Great work Glest Team :-) i try to do Blender export

[seltsamuel]

Hi, its my first Post here but i read much inside here.

I stumbled here over the Glest Project while searching for an Engine for my own Game (Hack & Slay RPG verry like Diablo2 but hopefully gets better).

At the moment im considering between 5 or 6 Engines and think i start refreshing my Programming skills in such a way i try to Help here a little.

As i read a Blender Export is needed and in my Opinion its verry well needed,
because Blender is an Superior 3D Modeller and can IMPORT many formats.

So doing an export for Blender gives many more People the possibility to convert Graphics for Glest.

I Promise nothing but im working on it (Reading much documentation and Phyton Scripts)

Best Regards from Germany
Seltsamuel

[josepzin]

Hey! Good luck with your project!

[sackofcatfood]

Good to have you onboard.

[lancelet]

Hi Seltsamuel,

I'm a Blender developer (I contributed the Image.Draw() method to Python, and have worked on a few parts of Blender's internal renderer).  I just came across Glest while trawling through Gentoo's strategy games collection.

Let me know if you have any questions.  I have just taken a look at the G3D format, and it seems quite straightforward to export static meshes (ones that are not animated).  I'm not clear on the requirements for animated meshes, though.

I'm also a Linux-only user.  If I can get Glest to a state where I can test exported models, then I might have a go at a G3D exporter.  Is there a good stand-alone G3D viewer of some sort that people use?

Thanks,

Jonathan Merritt.

[seltsamuel]

hi lancelet,
There is a G3D viewer inside the TOOLS package its beside the
Game Engine the only viewer i spent much time understanding exportfunctions in blender and it seems because the g3d format has no bones the animations must first be "Baked" to get rid of the bones and convert to keyframes i looked into many different scripts and think i will be able to do it. Please note that the G3D format changed to v4 the description is a sticky topic above in case u want look at it.

Seltsamuel

[lancelet]

Hi Seltsamuel,

Good to hear you've got things under control.  I think you're correct that the animation needs to be baked.  AFAICT, the G3D mesh format has a consistent topology (ie: the same number of vertices and the same connectivity), but the actual position and normal vector at each vertex can change from one key-frame to another.

Since you're working on the exporter, I'm going to play with developing a little tool to dump the contents of an existing G3D file to an XML format.  I don't know whether it will be useful to anyone, but I'm interested in doing it just as an exercise.

Jonathan Merritt.

[seltsamuel]

hi, i personaly think its a good idea to use xml for the model because of great flexibility when changing something but first we have to convince martin-o to make an importer for that xml then (should be not much work) or better do these converters by ourself and send it as present   .

If u work on the xml i can suggest u look at www.ogre3d.org they have some binary to xml and vice versa converter for some formats maybe its modificable in that way that its usefull for us. i will investigate if its possible to use this as import for blender and export for glest as standalone maybe its a solution.

Seltsamuel

[lancelet]

Well, I was just thinking of using XML to allow quick visual inspection of the files.  It should be possible to use a dual XML / binary format and just use a conversion tool to go from one to the other.

Incidentally, are there any examples of G3Dv4 models?  I just downloaded the 1.1.0-rc5 data, and the models I've picked out at random (eg: dragon_walking.g3d) seem to be in G3Dv3 format.  At least, that's what their version number says.

I have some basic parsing code written, but I can't really develop it an test it any further without some examples.

Jonathan Merritt.

[lancelet]

Update: I've checked through all G3D files in the data distribution, and none of them are version 4.  In fact, 5 of them are still version 2!

Are there any version 4 examples out there?

Thanks,

Jonathan Merritt.

[seltsamuel]

sure when u look at the sticky g3d v4 thread i asked already for 1 example model of v4 i wait for an answer from martin-o.



Seltsamuel




ps: martin-o added there a link to a demo file

[lancelet]

OK - thanks for that.  I'll get playing with the demo swordsman.

[seltsamuel]

nice work ethernet,

i used the md2 base and some other scripts too as basic for my work

im working on G3D V4  Im/Export because martin-o changed to v4 format

the importer is not the main problem. my greatest problem is how to get animations designed with blender "Baked" with phytonscript to get rid of the bones and get correct ipo data thats not well documented and i read many scripts now. maybe u have deeper knowledge of the phyton api ? im working on it only a few days and try to understand but most documentation on the blendersite is really outdated and not well sorted :lol:
the only question is with or without bones. i try everything to get it working
without much user preparation in blender there must be a possibility.

Seltsamuel

[ethernet]

i used the md2 base and some other scripts too as basic for my work

i too

the importer is not the main problem. my greatest problem is how to get animations designed with blender "Baked" with phytonscript to get rid of the bones and get correct ipo data thats not well documented and i read many scripts now. maybe u have deeper knowledge of the phyton api ? im working on it only a few days and try to understand but most documentation on the blendersite is really outdated and not well sorted

[josepzin]

PD: toma josepzin, para que me vuelvas a retar :D:D:D

[eddy]

Excellent guys! I'm really looking forward to the 'porter..

But this got me wondering.. What's the average poly (and tri) count of a unit? And what about buildings? I did see the image from the expansion pack, presumedly saying it had 676 tri's (or polygons). Is that correct?

[seltsamuel]

if u download the package glest-tools there u find a g3d viewer
he shows u infos about the units.


Seltsamuel

[eddy]

Ok, thanks! I'll check it out.