Blender .map exporter
by abc · in Technical Issues · 08/12/2004 (11:33 am) · 7 replies
Hi,
Not sure if this is the right place to post this but anyway...
I'm wondering if anyone here is working on a .map exporter for blender, I'm wondering because I have started to look into it.
And I have some problems understanding the .map format.
I'm not sure how the plane intersections are calculated and from which vertices they are calculated from.
That's how I understand how it works, each line in the .map defines 3 "plane vectors" + texture stuff and scale stuff.
And the plane vectors are positions of intersections between the planes that are calculated from some vertices, correct?
So does anyone work on a such exporter for blender, so that I can skip it? :)
Or if noone is working on it, does anyone know more about how to use the .map format?
// Alexander Bussman
Not sure if this is the right place to post this but anyway...
I'm wondering if anyone here is working on a .map exporter for blender, I'm wondering because I have started to look into it.
And I have some problems understanding the .map format.
I'm not sure how the plane intersections are calculated and from which vertices they are calculated from.
That's how I understand how it works, each line in the .map defines 3 "plane vectors" + texture stuff and scale stuff.
And the plane vectors are positions of intersections between the planes that are calculated from some vertices, correct?
So does anyone work on a such exporter for blender, so that I can skip it? :)
Or if noone is working on it, does anyone know more about how to use the .map format?
// Alexander Bussman
About the author
#2
Or maybe I'm just to tired right now, well... going to read through the links tomorrow a little better.
thanks for the links.
08/12/2004 (12:22 pm)
Ok, seams like all docs are how to read from the .map format and not how to write to it :(Or maybe I'm just to tired right now, well... going to read through the links tomorrow a little better.
thanks for the links.
#4
08/12/2004 (1:13 pm)
He'll have to write extrusion routines into the exporter. At least, I believe that's how the 3DS Max and GameSpace ones convert from polygon to CSG. Considering I've not thought about writing an exporter for more than a few irrational seconds, I'm probably not the best source for information, though.
#5
I have thought that I should start by limiting the exporter to only export simple meshes (for example a cube) and after that go further, I mean I have to start somewhere if I'm going to do this.
But anyeay, I think that it would be cool even if the exporter only could export simple meshes.
08/13/2004 (1:38 am)
I have to say that I haven't ever written a exporter before, but the blender python api seams quite easy to understand.I have thought that I should start by limiting the exporter to only export simple meshes (for example a cube) and after that go further, I mean I have to start somewhere if I'm going to do this.
But anyeay, I think that it would be cool even if the exporter only could export simple meshes.
#6
The generation of the geometry is fairly trivial. Getting the texture alignment between blender and the .map model to be the same is a pain, but applying some restrictions to this makes it a doable thing.
The biggest problem I see in working on a task like this isn't the exporting as that's the easy part. The real work is the support you're going to have to create in blender to make this really useable. Joseph's question about "...dealing with the enforcement of CSG modeling rules.." alludes to this issue.
I spent a few hours on this months ago and got a trivial .map exporter to work. Then I realized that in order to really make it useful, I'd end up recreating most of the functionality QuArK in one way or another. I decided my time was better spent just learning QuArK even though I despise its UI and don't run windoze on my desktop, requiring me to use wine or VNC.
08/15/2004 (5:25 am)
Do some searching in the forums as there have been several projects like this started over the last few months. Someone was talking about doing a complete blender conversion of some sort even.The generation of the geometry is fairly trivial. Getting the texture alignment between blender and the .map model to be the same is a pain, but applying some restrictions to this makes it a doable thing.
The biggest problem I see in working on a task like this isn't the exporting as that's the easy part. The real work is the support you're going to have to create in blender to make this really useable. Joseph's question about "...dealing with the enforcement of CSG modeling rules.." alludes to this issue.
I spent a few hours on this months ago and got a trivial .map exporter to work. Then I realized that in order to really make it useful, I'd end up recreating most of the functionality QuArK in one way or another. I decided my time was better spent just learning QuArK even though I despise its UI and don't run windoze on my desktop, requiring me to use wine or VNC.
#7
It seams like doing a exporter for extreamly simple meshes is possible but to make it usefull I have to implement additional features to Blender. This sucks.
It seams like this will be a yet another project that I have to throw away :)
Oh well, it was fun in the beginning atleast ;)
08/15/2004 (6:03 am)
Yeah, I have done some research about this now.It seams like doing a exporter for extreamly simple meshes is possible but to make it usefull I have to implement additional features to Blender. This sucks.
It seams like this will be a yet another project that I have to throw away :)
Oh well, it was fun in the beginning atleast ;)
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