B3D File Format and tuts (no, not blitz3d, *.b3d)
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/B3D File Format and tuts (no, not blitz3d, *.b3d)
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| I've performed some searches for anything pertaining to the b3d file format, I'm looking for tutorials on anything about it really.. without going through page after page in god knows what forum, I thought I would ask here first (not sure if I've even used the right forum, but anyway).. also, why b3d? are there better alternatives? particularly interested in those which wont require me to fork out money for tiny tools I may not use eventually.. animation is something I'm curious about also, is there a way to use a selection within a model and animate it with commands? for say, detatching/scaling/rotating/whatever-else-I-can't-think-of-now/etc etc nothing else to say really.. I'd appreciate any and all help/direction thanks |
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| Firstly : http://www.blitzbasic.com/sdkspecs/sdkspecs/b3dfile_specs.txt Why b3d? It supports everything Blitz supports. Other formats like 3ds and x don't support skeletal animation, MD2 doesn't support bones specifically, and they're not tailored to Blitz's brush/entity/fx system. There are alternatives, but they're not better. Wings is a good free modeller, but I don't belive it features animation. Blender is free, but not at all friendly to newcomers. Both can be converted to B3d in the end. Yes, there's a way to animate sub-sections of a model. If you look up FindChild in the documentation, it enables you to get the entity handle of a part of a model ( as long as you leave it separate when modelling it ) and position, move, scale, rotate, etc it with the normal entity commands. |
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| @Cassandra; So far, my research has led me to using Wings3D for the modeling and Ultimate Unwrap 3D for UV mapping and .b3d export. W3D is free, UU3D is $39.95 and well worth it. The UU3D .b3d export plugin will handle all aspects of .b3d model parameters. UU3D will also export to a lot of other useful formats, like Torque's .dts (which I also use), and therefore a more worthwhile investment IMO. I'm hung up on which program to use for rigging/animation. MilkShape3D and CharacterFX are at the fore, with MS3D leading by a margin because of it's other export features. Pacemaker is looking very good as well and I believe it's free. http://www.goddysey.com/pacemaker.htm "...which wont require me to fork out money for tiny tools I may not use eventually..." I don't think this is entirely possible. I think you can minimize your expenditures (one reason I use Wings3D and not another commercially available 3D editing product) but not eliminate them entirely. Hope this may prove helpful. |
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| Be sure to perform some moves right AFTER calling updateworld, though, otherwise it'll just ignore 'em.(or more accurately, be overwrote by the current key frame position when you call updateworld) .b3d is the only sensible choice for blitz, and with puddings exporter you have a great pipeline.(provided you have 3dmax) Actually coding the format it's self is another ugly matter but it doesn't sound like you're walking down that road. |
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| Take a look at the link in my sig. |
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| thankyou so very much, I'll try and digest this over the next day and perhaps gain some more direction, the two links should help alot and I'll look up more on the findchild command.. I would most definately like not to have to purchase anything (mainly because I don't own a credit card, not that I can't afford it(plastic is evil)), at the moment I'm using milkshape and I agree it's good because of the export function but as a modeller it's really frustrating to use, given I'm not new to 3d modelling |
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| welcome to the anti plastic league. the free toolset for char animation is: any free modeler, lithunwrap 1.3 and pacemaker. |
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| I completely understand the anti-plastic thing, but that doesn't necessarily prevent you from buying software online, if you want to. Any product which can be bought via ShareIt may be purchased using a check or money order, and I suspect that other transaction providers probably have non-plastic options too. It obviously means waiting, but there are some great tools out there for relatively small amounts of money. IMO you can put togther a nice toolkit for under $100, and for around $200, you would be absolutely set. |
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| Ohhh I'm a bit over 200 and still have a few things to get, and I'm not even an artist or level designer :) @jfk: is there a pacemaker release yet ?? cant find any links.... |
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| Pacemaker's in the showcase forum, I think. |
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| ^^Link above... |
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| Free ?? Export disabled above 1500 polys ?? I regularly work with models closer to 30,000 polys !!! (And no link to buy a registered version on the website) |
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| @ZW; it's still a beta... I'm curious, what are you going to animate at 30,000 polys and get frame rates > 1? |
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| high poly animated characters -- I'm jumping through all sorts of hoops with CSP to keep poly counts down so I can use the occasional model that detailed -- never more than one like that in a given scene.. I'm managing to keep it above 30fps so far -- which is my target speed during scenes that use these characters The idea is that when a player enters a room with one of these characters, scene will cut to a movie clip where the character gives their spiel, then back to 3D where the player interacts with the character, but no more talking, or if there is further talking, it'll cut to another movie clip... I'm just lazy and dont want to create low poly versions of the charaters involved :) |
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| ^^ Sounds interesting! Good luck! |
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