Author Topic: Learning by Example  (Read 1659 times)

samguyjones

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Learning by Example
« on: 28 December 2011, 05:21:44 »
I'm sorry if I've missed this on the forum and FAQs.  I'd like to look at blender files for complex factions that I've used in-game.  That means that I'd like either:
  • An importer that turns 3dg into blender instead of the other way around.
  • A set of pre-exported blender files for one of the pre-loaded factions.
There's lots of tools and tutorials, but I know I'll move much faster if I can just jump back and forth from cause to effect.  Can someone point me at a tool or download?

Coldfusionstorm

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Re: Learning by Example
« Reply #1 on: 28 December 2011, 14:22:03 »
Your best bet is Importing g3d files, as only some of the gamles blender files are available, Just download the export script for blender 2.60, and you should be able to both import and export.

Nowadays the export and import script is in one file, so.

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John.d.h

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Re: Learning by Example
« Reply #2 on: 28 December 2011, 19:40:00 »
Importing a model doesn't preserve the animations, so that's not exactly ideal.  Here's one Wciow and I made for GAE a while back:
http://opengameart.org/content/low-poly-spider-glest
Modeled, animated, and textured.

samguyjones

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Re: Learning by Example
« Reply #3 on: 28 December 2011, 19:51:18 »
Thanks John.d.h!  Is there a faction that contains this spider?  Does the exporter turn this into separate files for standing, walking, fighting and dying?  Does this file have everything it needs before the export?

John.d.h

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Re: Learning by Example
« Reply #4 on: 28 December 2011, 20:08:31 »
The spider isn't currently in use by any faction.  It was made for this, which hasn't really been implemented yet.  When exporting, you have to select which starting and ending frames to export to each file, so each animation is stored as its own g3d file.  Everything is done as far as that spider goes, so it is indeed ready to export.

Omega

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Re: Learning by Example
« Reply #5 on: 28 December 2011, 21:05:24 »
I have half the blend files for apocalyptic dawn lying around (the other half was lost in computer trouble ages ago), but I don't think you want to learn from them. Learning from mistake, use 10-20 frames in animations (Glest will automatically interpolate the frames smoothly), cap textures at a 512x512 resolution (always use resolutions that are powers of two, eg: 256x256, 512x1024, 128x128...), keep poly count under 2000 (as they can really be hard on the computer when we're talking about two dozen of those models), remember that the camera is very high above the unit (so don't bother with detail that will not be seen), and keep the animations all in one blend file (that's where I went rather wrong - making a copy of the blend for each animation, though it doesn't make a difference at all for anything but filesize of the undistributed source). Not to mention my animation skills aren't anywhere near several others (and this model was made nearly a year ago).

Of course, If you do want to still see one of my examples, of which I included the blend, the texture, and the exported G3D, here's the attacking animation of the grenadier from Apocalyptic Dawn:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gmwlbzy4p9amyrv

The exporter (and importer - noting that the importer only imports the mesh and texture coords, not the animation) may be of use to you as well:
https://docs.megaglest.org/G3D_support
« Last Edit: 18 June 2016, 15:10:03 by filux »
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samguyjones

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Re: Learning by Example
« Reply #6 on: 29 December 2011, 05:05:31 »
Thanks, Dragon!  Your list of mistakes read like my to-do list of how I was going to put together my figure, so you've saved me a lot of pain.

 

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