Announcing : Blender Exporter For Torque (0.8)

#101 Hello,
is possible to construct a vehicle model in Blender and export it to Torque? Or this works only with other exporters?

#102 Elvencode,

It is definatly possible to construct a vehicle model in blender.
Just make sure you have bones(in 1 or more armatures), that are named according to the vehicle nodes.
e.g. cam(third person view), eye(first person view),hubx(wheel x),mass(center of mass).

#103 James,
I exported example.blend file from your 0.84 exporter distribution (Blender version 2.34). I run starter.fps game and load mission. In the game editor (F11) I add example shape (as static shape) and in the console appears following error message:

game/data/shapes/example.dts - Collision mesh names should start with Col or LOSCol, encountered 'Cube.001' in detail level 1

(Example.dts file is in game/data/shapes/example folder)
It happens only in 1.3.0 release of TGE.

#104 ...

#105 @ OziMan :
I will see if i can get something cooked up in that area.
As for the trigger question, i did not see anything related to triggers in blender that could easily be applied to the Action concept. So what you have in the exporter configuration dialog is a list of triggers in each sequence.

You can set the time (in terms of the sequence) when the trigger will be activated, and also the value it triggers. This can be any number up to 32(i think).
When you set it to a negative number, the exporter will treat it as a trigger to switch a state off, e.g. 16 will trigger value 16, and -16 will trigger value 16's off procedure. I have not really tested the trigger code to see if it works 100%, so if you notice any huge oddities, please send me an email.

#106 Hi OziMan,

Am ceratin that Blender does have the feature your lookin' for, just doesn't use the same name convention. May have to be done through IPO's. Saw a similar thread on Elysiun on triggering a sound file with a door-open event.
It my be of some use; sorry can't help further.

~Ciao

#107 @Oziman :

The exporter processes all the children of Detail*, Col*, and Los* objects.

Your armature should not effect the collision mesh, as the mesh should be parented to a "Col*" object.
From your output, it seems that you do not have your collision mesh parented up correctly.

#108 OziMan,

Seems you have allowed the addition of empty object's as nodes.
I have already done this, although just for camera's (aka addCamera()). I did not implement this for empty objects, as they may be used to aid in generating a heirachy for easy management of the model.
In addition, if you export the nodes as empty's, you will be unable to animate them (e.g. the eye on a player character)

Your code could be improved a bit; e.g. :

else:
				if obj.getType() != "Empty":			
					print "     Warning: Could not accept child %s on shape %s" % (obj.getName(),self.obj.getName())
                	if tname[0:5] == "mount":
                        	self.addThisNode(obj)
                	elif tname[0:3] == "eye":
...

Could be changed to :

elif obj.getType() == "Empty":
                        	self.addThisNode(obj)
			else:			
				print "     Warning: Could not accept child %s on shape %s" % (obj.getName(),self.obj.getName())

And remove the type check at the beginning of addThisNode()
(NOTE: you could alternatively check in a list to see if the node name is in it before adding)

#109 Hey guys,
My programmers are having some trouble with the blender animation .dsq sequences. The problem arises when we are testing on a server. The sequences don't load in correctly for the user; the character will be stuck on one animation. They think it may be a problem with the sequence in which the blender animations were exported.


The client is having trouble updating the animations sequences. In the function void Player:: pick Animation(), the datamember: mDataBlock-> actionList [i].sequence is set to -1, so the animation never updates. However, the server is receiving the correct animation and the clients are animating correctly on the server. If the client disconnects from the server and reconnects, the fore-mentioned datamember is set to the correct sequence # and the characters are animated correctly.

Do you have any idea what could be causing this problem? -and if it is a problem with the .dsq export process or the code itself? The dsq's seemed to work fine in the past.

Thank you
-Amanda

#110 @Oziman :

Quote:
You should still be able to animate eyes simply by placing a bone there and animating it. Then place the 'eye' empty at the same location for the 1st person view.

The point i was trying to make is that the exporter will only export the default position on empty objects, as their position cannot be tracked by Blender Action's. This is disadvantageous, as you will not be able to animate the said nodes - e.g. a mount point rotating for a propellor.

Quote:
Using bones as vehicle nodes did NOT work for both the 1.2 and 1.3 versions of torque when I tried it. I don't know if anyone else has tried it.

It most certainly does work; Wheeled vehicles have been used to test the exporter at various stages of its development.

Send me an email and i will send you a test car shape.

#111 Can we get the vehicle.blend posted here? I'd love to see how all that ties together...

#112 @Oziman,

It still should work with just 1 armature; Though then again, the exporter's bone export always seems to mess up, which is very frustrating.

@Scott,

I have sent you the vehicle blend.

#113 Ok. I've just started to get quite annoied and tired "getting the exporter working problem," and was just wondering:

Has anybody queried Blender Foundation about putting a stable torque exporter into their next release? or this a n00bie question cause I can't work this out.

#114 Skye,

Please post your query in the blender exporter forums - you will likely get a better response there.

I work on the exporter in my free time, with no financial contributions. As a result, release times between new versions (with bug fixes) can vary dramatically. The exporter as-is is stable, enough that i have seen many people successfully export player, vehicle, and static shapes.
As for getting the exporter working, all thats needed is to copy the scripts and the DTSPython folder to the blender scripts folder. Its as simple as that.

#115 " ... with no financial contributions". Is there a way to send you some $$ for your efforts? Have you considered setting something up, e.g., with PayPal?

I'm using your product in a class that I'm teaching, and now I'm feeling guilty about not paying anything for it.

Michael

#116 Michael,

Do not worry about paying. Whilst it would be interesting to set up a donation system, i am currently a bit busy to worry about that.
Implementing such a donation system now would likely drag me down a bit, as i would have to worry about putting in my part of the work required to satisfy the donators generousity.

Suffice to say, when i am less busy, i may look into setting up such a system. Just not now :)