Hi group,
I plan on modelling whole buildings including their interior and even the people in it. Now I got the problem of file formats.. there are Q3 maps that are widespread but maybe too limited for my purpose. On the other hand there is .x that should meet any need.
Are there others for this task? As far as I understand, 3ds files are only suitable for smaller objects.
Well, I thouht .x might be the silver bullet and gave it a shot in 0.6 - unfortunately I had to rearrange them manually to successfully import into the engine. My .x files are exported with Blender.
As I read on I found several bug reports on .x files, whereas irrlicht claims to support 99% of .x files.
What am I doing wrong?
My initial question remains: What format should I use for the above purpose.
thx in advance
Markus
Which format to use?
.x format is good, and what I will probably use. Irrlicht treats bsp as just another mesh file format and can't get other information from it (though some people were working to change that I think) so it has no real advantge over others and can be edited and created in too few programs, especially that allow commercial use (without paying 5k fee for gtk radient).
The DeleD 3d editor exports .x and it is designed for level creation with 2d architectural views similar in some ways to QuArK or radiant. It allows you to create prefab objects to easily use over and over in levels.
I also have not been able to get blender .x export to work in irrlicht (lithunwrap doesn't seem to want to open it either). Blender .x export also doesn't support bones and weights yet if you wanted it for character animation too, though Vermeer assures me it will soon. I think might be able to export explicit animation, but I duno if anyone's gotten it to load inirrlicht. I'm using JTEdit for character aniamtion right now (exports .x with bones and weights) but it is buggy and I haven't met many who really like. But I'm getting off track, you didn't ask about character animation.
You mentioned people in buildings. I don't think Irrlciht can get entities out of any file format. I'd model the people and the buildings seperately, create my own small program to place people, and save the positions of the people in an xml file or something.
Hope that helps some.
The DeleD 3d editor exports .x and it is designed for level creation with 2d architectural views similar in some ways to QuArK or radiant. It allows you to create prefab objects to easily use over and over in levels.
I also have not been able to get blender .x export to work in irrlicht (lithunwrap doesn't seem to want to open it either). Blender .x export also doesn't support bones and weights yet if you wanted it for character animation too, though Vermeer assures me it will soon. I think might be able to export explicit animation, but I duno if anyone's gotten it to load inirrlicht. I'm using JTEdit for character aniamtion right now (exports .x with bones and weights) but it is buggy and I haven't met many who really like. But I'm getting off track, you didn't ask about character animation.
You mentioned people in buildings. I don't think Irrlciht can get entities out of any file format. I'd model the people and the buildings seperately, create my own small program to place people, and save the positions of the people in an xml file or something.
Hope that helps some.
Alright... that's at least something, thank you.
I will definitely check out JTEdit and DeleD. It's a pity that Blender doesn't export .x files in a better way.. I just got used to this tool.
The thing with people in buildings:
I already expected sth. like that, would have done it like that anyway.
/Markus
I will definitely check out JTEdit and DeleD. It's a pity that Blender doesn't export .x files in a better way.. I just got used to this tool.
The thing with people in buildings:
I already expected sth. like that, would have done it like that anyway.
/Markus
Electron...ehm...Seems it will take a bit more...I have not been contacted for long...But actually you never know... Anyway, if any good news on that front, I'll tell you...
BTW, the good side is Blender has gotten now a floor constrain,(now only yet a WIP plugin ) and is probably in the works my so long hoped bone pinning feature. that will make Blender the total revelation for doing anims, overpassing so Character FX (once it has these features plus the x export...)
If I had more time I would arm myself with loads of patience and give another of the many tries to jtedit to convince myself it could be used in a workflow...
I have exported static x files that worked well in several versions of Deep Exploration...So I guess is as always that Irrllitch is to picky, so you will need th known trick of loading in Mesh Viewer from MS SDK dx 8.1 andsaving there again as x.
BTW. You can export Blender objects in vrml or OBJ (plugin OBJ IO modified plugin) and then, export as x using:
- Cross roads , free converter.
- Probably Accutrans , shareware converter not limited in any way, and which does not end use in days. VERY good converter.
- conv3ds. I think it converts 3ds to x.
- Lithunwrap. This one converts many object types to x.
- Metasequoia LE at Mizno Lab (Mizno Lab in google, but click on the english link! japanese is harder
) wil convert OBJ (leave clicked "join vertices" and "invert uv mapping" if you import an OBJ) , and if I am not wrong, also 3ds, LWO, into x files 
With the luck indeed it is a GREAT modeller that will allow you to do any fix, or any modelling. My second favourite modeller after Wings, and even more, better for real time formats than Wings3d. If you have Ultimate Unwrap, you can use the shareware better version (not really much better) as Ultimate supports mqo native format.
Of course, becoming familar to Mesh Viewer MS DX8.x sdk is a MUST
BTW, the good side is Blender has gotten now a floor constrain,(now only yet a WIP plugin ) and is probably in the works my so long hoped bone pinning feature. that will make Blender the total revelation for doing anims, overpassing so Character FX (once it has these features plus the x export...)
If I had more time I would arm myself with loads of patience and give another of the many tries to jtedit to convince myself it could be used in a workflow...
I have exported static x files that worked well in several versions of Deep Exploration...So I guess is as always that Irrllitch is to picky, so you will need th known trick of loading in Mesh Viewer from MS SDK dx 8.1 andsaving there again as x.
BTW. You can export Blender objects in vrml or OBJ (plugin OBJ IO modified plugin) and then, export as x using:
- Cross roads , free converter.
- Probably Accutrans , shareware converter not limited in any way, and which does not end use in days. VERY good converter.
- conv3ds. I think it converts 3ds to x.
- Lithunwrap. This one converts many object types to x.
- Metasequoia LE at Mizno Lab (Mizno Lab in google, but click on the english link! japanese is harder
) wil convert OBJ (leave clicked "join vertices" and "invert uv mapping" if you import an OBJ) , and if I am not wrong, also 3ds, LWO, into x files With the luck indeed it is a GREAT modeller that will allow you to do any fix, or any modelling. My second favourite modeller after Wings, and even more, better for real time formats than Wings3d. If you have Ultimate Unwrap, you can use the shareware better version (not really much better) as Ultimate supports mqo native format. Of course, becoming familar to Mesh Viewer MS DX8.x sdk is a MUST
Finally making games again!
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