Just looking for options here
What do you use to make your meshes, and what is your process to use them in JME? (include versions)
I actually have 3 “export” methods, because sometimes 1 method doesn’t work, but I use blender (2.5 for static, 2.49 animation) for all of them tho.
#1 - I started using .obj for static meshes, before the blender loader became stable, and sometimes I still do because I found it to be the most reliable
#2 - I now use the blender loader when it works, although sometimes the file size is quite high, but i think i should delete all materials in blender first
#3 - Haven’t been able to get blender loader to do animations properly, so I rig in blender 2.5, import into blender 2.49 and do the animation there, and export as ogre mesh
I use UV coordinates for all meshes. And usually just load the textures manually, spatial.addTexture(“ColorMap”, …) etc
The large size of imported blender models is due to a problem with the loader not using the asset manager properly. It always imports the images to the j3o file instead of referencing the used images. Note that referencing images only works when the images are not packed into the blend file and when they are a folder that is accessible to the asset manager. So the best is to import all textures and edit blend files directly in the projects assets folder.
When beta is out we intend to have the blender importer work 100% on blender 2.5 (thus effectively enabling import from any file format that blender supports) so that will be your best option. For non-animated models most software that supports exporting game-compatible obj files basically works (you might have to flip an image here or there). For animated models, only OgreXML works for that and 3DStudioMax (using ogremax) as well as Blender 2.49 (using the exporter supplied with the SDK) are tested and working.
“When beta is out we intend to have the blender importer work 100% on blender 2.5”
When this happens, I will be like ‘SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!’
Seriously, I am looking forward to that. Any timeline?
I use only obj, and ogre.xml, I’m currenlt yin the process to write some kind of precompiler for myself that converts all models to j30 with proper materials ect ina seperate config file, so I don’t have to modyfi the orginal files much and can change stuff faster.
In the Game I only load j30 and dds then.
Uh, you can use j3m files for “materials in a separate config file”, j3o’s will reload the j3m information if a material was set to them via j3m before saving. E.g. you convert a model in jmp, create a j3m file of the imported material and assign that instead, then you only need to change that j3m file and the model will adapt when being loaded.
Yeah,I also use J3M partly,but I need aditional config file, to map different submeshes to different j3m. Cause else I would need to split every tree(trunk+leafes)/house(walls + windows) into several seperate meshes.
Also this process is automated (based on some naming rules and similar), having over 1k models is far to work intensive to do such task manually.