Blender to Sandbox: step by step

[chocolatepie33]

Blender works for me, so yeah... Shut up.

[Dunstan]

Hi, I find your tutorial very useful. Could you please continue it with a part, that explains how to export animations from Blender? I have tried, but Sandbox doesn't find the animation, and I have no way of checking it in Blender by re-importing it, since the md3 plugin has no animation import support. Just a small tutorial, for example about how to create an animated door (one rotating cube), or button (two moving cubes)... and of course, how to use it in Sandbox.

[arcones]

I personally would check the wiki:
Cube 2: Sauerbraten-Model Reference
Sandbox wiki: Adding Models to Sandbox

[chocolatepie33]

you should also look at the actual blender site, they should have some stuff on this. Blender 3d

[InHumanUnit]

Srsly, Milkshape3d is easier then PAS itself.

[daniel_san]

Saying that's like saying, srsly football is way easier than baseball, they're two different things. So enough banter over which 3d ap you prefer.

@Dunstan
Thanks. Glad that some people appreciate the time/effort put into this thread.
The next few days I could possibly whip something up. In the meantime i'll explain the general process of how you'd export something like a simple door animation.

Parent your door model to an amature/bone. Apply weights to the bone for all vertices.
Animate your door (opening closing whatever).
When you export make sure your timeline is on the very last frame of your animation/s.
Select your model, then the armature and export.
Look at some of the other door models md3.cfgs included in PAS.
Also refer to cube 2s md3 & model documentation.

There's also an md3 export script for blender 2.5+.
It might be easier for those having problems with script errors involving their python installation. You can find it in the link below.
http://xembie.com/2010/md3-exporter/
Just follow the instructions/requirements from the link, and make sure you triangulate your mesh before exporting.

take care.
daniiel_san

[Dunstan]

Thanks for the quick reply. I think, the key word was triangulation. It is missing from your box-tutorial, but doesn't affect the results when the exported mess is unanimated. It seems, that the md3 exporter script can't/won't export animations of non-triangulated models. I think, you might add it to your original tutorial, since all models used in games should be triangulated.

For the others, thanks for your help, I, of course, have read all the wikies and references, searched the forum, etc. I still think, it would be useful to have a plain, step by step guide to makinkg an animated model. Sandbox is said to be made for children, and the Sauerbraten reference, and even the wiki is a bit hard to use for them. I know, that serious game makers will be forced to learn all the programming materials, but for the rest, such things as opening doors and animated buttons can be very useful.

[Dunstan]

The next few days I could possibly whip something up.

If you haven't started it yet, I'd gladly write a small extension to your tutorial about simple animations.

[The Writer]

when i push "alt+p" to "exicute the script" it come up with this message:

File"C:\User\Alaura\game making stuff\sandbox\PlatinumArtSandbox2.6.1\packages\modles\box\tri.blend\md3_export_test2.py",line 92
print mesh.materials
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
location:<unknown location>:-1
Python script fail, look in the console for now...


can you tell me what i'm doing wrong?

[Kooldoode]

question.....on the blender download page which do it get the installer or the zip?