I'm having the same problem with the normals being "inside out" on FreeBSD, Blender 2.36. It's pretty annoying, since I keep several separate models and I have to flip them all individually!

Thank you SO MUCH for this script! I was trying to mess with exporting ASE until I found this script, it's awesome.

By the way, maybe this thread about your script should be a sticky so Blender users can find it easily.

Hmph. I guess I'll really have to look into this - odd that I have never come across it.

Does anyone have a simple, low-poly model that this happens with? If not, I have Shark's model that it happens with - I'll look into it.



You're quite welcome. It's nice to hear about others getting some use out of it!!
And sticky may not be a bad idea, but I'll leave that up to The Powers That Be.

I'll be busy over the weekend, but I'll make a real effort to look into the normals issue early in the week.

Thanks for the feedback!

cbx

I've been looking at the "flipped normals" problem - and really banging my head over it. There is a simple "fix", but it results in having everything mirrored along the X-axis (ie: Shark's gun will be on the left instad of the right), and it messes up some UVs.

The "fix" is:

On line 70 of the python script:

line = '0 ' + str(round(-mesh.faces[i].v[fv][0],4)) + ' ' + str(round(mesh.faces[i].v[fv][2],4)) + .....

Simply delete the "-" that is highlighted in yellow above.

I hope to have a proper fix soon, but I think it's time I stop banging my head against the desk and do something else for a bit.

Well, I finally got annoyed enough with the "flipped normals" issue to fix it!

Simple matter of having the vertex windings the wrong way - how did I miss this for so long??

See the top post for the new version.

I'll try to look at adding armatures and animation soon...

Cheers

cbx

cool, Ive been meaning to try blender for a while.

it seems somewhat like a cross between lightwave3d & cinema4d
on windows though the menus are so small I can barely read them

I just wish I could understand texturing in blender better.... and I've noticed that the milkshape txt file made with blend is larger then if you import that txt file to milkshape and reexport it.

That's because of the way my script exports verts - I export each vert for each face, which results in quite a few duplicate verts. Turns out, IIRC, the game duplicates them anyway, so no biggie. However, it might not be a bad idea to have someone with Milkshape import and re-export them to save a bit on size.

Now that I've settled on the export script being "good enough" I'll write up a tutorial on making a tank soon

Thx for the feedback.

cbx

I added a tutorial to the Wiki, see http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Modelling_with_Blender

cbx

Reads Turorial..... *bangs head on desk* as blend refuses to texture
my model. AGHhhhhhhhhhhh.

I like to model in blender, I find it easy to use, except texturing!

Ooops, I likely should have mentioned that Blender won't show the colours when they are added this way.... For the image texture to show up in the Blender preview you need to select the image for it in the "UV Image Editor". For parts that are to be simply coloured by an image I usually set the colour for the material to the same colour as the image.

Did you actually export the model and try it, Jdog? The way the tut is written you won't see the colour in Blender, but you will in the game.

To have the texture image show up in Blender:

* Set the Window Type of on of the viewports to "UV/Image Editor"
* Select the mesh, then hit F to go to UV Face Select Mode
* In the UV/Image viewport, go to Image->Open and open the texture image (this is where you would do the UV mapping, but we don't need to for a solid texture image)
* Go back to "Object Mode", change the view to "Textured", and you should be able to see it in living colour

cbx

<edit> I'll likely add a bit on UV mapping, as that seems to be the most difficult thing for people to master </edit>

I should have said that my ability to texture with blender is bad, I don't see to bealbe to get it to appile my texture even when I do what is wrote in a tutorial.

Couple questions:

1. Is the texture a square .bmp image?
2. Did you try exporting the tank to view it in the game? (Applying the texture as per my instructions works for in the game, but does not show up in Blender)
3. Is the .bmp image in the same directory as the .blend file?

Can you post the .txt you get when you export? I may be able to see what's happening from that. Or maybe zip up the .blend and attach it.

We can beat this.

cbx

Also, I plan on adding a bit of texture mapping instructions, but I want to try to keep the tut fairly simple.[/list]

I figured this would be useful to people with Blender so I decided to make it a sticky.

Cool, thanks. It will also remind me to do some more work on it.

cbx

I'm trying to work on exporting animations, and I could use a simple ms3d file for reference..... could someone maybe take one of the boids and simplify it for me? Maybe just a cube for body and similarly simple wings...

cbx