Blender 2.68 .X export scripts

[arno]

Hi,

But we are getting closer . Let me check what type of animation that is. Keyframe animations with translation or rotation are supported. Other types not at the moment. What kind of animation did you make?

 

[arno]

Hi,

According to the X file documentation I have the possible types of animations are:

0 rotation
1 scale
2 position
3 matrix

Of those ModelConverterX supports 0 and 2 at the moment. So I am curious what kind of animation type Blender is exporting here. If I understand what it is, I can mostly likely add support for it.

 

[scighera]

Arno .. thanks for your patience !!!

Actually the animation in Blender is just a linear translation (so it is a "position animation", along the x axis, of 20 meters in 4 seconds (100 frames at 25 fps) ... is thus the script included in Blender not compatible ??

 

[Dutcheeseblend]

Well, didn't see this discussion! Anyway, Blender to FSX is (repeat) is possible, with thanks to Arno. Using Blender 2.68a now, I export the aircraft to DirectX (.X) in Blender, checking the boxes like 'Export Animations'.

Using a nice trick, Mouse Rectangles and Visibility Tags can be assigned automatically. This is done this way:
- Give in Blender the name of the appropriate object MT_<name from modeldef.xml> of VT_<name from modeldef.xml>
- Importing in MCX, they are automatically parsed to the right MTs and VTs!

And...it works!!

Animations are done using the standard animation in Blender, but make sure the animations are linear. That's all.

See my thread of the Fokker D.21, which is completely being done using freeware: Blender, Gimp and MCX. More details about this workflow could be found there if I remember well.
http://fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=425729

 

[arno]

Hi,

Arno .. thanks for your patience !!!

Actually the animation in Blender is just a linear translation (so it is a "position animation", along the x axis, of 20 meters in 4 seconds (100 frames at 25 fps) ... is thus the script included in Blender not compatible ??

From looking at the piece of X file you posted it seems there are indeed two transformation matrices defined. One for each time frame. I think it should be possible to add support for them as well. I can extract translation and rotation from those.

But I do wonder why Dutcheeseblend did run into this issue. I guess there must be a small difference in the way the animation has been made in Blender.

Could you send me your complete X file for testing? Then I can see if I can add support for this kind of animations too.

 

[scighera]

For sure Arno ... I may send the complete .x file !!!

The only difference with Dutcheeseblend is that I do understand he is using Blender 2.68 ... while I'm still using Blender 2.49 !!!

I'm a vintage guy

I'll send the .x file by private message to you !

And again many thanks !!!!

Paolo.

Just to let you know what I'm after: the "FUNIVIE MONTEBIANCO" (Monte Bianco Cablecar) to be inserted into the gorgeous scenery of the Monte Bianco made by Frank Dainese ( http://scenarialpinifsx.blogspot.it/

The animation in Blender sounds this way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW9dsjWaezQ

 

[arno]

Hi,

I have changed the code in ModelConverterX and it should now also support the animations specified using matrices. With your test object it works now, but I didn't have many other objects to test with. If you download the development release again tomorrow you have the new feature.

 

[scighera]

Hi,

I have changed the code in ModelConverterX and it should now also support the animations specified using matrices. With your test object it works now, but I didn't have many other objects to test with. If you download the development release again tomorrow you have the new feature.

Arno ... for sure I'll download tomorrow ,, and thanks a lot !!!!!
Paolo

 

[scighera]

Downloaded the last release this evening ....

It now works also with Blender 2.49 !!!!
I may see the animation in MCX !!!

At least with the linear translation (not yet checked the rotation).

Any how I get a kind of a warning, in the main window of the animations;
I will send an e-mail to you from this forum tomorrow, attaching the .x file of the cable car I'm now testing

Don't know how to say thanks to you, Arno ... but at least I have to say thanks

Paolo

 

[fsfox]

Yea, that is a progress.. I learn Blender too and I wish somebody developed Aces tools for Blender as well as for MAX 12. So anyone could move to Newer technologies and leave Gmax R.I.P. finally.

 

[Dutcheeseblend]

Congratulations! I can imagine that you stick with Blender 2.49. The step from this to 2.5x and higher is really big. I found myself using 2.49 until I started using 2.6x, which isn't really long ago.
Keep going!

 

[fsfox]

Unfortunately no, I started with v2.68a now moved over to 2.69 because of FBX import finally been added and of course Cycles Render Engine which gives you outstanding Render result. Cycles first introduced in 2.61 which is the big rival of Mental ray and Vray. I still dont know about animation of v2.69, I have not tried it in MCX yet tho. But Of course Blender with combination of MCX is a tool that must have and use.

 

[scighera]

Sorry .. I was too enthusiastic and when checking the .x file (generated with blender 2.49 exporter to DirectX) I was looking only the "solid view" in MCX ... early this morning I was looking to the .x files, imported in MCX, textured ... and discovered the taxtures were completely mixed up !
I tried ... don't really remember now ... to much confused ! And made a mess also in the blender file ... at a certain ponit I discovered the one object was textured with a ".bl" file, coming from where ?? And naturally MCX was not recognizing it. Worked on the .x file modifying it with a text editor, to turn the fancy .bl to .png ... After that, no .bl was apparent in the .x file ... but it was always showing an error in the MCX events log:
"Failed to load "Texture.bl" "

Luckly enough I was invited to have a one hour flight on a real Cessna C150 on he Alps

 

[scighera]

Unfortunately no, I started with v2.68a now moved over to 2.69 because of FBX import finally been added and of course Cycles Render Engine which gives you outstanding Render result. Cycles first introduced in 2.61 which is the big rival of Mental ray and Vray. I still dont know about animation of v2.69, I have not tried it in MCX yet tho. But Of course Blender with combination of MCX is a tool that must have and use.

Is Blender already to 2.69 ????

Just 3 days ago I downloaded 2.68 from the official Blender Site, to test it

Yes, switching from 2.49 to 2.68 is very hard: the interface is completely different

 

[fsfox]

Yes, switching from 2.49 to 2.68 is very hard: the interface is completely different...

Imagine switching from 3ds max to Blender.... Actually no, not switching but as additional and Autodesk Maya in a wish list to learn.. It was always not bad to know something else.. Yes 2.69 RC is out.. Some features added some the same.

 

[arno]

Sorry .. I was too enthusiastic and when checking the .x file (generated with blender 2.49 exporter to DirectX) I was looking only the "solid view" in MCX ... early this morning I was looking to the .x files, imported in MCX, textured ... and discovered the taxtures were completely mixed up !
I tried ... don't really remember now ... to much confused ! And made a mess also in the blender file ... at a certain ponit I discovered the one object was textured with a ".bl" file, coming from where ?? And naturally MCX was not recognizing it. Worked on the .x file modifying it with a text editor, to turn the fancy .bl to .png ... After that, no .bl was apparent in the .x file ... but it was always showing an error in the MCX events log:
"Failed to load "Texture.bl" "

Luckly enough I was invited to have a one hour flight on a real Cessna C150 on he Alps

If the x file does not contain that texture name it might also be a bug while importing. If you want I can check the x file for you.

 

[kevintampa5]

Imagine switching from 3ds max to Blender.... Actually no, not switching but as additional and Autodesk Maya in a wish list to learn.. It was always not bad to know something else.. Yes 2.69 RC is out.. Some features added some the same.

270 bug fixes in 2.69 rc2
FBX import, plane tracking, resizable, sortable, filtered list in user interface, improved hair render for cycles, new algs for subsurf scattering as supporting bump map and texture blurring.
Also others but the list gets long
http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-269/

There is a 3ds theme to mimic the look. I have also seen mention of a shell interface to make blender have the same option setup as 3ds, short of select naming conventions, but makes switching between them easy.

Maya, as all Alias software, gets pricey. Its about the same as 3ds as far as functionality goes. IT is geared a little more toward cgi movie type things, but its like 3ds as its multirole. Both can do almost the same things.

edit: Autodesk, not alias. I was a Maya 6 user for a while, back when it was owned by Alias.

 

[scighera]

If the x file does not contain that texture name it might also be a bug while importing. If you want I can check the x file for you.

Sorry Arno for being so late in answering, but I was abroad for a short trip.
Probably I was wrong: the .x file was making reference to tetxure file .bl !!!

On the other hand, I do still have problems; I made a simple blend file with an animation ... importing the .x file (exported with the original blender exporter to DirectX) importing tne .x file in MCX:
1) the animation works !!!
2) The texture of one object is completely scrambled (seems the UV mapping is random)

Sent the .x file to you by PM ...

Ciao, Paolo

 

[arno]

Hi Paolo,

Glad to hear the animation is working. Did you already try a rotation animation as well?

I'll check the texture mapping and see if there is a bug in it. Might take a few days, it's a bit busy at my work currently.

 

[ozzman1997]

WOW, this thread has come quite a way since I stopped looking at it. I had no idea that Blender could export to .X by default, I thought an addon had to be installed for that to work...so that's cool!

So I read about MCX's ability to automatically parse object names into animations, visibility tags, mouse rectangles and whatnot...that's awesome as well!! Thanks, Arno!

But I have a couple of questions that hopefully someone can answer:

-How are GUIDs and FriendlyNames appended to models in this process? Is it done in MCX or some type of file property in Blender?

-Also, why was a simple cube that I exported (as a test) displayed in MCX with only half of its triangles? Blender seemed to export the .X file just fine, but I probably missed something, knowing myself.

Another inquiry I have...I think I've read about this before, but I'm too lazy to find it again, plus I think the information was from too long ago to be relevant to this situation...But if an object must have a visibility tag AND an animation applied to it, how would that naming scheme work? I'm thinking there would be some kind of coding within an object name for both properties to be added to it.

Cheers!