[Bf-committers] Annoucement: Better Collada Exporter for Blender!

Sergey Sharybin sergey.vfx at gmail.com
Sun Oct 12 21:10:27 CEST 2014 

Current state of collada in blender mainly ensures the exported file is
readable by SecondLife. Hence:

- We're not really interested in screenshots, .blend file which is not
being exported correctly is needed instead.
- Can you provide .blend which doesn't export correctly to SL with the
current exporter and works with your exporter (and don't blame the wrong
collada implementation on their side, because there's basically no
gold-standard collada implementation and calling one implementation wrong
and another one correct is kinda pointless imo).

Also, since you've mentioned unity in here it'll make total sense to get a
feedback from those who're currently uses fbx to export data from blender
to unity before claiming this is the best exporter.

On Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 8:49 PM, Juan Linietsky <reduzio at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ton.
>
>    If it makes you feel happier, I can manage to get screenshots of data
> exported with the plugin (with as many features as possible) being imported
> in different applications by mid next week.
>
> Juan
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 3:13 PM, Juan Linietsky <reduzio at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Ton,
> >
> >      It does work, and has been tested with those DCCs, but the most you
> > can get is geometry. Animation will mostly not work because it's exported
> > as baked transforms and clips (which are game engine targeted features).
> >      It has been used with Unity and got reports of users that got it to
> > work with Cryengine and Amnesia engine. I do not have licenses for any of
> > those engines myself and I'm a Linux user.  However, I'm willing to work
> > with anyone from those companies to ensure they are importing the format
> > correctly.
> >
> > Juan
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 2:52 PM, Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> To quote you:
> >>
> >> "This plugin is very battle-tested, and files written by it can be read
> >> by most DCCs and engines. It's the most  efficient, complete, mature,
> and
> >> featured Collada exporter ever written for Blender."
> >>
> >> I would like to know how you tested this statement. I would be really
> >> happy to see this to be true.
> >>
> >> -Ton-
> >>
> >> --------------------------------------------------------
> >> Ton Roosendaal  -  ton at blender.org   -   www.blender.org
> >> Chairman Blender Foundation - Producer Blender Institute
> >> Entrepotdok 57A  -  1018AD Amsterdam  -  The Netherlands
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On 12 Oct, 2014, at 19:27, Juan Linietsky wrote:
> >>
> >> > Ton,
> >> >
> >> >     I really don't understand this reasoning at all.
> >> >
> >> >     Collada is completely useless as an exchange format between DCCs.
> >> > Neither Blender nor Max, Maya or pretty much any other of those apps
> >> has a
> >> > properly working Collada importer. All are severely broken because
> It's
> >> not
> >> > a common use case. If the Blender community is worried about better
> >> > exchange of data with Max or Maya, then the proper way to go would be
> to
> >> > write plugins for those DCCs that read and write Blender files and
> >> tries to
> >> > guess the best way to map data, not use crappy and ambiguous
> >> intermediate
> >> > formats like Collada or FBX.
> >> >
> >> >     This Collada exporter is meant to export for game engines. It was
> >> > tested with many (including my own) and it works. If it doesn't work,
> >> (and
> >> > as long as the exported format is correct) then it's the
> responsibility
> >> of
> >> > that game engine to read the format properly. It's wrong to expect an
> >> > exporter to accommodate to bugs or implementation errors in third
> party
> >> > software. A bug must be reported to them if that is the case.
> >> >
> >> >     Also, your argument about user interest is wrong and It's easy for
> >> me
> >> > to prove it. *NO ONE* that uses blender to export to game engines even
> >> > knows the plugin I contributed exists. I know this because I get
> reports
> >> > from Godot users all the time that exported Collada from Blender is
> >> broken
> >> > or lacks features, then I point them to my exporter and problem
> solved.
> >> Now
> >> > the community became experts in pointing new users to not use Blender
> >> > exporter and instead use mine, it's like a ritual.  This does not
> happen
> >> > with users that come from other DCCs with proper collada exporters
> such
> >> as
> >> > Max, Softimage, Maya, etc.
> >> >
> >> >     So, keep blaming others on the poor Collada support in Blender.
> You
> >> > are all fed up with it because you placed your trust int the wrong
> hands
> >> > (specially the choice of using OpenCollada, which I criticized back
> then
> >> > and Insisted it was extreme an unnecessary bloat, given my exporter
> does
> >> > the same and more in 0.01% the amount of code). It's not my fault you
> >> all
> >> > keep taking the wrong decisions. I bring you a perfectly working and
> >> > feature complete Collada exporter, which I keep up to date and am
> >> > compromised to fix any bug that might arise. All I ask is help to
> >> integrate
> >> > it properly to Blender and I get shooed. Way to go!
> >> >
> >> >     Now the trend is to support OpenGEX, which looks really promising
> >> and
> >> > I will love to implement it, but that format has the big drawback that
> >> if
> >> > you want to test the correctness of an implementation, you have to pay
> >> the
> >> > author of the format for a license of the C4 Engine.
> >> >
> >> >    This is not serious at all.
> >> >
> >> > Juan
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > On Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 11:02 AM, Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org>
> >> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> Hi Juan,
> >> >>
> >> >> The lack of interest is quite typical indeed. Collada might be not so
> >> >> popular, but no user reported sofar any success with your code
> either,
> >> so
> >> >> it's not so strange it did not get a lot of attention from coders
> >> either.
> >> >>
> >> >> For me it then comes down to your presentation. Why not providing
> >> >> reference files (like game characters in Blender) that went 1:1 to
> >> Maya or
> >> >> Max? Write docs, add examples?
> >> >>
> >> >> If you claim you have a great Collada exporter, then where are your
> >> test
> >> >> files, which cases did you test with Maya or Max? Who else uses it,
> and
> >> >> where can see examples of this working?
> >> >>
> >> >> Would help a lot,
> >> >>
> >> >> -Ton-
> >> >>
> >> >> --------------------------------------------------------
> >> >> Ton Roosendaal  -  ton at blender.org   -   www.blender.org
> >> >> Chairman Blender Foundation - Producer Blender Institute
> >> >> Entrepotdok 57A  -  1018AD Amsterdam  -  The Netherlands
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> On 12 Oct, 2014, at 15:33, Juan Linietsky wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >>> It's been in there since some months, and there seems to be no
> >> interest
> >> >> at
> >> >>> all in integrating it into Blender. (That version is also pretty
> >> outdated
> >> >>> by now.), so i'm maintaining it / hosting it on my own.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> https://developer.blender.org/T41071
> >> >>>
> >> >>> On Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 4:49 AM, Daniel Salazar - patazstudio.com <
> >> >>> zanqdo at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >>>
> >> >>>> Sounds fantastic, why don't you put it in
> >> >> https://developer.blender.org/
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> Thank you for sharing!
> >> >>>> Daniel Salazar
> >> >>>> patazstudio.com
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 6:12 AM, Juan Linietsky <reduzio at gmail.com
> >
> >> >> wrote:
> >> >>>>> Godot site is still under construction, but I've decided to
> publish
> >> my
> >> >>>>> Collada exporter by myself, given the lack of will to include it
> in
> >> >>>> Blender.
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> This plugin is very battle-tested, and files written by it can be
> >> read
> >> >> by
> >> >>>>> most DCCs and engines.
> >> >>>>> It's the most efficient, complete, mature, and featured Collada
> >> >> exporter
> >> >>>>> ever written for Blender.
> >> >>>>> It supports almost every Collada feature and several more than the
> >> >>>> built-in
> >> >>>>> one. Best of all, it's only 1400 lines of python code. No
> >> dependencies.
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> Feature list:
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>>  - Export all supported nodes in the format:
> >> >>>>>     - Meshes
> >> >>>>>     - Lights (Omni, Directional, Spot and Ambient)
> >> >>>>>     - Cameras
> >> >>>>>     - Spline Curves (paths)
> >> >>>>>     - Armatures (mesh objects must be children of them).
> >> >>>>>     - Empty Objects
> >> >>>>>  - Bones with proper rest information.
> >> >>>>>  - Shape Keys
> >> >>>>>  - Combined Shape Keys + Armature deform.
> >> >>>>>  - Materials and Textures
> >> >>>>>  - Automatic handling of texture paths (conversion to relative).
> >> >>>>>  - Optional copying of textures on export.
> >> >>>>>  - Standard Extensions for double-sided geometry.
> >> >>>>>  - Standard Extensions for  normal maps.
> >> >>>>>  - Geometry Optimization (creation of indices and triangulation).
> >> >>>>>  - Export Masks (By Selection, Layer or Object Type).
> >> >>>>>  - Full animation support for objects, bones and shape keys.
> >> >>>>>  - Support for exporting all clips in the scene, including shape
> >> keys
> >> >>>> via
> >> >>>>>  set-driven keys.
> >> >>>>>  - Baking of curves and constraints during animation export.
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> Screenshots:
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> [image: bc1]
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> [image: bc2]
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> Home:
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> http://www.godotengine.org/wp/better-collada-exporter/
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> Cheers!
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> Juan
> >> >>>>> _______________________________________________
> >> >>>>> 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
> >> >>
> >> > _______________________________________________
> >> > 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
>



-- 
With best regards, Sergey Sharybin

More information about the Bf-committers mailing list