Project Blender 2.63 + to Orbiter import/export addon

[vlad32768]

^^ In Blender 2.70 that remove orphan vertices export option always seems to cause the errors box.

Yes, they removed the old function that selects orphan vertices. Now I have to use BMesh API to select orphan vertices. This bug is fixed.

Also fixed crash when Apply Modifiers is enabled in export.

 

[dkcvv]

Textures issue

Hi everyone,

I discovered this great addon 2 days ago and it works very well for the mesh, but I'm unable to have it textured in orbiter.
I've read all 13 pages on this thread and I tried almost everything, but still no textures.
The mesh is textured with a png img (UV unwrapped). It's textured in the Blender viewport (textured, GLSL). All the transformations are applied (loc rot scale =1). When I render it, it's well textured as well.
In orbiter, I've made a vessel cfg in the vessel folder and I created a scenario with that vessel in it. The exported blend is in the meshes folder and I checked that the texture is filetex\texture.dds.
I moved the filetex folder to the texture folder and converted the png to dds using photoshop.
I also tried to change the source location of the texture image for the blend file, tried to import the mesh from orbiter and re-export it, but nothing works.
I still have the mesh in orbiter, but the texture never show up...
Any suggestions ?

Thanks in advance for your help !

Fred.

P.S. : I tried using Blender 2.63, 2.69, 2.70 and 2.71...

 

[4throck]

Check the texture path in the .msh file itself (open it with notepad, paths are at the end).

 

[dkcvv]

I checked every file in orbiter and the path for the texture in the mesh file is correct.

 

[vlad32768]

Hi everyone,

The mesh is textured with a png img (UV unwrapped). It's textured in the Blender viewport (textured, GLSL). All the transformations are applied (loc rot scale =1). When I render it, it's well textured as well.
In orbiter, I've made a vessel cfg in the vessel folder and I created a scenario with that vessel in it. The exported blend is in the meshes folder and I checked that the texture is filetex\texture.dds.
I moved the filetex folder to the texture folder and converted the png to dds using photoshop.

Hi Fred,

I suppose that texture format is wrong. As I remember, Orbiter needs DXT1 or, maybe, DXT3.
Check texture format and then check texture names at the end of the .msh file.

Regards,
Vlad.

 

[4throck]

Try to copy and rename some textures from other add-ons and use them on your mesh. If the mesh is OK, they should appear.

 

[dkcvv]

Hi 4throck,

Yep, I figured that out a few days ago and now, I have the mesh textured.
Seems that the texture image exported from Blender to the filetex folder is corrupted. If I convert my orgininal texture image to DDS, it works fine.

But now, I have another problem : The alpha channel of my texture is black in orbiter, not transparent...

 

[Notebook]

dkcvv, you may find the graphic utilty helpful.

Manipulates ,dds files and more.
DXTBmp is the utilty name. You will have to go looking for it, can't put a direct link here.
Its 3rd from right, bottom row of tiles.
You can edit the alpha map directly.
http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/index.htm

N.

 

[4throck]

If I convert my orgininal texture image to DDS, it works fine.

But now, I have another problem : The alpha channel of my texture is black in orbiter, not transparent...

I usually work with PNGs in Blender, just export like that and convert the textures to DDS using whatever tool works.

Alpha can be tricky. Open files that work and try to see what DDS version they are and how they look in your tool of choice.
For example, Alpha can appear as an extra channel you can paint (besides RGB) or simply as image transparency (if you use an eraser tool, you can erase parts of the image).

 

[dkcvv]

Open files that work and try to see what DDS version they are and how they look in your tool of choice.

I tried with your Tycho surface.dds, but the alpha channel still shows black.
I also checked the mesh file textures parameters and put the same as you do...

Thanks anyway.

---------- Post added at 08:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:49 AM ----------

dkcvv, you may find the graphic utilty helpful.

Manipulates ,dds files and more.
DXTBmp is the utilty name. You will have to go looking for it, can't put a direct link here.
Its 3rd from right, bottom row of tiles.
You can edit the alpha map directly.
http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/index.htm

N.

Thanks for your reply, I know that utility, but I prefer to work with Photoshop

 

[llarian]

I've been watching this thread with interest, so I hope you find a solution. The Wright Graphics tools are very good, but I just wanted to remind that the GIMP has an addon to handle DDS files, too.

 

[dkcvv]

I've been watching this thread with interest, so I hope you find a solution. The Wright Graphics tools are very good, but I just wanted to remind that the GIMP has an addon to handle DDS files, too.

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

 

[kocmolyf]

Hey vlad! Just wanted to stop by and thank you for this script, it really saved me a bunch of time. Cheers!

 

[llarian]

io_orbiter_msh.py in Blender 2.72 ...

A little warning from my experience after upgrading to Blender 2.72. With the new installer that I used, it installed a clean instance of Blender without overwriting the older version. As such the addons that I had installed with Blender previously did not show up in the new installation.

Just had to reinstall the addon in the new version and all was right in the Orbiter universe.

Happy Blending.

 

[STS]

I had the same problem, my solution is to move my textures directory out of my blender mesh directory.
For exemple if my .blend is in my "picture" directory i put my "msehtex" directory directly in Orbiter/textures/ and then i re-link all my textures in blender from this new position, and i don't have any more problem like this.

I hope it will be helpfull

Hello. Can you please explain in more detail how to solve the error that 4throck was reporting and witch I have too? I don´t understand this instructions very well.

Also, I don´t know where textures are configured in blender.

I am working with a different mesh but i have exactly the same error.

Thanks.

 

[jangofett287]

I think the import/export script assumes your importing from/exporting to an orbiter install, so expects the mesh to be in ./meshes and the textures to be in ./Textures. If they're anywhere else the texture definitions in the .msh probably go all weird.

 

[StevoPistolero]

I got it to work by editing the mesh file and manually entering links to the .dss files after running the script. To get it to export I changed the texture images of the obj to connect to the .dss files instead of .bmp files. When I did this, there were no errors in exporting from blender.

 

[Goth]

To anyone using this, does this work yet?
Which version of Blender do I have to use?
Is this the only / most recent Blender exporter available?

 

[4throck]

Works on Blender 2.74 with no major problems. You will get an orbiter .msh file pointing to whatever textures you are using, inside a filename_tex folder.
Then you will need to edit the .msh file manually and change the paths to whatever you are using.

 

[Goth]

-disregard-