Thread: #2 | Old thread: #1If you have any questions regarding Blender I would be more than happy to help you. (Not as soon as I can but as soon as I feel like.) Some information in this thread is outdated and I will try to update it but I'm lazy. Feel free to discuss anything related to Blender as well even though the main focus of this thread is to provide support. To avoid clogging up the General Modification Help forum, my Steam friends list, and to keep all relevant information in one place please avoid making new threads regarding Blender and post what you wanted in this thread.
There are fairly few differences between Blender 2.5 and Blender 2.6+ for beginner users so even though most of the info in this thread is for 2.5 it will most likely work for 2.6+ as well. Blender 2.49b and Blender 2.5+ information/help is not interchangeable as the interface and general workings of the program have changed drastically.
As of
Blender 2.63.0 (Official stable release available on the Blender site) the core mechanics of Blender have been greatly improved. Blender now supports single faces that have more than 4 or 3 edges/vertices called "n-gons". So for example an octagon with 8 vertices and 8 edges could be a single face. Before you would have needed to construct this octagon from 8 or 6 triangles or 3 quads.
From left to right: A triangle "tri", a square "quad", an octagon "8-gon" (single face!), and an octagon constructed of 3 quads.Obviously these
n-gons are not supported in Blockland but they
are not supported in any older versions of Blender either. This new feature is called BMesh and it completely reworked the entire polygon modeling aspect of Blender. This also affects the .blend saves.
In order to open .blend files saved in Blender 2.63 or newer with older Blender versions you need to save the file again with Legacy Mesh Format. Please note that this gets rid of all ngons in the save.
To save with Legacy Mesh Format, go to File > Save As... or press Ctrl + Alt + S and check/tick the Legacy Mesh Format checkbox.The .blend file you just saved will now open in old Blender versions.
Downloads & LinksAll files (except the latest Blender) are for Windows only. Mac and Linux users need to manually install the DTS exporter.
You will need theseThe latest version of Blender. I highly recommend using the latest version instead of old ones. | DOWNLOAD |
Blender 2.49b with preinstalled Python and the latest DTS Exporter.
This is the only version of Blender that works with the DTS exporter.
Download, extract, run, and export. It's as simple as that, no need to mess with scripts. |
DOWNLOAD (32bit)
|
Guide to exporting Blender models for Blockland. Outdated but the major points stand. | LINK |
Extra/Alternative StuffBlender 2.49b with preinstalled Python and the latest DTS Exporter. Same as above except 64bit. | DOWNLOAD (64bit) |
Download Blender 2.49b with preinstalled Python and DTS Exporter 0.964. This exporter works better with animations. | DOWNLOAD (32bit) |
Blender DTS Exporter 0.97 beta 3. Released 2009-07-04. This is the latest version. | DOWNLOAD |
Blender DTS Exporter 0.964. Released 2008-08-11. Works better with animations. | DOWNLOAD |
Polygon toolkit. If you can't figure out how to use, you don't need it. | LINK |
Handy Blender 2.49b -> 2.5 interface guide | LINK |
dat formattingTHE BLENDER DTS EXPORTER (ANY VERSION) ONLY WORKS
LET ME REPEAT
ONLY WORKS
WITH BLENDER 2.49b.
- In the Space menu you do not necessarily need to type in the full name of the action you wish to perform. For example if you wish too add a cube, you could type in Add Cube and select it or you could simply type in cube and it will display all actions with "cube" in the name.
- In 3D view, press Z on your keyboard to quickly change between solid and wireframe.
- In 3D view, press Ctrl + TAB on your keyboard to quickly change between vertex, edge and face select modes.
- In 3D view, press TAB on your keyboard to quickly change between object and edit modes.
- In 3D view, you can select anything (Lamps, cameras, meshes, vertices etc.) and press M on your keyboard to quickly move it to a separate layer. This helps you keep the scene clear. I like moving the camera and light to a separate layer. Pres Shift + 0-9 to show two or more layers at once.
- In 3D view, press Shift + A on your keyboard to easily add new meshes.
- To scale your mesh/parts of your mesh simply select it/them, press S on your keyboard and move your mouse. Alternatively you can type in numbers if you want more precise scaling. The scaling percentage can be seen in the bottom left of the 3D view.
--THE MOST COMMON PROBLEMS--
Q: My model lighting is all screwed up! The colors are dark at random parts, there are weird shadows, and some parts are glowing! The world is ending!A: This is caused by scaling your mesh in
object mode. But worry not! It can be easily fixed so there is no need to avoid scaling in
object mode.
Select all of your objects and press
Ctrl + A then select
Scale and you're done.
If you are still experiencing these problems it means your model has
inverted normals.
Q: I can see through some parts of my model?! Parts of my model are inside out?!A: A classic case of
inverted normals.
Normals tell the game which way is "outside" and which way is "inside". If you have turned off
doublesided when exporting, which you should, then the "inside" of the face is not rendered/visible. When a face has inverted normals it means you can see through the face because the "inside" of the face is not rendered and the normals tell the game that the "inside" of the face is pointing outwards which is wrong.
To see the normals on your mesh, go to
edit mode, press
N to open the toolbar, and in the
Mesh Display category press the orange square
button under
Normals:. Right next to this button is a
Size slider that visually scales up/down the now visible normals. (This is only a visual thing in Blender and doesn't affect anything in Blockland.)
Normals in Blender are
cyan lines pointing to the outside of the face.
To automatically fix your normals, select all faces, and press
Ctrl + N. Because the algorithm isn't perfect some faces may still have inverted normals. These you need to fix manually. Go to face select mode (
Ctrl + Tab), select faces with inverted normals, and press
W > Flip Normals.
--THE MOST COMMON PROBLEMS--
Q: How do I add materials (color) to my mesh?A: First things first. The only thing that matters is the material name. It doesn't matter what color it is, what sort of specularity it has or anything else. None of those will get exported, only the material name. So any color you add to your model in Blender is purely for Blender. I helps you with modeling, but that's all.
To add a new
material to your mesh/part of your mesh select it, go to the
Material tab in the toolbar on the right and click
New. By default, it is named Material. Change it to your liking and your good to go for exporting.
If you want to have the color in Blender, then simply change the
Diffuse color. If you do not understand RGB/HEX color system work, please Google it because that is something everyone using a computer should know. It's computer 101.
Q: My model isn't moving in first person in Blockland. Like swinging the sword. What to do? (Parenting meshes)A: You need to have two
empties in your model called
Shape and
Detail32. To add an
empty press
Shift + A on your keyboard and select
empty. For some reason I have been unable to find the
empty mesh from the
Space menu. Do not move the empties, let them be in the center on the scene on top of each other. Once you have two
empties, name one of them
Shape by going to the toolbar on the right and clicking the
Object tab. The name is in the topmost text box right of the orange cube icon. Now name the other one
Detail32.
Now select all of your mesh, including
armatures (I'll get to those later.), and parent them to
Detail32. To
parent one mesh to another, first you need to select the
child mesh which in this case is your whole mesh. Then go to
Object tab in the master toolbar and in the Relations tab there is a text box titled
Parent. In this box type
Detail32. Now your mesh (The
child mesh) is parented to
Detail32 (The
parent mesh).
Once all of your mesh is parented to
Detail32, select the
Detail32 empty mesh and parent it to the
Shape empty.
Q: Help! My mesh suddenly vanished!A: You must have accidentally pressed
H which
hides the selected mesh (parts). Press
Alt + H to
unhide. Or you could have moved it to another
layer. Press the numbers
0-9 on your keyboard to change the visible layer. If you see your mesh in one of those layers, simply select it, press
M and the select a layer by either clicking one of the boxes or pressing numbers
0-9.
Q: How do I set a background image?A: I like step by step guides.
- In 3D view, press N on your keyboard.
- Check Background Images and open the menu.
- Click Add Image and open the menu by clicking the little arrow left of "Not Set".
- Click Open and find your image.
- Now you can adjust the image size, transparency and on what axes/views it will be displayed.
Q: How to hide the dotted line between child and parent meshes?A: In 3D view, press
N on your keyboard and uncheck
Relationship Lines. If you'd rather
unparent the meshes, press
Alt+ P and select the option you want. (Most commonly
Clear and Keep Transformation.)
Q: How do I add curves?A: This is a rather advanced feature in comparison and doesn't have all too many uses for modeling for Blockland. Simply press Shift + A and select curve or press
Space and search for
curve.
Q: I moved the 3D cursor by accidentally clicking the left mouse button. How do I move it back to the center of the scene? This little fella: 
A: A very common accident indeed. Simply press Space and type in
Snap Cursor to Center.
Q: How do I snap to grid when I'm editing my mesh? (Moving, scaling rotating etc.)A: In the 3D View toolbar there is a little button that looks like a magnet called "Snap during transform". Click that and select
Increment from the
Snap Element menu next to that button.
Q: How do snap a mesh/parts of mesh to grid?A: I highly suggest you go to
Orthographic view mode by pressing 5 on the
numpad once or twice then to front/right/top view with 2, 3 or 7 on the
numpad. (Note: If you do not have a
numpad, get one. Or change the view with the
View menu in the
3D view menu.) Now select your mesh/part of your mesh, press
Space, search for
Grid and select
Snap Selection to Grid. Please note that this can be to single vertices too.
Q: How do I move meshes/lamps/materials/anything from one save to another?A: It is called
appending and it is really easy. In the main toolbar go to File > Append, find your save and open it. Inside the save there a multitude of folders, but what you need is the "Object" folder which contains all the meshes in the save. Of course
appending other things than meshes work too. Open the Object folder, select all the meshes you wish to append and press the
Link/Append from Library button at top right.
Q: How do I bevel meshes?A: Select your mesh and in the main toolbar go to
Modifiers tab. Click
Add Modifier and select
Bevel under the
Generate list. When you're done editing your bevel remember to click
Apply. You can also manually
bevel by pressing
Ctrl + B.
Q: How do I split meshes? Separate one part of a mesh to make it it's own mesh?A: Select a part of your mesh (Vertices, faces or edges) and press
P on you keyboard and select
Selection.
Q: How to split and close panels in the interface?A: There are a few white lines in a triangular shape in both top right and bottom left of every panel. Click and drag. That's all I can really say as I do not know how it exactly works myself.
Q: How to set the amount of vertices in a cylinder or circle?A: Add a cylinder or circle and press
T to open the toolbar on the left. At the very bottom of the toolbar there is a
Add Circle/Cylinder menu, open it and change the amount of vertices.
F6 opens the same menu.
Q: How to move objects along specified axis/axes?A: Select the object you wish to move (Meshes, lamps, cameras etc.) and press
G to grab it. Now press
X,
Y or
Y to
lock your grabbing to the specified
axis.
Q: How to merge two different objects together?A: Select both of your objects and press
Ctrl + J.
Q: How to move the model origin point back to the center of my model? The point that the model usually rotates around.A: Select your mesh, press
Space and search for
"Set Origin" then select where you wish to move the model origin point. The options are self explanatory.
Q: How do I display normals?A: Select your object and go to
edit mode. Press
N to open a toolbar then select
Mesh Display > Normals: > Face.
Q: How do I center my model to the 3D cursor/origin point/world center etc.?A: The keyboard shortcut
Shift + Ctrl + Alt + C has various centering options.
Q: How do I change transparency in Blender 2.49b?A: The
transparency or
alpha value can be found in the
material settings. (In toolbar: Shading > Material buttons) Look for the
material tab where there four sliders: R, G, B and A. Simply change the A or
alpha slider. The other three sliders are for red, green and blue colors.
Q: How do I assign multiple materials to a single mesh in Blender 2.49b?A: I am assuming your mesh already has one material assigned to the whole mesh. Now select the faces you wish to assign a new material to, go to the
editing tab (F9) and in the
Links and Materials box click
New and
Assign buttons. Your selected faces now have that new
material assigned to them. Now you simply modify that new
material to your liking.
Q: How do I split meshes? Separate one part of a mesh to make it it's own mesh in Blender 2.49b?A: Select a part of your mesh (Vertices, faces or edges) and press
P on you keyboard and select
Selected.
