Nadeo Importer has two ways of exporting your .fbx: as an .item or as a .mesh. They both have their pros and cons, it’s up to you which you value more.
Most of the differences will be in the light map quality.
¶ Export as .item
PowerShell command: .\NadeoImporter Item Items\YOURPROJECT\YOURMESH.item.xml
The biggest and probably strongest point of exporting as an .item is that you retain UV2 light maps; it doesn’t get overwritten, so (assuming you’ve set up the texture coordinates correctly) there will be no shadow bugs/artifacts! This is amazing for large, complex and heavy items such as landscape, rocks, roads and similar use cases.
You also retain authorship of the item since it can’t be accessed and edited by others in-game, even if they have the .item file. Your name can be marked as the author of the item on Trackmania Exchange (the author name can be adjusted in .item.xml file).
¶ Export as .mesh
PowerShell command: .\NadeoImporter Mesh Items\YOURPROJECT\Mesh\YOURMESH.fbx
Exporting as Mesh creates a .mesh and a .shape file, which you import into the Mesh Modeler. Its strongest point is that you retain editability of the item; meaning you can change it whenever you want in-game without the need to go back into 3D software. The biggest issue with Mesh Modeler-saved files is that it overwrites your UV2 channel with an imperfect automatic algorithm.
This is not much of a problem with smaller, rectangular (blocky with hard edges) items, but it’s very noticeable for smooth, organic & spherical items (roads, trees, landscape etc.).
