Attempting to export files from blender into blockland not going as expected

[KrimsonStorm]

Hello folks,

I, along with my roommate BoatSniper have been dabbling with blockland recently after a discussion and we have recently decided to try our hand at a game type with new models.

After I reading Darkstar's Making add-ons with blender and Damian's Guide to exporting Blender I decided to follow the workflow illustrated for making a vehicle: creating an object, adding a collision box, some empties, some materials for relating them to PNGs, and do a simple rig. Afterwards, my roommate attempted to code it and we... well haven't had any success with it. Blockland crashes after we try to spawn the vehicle.

Now, between the two of us we just can't seem to figure out what is wrong with it. At first, I modeled the object in blender 2.6, and then passed it off to 249 for exporting into torque and no success. After thinking we might have hit the polylimit, we tried creating a simple object (cube) and attempted to get that to work and no dice. I also tried modeling and exporting in 249 and yet again we run into the same problem. Looking at the console revealed nothing, even when told to display everything blockland does in the backend. Maybe we are overlooking something simple, but I feel like it's on my end (the modeling aspect) and I need someone who has done exporting to blockland already to help check this and make sure it is working.

Here is the blender file used to test.
And here is the DTS format one I created after exporting.

Any and all help is really appreciated! :)

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[Demian]

Welcome to the forums! I assume you got here through Steam Greenlight? My modder sense is tingling. I'm quite interested in seeing what you're planning especially if you think you're hitting the poly limit. If you would have, the export log would have said so. Just a friendly tip, the forums are quick to yell "too detailed" on pretty much anything over 1000 triangles, but sounds like you're doing something completely new here. I'm intrigued.

You might want to check out my General Blender help thread too if you're having problems with transferring .blends from 2.6 to 2.49. Anyways, I'll help you out. I can see a few problems with your .blend right away.

You do not need a col0 empty. The collision mesh should be named col0 (I think adding any number after col works) and not be parented to anything.

It could be just personal preference but I feel uneasy when all empties are not at the center of the model. Moving the detail32 empty to the center might do something or it might not. I've never actually tried if moving that elsewhere does anything.

Mesh should be parented to detail32.

Turning off double sided is preferred as I think the engine renders all faces in the visible distance at all times.

I haven't done any vehicles with wheels but I'm pretty sure you don't need any kind of rig. Armatures for the mount and muzzle points is enough. Then again I have no idea how the wheels are done. But what the 3D community refers to as a rig is not needed in vehicles.

Doing that I got it to work. Here are the files: http://mirror.dataorb.net/BLExampleVehicle.zip
The DTS exporter settings are saved too so you might to check out if you're doing everything the way I am.

[Boatsniper]

Thanks Demian!  I am KrimsonStorm's roommate and coder. I am the one who introduced him to BL.  I've been playing since v8.  I tried exporting the .blend file and it worked!

[Demian]

One must wonder how you have played since v8 if you got your key just a few days ago.

[Boatsniper]

My little bro now owns ID 5262, PJ Boy.  I bought Blockland for the sake of having a separate account from him.

[KrimsonStorm]

Yeah, Boat was showing this game around the apartment and after talking about all the different things possible I ended up buying the game so we can try it out and see what we can do. I did upvote it on greenlight, it was (and is) a really interesting game.

My modder sense is tingling. I'm quite interested in seeing what you're planning especially if you think you're hitting the poly limit. If you would have, the export log would have said so. Just a friendly tip, the forums are quick to yell "too detailed" on pretty much anything over 1000 triangles, but sounds like you're doing something completely new here. I'm intrigued.

We actually weren't sure on what the polylimit was, do you know exactly what is the cap? The object I used was originally a high quality model for a project later in life, and so after a lot of trimming I got it down somewhat but it isn't a true low poly yet. I'm curious, do people here not like >1000 tris in models because it just doesn't fit with blockland or is there some sort of bottleneck transferring the files or multiplayer lag issues?

And to satisfy your modder sense:
 
There is really only 1 (technically 2) objects that will go close to what we heard of as the polylimit (11000 tris), at least what I can think of right now.

You might want to check out my General Blender help thread too if you're having problems with transferring .blends from 2.6 to 2.49.

Was there information in that solved something particular like this? I skimmed through that thread before posting but I only really went through your post.

You do not need a col0 empty. The collision mesh should be named col0 (I think adding any number after col works) and not be parented to anything.

Interesting... the first link actually told us to do that:

Now, for collision. This has to be a low poly outline of your model, preferably just a cube. And in order for it to work you must make a new empty and name it Col0. Then parent your cube to Col0 and parent Col0 to shape.

It could be just personal preference but I feel uneasy when all empties are not at the center of the model. Moving the detail32 empty to the center might do something or it might not. I've never actually tried if moving that elsewhere does anything.

Oh, I never planned on having them with an offset when I got things working. I mainly did that to show what was there, and what wasn't for easy identifying for you.

Turning off double sided is preferred as I think the engine renders all faces in the visible distance at all times.

Of all things, I did the rookie mistake and forgot to turn off double sided. I guess, because of the number of iterations we did of a basic setup to get it working I might have missed a step. xD

Thanks A LOT for the help! I learned enough to get the ball rolling now.

[Demian]

I'm curious, do people here not like >1000 tris in models because it just doesn't fit with blockland or is there some sort of bottleneck transferring the files or multiplayer lag issues?

Both really. Models with a lot of polys usually do not fit the Blockland style and there is already a lot to render with the bricks so people tend to keep the poly count as low as possible.

Was there information in that solved something particular like this? I skimmed through that thread before posting but I only really went through your post.

Not really no. The OP is really the only useful post in that thread. I do my best to answer to people's questions there and then add them to the OP.

Interesting... the first link actually told us to do that:

I've never done it or hear anyone else do it so I'm sure it's not necessary. In fact you do not even need to do any parenting (Never done wheeled vehicles, no idea if you need it there) at all. I never parent anything on my static items. It works just fine. I think the DTS exporter does the required hierarchy automatically or something like that.

[KrimsonStorm]

Both really. Models with a lot of polys usually do not fit the Blockland style and there is already a lot to render with the bricks so people tend to keep the poly count as low as possible.

I'm guessing that's because blockland tries to render every brick in view and not just the ones you see? A lot of things some people have made are just enormous. But, what I want to try and achieve is something which mainly uses blockland's engine and custom models for practically everything the players would see.

I've never done it or hear anyone else do it so I'm sure it's not necessary. In fact you do not even need to do any parenting (Never done wheeled vehicles, no idea if you need it there) at all. I never parent anything on my static items. It works just fine. I think the DTS exporter does the required hierarchy automatically or something like that.

Interesting... I thought one of the reasons it didn't work was an improper parent, but I guess not. Then again, we were attempting to create a vehicle and not a static object.

[Reinforcements]

Demian is a great guy. Not everyone on Blockland is as nice has he is.
Just sayin ;)

[Xalos]

I'm guessing that's because blockland tries to render every brick in view and not just the ones you see?

Yes, but no. "Standard" bricks with only the six square faces and no diagnols won't be rendered if they're fully occluded by other bricks, but bricks like the Pine Tree with large numbers of faces that don't line up to the edges of the brick's "cube" keep rendering even if occluded. This is because of how Blockland brick files work and can't really be fixed.

Plus you have to be running Blockland off a toaster for even a really high brickcount to drop your FPS to an unplayable framerate (your mileage may vary with shaders on, though).

[Demian]

Plus you have to be running Blockland off a toaster for even a really high brickcount to drop your FPS to an unplayable framerate (your mileage may vary with shaders on, though).

I have a pretty good computer and I start getting noticeable frame rate drops when looking at ~70,000 bricks or more with shaders off. It pretty much halves my frame rate.