Blender import / export plugins

[Leopotam]

First - I did get the rotation/scale-from-origin thing sorted, THANKS! The models now appear to transfer appropriately. Great job simply in doing that. My current problem, other than what may be beta-bugs (BTW, where's a good place to post those?) is the exporting of the lods. Could you go through that in a bit more detail? I duplicated the 0lod, then reduced the polys, and set the lod distance. And, the lod distances exported perfectly, but the lods themselves had the same number of faces as the original.

'Decimate' modifier? If yes, you must press 'Apply' button for bake modifier changes on result model.

Second - it is worth noting (I think) that the LOD Distance box doesn't accept enough zeros to enter the decimal value for the non-visual lods. But, entering the float value works. That's probably intentional, but wasn't immediately obvious.
On to feature suggestions/wish list?

Hm, Very hard to enter valid value from biwiki table? ok, I think about it.

How feasible would it be to use Blender to design animations? I've used the Blender anim parts a bit and found them pretty easy to use.
Overall a very solid tool, I think!

Animations have two types: axis-based (stored in config) and skeleton-based (rtm). For each - new exporter needed. May be both of them will be realized in future, may be no one, I dont know

[Leopotam]

Exporter v0.3.2:
* Add lod distance presets.
* Remove arma panel if no selected model
Importer v0.2.1:
* Fix crash on invalid uv data (add exception wrapper).

[TRexian]

Excellent!

I actually had another question. (You will end up hating me soon!) Some of the non-visual lods (like shadow lod?) don't need the texture. Does this tool remove that, if we just duplicate the "main" lod, or is that something we need to do manually in O2? Or, in terms of workflow, I suppose we can turn "off" the duplicate texture setting, then the non-visual lods won't have the texture copied?

Will check out the decimate/apply problem. I will also try not to turn this thread into a Blender 2.53 Tutorial thread.

[Leopotam]

Model copy as is, vertices and faces. UV stores in faces only. And UV data is not problem for O2.

[TRexian]

Excellent.

Someone asked me a question elsewhere regarding selections. If I import a p3d with selections, are those saved within Blender as a vertex group or some other way? If it was in the import video, I missed it. :doh:

[Leopotam]

Yep, each selection will be converted to vertex group.

[TRexian]

Excellent.

Ok... just going through the workflow... any chance of being able to apply mass to vertices, for the Geometry lod?

(I LOVE the dropdown menu to select the lods.... that is slick!)

Отличная работа!

[Leopotam]

Exporter v0.3.3:
* Can export mass data (Mass interpolated between vertices based on vertex weight).

Video list in first post updated.

[TRexian]

Uh... for my next feature request, I'd like for it to make my dinner and fold my clothes?

Edit:

Just watched the video, and have a question (which might be answered later tonight when I try it). I already have 1 vertex group/selection called "Component1" and have added another one with "#Mass#" - they will both be exported?

Fantastic work.

[TRexian]

Sorry for the double-post. Here's a pic of my first model taken straight from Blender to O2, with only minor tweaking in O2 (more on that later), then in-game:


Ok, not much to look at, but it is something.

There was a problem exporting with the selection name and #mass#. I'd tried to enter 5000 or something huge for the vertex weights, but the dos box said something like Invalid mass weight value. It still did a fine job including the non-visual lods I'd specified, so all I did was add the weight in O2.

Anyway - still very excited about this. Am even considering creating a very simple n00b tutorial for Blender and using these tools. It'll help me figure some stuff out, too, and potentially draw some more people to Blender!