[Bf-gamedev] Proposal to (try to) get better FBX support

Wed Sep 17 09:47:39 CEST 2014

It would be awsome if we could convince the Engine companies to support an
alternative open exchange format,
but is there any alternative exchange format?
Whats with Collada? Is Collada mature enough?
I know that Unity has/had some support for collada Import but Unitys
automatic .blend converter exports fbx files. And i think fbx is what Unity
works with internaly.

2014-09-17 9:13 GMT+02:00 Nahuel Belich <casillapforos at yahoo.com.ar>:

> I had tweet this question, is it an insane idea? to contact the the mayor
> game engine companies (udk, unity, crytek, tell me another important) and
> others 3d apps to, and start some sort of new open exchange format?.
> Autodesk put the fbx in the market because need to expand conection among
> "their" aplication and even among those, took years to take info correctly
> from one application to another, and the rest took that because it was
> there, im sure that many main 3d sofware companies have similar problems
> trying to deal with the close fbx sdk.
> This where my two cents, for the moment im using blender fbx to export to
> unity but at the same time i dont like to see effort waste in something
> that may change and become obsolete with future changes on a close code
> that its so hard to tackle.
>
> Nahuel Belich
>
>
>   El Martes, 16 de septiembre, 2014 7:01:37, "mail at smokythaklown.com" <
> mail at smokythaklown.com> escribió:
>
>
>  Autodesk is officially a bunch of #@#%%$@ with no help, i even tried to
> convince them that their one licensed users need blender =) for a solod
> pipeline and in not helping us would result in their own financial loss. No
> success , but i noticed how far fbx already has gotten without their help
> so a round of applause to all blender developers that have made it so far
> and all the great new updates in 2.71 in game development. Really great
> stuff everyone especially that mouse look actuator, very wonderful. I
> cannot wait to add my contribution and be apart of the movement to a free
> world
>
>
> On 14-09-2014, Ton Roosendaal wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I inspected the FBX license 3 years ago, conclusions here;http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Ton/Autodesk_FBX_EULA
>
> The main issue is that Autodesk just imposes limits on the sdk use cause with open source. Like:
> - You have to register at Autodesk for it.
> - You cannot share it.
> - You cannot use it commercially.
>
> If Autodesk would relicense their SDK in a way that:
> - any party can distribute it freely
> - users can use it for any purpose legally
>
> We might have a starting point for considering that SDK seriously.
>
> -Ton-
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
> Ton Roosendaal  -  ton at blender.org   -   www.blender.orgChairman Blender Foundation - Producer Blender Institute
> Entrepotdok 57A  -  1018AD Amsterdam  -  The Netherlands
>
>
>
> On 13 Sep, 2014, at 21:12, metalliandy wrote:
>
> Why cant we just link users to the FBX SDK? Isn't this what the FBX FAQ
> states people should do in cases of Opensource?
>
> 1.2 Can I redistribute the FBX SDK? You cannot redistribute or repackage
> the FBX SDK without written permission from Autodesk. If you create
> open-source code that uses the FBX SDK, distribute your code and include a
> link to the Autodesk FBX website so the user can install the FBX SDK. If
> your code needs a specific version of the SDK you can distribute the
> complete .exe from the Autodesk FBX website.
>
> http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fbx-sdk/fbx-sdk-faq/td-p/4165297Cheers,
> -Andy On 13/09/2014 18:11, Ton Roosendaal wrote:
>
> Hi, There is no way we (as in official releases on blender.org) can be
> using Autdesk's FBX library without violating the Autodesk license and
> violating the GPL at the same time. The linking Octane/Vray trick won't
> work either for us - simply because we cannot distribute Autodesk's stuff.
> Autodesk themselves could do it probably, and most likely an authorized
> plugin reseller would be able to do it too. But... you then get into very
> shady areas of trying to trick things that shouldn't be tricked to start
> with. (Note: The method as being in use by Octane and Vray hasn't been
> verified or approved. At first sight it just looks to be on the safe side
> though, but it would require a careful examination). And most importantly:
> We're in the free software bizz first - that means we aim for making a tool
> for artists that is free for them to apply, to study, to learn from, to
> copy, to share and to improve. All very important virtues, in which
> Autodesk is not interested in - Not At All. Don't forget this! -Ton-
> -------------------------------------------------------- Ton Roosendaal -
> ton at blender.org - www.blender.org Chairman Blender Foundation - Producer
> Blender Institute Entrepotdok 57A - 1018AD Amsterdam - The Netherlands On
> 10 Sep, 2014, at 16:36, mail at smokythaklown.comwrote:
>
> yes sir! On 09-09-2014, Jeffrey wrote:
>
> What about something similar to how the Octane team avoided the GPL
> limits? They used an external server program that piped all the render data
> between Octane and Blender which avoided mixing the code. On 09/09/2014
> 05:48 AM, bf-gamedev-request at blender.orgwrote:
>
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> "Re: Contents of Bf-gamedev digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Proposal to
> (try to) get better FBX support (Bastien Montagne) 2. Re: Proposal to (try
> to) get better FBX support (mail at smokythaklown.com) 3. Re: Proposal to
> (try to) get better FBX support (Crs Mrn)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Message: 1 Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 12:07:45 +0200 From: Bastien Montagne <
> montagne29 at wanadoo.fr> Subject: Re: [Bf-gamedev] Proposal to (try to) get
> better FBX support To: bf-gamedev at blender.org Message-ID: <
> 540ED171.5020503 at wanadoo.fr
>
>   >
>
>  Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Hi, And thanks for the link,
> unfortunately this is just a tweaked version of the work from guys at
> http://blenderfbx.render.jp/ . Aside from the fact that they add another
> intermediate step (their own .bos format), the real issue with their tool
> is that it uses umconv, which uses? FBX SDK! If we could use FBX SDK,
> things would be hundreds times simpler for us. But FBX SDK is everything
> but opensource, which means we cannot use (distribute) it with Blender.
> Cheers, Bastien Le 09/09/2014 11:47, mail at smokythaklown.coma?crit :
>
>
> http://darisl.wordpress.com/about/importing-fbx-files-into-blender-with-full-armaturesweights/Checkwith
> this cat working on the fbx armature import. You might already be aware of
> his efforts, just trying to help. On 08-09-2014, Bastien Montagne wrote:
>
> Hi all, So, as everyone probably already knows, we are struggling like
> Hell to try to support FBX format in Blender. We already spent a **huge**
> amount of energy on this, for rather mitigated results so far (to
> summarize, roughly static object/mesh/material export works quite good,
> basic animation too. Camera/lamp orientation handling are buggy, and
> armature handling is kind of nightmare). Now, what I propose is to add a
> second fbx io addon (as contrib), **clearly flagged as experimental**,
> where we can put any dirty/bad-tested/etc. development. The point is, I
> want a place where I can do whatever I want, without considering things
> like 'good code', 'maintainable code', 'readable code', 'stable code',
> 'non-crashing code', etc. - and yet get it in all and every Blender release
> and build, so that anyone involved in FBX pipeline can easily test it,
> without waisting time in mails pingpong and such. Once an issue is clearly
> solved in bad experimental addon, we can think to
>
>    a
>
> good and nice way to implement it in good one. I would start to put Jens?
> work in this experimental version, and see whether it enhances armature
> handling for artists. In the mean time, I?ll try to go over all unfixed FBX
> reports I got in past months, and establish a list of basic, simple FBX
> test cases I need to try to understand those issues better. Then, I?d ask
> artists having 'ref FBX applications' to generate such files. Please let me
> know if you see something wrong in here, or something to add (and yes, I
> know experimental addon is dirty). Cheers, Bastien
> _______________________________________________ Bf-gamedev mailing list
> Bf-gamedev at blender.org Bf-gamedev at blender.org>
> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-gamedev
>
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> ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 12:14:27
> +0000 From: mail at smokythaklown.com Subject: Re: [Bf-gamedev] Proposal to
> (try to) get better FBX support To: <bf-gamedev at blender.org> Message-ID: <
> b503f6a15151533e9a0f4ed98c822aae at smokythaklown.com> Content-Type:
> text/plain; charset="utf-8" My personal honest opinion.. about what your
> actually doing is devoting time for people to use
> autodesk/unity3d/daz&poser rather then blender/BGE/makehuman. I understand
> the goal, and maybe a year ago i would have even spent money for you to
> develop in this area.. but in the long run imagine what could have been
> done for blender itself with the massive amount of time spent . My theory
> is we make snakes work, snakes dont make us work. -dont get me wrong, alot
> of blender community is indeed
>
>   g
>
> rateful to the fbx efforts especially for jobs that clients request
> specific formats and applications, but overall more harm is being done to
> blender itself. Just my opinion, hope it alters reality in a positive way
> small or big. Good luck! *dont kill yourself over fbx On 09-09-2014,
> Bastien Montagne wrote:
>
>  Hi, And thanks for the
>
> link, unfortunately this is just a tweaked version of the work from guys
> at http://blenderfbx.render.jp/[6]. Aside from the fact that they add
> another intermediate step (their own .bos format), the real issue with
> their tool is that it uses umconv, which uses? FBX SDK!
>
> If we could
>
> use FBX SDK, things would be hundreds times simpler for us. But FBX SDK is
> everything but opensource, which means we cannot use (distribute) it with
> Blender.
>
> Cheers, Bastien Le 09/09/2014 11:47,
>
> mail at smokythaklown.com [7] a ?crit :
> http://darisl.wordpress.com/about/importing-fbx-files-into-blender-with-full-armaturesweights/[3]
>
> Check with this cat working on the fbx armature import. You
>
>  might already be aware of his efforts, just trying to help.
>
> On
>
>  08-09-2014, Bastien Montagne wrote:
>
>  Hi all, So, as
>
>  everyone probably already knows, we are struggling like Hell to
>
>  try
>
>  to support FBX format in Blender. We already spent a **huge** amount
>
>  of energy on this, for rather mitigated results so far (to
>
>  summarize,
>
>  roughly static object/mesh/material export works quite
>
>  good, basic
>
>  animation too. Camera/lamp orientation handling are
>
>  buggy, and armature
>
>  handling is kind of nightmare). Now,
>
>  what I propose is to add a second fbx io addon (as contrib), **clearly
> flagged as experimental**, where we can put any dirty/bad-tested/etc.
> development. The point is, I want a place where I
>
>  can do whatever I want, without considering things like 'good
>
>  code',
>
>  'maintainable code', 'readable code', 'stable code',
>
>  'non-crashing
>
>  code', etc. - and yet get it in all and every Blender
>
>  release and build,
>
>  so that anyone involved in FBX pipeline can
>
>  easily test it, without
>
>  waisting time in mails pingpong and
>
>  such.
>
>  Once an issue is clearly solved in bad experimental
>
>  addon, we can think
>
>  to a good and nice way to implement it in good
>
>  one.
>
>  I would start to put Jens' work in this experimental
>
>  version, and see
>
>  whether it enhances armature handling for
>
>  artists.
>
>  In the mean time, I'll try to go over all unfixed FBX
>
>  reports I got in
>
>  past months, and establish a list of basic, simple
>
>  FBX test cases I need
>
>  to try to understand those issues better.
>
>  Then, I'd ask artists having
>
>  'ref FBX applications' to generate
>
>  such files.
>
>  Please let me know if you see something wrong in
>
>  here, or something to
>
>  add (and yes, I know experimental addon is
>
>  dirty).
>
>  Cheers, Bastien
>
>  _______________________________________________
>
>  Bf-gamedev mailing
>
>  list
>
>  Bf-gamedev at blender.org [1]
>
>
> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-gamedev[2]_______________________________________________
>
> Bf-gamedev mailing
>
>  list
>
> Bf-gamedev at blender.org [4]
>
>  http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-gamedev [5] Links: ------
> [1] mailto:Bf-gamedev at blender.org [2]
> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-gamedev [3]
> http://darisl.wordpress.com/about/importing-fbx-files-into-blender-with-full-armaturesweights/
> [4] mailto:Bf-gamedev at blender.org [5]
> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-gamedev [6]
> http://blenderfbx.render.jp/ [7] mailto:mail at smokythaklown.com
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> ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2014 15:48:41
> +0300 From: Crs Mrn <mahri726 at gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Bf-gamedev]
> Proposal to (try to) get better FBX support To: bf-gamedev at blender.org
> Message-ID: <
> CABPSr7_TcABk3v9FF6qXMzxqJUbQXsOtA1UuQ4dPdkwqM82qew at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" I think there might be ways to
> use FBX SDK in a way tha
>
>   t
>
>  could not interfere with GPL. The license says that it cannot be bundled
> with Blender. I guess that this could be solved by using a custom
> repository plugin. You open the plugin inside Blender, and it displays you
> a list of things you could download. On this list, there could be the FBX
> plugin made using FBX SDK. In order to shield the SDK source from GPL, a
> intermediary piece of code might be needed. When you firstly start Blender,
> that download plugin downloads the FBX plugin automaticly, for all users. I
> think there could be ways to dodge GPL in order to use the official FBX
> SDK. ?n data de 09.09.2014 15:14, <mail at smokythaklown.com> a scris:
>
>  My personal honest opinion.. about what your actually doing is devoting
> time for people to use autodesk/unity3d/daz&poser rather then
> blender/BGE/makehuman. I understand the goal, and maybe a year ago i would
> have even spent money for you to develop in this area.. but in the long run
> imagine what could have been done for blender itself with the massive
> amount of time spent . My theory is we make snakes work, snakes dont make
> us work. -dont get me wrong, alot of blender community is indeed grateful
> to the fbx efforts especially for jobs that clients request specific
> formats and applications, but overall more harm is being done to blender
> itself. Just my opinion, hope it alters reality in a positive way small or
> big. Good luck! *dont kill yourself over fbx On 09-09-2014, Bastien
> Montagne wrote: Hi, And thanks for the link, unfortunately this is just a
> tweaked version of the work from guys at http://blenderfbx.render.jp/ .
> Aside from the fact that they add another interme
>
>    d
>
> i
>
> ate step (their own .bos format), the real issue with their tool is that
> it uses umconv, which uses? FBX SDK! If we could use FBX SDK, things would
> be hundreds times simpler for us. But FBX SDK is everything but opensource,
> which means we cannot use (distribute) it with Blender. Cheers, Bastien Le
> 09/09/2014 11:47, mail at smokythaklown.com a ?crit :
> http://darisl.wordpress.com/about/importing-fbx-files-into-blender-with-full-armaturesweights/
> Check with this cat working on the fbx armature import. You might already
> be aware of his efforts, just trying to help. On 08-09-2014, Bastien
> Montagne wrote: Hi all, So, as everyone probably already knows, we are
> struggling like Hell to try to support FBX format in Blender. We already
> spent a **huge** amount of energy on this, for rather mitigated results so
> far (to summarize, roughly static object/mesh/material export works quite
> good, basic animation too. Camera/lamp orientation handling are buggy, and
> armature handling is kind of n
>
> igh
>
> tmare). Now, what I propose is to add a second fbx io addon (as contrib),
> **clearly flagged as experimental**, where we can put any
> dirty/bad-tested/etc. development. The point is, I want a place where I can
> do whatever I want, without considering things like 'good code',
> 'maintainable code', 'readable code', 'stable code', 'non-crashing code',
> etc. - and yet get it in all and every Blender release and build, so that
> anyone involved in FBX pipeline can easily test it, without waisting time
> in mails pingpong and such. Once an issue is clearly solved in bad
> experimental addon, we can think to a good and nice way to implement it in
> good one. I would start to put Jens? work in this experimental version, and
> see whether it enhances armature handling for artists. In the mean time,
> I?ll try to go over all unfixed FBX reports I got in past months, and
> establish a list of basic, simple FBX test cases I need to try to
> understand those issues better. Then, I?d ask artists having 're
>
> f F
>
> BX applications' to generate such files. Please let me know if you see
> something wrong in here, or something to add (and yes, I know experimental
> addon is dirty). Cheers, Bastien
> _______________________________________________ Bf-gamedev mailing
> listBf-gamedev at blender.orghttp://
> lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-gamedev
> _______________________________________________ Bf-gamedev mailing
> listBf-gamedev at blender.orghttp://
> lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-gamedev
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> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-gamedev
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