licenses from those companies if you want to ship your product with their import/export software.
There's an aging, but still very useful, open source mesh editor called MeshLab which can convert numerous file formats, including VRML. I've used this a few times to convert 3DS objects to OBJ, and it worked pretty well.
http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/
Good luck with your project. - Thanks! I have used meshlab a few times. I am able to convert these files into WRL files or STL files since I wanted to print out some of the segments in my reprap. Can I import WRL directly into Unity?
- Just sent you a PM.. Should be able to help.
