Blender to M15 Export script Version 1.01

[Michael Hartlef]

Hi folks,

here is version 1.01 of my blender script to export to the M15 file format.
New stuff:

1 - you can rotate/scale any axxis now
2 - You can call Petrs's thinedge_viewer from the script
3 - New Export done message
4 - With large models, you will notice a progress bar adding up at the top of blenders window

Please copy the content of the zip file into the scripts folder of your blender installation. The exact progress for this is shown inside the little tutorial in this topic:

http://community.thinbasic.com/index.php?topic=560.0

Cheers
Michael Hartlef

[kryton9]

Thanks Mike. Very nice looking and working, except one question... where should the thinEdgeViewer be located? I got a script error and when I checked the blender console it told me it couldn't find the viewer. I figure it is just a matter of having it in the correct folder that the script is looking for. Thanks for any clarification and the great script!!

[ErosOlmi]

Put it into same dir as script.

[Michael Hartlef]

Kent, Eros is right. I thought I mentioned it also in my first post.

[kryton9]

Thanks Guys. Really nice script and now with direct launching to view even that much better and of course having control of all the new options like scale and rotation in all directions!!

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Mike,

this version is very nice,
The progressbar is very good idea !

Bye,
Petr

[Michael Hartlef]

Thanks guys for the kind words. These things I will try to add next:

- Export Material groups as layers
- Ability to have more materials with textures, not only the first one
- Save the options settings and reload them at next export
- Convert (to BMP) and copy textures to the needed location

I would say that it would be complete then when I get these things done. Till the M15
format will support animation data. ;)

But your ideas and suggestions are allways welcome. So keep them comming.

Michael

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi,

sounds really good Mike,
please find here new viewer which under [F1] key adds some useful info for collision detection.


Bye,
Petr

[ErosOlmi]

Petr,

I've done this forum to be able to talk about M15 file format and all possible implementations.
You are moderator. I will put Mike also as moderator.

Why not post a sticky with viewer attached so it will be more easy to follow posts and for other to find it?
I'm also trying to involve other users posting in other forums. This will let them find much easier your perls.

What do you think?
Eros

[Michael Hartlef]

That is a good idea Eros!

[Petr Schreiber]

Mike,

I have again made a theft ;) and moved your latest exporter version to the sticky topic.

Bye,
Petr

[Michael Hartlef]

No problem Petr ;)

[ErosOlmi]

You are both moderators of this forum so you can both "steal" each other :D

I thought that, because you both made great stuff with M15 3D file format, you can bot maintain this forum.
A sticky can help users to find you perls.

Ciao
Eros

[kryton9]

Mike you list of new features to be added sure looks like a big job, good luck with all of it. How in the world will you make a texture converter from all the formats blender supports to bmp? That alone sounds like a major application to me. Anyways, reading all the new things coming made my head spin. You are going to really spoil all of us BIG TIME with such cool features!!

Petr, thanks for the new viewer, going to check it out. Seeing bounding box referred to here and in TOPDOWN thread, does this mean you have collision module almost ready? If so, wow... that is a BIG DEAL too.

[Michael Hartlef]

Kent, I think I will you one of the free image libs that float around and try to make a batch converter. Why reinvent the wheel?

[kryton9]

Mike, in watching my video tutorials from 3DBuzz, they mentioned 2 good libraries, I will put the cd back in and go to that section and give you there names, brb....

http://www.simplesystems.org/Magick++/ and
http://freeimage.sourceforge.net/

can you keep me posted on which libraries you decide on Mike. I have not gotten this far in my tutorials, but I skimmed through all the videos to get an idea of what is to come when I make way through.

In the video they will teach how to deal with tga, but referred to these libraries when you want to handle many different formats.

[Petr Schreiber]

Kent,

I am sorry but I must make you sad - no really good collision functions ready.
But I used this function to check dimensions of your and Mikes fighters to make them collide better - each ship has different bounding box ( see in Ship directory files ).

I must check the ellipsoid bounding now, sounds much more nicer...
Collisions are quite high priroty for me now, as well as functions Eros suggested to not make UI module necessary for basic TBGL scripts.


Bye,
Petr

[Michael Hartlef]

http://www.simplesystems.org/Magick++/ and
http://freeimage.sourceforge.net/

can you keep me posted on which libraries you decide on Mike.

Thanks, I will let you know when the time comes.

[kryton9]

Petr, no problem about collision, was just wondering how you pull it off in the game. Really amazing!!

Mike, blender itself might have the functions you need. I don't know how I didn't see this, but I used it so many times in blender. When you texture bake to an image you have the choice of saving to almost any format out there. So that tells me that blender should have the functions to save as, as you need. Could save you lots of work, hope that is the case!!

[kryton9]

Mike that progress bar is coming in really handy on these tile models. I never really noticed it on the low poly ships, but on these landscapes, it is great to have. Thanks and works great!!

[Michael Hartlef]

You're welcome :)

[Michael Hartlef]

Kent, I will tackle FreeImage as it supports PowerBasic and Python, so I'm free to implement it directly inside the blender script or build with powerbasic a small command line utility for the conversion. FreeImage seems to be able to load an image and then save it under any by FreeImage supported file format. Cool.

[kryton9]

Neat Mike, did you also look in Blender, it already has save as any format almost. So it might be accessible. I will do a quick search in the developer's stuff and see brb... I couldn't find something right away. But you should submit your awesome export script to the site and development Mike.

http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/intranet/conventions/development_environment.html

This is a link to the libs for windows in the blender source cvs online, I see png, jpg and tiff in there.
http://projects.blender.org/viewcvs/viewcvs.cgi/lib/windows/?cvsroot=bf-blender

Glad you liked freeimage when it comes time for me to be at that point, it will help me evaluate which way to go with your experience Mike in using them. Thanks.