Static model import/export for Blender: development

[6742e85d8628dnemyax]

There really seems to be no way you can attach a vhot to a submodel.

That's strange. In theory, vhots are associated with individual subobjects in .bin.
EDIT:
Just had a look at the download statistics for the script, and it turns out some Mac users have come around to get it. That's unexpected =)

[6742e85d8696dOlfred]

That's strange. In theory, vhots are associated with individual subobjects in .bin.

Well, when you go with creating vhots the way the devs did it (or want you to do it).
You create a box somewhere in the model and give it a name like @h01Object
Where @ indicates that it has some special thing on it, h indicates it's going to be a vhot, 01 indicates which number the vhot will be. Object is simply the name of the object it should be bound to. Which in the case for the engine seems to be the root object.
I tried out all kind of weird name combinations to get a submodel name in there, but it just seemed to ignore it.


My guess is that whoever wrote the bin file was another guy who wrote the part of the engine. So one guy was like "oh yeah, vhots on submodels, good idea". And the other guy was "no one needs vhots on submodels and I just can't get arsed to code it, so everything just gets bound to the root".

Just had a look at the download statistics for the script, and it turns out some Mac users have come around to get it. That's unexpected =)

You are getting popular

[6742e85d86eecnemyax]

My guess is that whoever wrote the bin file was another guy who wrote the part of the engine. So one guy was like "oh yeah, vhots on submodels, good idea". And the other guy was "no one needs vhots on submodels and I just can't get arsed to code it, so everything just gets bound to the root".

That's very likely.

You are getting popular

You bet. The script is so hip I'll soon have to dumb it down for the Creative Ones.

[6742e85d8718fOlfred]

You bet. The script is so hip I'll soon have to dumb it down for the Creative Ones.

Well, it already became quite a lot easier with the latest update.
Quick, better do a rollback 

[6742e85d8735cnemyax]

Update 0.1.20140704

What's new:

• The Model origin is at world origin option has been added. If the option is cleared (it's on by default), the old behaviour takes over: the origin is placed at the geometry centre. Either way, you can make the bounding box totally independent if you wish.
• The vertices and edges that aren't associated with any polygons are now pruned early again, and that's final. They have outlived their usefulness now that the new option is available.

Happy modding!
Download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/blenderbitsbobs/files/

[6742e85d874canemyax]

Update 0.1.20150105
This update ensures compatibility with Blender 2.73 (coming very soon) and later; it will work with older versions, too.
There are no other changes.
Same download link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/blenderbitsbobs/files/

[6742e85d875dcnemyax]

Update 0.1.20150225
This update fixes a hierarchy import bug.
Download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/blenderbitsbobs/files/

[6742e85d87762Olfred]

This model has 5 materials.

Material1, no shading, RGB 255,255,255
Material2, PHONG shading, RGB 255, 0, 0
Material 3, GOURAUD shading, RGB 0,255,0
Material 4, PHONG GOURAUD shading, RGB 0,0,255
Material 5, PHONG shading, texture.*

I added the 5th as reference for you as you set all your materials to PHONG shading.

[6742e85d87a08nemyax]

There's a whopping bug where branching hierarchies are only partially rendered.

It looks like I've managed to fix the bug, at least in some cases. I'll post an update after I've run a few more tests.

[6742e85d87b1fnemyax]

Update 0.1.20150818
The disappearing hierarchy branches have been fixed.
Download the update: https://sourceforge.net/projects/blenderbitsbobs/files/

[6742e85d87bf9Olfred]

Never had any problems with that, but still, yay update!

[6742e85d87f67nemyax]

Never had any problems with that

You would have if you'd tried to do something like this:
http://pix.academ.org/img/2015/08/19/a8f10b7e977c40f04985268822397ee8.png
One of the wings would have gone AWOL.

The only thing I can't do is create mid numbered vhots. Like creating a vhot 1 without there being a vhot 0.

That's coming in the next update. It's mostly done, and it only needs some more testing.

[6742e85d88050Olfred]

I see.
If you need help with testing I can give a hand.

[6742e85d882d2nemyax]

Update 0.2.20150820

• The mesh conversion stuff has been revised somewhat, enough to warrant a minor version bump. There are no changes from the user perspective, but hopefully it'll now be easier to extend the exporter functionality (should the need arise).
• Custom IDs for vhots are now supported. The exporter gets the digits from the object names and turns them into IDs. Make sure the numbers are present and unique; if you don't, the script won't crash on you, but it won't guess what you meant either. It'll just assign the smallest available number. You can choose any name you like: vhot1, terminator2, half-life3, 9 1/2 weeks, !@#$Größe9438kiiuoluiol50450ergw3593kuilj2859234858ergwelugrwe2345luluiyy387—anything goes. These will be resolved, respectively, to 1, 2, 3, 912 and 1101363883 (you can probably guess the reason for 1101363883).

Bitte runterladen: https://sourceforge.net/projects/blenderbitsbobs/files/

[6742e85d88438Kaucukovnik]

Hello, everyone, long-time lurker finally posting.

As a fan of Blender, modding and RPGs, I feel obligated to thank Nemyax for investing his time into an exporter across all that.

I remember succesfully transfering a model to Blender and after modifications back into game. Gotta finally dig up and upload the result, so at least you can see the tool is appreciated.

How complex meshes can be exported at once? Would it be feasible to simply use Blender as level editor? If so, I'd have some Wizardry 8 maps in the working that could be converted to Shock.
Hell, entire Wizardry 8 world could be converted into System Shock mission, possibly turning it into Robinson's Requiem of sorts.

[6742e85d888ddnemyax]

How complex meshes can be exported at once?

That depends on the polygon count. In this file format the usable portion of the polygon array is only as long as 65535 bytes plus one element. The size of a single polygon depends on how many vertices it has:
13 + number_of_vertices * 6
So you can't cram in too much detail no matter how clever you get with it. For example, if your model is strictly triangles, the maximum poly count is 2114. If it isn't just triangles, it's lower than that.

Would it be feasible to simply use Blender as level editor?

For the Dark Engine, absolutely impossible.

[6742e85d88a28Olfred]

I found a couple of models which I can't import into. It seems that all the chemicals give me an error on importing.
For example "fm.bin"
If necessary I can get together a full list of all the chemicals.
Also I can give you a fm.blend which I got through the 3ds tools.

It isn't anything urgent or what I need right now. Just wanted to mention that I ran into some error.

EDIT: Actually I just checked the model I got from the convert and the UV map got some errors. This is probably causing the error.

[6742e85d88b19nemyax]

I'll look into this, thanks.
The Wings importer loads it just fine, and there doesn't seem to be a problem with the UV map. What's wrong with yours?

[6742e85d88c2aOlfred]

Several issues, top part of the brown glass is distorted and seems to be at the wrong place.
One part of the cover is mapped to the wrong material.
The label at the back of the container is distorted.

I'll try with Wings then, thanks.

[6742e85d88d3cnemyax]

Well, it was a trivial fix, but I can't give you an updated version just yet, because this is the state that the script is in at the moment. When I pull it back together (with BSP sorting, I hope), import will work fine.

[6742e85d88e26Olfred]

Nice to know you were able to fix it and that it was only a trivial one, not the hair pulling kind.
I can wait, it's not like my workflow is stopped or anything.

[6742e85d88f74Daraan]

Hey really really nice work. Like it very much.
Any update news?

So far I'm using elendirs DarkExporter but I want to give yours a try it seems very promissing like easier use of vhots and joints. Was a bit hard to understand. (hope i got it now^^) Especially for rotating that the axis is the local red x axe.

One Question, I sometimes group objects as parent and child. Like when I edit multiple similar objects, for example potted plants.
Form this "If an object has a parent but no constraints, it will be exported as a rotating subobject with a zero rotation range." I assume that automatically a rotation axe is created, is this right? So I have to stop sorting them like this?
Any possibility to turn this off?

[6742e85d89544nemyax]

Any update news?

I've made a few minor changes, so I might as well push an update soon. The BSP sorter is still crap though, so it won't make the update.

I assume that automatically a rotation axe is created, is this right?

The rotation axis imitation you have to provide in .3ds is a trick for the sake of the old converter. There's no axis in the .bin format—the engine is hardcoded to simply use the subobject's X axis for transforms.

Any possibility to turn this off?

No, that's a design flaw decision. Instead of plain parenting, you can use child-of constraints for the same purpose. That works the same way but is completely ignored by the exporter. Don't forget that the exporter will combine all orphaned objects.

[6742e85d896b1Daraan]

Thanks for the fast answer.
Will keep that in mind Thanks a lot.

Got another question. Is there any option implemented which makes a texture/material double sided?