TBGL OBJ to M15 converter [ UPDATED to v 1.5 ]

**Petr Schreiber** · 31-12-2007, 21:20

Hi guys,

year 2007 is approaching to its end here very fast here and thinBASIC/TBGL programmer has no editor independent OBJ to M15 conversion tool.

I would not sleep well tonight

Blender users have no trouble because of Mike Hartlefs fantastic exporter, thinEdge users can do this too, but what others ?

For those desperate souls here comes first release of official OBJ2M15 tool.

It has been tested to convert properly OBJ files from all corners of internet, as well as ZBrush tricky OBJs ( use both $CRLF and $LF to determine line break ) or for example Wings3D export.

Program is designed as kind of "wizard". You just specify which files ( step 1 ), adjust texturing options ( step 2 ) and convert them all at once ( step 3 ).

Hope it will serve well.

Happy New Year,
Petr

Update history
- v 1.1 improves stability, MTL handling and importing ZBrush OBJs
- v 1.2 corrects serious bug in case of models without textures
- v 1.4 adds support for new M15 file format revision, allowing import of normals
- v 1.5 adds support for rare OBJ files with negative coordinates (produced for example by CryEngine editor)

**kryton9** · 31-12-2007, 23:51

Wow thanks Petr!

Going to play with it now to test it out. Will write more in a bit...

...Hey that's really nice Petr, thanks.

I should mention that it comes with a test obj file, so for those who are wondering about where to get one or how to make one, don't worry. You can see how the new tool works from the download.

**Petr Schreiber** · 01-01-2008, 11:56

Thanks Kent,

main advantage of this tool is that you can convert multiple files in one run, other sides of the program still have some reserves, but that will be improved in future versions.

Bye,
Petr

**Michael Hartlef** · 01-01-2008, 16:18

Thanks man, that is great!

**Petr Schreiber** · 02-01-2008, 20:35

Hi,

just updated program to version 1.1.

It improves stability ( more checking ), MTL files handling ( gets also diffuse color ) and generally importing MTL files generated by ZBrush 3.1 ( love that program, 27 days of trial left :'( ).
Also more informational messages added.

With this update OBJ2M15 becomes more powerful and reliable than thinEdge importer, so highly recommended for all.

Let me know if you will find any problem, or need some feature

Bye,
Petr

**Michael Hartlef** · 02-01-2008, 21:39

Yeah ZBrush is awesome, I got it when it was on version 1.23.

**kryton9** · 03-01-2008, 02:17

Thanks for update Petr.

Guys, doesn't zbrush end up making very high poly meshes? Can you then cut down polys?

**Michael Hartlef** · 03-01-2008, 07:18

I think you can, but you can also create lowpoly meshes.

**Petr Schreiber** · 03-01-2008, 11:26

Hi,

lowest poly mesh I managed to create from ZBrush so far was about 1600 polys, not bad.
For the primitive objects I found some kind of detail slider, which allows to choose detail level.

But you can also import any OBJ file to ZBrush, edit it and export again.

How to create true low poly in completely in ZBrush ... Mike must teach us, I did not find way yet ( maybe idea for article - ZBrush for thinBASIC game development :-X ).

Bye,
Petr

**Michael Hartlef** · 03-01-2008, 12:03

Well, to be true, I would rather use a different tool for real lowpoly meshes Like Hexagon, Silo, Blender, etc. . I have no experienced with ZBs block modeling approach, I'm only familiar with the zspheres.