best format for models + blender [need an advice]

[roxaz]

So tell me what is the best format for models to use in irrlicht, and what is the best model format to export from blender? I tried to use .x but one exporter exported completely invisible model, other exporter made my physics to scream like a little girl (i gues there were mesh buffer problems), another exporter completely not working... i dont know what to choose...

[BlindSide]

I used X exporter with success when tweaking some little options. Search this forum for the best exporter, i remember somebody made some good changes to the original. But I had a problem too in the end because the bones were not attached correctly to the model. I had to open it up in milkshape and attach them.

I think it is hard to export to a good working model for free, that is the sad truth. OR Maybe you can somehow improve B3D exporter?

[roxaz]

and what improvements B3D needs? and plz remind me, what modeler's native format is B3D?

[BlindSide]

Blitz3D. Get lukes old exporter from the google source repository and try to fix it up. Aside from the model supposedly coming out mirrored, it currently throws a python error and doesnt work at all.

Im sure if you find the python bug the mirror thing should be easy (Well not any harder than X thats for sure). Just flip the normals in blender than give it a negative scale in irrlicht.


If you cant be bothered the blender X exporter version 2.42 or something works fine for the most part for me. (Only bones are not attaching correctly.)

[roxaz]

maybe 2.42 works with irrlicht... but i get error in my physics part of the code so there is something wrong

EDIT:
Here is what i get in console of my app:

Unknown data object in x file: AnimTicksPerSecond
Mesh without material found in x file.
Loaded mesh: cube.x

So we have a problem, but we still can use cube i gues, we loaded it right? Next, newton stops and makes my app crash at this line:

Code: Select all

NewtonCollision *collision = NewtonCreateConvexHull(pWorld, mb->getVertexCount(), varray, sizeof(float)*3, 0);

And debuger does not react when i keep mouse over the "mb->getVertexCount()" so it means that mb has no value / is not created or whatever... Output gives this:

Unhandled exception at 0x00406db1 in Demo1.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x00000000.

I gues that meshbuffer mb that even does not exist with cube.x is meant to be that 0x00000000 adress.

[roxaz]

i have an idea. what if i use ogre mesh format? blender has quite nice exporter and mesh format is 100% working with irrlicht(i gues). what do you think?

[Saturn]

There is no animation support in irrlicht for ogre meshes yet.

[vermeer]

b3d and sio2 md5...

[roxaz]

maybe anyone could provide me with Luke's b3d exporter for blender? getting proper x mesh out of blender seems to be mission impossible

[bitplane]

you can find it here-
http://irrlicht-plugins.googlecode.com/ ... 0to%20B3D/

[JPulham]

does the B3D work with lightmaps yet???

[roxaz]

thank you. i have a little experience with python so i took a look at script.. So we have an error like this:

UnboundLocalError: local variable 'arm_action' referenced before assignment

this means that we want to use arm_action but it is not even created.
error occours here:

Code: Select all

    if ToggleStatic==0:
        chunk_buf=chunk_buf+write_chunk_node(0,rangestart,rangeend,arm_action)
    else:
        chunk_buf=chunk_buf+write_chunk_node(0,rangestart,rangeend,arm_action)

you see, two "chunk_buf=chunk_buf+write_chunk_node(0,rangestart,rangeend,arm_action)" lines are completely identical. So if we press ToggleStatic button we set it to 1, but arm_action is being created only when button is not pressed.
Lets see what write_chunk_node does with arm_action:

Code: Select all

    if ToggleStatic==0:
        if arm_action:
            chunk_buf=chunk_buf+write_chunk_anim(rangeend-rangestart)
            chunk_buf=chunk_buf+write_chunk_bones(None)

As we see, if we export static mesh - arm_action has no meaning for function. So if you dont want to get error while exporting static mesh, replace

Code: Select all

    if ToggleStatic==0:
        chunk_buf=chunk_buf+write_chunk_node(0,rangestart,rangeend,arm_action)
    else:
        chunk_buf=chunk_buf+write_chunk_node(0,rangestart,rangeend,arm_action)

with

Code: Select all

    if ToggleStatic==0:
        chunk_buf=chunk_buf+write_chunk_node(0,rangestart,rangeend,arm_action)
    else:
        chunk_buf=chunk_buf+write_chunk_node(0,rangestart,rangeend,0)

I hope im not wrong

By the way, what can/should i write into "Export Action" field in the script?

Fixed script: Download

[roxaz]

does the B3D work with lightmaps yet???

take a look here

[roxaz]

It looks like i almost fixed mirrored mesh problem. I didnt find bug, its more like dirty trick than bug fix The hack is that we simply multiply BASE_MATRIX by another matrix which mirrors our base matrix.

Code: Select all

mirrorMatrix = Mathutils.Matrix([ 1, 0, 0, 0], \
                                [ 0,-1, 0, 0], \
                                [ 0, 0, 1, 0], \
                                [ 0, 0, 0, 0])

But one problem still remains... Normals are flipped and i still cant find a way to invert them. Anyway inverting normals is much easyier job than mirroring all your mesh

Download

EDIT:
You know, i like here talking to myself, but maybe someone could help me with that inverted normals stuff?

[dwmitch]

You might be better off learning a bit about python scripting, making your own format, and implementing a loader for said format.

I haven't found a single Blender export script that will do animations and work in Irrlicht. I've tried all of the X exporters, then when I take a look at the file in wordpad (have to open it anyway to remove a semicolon that shouldn't be there, otherwise it won't load in Irrlicht) it doesn't export the animation. And that's with the one X file exporter that doesn't crash.

OBJ is good for static meshes, but I have not found a single decent script for animated meshes of any format that Irrlicht supports, and I've spent at least a total of ten hours searching over the past few months.