Blender Importer/Exporter

#1 Blender DTS plugin has been discontinued and is unlikely to return.
jsgreenawalt.com is where you can get the last version, which won't work with Blender 2.5.

You can export with COLLADA. info here www.biomassthegame.com/j20090721.html.

#2 www.jsgreenawalt.com/Blender-DTS-Exporter/download.html

I use with Blender 2.49b, works perfectly and easy to setup exports once you get the hang of it. Follow the instructions on the site carefully.

#3 Is there some special process to exporting characters to COLLADA? I gave it a quick try from 3DS Max 2010 and it turned the Jill Pack into some strange jellyfish/squid thing. But there is a DTS exporter that still seems to work for Max, so I'm not in a bind over it.

#4 I for one thin woul like to obtain a working copy of a Torque3D Expoter for blender. To buy houdini (which has issues exporting characters with rigs/ not to mention animations), 3DS Max, Autodesk, Lightwave, and/or Maya just be able to export an object, character or building model is too much. Blender is free. Adding the export ability from blender to Torque3D, I believe will be highly productive. Even if Garagegames decided to sell the exporter exclusively on this site.

Over all, it would be great to have open source programmers who are dedicated to Torque to take a look at the scripts or simply build on to get the ball rolling. That? My friend would be awesome!

#5 COLLADA appears to be the future - and all previous dts exporters from all 3D apps have previously been maintained solely by the community as someone's pet project.

#6 just to add my 2bits of whatever destroyed currency you use right now.

Milkshape DTS exporter works just fine and dandy, i'd say flawlessly, but i'm sure somebody has had some issues with it, however its handled all my demands without fault up to now, not sure what blender exports to, but i'm sure theres something that milkshape can import.

#7 I echo what Steve said... learn the Collada pipeline, esp if you are using Blender 2.5+

I have special needs and a heavily modified exporter, so I am stuck where I am as porting the exporter to 2.5 will be a couple weeks undertaking - AFTER the blender API finally becomes stable.

Milkshape is a good tool, too. Many people have had great experience with it.

#8 I'll also go with the others - Collada is the future (both for Torque and other engines). It's worth learning.
Most of the "work" going into a DTS model is the same (hierarchy setup) and getting animations in is even easier (single timeline and split in-engine with the shape editor)

#9 Blender 2.5 is said to be satble in March, if anyone is wondering... The reason why I would like to have an exporter for blender is because of collada. I'm new to everything... Not skills in coding/ programing, modeling, and CG design. Purchasing Houdini HD was a mistake, milkshape is the best product by far to have, but I do not want to be subject to one application, especially when blender has a strong community.

One question though... It may be stupid, but will a character model exported in collada behave in torque as the way it was created to? For example if a made a dragon, that can walk, fly, and breathes fire... Will those attributes remain if exported in collada and placed in Torque3D?

#10 If you create those animations in Blender, then yes those animations will exist in Torque3D. The actual "logic" (making the dragon move / breathe fire) requires code.