[Bf-committers] Collada status

[Tom M]

Hi Tim,

Collada_Dom is 'MIT' licensed

http://collada-dom.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/collada-dom/trunk/dom/license.txt?view=log

which is GPL compatible,

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html

so we are okay as regards the legalities.

The reason the majority of our import/export scripts are written in
python is that python is 'easier' to do them in, and easier to
maintain if the original developer disappears (which happens pretty
often).  That said, I personally wouldn't object to using Collada/DOM.
 Anyone know roughly how much it would add to our (zipped) binary size
to include Collada DOM?

Python bindings for a well defined API are pretty easy to do (I think
there are automagic bindings generators that work well).  However they
probably aren't necessary.

LetterRip

> And assuming we would go for Python, how difficult would it be to
> create the bindings ourselfs?
>
> Now: I would be inclined to take this on me, but you may understand I
> need lots of help on the Blender API side.
> Also, got a 'normal' daytime job, so things will take time.
>
> IRC meeting: anytime... I'm in The Netherlands.
>
> Tim
>
> 2008/8/3 Rodrigo Hernandez <kwizatz at aeongames.com>:
>>
>> Hi Ton,
>>
>> The problem I found with the current Illusoft scripts is that they are
>> parse the COLLADA "manually", meaning they access the file as pure XML
>> through expat, which makes updating to later specification versions and
>> adding functionality very tedious and time consuming.
>>
>> If you want to keep the functionality as scripts I would suggest at
>> least getting a hold of some implementation of COLLADA_DOM or FCOLLADA
>> Python bindings/extensions (which sadly don't seem to be available), and
>> migrate the current parsing code to that.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Rodrigo Hernandez.
>>
>> Ton Roosendaal wrote:
>>> Hi Collada devs!
>>>
>>> There's a wealth of attention for this part in Blender, and that's very
>>> welcome. In the past months we had to disappoint many (professional)
>>> users with the message "sorry, it is not maintained well now".
>>>
>>> Here's some info:
>>>
>>> - the sourceforge project below has halted.
>>>    http://sourceforge.net/projects/colladablender/
>>>
>>> - that code is in our own svn, in:
>>>    blender/release/scripts/collada*.py
>>>
>>> Actions:
>>>
>>> - could people provide patches against our svn py scripts?
>>>
>>> - is here anyone interested in accepting 'ownership' for collada (Tim
>>> seems to qualify well, since he's got a job doing it apparently :)
>>>
>>> - we can also arrange an irc meeting together about this... dunno about
>>> you guys timezones?
>>>    Optimal would be to make it topic on our standard irc meetings, 4-6
>>> PM Netherlands time.
>>>
>>> -Ton-
>>>
>>>
>>> On 3 Aug, 2008, at 0:03, Dalai Felinto wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> recently I used Blender Collada exporter to generate content for flash
>>>> 3D.
>>>> The script looks fine, the only problem is that the final file looks
>>>> bigger then the necessary.
>>>> (I tried to import some collada samples and export it and the final
>>>> file Blender-generated was much bigger.
>>>>
>>>> Anyways, if you need some help for testing, please let me know.
>>>>
>>>> My test result is here (take a little time to load the texture ...):
>>>> http://www.ecopath.org/nonewe/3DModelsDemo/3D_shark.swf
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Dalai Felinto
>>>> http://blenderecia.orgfree.com
>>>>
>>>> 2008/8/2 Rodrigo Hernandez <kwizatz at aeongames.com>:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi, I started working on a Collada importer/exporter of my own a while
>>>>> ago, it is really a Python extension that uses COLLADA_DOM, although
>>>>> it
>>>>> doesn't cover the full range of Collada possibilities (no export code
>>>>> at
>>>>> all yet), it does handle geometries and skins (what I really needed
>>>>> was
>>>>> a way to import characters) and materials to an extent, I am working
>>>>> on
>>>>> deciphering animation :).
>>>>>
>>>>> If there is interest the code can later be integrated into Blender, or
>>>>> kept as is (though it really just uses Python as glue code, why is
>>>>> there
>>>>> no binary API?).
>>>>>
>>>>> Anyway, all this is to say that if you're planning to start a new
>>>>> Blender COLLADA project, you may want to help out with the code base I
>>>>> already have so you don't reinvent the wheel, and the project moves
>>>>> forward faster.
>>>>>
>>>>> The code I am currently hosting on my private server at
>>>>> http://svn.aeongames.com/svn/BlenderCollada/trunk/ , but its open
>>>>> source, there is no license yet, but will probably be MIT or BSD, if
>>>>> needed be, I would move it to google code or sourceforge, but since I
>>>>> am
>>>>> the only one working on it, I just decided to keep it there while
>>>>> still
>>>>> a work in progress.
>>>>>
>>>>> Feel free to contact me for any questions you may have.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> Rodrigo Hernandez.
>>>>>
>>>>> Tim Knip wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi list,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This is my first post here.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The reason I joined, is that I need 'good' Collada export and willing
>>>>>> to work on this.
>>>>>> I'm doing the Collada stuff - http://ascollada.org/?tag=collada - for
>>>>>> Papervision3D - http://blog.papervision3d.org/ - a 3D implementation
>>>>>> for Adobe Flash.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So I've got some understanding of the Collada spec.
>>>>>> My knowledge on Blender etc. is near zero, though I can handle
>>>>>> Python a bit.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I understand that Collada import/export is still handled by
>>>>>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/colladablender/ ?
>>>>>> Maybe I should simply join this one?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anyway: just wanted to ask you how/if I should proceed and whether
>>>>>> there are already plans for Collada?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Tim
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --
>>> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton at blender.org
>>> http://www.blender.org
>>>
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