Author Topic: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter  (Read 7660 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Water

  • 210
Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Update for Blenders cob export.

Now with extra lights.  ;)  (one free light per group)

Export now produces a flat heirarchy under one object, rather than the previous Blender staircase of frustration (BSOF)  :yes:
Each object gets a group and a light, and most importantly the group now has the same location as the mesh object. So turrets and arms have the correct centres as set in Blender.

When exporting select all and then Apply scale and rotation (CTRL-A)

The last object picked becomes the head of the export tree. If you select everything by hitting "A" then all you need to do is hold shift and click the object you want at the top twice.
First time deselects it - second reselects it and makes it the last object picked.

The previous script can be left in place. This one is called ------ TrueSpace Almost-FS2- (.cob)

<a href="http://files.filefront.com/truespace+FS2+almost+expotzip/;9655663;/fileinfo.html" title="truespace_FS2_almost-expot.zip">truespace_FS2_almost-expot.zip[/url]
<a href="http://files.filefront.com/truespace+FS2+22feb07+exptzip/;9680718;/fileinfo.html" title="truespace_FS2_22feb07-expt.zip">truespace_FS2_22feb07-expt.zip[/url]  Update: Can now export Lamps - mainly for firepoints - (Treat as unstable and check )
Note: If the last object selected is a Lamp - then that is all you will export.  :p
Any problems with it - let me know   :nervous:
« Last Edit: February 22, 2008, 04:20:04 am by Water »

 

Offline Vasudan Admiral

  • Member
  • 211
    • Twisted Infinities
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Much awesomeness. :D

BTW, since your earlier PM, I've been thinking - could you put in a check to see if the object group you're attaching a light to starts with "turret##", and if so, name that light "turret##-FP01"? This would just be a simple short-term measure to get PCS2 to stick a firepoint in each turret it auto-generates, since ATM it just makes empty turrets.

These firepoints would all just point straight up, but at least they'd already be there. :)
Get the 2014 Media VPs and report any bugs you find in them to the FSU Mantis so that we may squish them. || Blender to POF model conversion guide
Twisted Infinities

 

Offline Water

  • 210
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Heh, just managed to get real lamps from Blender to PCS2. :wakka:



So what else can PCS2 auto-generate using lamps?
« Last Edit: February 19, 2008, 02:53:11 am by Water »

 

Offline Vasudan Admiral

  • Member
  • 211
    • Twisted Infinities
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Ok, that's awesome coated awesomeness. :D

PCS2 can generate most things through lights - though really turret firepoints and thruster points are the main useful ones. To see a full list, export a capship to cob and have a look at all the lights PCS2 will place on it. One suggestion though - could we possibly change it to use blender empties to designate lights? I ask because TS lights and blender empties can store rotation data, but blender lamps can't. That way the autogen TS lamp can be given an orientation and hence a normal from PCS2. :)

Other than that there are three remaining limitations to the cob exporter that I'm aware of:
1) Only one texture per object. This one actually doesn't bother me at all, because it encourages good efficient single map use on models and discourages texture tiling.
2) Correct hierarchy. This would be very handy to have, but is possibly something of a pain to implement.
3) Smoothing. Currently all meshes apparently get autosmoothed with a nice 32° angle. Problem here is that blenders smoothgroup support kinda sucks in the first place. It might be possible to handle it with vertex groups, though they'd be easy to stuff up from the users side.
Get the 2014 Media VPs and report any bugs you find in them to the FSU Mantis so that we may squish them. || Blender to POF model conversion guide
Twisted Infinities

 

Offline Water

  • 210
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
it. One suggestion though - could we possibly change it to use blender empties to designate lights? I ask because TS lights and blender empties can store rotation data, but blender lamps can't. That way the autogen TS lamp can be given an orientation and hence a normal from PCS2. :)
Well the "sun" lamp has a pointer thing and has rotational data. Empties are something I'll avoid for a bit longer.

1-3
All of those things could be done - Just don't know which ones will get done. Heirarchy is next on the list. May be able to add some basic smoothing options, but don't expect sharp edge support.   :p

 
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
very nice, thanks

nex

 

Offline Water

  • 210
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
very nice, thanks
;)
Its gone from a crap exporter to actually useful.

  

Offline Kazan

  • PCS2 Wizard
  • 212
  • Soul lives in the Mountains
    • http://alliance.sourceforge.net
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
you reported a bug off a model generated by blender?

someone is asking for a cockslapping.

you get someone who uses truespace to confirm the bug you reported and we'll talk
PCS2 2.0.3 | POF CS2 wiki page | Important PCS2 Threads | PCS2 Mantis

"The Mountains are calling, and I must go" - John Muir

 

Offline Vasudan Admiral

  • Member
  • 211
    • Twisted Infinities
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
In PCS2 auto-gen they are opposite to Truespace/Blender.
^He already has said that. ;)

Seriously though, please stop being stupid about blender - it really grates. People don't loathe PCS2 for the faults/user unfriendliness of early PCS1 versions now do they?
All my FSU stuff has come out of blender and it's rock solid stable. EVERY time I've had any kind of conversion error I have traced its source back to some operation done in truecrap.


Anyway, Waters modifications to the exporter allow Blender users to bypass truespace entirely if they're not too worried about smoothgroups. This is massively cool, because it means to build a fully functional FS POF, all you need is blender, a paint program and PCS2. No more truecrap, no more lithunwrap or 3d exploration conversions - just:
Build->Export COB->Open COB->Save POF. :D
Get the 2014 Media VPs and report any bugs you find in them to the FSU Mantis so that we may squish them. || Blender to POF model conversion guide
Twisted Infinities

 

Offline Kazan

  • PCS2 Wizard
  • 212
  • Soul lives in the Mountains
    • http://alliance.sourceforge.net
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Blender being on the permanent **** list is like AOL being on the perm **** list.
PCS2 2.0.3 | POF CS2 wiki page | Important PCS2 Threads | PCS2 Mantis

"The Mountains are calling, and I must go" - John Muir

 

Offline Water

  • 210
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Blender being on the permanent **** list is like AOL being on the perm **** list.
By crap exporter I mean not user friendly. By actually useful, I mean has almost every thing needed.

If the exporter produced unstable meshes I wouldn't use it.

you reported a bug off a model generated by blender?
you get someone who uses truespace to confirm the bug you reported and we'll talk

Your attitude isn't very helpful. I can go back to not reporting bugs. Just like I stopped trying to get image loading fixed. (June 26-2007) You were so certain your image search and load functions were bug free that you seemed to have a problem acepting that it was finding the textures and then not doing stuff with them. (which you just fixed)


 

Offline DaBrain

  • Screensniper
  • 212
    • Shadows of Lylat board
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Blender being on the permanent **** list is like AOL being on the perm **** list.

Well, until PCS2 supports Collada, converting models from Blender is just as easy as from Truespace. And I guess Blender is used more widely.
So I it will probably grow more and more popular in the FS2 community.

Two artists in my team use it. And I really think you shouldn't drop the support for it.
--------------------------------------------------
SoL is looking for a sound effect artist
Please PM me in case you want to apply
---------------------------------
Shadows of Lylat - A Freespace 2 total conversion
(hosted by Game-Warden)
----------------------------------

 

Offline Vasudan Admiral

  • Member
  • 211
    • Twisted Infinities
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Blender being on the permanent **** list is like AOL being on the perm **** list.
Well add FSO, Firefox, PCS1 and 2, and indeed every other program that has ever had the smallest bug in it to your hate and ignore list then. They've all had bugs at some point in time and so they must all suck!

Why do you have such stupid double standards? Blender is free and open source. TS is not. Why does that make the plethora of conversion-crash-causing TS bugs ok, but a bug in the export of an ancient version of blender (that has been fixed longer than I've been in this community) unacceptable?
Get the 2014 Media VPs and report any bugs you find in them to the FSU Mantis so that we may squish them. || Blender to POF model conversion guide
Twisted Infinities

 

Offline blackhole

  • Still not over the rainbow
  • 29
  • Destiny can suck it
    • Black Sphere Studios
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
If you don't like blender, stop whining about it, download the damn source code and fix it yourself. Alternatively, you can just stop whining, for christ's sake.

 
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Really now, every single problem I have ever had with putting a ship in game came from using truespace, not blender. In fact, I don't think I have ever had a single bug, error or screw up from blender since I downloaded it. I find it silly that someone would actually condemn a program based on  a stereotype that hasn't been valid in years.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2008, 09:46:06 pm by Warp Shadow »
"I only miss what I don't hit."
Show me something that beats 87 BF reds and I'll show you Hateful Lies!!!

 

Offline Water

  • 210
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Hi VA
Using Sun lamps I have exported the fire points with rotational data. Truespace confirms the lamp rotations. As far as I can tell PCS2.0.1 seems to ignore the rotation for autogen. So my question is, am I missing a step, misinterpreting what PCS tells me or is it a PCS problem. http://files.filefront.com/yam111zip/;9675130;/fileinfo.html (blend & cob-707k)

 

Offline Vasudan Admiral

  • Member
  • 211
    • Twisted Infinities
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Just looked into it, and you're quite right - by the looks of it PCS2 only takes the positions of the turret firing points into account. It looks like it determines the normals of those turrets based on the relative positions of the axes of various parts of the turret. On the yamato there they all point forwards like that because the arms are placed at the front of the turret. :\

As such I don't know if it should be changed. Whatever the exact formula is, it seems to do a reasonable job considering I've never noticed it before.
Get the 2014 Media VPs and report any bugs you find in them to the FSU Mantis so that we may squish them. || Blender to POF model conversion guide
Twisted Infinities

 

Offline Kazan

  • PCS2 Wizard
  • 212
  • Soul lives in the Mountains
    • http://alliance.sourceforge.net
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter


Your attitude isn't very helpful. I can go back to not reporting bugs. Just like I stopped trying to get image loading fixed. (June 26-2007) You were so certain your image search and load functions were bug free that you seemed to have a problem acepting that it was finding the textures and then not doing stuff with them. (which you just fixed)



i couldn't reproduce the bug at that time - if I cannot reproduce a bug i cannot fix it
PCS2 2.0.3 | POF CS2 wiki page | Important PCS2 Threads | PCS2 Mantis

"The Mountains are calling, and I must go" - John Muir

 

Offline Kazan

  • PCS2 Wizard
  • 212
  • Soul lives in the Mountains
    • http://alliance.sourceforge.net
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Blender being on the permanent **** list is like AOL being on the perm **** list.
Well add FSO, Firefox, PCS1 and 2, and indeed every other program that has ever had the smallest bug in it to your hate and ignore list then. They've all had bugs at some point in time and so they must all suck!

Why do you have such stupid double standards? Blender is free and open source. TS is not. Why does that make the plethora of conversion-crash-causing TS bugs ok, but a bug in the export of an ancient version of blender (that has been fixed longer than I've been in this community) unacceptable?

Blender's bug wasn't "small" in the least... I don't think you have any idea how much banging my head on the wall trying to deal with blender problems I spent before I put in the error message in PCS1 asking if you used blender....

Blender hasn't proven itself to me to be reliable - just because software is open source doesn't make it good - "A stroke of the brush does not guarantee art from the bristles. " (Kosh)
PCS2 2.0.3 | POF CS2 wiki page | Important PCS2 Threads | PCS2 Mantis

"The Mountains are calling, and I must go" - John Muir

 
Re: Blender cob export - Now 100% brighter
Blender being on the permanent **** list is like AOL being on the perm **** list.
Well add FSO, Firefox, PCS1 and 2, and indeed every other program that has ever had the smallest bug in it to your hate and ignore list then. They've all had bugs at some point in time and so they must all suck!

Why do you have such stupid double standards? Blender is free and open source. TS is not. Why does that make the plethora of conversion-crash-causing TS bugs ok, but a bug in the export of an ancient version of blender (that has been fixed longer than I've been in this community) unacceptable?

Blender's bug wasn't "small" in the least... I don't think you have any idea how much banging my head on the wall trying to deal with blender problems I spent before I put in the error message in PCS1 asking if you used blender....

Blender hasn't proven itself to me to be reliable - just because software is open source doesn't make it good - "A stroke of the brush does not guarantee art from the bristles. " (Kosh)

 :wtf: What blender were you using? Are we even talking about the same thing here?






Are you talking about an electric blender?! :nervous:
"I only miss what I don't hit."
Show me something that beats 87 BF reds and I'll show you Hateful Lies!!!