[Bf-committers] FBX import support

[Campbell Barton]

@toni - FBX isn't exactly secret, since it has a pain-text (ascii)
version its not so hard to support,
also its data maps much more cleanly to Blender then Collada does
(just similar conventions - armatures especially).

Supporting the binary format was harder, but proabably still less
hassle then parsing the ASCII (I tried doing both).

@Jeffrey H, Blender had FBX export for years, just not import (unless
you count the ASCII importer we had in addons_contrib).
For users making content for Unity and some other engines, this was
still useful.

Also, we had 2 developers work on armature support in FBX already (I
think they even got it working OK). so probably this isn't such a big
task, Bastien can reuse their work if it helps.


On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 5:49 PM, Jeffrey H <italic.rendezvous at gmail.com> wrote:
> Unfortunately, FBX is currently the standard for the industry, which uses
> pretty much everything except Blender. All Autodesk products and Cinema 4D,
> Modo, etc. can use FBX, so that's what everybody's going to do. I believe
> Collada is much older and Autodesk is neglecting their own support for the
> format. Both are very inconsistent formats, but FBX seems to be more
> prevalent today. I'd wish for an open format like Collada, but with current
> standards that support most - if not all - of today's animation needs.
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 11:47 PM, <toni at playsign.net> wrote:
>
>> This is why I’ve figured Collada may still be better to use -- at least it
>> is open and ~specified.
>>
>>
>> Does not seem like a good idea to build the future on something secret
>> (and ugly?) in the long run.
>>
>>
>> ~Toni
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From: Bastien Montagne
>> Sent: ‎Friday‎, ‎April‎ ‎25‎, ‎2014 ‎9‎:‎45‎ ‎AM
>> To: bf-blender developers
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Tom said the essential. :)
>>
>> We had to understand both the binary encoding[1] and format layout[2] of
>> this ugly thing,
>> and directly write from the py scripts… Highly frustrating and
>> time-consuming tasks, esp.
>> since FBX has some very odd inconsistencies and odd & picky expectations.
>>
>> Note that armature and animation support on import side are on my TODO,
>> just have to find
>> some time for this, bugs are another frustrating and time consuming task.
>> :/
>>
>> Bastien
>>
>> [1]
>>
>> http://code.blender.org/index.php/2013/08/fbx-binary-file-format-specification/
>> [2]
>> http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Mont29/Foundation/FBX_File_Structure
>> (still heavy WIP).
>>
>> On 25/04/2014 01:45, Tom M wrote:
>> > The license for the FBX library is incompatible with the GPL, so not
>> > it is not included.  The FBX importer and exporter are based on
>> > reverse engineering the format.  The format is not documented.
>> >
>> > LetterRip
>> >
>> > On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 2:31 PM, Stefano Corazza <stefano at mixamo.com>
>> wrote:
>> >> I hear there are improvements coming up... but many users are sending a
>> >> lot of complaints about FBX import in Blender.
>> >>
>> >> A few questions:
>> >>
>> >> 1 - Did we include in Blender the FBX SDK or otherwise how are these FBX
>> >> created?
>> >>
>> >> 2 - Right now there is no support for rigged/animated characters in the
>> >> FBX importer. Is this something anyone is working on?
>> >>
>> >> FBX is a very complex format we have deeply studied in the past year, I
>> >> just want to make sure we have a realistic vision of what is possible.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Please please please comment on this post!!!  We want to know!!!
>> >>
>> >> Thanks
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Stefano
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> Bf-committers mailing list
>> >> Bf-committers at blender.org
>> >> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Bf-committers mailing list
>> > Bf-committers at blender.org
>> > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Bf-committers mailing list
>> Bf-committers at blender.org
>> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
>> _______________________________________________
>> Bf-committers mailing list
>> Bf-committers at blender.org
>> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Jeffrey "Italic_" Hoover
> _______________________________________________
> Bf-committers mailing list
> Bf-committers at blender.org
> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers



-- 
- Campbell