Here there's the latest beta I have.I am a betatester for the exporter, and I have been allowed some days ago to give it away in forums. (mainly game engine forums is what I visit)
Grab it here, but beware you will still need th armature and mesh have same location and rotation.
In his site, ben explains how to do this, but for what i see, the version hanged right now there, is older than this beta, as you no longer need to flip normals.
Just the location/rotation problem, and that you need to rename the bones(AND MATERIALS, like grey.001, etc) so that is not like bone.001 and so, as the x engines and viewers don't understand it. So, rename to stuff -better for u anyway- like "Lshoulder" , "Rhand" , etc.
I think he has comited to cvs this version, or even a newer one. For 2.34, so it probably will be in export menu in 2.34.
So, you need to use one of the latest builds, or any heading to 2.34. I always use the one he used for this beta, so to ensure it works... (neither sure if it was bfblender20040702 )
He is working on fixing mainly the need of the armature and mesh have same location and rotation, which is the only important problem remaining (he solved a lot more) but is not sure it will have it fixed in final 2.34 version...maybe yes, maybe not.
Many engines do require you resave the file in the tool from MS SDK 8.0 called MVIEW.EXE. I think you can run it in Wine if you use linux without problems.
I uploaded mview here, also.
This two uploads I made are temporary, so, grab them now if you are interested.
blender exporter beta
MVIEW
And to thank once again Ben Omari for his great effort for gaming comunities wishing to use blender for their games. Right now I am spreading this beta by several game engine forums
PD: I have deleted the mesh which came with it. You have two options...build your skelleton and mesh in that scene file, or if your confident at this, go selecting the several script from the text editor window at blender, there's a drop down list where you choose from (you need to click on the double tiny triangle icon) , and choose I think..well, the one that comes preselected.I am not very sure now, but I think it was 'direcx8exporter'.
not exporter234
nor directx8-UU3d.
(not sure right now...it can be directx8exporter or exporter234...I'm inclined to think is the first one.)
Again, I must thank Ben as that UU3d version is an special modification for the script that he has made for the users of the comercial uv mapping and animation conversion package called ultimate Unwrap (www.unwrap3d.com) as it wasnt working (some different things) and is kind of useful tool in gaming. He solved its problems, too.
So the other option if you don't want to load the same scene allways is to save the script you wish (after selected) as *.txt, rename out of blender as *.py. And then just open the py in the text editor of any of your blender 2.34 (test build
) scenes, and run it like with any export script.
The older version of the script, previous to this beta, is here:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/glabro1/python233.html
these days, Ben is -I suspect, but I am not sure- surely taking some relax, holidays or something. So , don't email him, please -in case you have his working email, which I doubt
- as you'll then fill his account, probably.
Is a beta version. I am a blender newbie, but I have been able to deal with it, with a bit of help from him(the tips mentioned here). But is that, non final version. This is just for in case some "advanced" (the "" are because is only needed what I recomend here, and also know how to handle armatures and basic keyframing to make the test...
) blender users that do not want to wait till a final version
Remember, now only stuff to solve is the bones renaming(OOPS, AND MATERIALS) needed by the user, and set location of mesh and armature the same when you start, as well as same rotation for both. I post his instructions for it right from his site, which I suppose these ones still apply :
"The mesh and the armature must have the same origin location and rotation set to (0,0,0).
(for the location select the mesh and press N.Set the LocX,LocY and LocZ as the Armature)
(for the rotation before parenting press Ctrl +A for both and confirm)"
[not sure if he means that also for latest version..I mean, I know armature and mesh must have same location, but don't know if still must be 0,0,0 in latest bet ai have]
"Armature)
(for the rotation before parenting press Ctrl +A for both and confirm)"
"Many viewers or engines doesn't support names with the point within(ex.Grey.003, Bone.002 etc)
so it would be better to rename before exporting materials and bone names"
"-The exporter will not work if the mesh has faces with less than 2 vertices and more than 4"
Pant...I think that was all...but surely I'm forgetting something...
