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Start Page » Game Development with the Drag[en]gine » Blender3D Export Scripts
Blender3D is a really good and especially free-software application that is well suited to deliver the models and animations needed for the project. To work with Blender3D there will be some Python Scripts available in the Drag[en]gine Source Code package.
The Drag[en]gine Exporter is a python script composed of multiple export modules. Some formats are XML formats which allows you to post process them before importing into the map editor or writing your own exporters. The following file formats can be exported.
- Models in the *.model.xml format. Exported are the model geometry, bone weighting informations, edge creasing, textures ( materials ) and textue coordinates. Exported models are immediatly usable in the game engine.
- Animations in the *.anim.xml format. Exported are all Actions which are not flagged invisible. Each Action is exported as one move with the same name. For each bone the position, rotation and size is saved on a keyframe basis with unrestricted intervals. There is no need to align keyframes of all bones as you can place them wherever you want. The playtime is considered from frame 1 up to the last keyframe placed in the Action. A frame rate of 50 frames per second is assumed. Later versions of the script will allow you to alter this value. Exported animations are immediatly usable in the game engine.
- Rigs in the *.rig.xml format. Exported is the bone structure with bone relationships. Space is left open for physical properties which Blender3D can not take care of. As this is an XML file you can alter and use it immediably. Exported rigs can be used directly in the game engine.
- Terrain Patches in the *.terrain.xml format. Exported are the geometry, edge creasing and textures ( materials ). Exported texture informations contain the projection settings from Blender3D mapped to the game engine. Currently supported are Flat Mapping, Cube Mapping and UV Mapping. Exported terrain patches have to be imported into a map using the map editor. Later versions of the script will also allow to export entire scenes into a map file so you can only befit it with entities later on in the map editor.
Installation
The addon scripts can be installed using the regular way in blender to install addons. Click the “Install” button and select the zip file itself. The file is located here (after installing IGDE):
- Linux: /usr/share/deigde/tools/blender-addon.zip
- Windows: C:\Program Files\DEIGDE\Share\tools\blender-addon.zip
Various panels are added to views and properties. Look for tabs and panels named “Drag[en]gine”. To export resources find the “Drag[en]gine Resources” sub menu in the File→Export menu.
Example Blend Files
Example blend files can be found in the Drag[en]gine Example Projects repository for example in the Example Application.
