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Blender

Blender is a completely free full-featured 3D modelling and animation application. Learning Blender's unique interface can be tricky at first, but once you work through some of the tutorials and get familiar with manipulating its split-screen windows and 3D geometry, it can be a very efficient and powerful modelling tool.

Here is a script which exports (some of) your Blender scene to a COD file (not all features are supported in VOS yet; see "Notes" below).

You can download and learn about Blender at http://www.blender3d.com (Try the "castle" tutorials in the "Education" section). Other useful resources are http://www.blender.org, http://www.elysiun.com and the Blender knowlege base, full of FAQ answers and tutorials: http://www.elysiun.com/support

To export your Blender scene to a COD file which can be loaded by OmniVOS, use the blenderExportCOD.py script included in the VOS 3D package, or downloaded from this page. Save it in ~/.blender/scripts on Linux or Mac OSX. Save it in the scripts directory in the Blender installation directory on Windows. Next time you run Blender, it should be available in the File->Export menu. The script has been verified to work in Blender versions 2.33.

Blender Exporter Status

Exports geometry, UV coordinates, normals, cameras, point lights. Doesn't support animation. Currently the primary platform for 3D content creation for VOS.

Notes

Note that most of of Blender's features do not yet have any equivalent in A3DL or Ter'Angreal. Most notably, reflective material properties are not supported yet, and only point lights are supported at this time.

When texturing objects, you need to use "UV" texture coordinates:

  1. Select your object, create and link an image material for it, and select "UV" in the material buttons window.

  2. In another window, open the "UV/Image Editor" window and load your image using the menu.

  3. Back in your 3D window, enter face selection mode using the "f" key or the face button ( ) in the header, and select one or more faces.

  4. Press the "u" key and select a UV mode from the menu. "Standard 1/1" is a good one to start with.

  5. You can then modify the texture coordinate mapping in the "UV/Image" window. Select the image filename from the menu. The polygon drawn over your image represents the shape of your selected face(s).

A portion of Blender's "World" settings ( ) will produce properties in the A3DL world as well: Mist density and color, and ambient light color (if a setting has a value of 0.0, no property will be created).

Related VOS Projects

OmniVOS Server :: Abstract 3D Layer (A3DL) :: Crystal Space Plugin