Final BLENDER to B3D exporter!
Community Forums/Developer Stations/Final BLENDER to B3D exporter!
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 Hi all! A friend of mine have written a B3D exporter for blender! It is very useful and it support animated and static mesh with UV mapping... here's the link http://gandaldf.altervista.org/b3dexporter.htm try it and email him ( for your opinion! bye & Thanks! |
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| Nice one! Thanks! Anyone using Blender here? Come on! |
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| Hi, I've tested it on a full walk animated armature and mesh. It nearly works perfectly! Except the arms are all screwed up :( I'll e-mail the author with my blend file and see if the problem can be fixed. I opened the faulty .b3d file in Ultimate Unwrap and it displayed it the same as Blitz (arms all screwed up) but I could see the underlying armature was correct. The blend file is OK as I use it to export as directX into Fragmotion for conversion to .b3d. So, a big thanks for all the work and if you can get the problem I've seen sorted out it'll be happy days for Blender/Blitz users. |
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| Great news. Thanks! |
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| ardee, it seems the animation problem has already been fixed in 1.01 some nice fixes there, I was trying forever to get them bugs fixed, and basically gave up. it looks cleaner too I've got to test this new code out. |
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| Hi Luke, I contacted Diego and he beleives he's fixed the problem based on my .blend but he doesn't seem to have added the updated python script (version 1.01) to the download yet as I just re-downloaded the zip file again and it still has the original script dated 11/06/07. I've written an e-mail pointing this out. Can't wait to try out the new v1.01 Big thanks to everybody involved in the creation of this script. |
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| Just got another email from Diego, he's checked the file and says it has been updated. I had to force a refresh on the page to clear my cache and get the new updated file. I've just exported a rigged character and it works! Fantastic. I'll carry out more tests over the next few days and feedback to Diego anything I find. I suggest all Blender users do the same. |
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| Thanks, I will check it out! |
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| Woohoo! |
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| new versione 1.02!!! diego has fixed a bug for color exporter!! |
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| May i suggest adding this to out toolkit? |
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| HURRAY!! i love it :D |
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| don't say "FINAL" ... animations doesnt work. please tell me what you have done that the zombie will walk, please! excuse my bad english. |
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| Hi bruZard, Animations work perfectly, my tests have now moved onto quite complex (for game models) armatures and animations and the results from Diego's exporter are fantastic. The included sample zombie.blend has a very basic armature and animation. If you're having difficulty in understanding that simple file then I would suggest you really need to learn the basics of Blender animation with armatures first. Try the links below. Blender Wiki Blender Artists forums |
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| bruZard: could you post the mesh your having trouble with? and remember you need to type the name of the animation you want to export but yeah I doubt it's final. there still are somethings to do, like an extra uv channel for lightmapping. by the way, anyone tested complex static meshes, I had them working pretty well before, but I broke some of the support when adding animations, just wondering if Diego has fixed that. |
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| now it works! thanks for the exporter!! |
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| Im getting: Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 48, in <module> ImportError: No module named os On my windows machine. Works fine on linux. Anyone got any ideas? |
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| Hi Dan, If you're running Blender 2.44 then you need to install Python 2.5 as Blender moved to the latest release of Python with it's last release. The script probably needs functions which are only available in the full Python package rather than the cut down version that ships with Blender. |
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| ahhh that will prob. explain why it only works on my linux box. thanks |
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| Ive gotta say, now theres a decent exporter for blender for use with b3d i took the plunge, blew the dust off the manual and started learning all about blender animation... Holy ....! Its wicked! Talk about easy, powerful and easily tweekable! I rigged skinned and animated a model in no time! And using the scene system could make several posed animations in one file. Up to now have been using fragmotion and milkshape to animate my blender made skins via the X or AC3D formats, but this is sooo much easier to use! Especially when things like the mesh or textures need a tweak or a mod. This would have taken so much longer to do the old way Your 'friend' is an absolute hero and should recieve the blitz medal of honor if there was such a thing. Yay, blender Rox... Even More! So far, i had a go at animating my dragon and exporting it :) http://blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=70410 |
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| Here's what you need to do if you still are getting distorted meshes after export to .b3d format, Make sure your armatures don't have any gaps in them. All the bones need to be connected. This can make some types of blender animation harder to do if you're using inverse kinematics, which may take advantage of a broken armature. |
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| Thanks 4 the info :) The dragon i made (see gfx sh.case) had gaps, but i was using only 1.0 weights and no IKs. Now u mention it though, I seemed to get distortion when i loaded it in fragmotion, but that is because frag decided to put in its own weight values which screwed it up. For some reason it loaded fine into b3d (mabe b3d doesnt support weights, im not sure :/ ) |
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| I was using weight painting, so you can wind up with varied weights. As a precaution I told it to do 1.0 weights only, and trimmed any varied weights. With the gaps in my armature, I made new bones that filled the gap, but made sure they didn't effect the mesh at all. |
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| news 26/07/2007 - Version 1.03 release · 25/07/2007 - Animation bug fixed by Diego here's the link gandaldf.altervista.org/b3dexporter.htm try it and email him ( for your opinion! bye & Thanks! |
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| I sent him my "broken" armature and he's fixed it up. I tried it on another character I made with breaks in the armature and it works perfectly now. Thanks! Now you can take advantage of inverse kinematics better! |
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I had to modify the zombie sample slightly to get it to run in BlitzMx with minib3d. This assumes you've installed minib3d as a mod.
Import sidesign.minib3d
Graphics3D 800,600,16,2
'SetBuffer BackBuffer()
'AppTitle "Animated B3D Exporter Test"
light = CreateLight()
PositionEntity light,0,0,0
camera = CreateCamera()
PositionEntity camera,0,1,-2
tex=LoadTexture("ZOMBIE.JPG")
model = LoadAnimMesh("zombie.b3d")
EntityTexture model,tex
PositionEntity model,0,0,0
Animate(model,1,0.1)
While Not KeyHit(key_escape)
TurnEntity model,0,0.1,0
UpdateWorld
RenderWorld
Text 0,0,"Surfaces: "+CountSurfaces(model)
Text 0,15,"Faces: "+CountTriangles(GetSurface(model,1))
Text 0,30,"Vertices: "+CountVertices(GetSurface(model,1))
Flip
Wend
Also, the zombie came up untextured in the example, so I added the two lines to fix it. Awesome script, btw. |
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| I think the exporter is quite 'mature' to find home in the 'ToolBox' section, or even in the 'Spec&Utils' under Blitz3d Exporters! |
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| i agree, it would be a very valuable addition to toolbox :) |
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| Thanks to the author. Now together with blender this is the first professional toolset (for use with B3D) for free. |
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| reporting a message from the author GaNDaLDF: Soon will be release the new version of this exporter with some fantastic features like lightmap normalmap.. ecc stay tuned. www.gandaldf.com |
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| w00t! |
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| I've almost pissed my pants! I saw Gandalf asking a few questions on the blenderartist's python forums and hoped he was adding new features to this fantastic script. This is great news. Blender now supports two sets of UV co-ords and it sounds like gandalf has got this to work with his exporter so we can lightmap from within Blender, export to .b3d and all for free... brilliant. Normal maps too... result. |
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| Forum gods, can you please add this exporter to Specs and Utils? Although I don't use Blender, I would certainly like to be able to find this plugin easily if I ever do need a free solution for animated characters. |
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| wot jh sed. I wonder if anyones working on reversing the script. It would be fantastic to have a 2 way b3d pipeline built for blender. |
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| Any news on the lightmapping support? |
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| http://www.gandaldf.com/ Fantastic news from the author! New version of the B3D Exporter has been released with full support for multi texturing and multi uv - lightmap, normalmap, vertex colors and some great optimizations! http://www.gandaldf.com/ |
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| Great new, thanks for the update and of course to Diego for all the hard work. Testing now... |
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| Oh my giddy aunt, it works! It flipping well works. Model with 2 sets of UV co-ords, UV texture and UV lightmap, exported perfectly from Blender, tested in Filax's B3DViewer... Goodbye to Gile[s] from me, my pipeline is firmly set as Blender and err.. that's all I need. Happy, happy days. I will be donating cash to Diego for this fantastic script. |
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| dont forget the animation... the ANIMATION! yay |
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| It's great! I couldn't find a "What's New" on the website nor in the download. Can anyone list all the additions in version 2? |
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| reporting a message from the author Diego "GaNDaLDF": - support for vertex color - support for multi UV - support for multi texture - possibility to create lightmap and normalmap directly in Blender - code optimization (much more faster) - file writing optimization (smaller) |
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| Really nice, thanks. |
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| Goodbye gile[s]? Blender is several worlds of Gile[s] with its new mapping algorithm, terrain creation capabilities etc :) but yes, definitely great progress. |
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| I made a simple tutorial for baking shadows to textures here: http://hai2you2.googlepages.com/tut_blender_lightmapping EDIT: I made a much better mesh with lightmap (at like 2am), but can't seem to make another one just like it. http://files.filefront.com/bl3d+lmapterrainzip/;9743744;/fileinfo.html Does anyone know what the icon in the bottom left corner of this image is?  |
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| It means you've got 'active face select' enabled. |
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| I've looked again and again, but I still can't figure out how to get lighter shadows, like the file I posted earlier. |
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| Hi all! Diego has released the new version of his exporter here's the link http://www.gandaldf.com Bye & Thanks! |
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| awesome +1 :) |
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| Will test tomorrow, but many thanks for the link. |
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| Version 2.04 released upon a bug report by me, it's more stable! Get it http://www.gandaldf.com |
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| ha, i did not follow the link @ first and I typed in Gandalf.com its really weird. Legolas.com is equally disturbing Frodo.com is blocked under HACKING! Dont have any idea why i just did that, after the gandalf one, i just had to check! Sorry. (Im not on drugs) |
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| Just a moment to tell you that I have updated the B3D Exporter to the 2.05 version, fixing a bug concerning the lightmaps export. For more information: www.gandaldf.com |
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| nice :D |
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| Man this is a great tool, Now I am even using it beyond b3d, with minib3d and with irrlicht. One question, is there a way to set texture flags? Becaus I want to load a mesh's texture with alpha (1+2) but I don't know how. (Problem is that there should be meshes with different flags and textures in that b3d, so it would be pretty nasty to do it manually) greetings |
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| I think Blender isnt easy to learn isnt it? |
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| I learned Blender in 1 day, so it's a matter of finding good tutorials. |
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| Is it possble to export other than bone-based animations? I've used hours trying to get an animated howitzer working in minib3d. Must I use bones in every animation I want to make? |
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| ? Why would you not want to use them, unless its for compatibility with something old that doesn't support them? Compared to the old keyframe vertex way of doing it, bones are far superior, easier and far less 'messy' (IMO anyway :/). |
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| lol... Do you know Blender.exe IS a virus? Check the symantec website!!!! hahaha --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nanotech Underground Preservation Systems |
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| lol... Do you know Blender.exe IS a virus? Check the symantec website!!!! So? I wouldnt trust symantecs opinion if they paid for the drinks and gave me "personal entertainment" for a week. All i can say is.. epic fail. ;) ------------------------------------------------ Im getting the error: dan@dan-laptop:~$ blender Compiled with Python version 2.6.2. Checking for installed Python... got it! Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 1, in <module> File "/home/dan/.blender/scripts/blender/b3d_export.py", line 2 SyntaxError: encoding problem: with BOM Any idea what is wrong?? |
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NVM: I replaced the line:# -*- coding: cp1252 -*- with # coding: utf-8 and now is working again :/ |
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| Just tried to download the plugin from www.gandaldf.com and the site appears to be down. Is anyone who already has the plugin able to host it somewhere else until the main site reappears? Thanks. |
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| http://www.mediafire.com/file/jznizyn5mot/b3d_export.py I think this is newest version. |
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| Many thanks for responding so quickly. |
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| Does the exporter work with the latest 2.5 alpha of Blender? I just tried to run this export script after updating to the latest version of Blender and I'm getting an error, but I may just be doing it wrong. |
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| Sorry to resurrect an old thread but does anyone have the full package to this. I assume the original version had some docs too? The version above (2.0.7) is just the script. Was this the final version? Jason. |
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| This is the latest version of the 'complete package' I can find quickly, though if the one above is indeed 2.0.7 then I seem to be a little behind the times. Nevertheless: http://downloads.lineof7s.com/Blender_B3D_Exporter_2.04.zip |
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| Thanks LineOf7s. I too thought that 2.04 was the latest version. I wondered what additions were added since which is why I wanted some docs. Thanks though for providing the full zip, most helpful. There still doesn`t appear to be a quick guide as to how to use it though. I assume that this used to be on the website which is now gone? Could anyone give me a quick run through of how to export a model and what I need to do in Blender? Jason. |
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| Could anyone give me a quick run through of how to export a model and what I need to do in Blender? Depends on what it is you want to export. This exporter can output fully lightmapped scenes with camera and lights etc or animated characters, or static meshes. All my experience is with animated characters. The GUI of the script is self explanatory, and as always the best way to learn is have a go. Try with the default cube first. You will need Blender 2.49b from www.blender.org (I recommend the .zip version so you can place it anywhere, Windows messes with install directories now which can cause problems with certain things), a full python install from python.org (should be of the 2.6.x variety, install to the default location c:/python) and the script b3d_export.py (2.07 was the last released) placed in the scripts directory of Blender. |
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| Thank for the help, all is now working great. Jason. |
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| It would be nice if it is possible to adjust this script for blender 2.5 (now 2.53), but dont know who is capable and motivated for that! :) |
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| It would be nice if it is possible to adjust this script for blender 2.5 (now 2.53), but dont know who is capable and motivated for that! :) That's unlikely to happen for two reasons: 1. Blender's python API is still in development and nobody should devote serious time to script writing until it's nailed down (possibly not before 2.6). 2. Blender's animation system has been completely rewritten from the ground up and is not compatible with what came before. The good news is that it should be a lot easier to write exporters due to the cleaner internals of Blender, the bad news - someone has to step up to the mark and actually do it. Efforts to keep the .fbx exporter will be made and Collada (.dae) is also likely to have some attention once the API is sorted. Longer term it might be a case of using these formats in tandem with Ultimate Unwrap. I'm not planning on deleting 2.49b for some time to come. |
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| Ardee, your explanations seems very reasonable... We will have to wait surely one year more. Im also keeping 2.49 parallely with test builds.... but hate to switch between them because really lots of changes were made... I managed to export animated .x file from Blender, and then in Fragmotion 2 animated frames were visible. I exported them in b3d and got animation in Blitz3D. Though, i could not do the same tirectly with blender .x file... |
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| It worked in Blender 2.5. I don't know how to get it to work in Blender 2.6: anyone can help? |
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| Perhaps little late and dunno if allready followed up in other sections, but I found an updated B3D Exporter that works with the latest Blender version 268a. Link: http://www.rtsoft.com/forums/showthread.php?7508-Audio-Patch&goto=nextoldest Hope this is of help for someone. Now if only the Sketchup>B3D plugin was still available, cos I haven't seen any 3D package that can create buildings so fast.. |
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| Just for cross-reference, that Blender plugin can also be found in text form in this thread: http://blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=100592 |
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