[Bf-committers] FBX import support

[Hadrien Brissaud]

I was not aware that this many efforts were made. You are most likely right
in that the future lies in baked information anyway (point clouds, etc.)
Thanks for the answer !

Hadrien


On 25 April 2014 15:24, Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> We already try to get Collada to work with Blender since it was released.
> At least a dozen coders worked on it, two or three GSoC projects were
> defined for it. Each time the maintainers give up.
>
> For me Collada is legacy code - we can keep it around for stakeholders
> (2nd life), and if new stakeholders come in (mixamo?) they can also step in
> as a maintainer.
>
> -Ton-
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
> Ton Roosendaal  -  ton at blender.org   -   www.blender.org
> Chairman Blender Foundation - Producer Blender Institute
> Entrepotdok 57A  -  1018AD Amsterdam  -  The Netherlands
>
>
>
> On 25 Apr, 2014, at 15:05, Hadrien Brissaud wrote:
>
> > Hello Ton and everyone,
> >
> > I wouldn't say I know how these things work, but isn't user adoption
> > precisely driven (or allowed) by software support in the first place ?
> Why
> > wouldn't a development of Collada support be a wise investment ? It seems
> > that supporting FBX through reverse-engineering is quite difficult. I
> > understand the stakes, though : it *is* already a standard.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Hadrien
> >
> >
> > On 25 April 2014 14:37, Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> The strong part of FBX was that it started as a native file format
> >> (MotionBuilder). Autodesk then has been hacking a lot on top of it...
> so it
> >> might have grown hairy and ugly, but it definitely works and gets used a
> >> lot. It's a big shame that Autodesk refuses to make an open standard
> out of
> >> it - even when only partially.
> >>
> >> The alternative - Collada - is hardly an option either. When Collada got
> >> published nobody was using it natively. Even after 5 years there's no
> >> reference stakeholder to make sure the format has a decent user base and
> >> momentum. And let's not start the discussion why a 3D media project
> would
> >> use XML formatted text for 3d data...
> >>
> >> What Alembic would offer - just baked meshes - is probably the best
> >> future. Any serious attempt to match rigs, constraints and modifiers
> >> between 3d apps is doomed anyway! :)
> >>
> >> -Ton-
> >>
> >> --------------------------------------------------------
> >> Ton Roosendaal  -  ton at blender.org   -   www.blender.org
> >> Chairman Blender Foundation - Producer Blender Institute
> >> Entrepotdok 57A  -  1018AD Amsterdam  -  The Netherlands
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On 25 Apr, 2014, at 8:47, <toni at playsign.net> <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
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
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