[Tutorial] Using Tendon's export.py [IMAGE HEAVY]

[Tendon]

LegoPepper wanted to know how to use export.py from my recent project of porting Kitchen to v21.
About export.py

export.py from kitchen is the second version of the second rewrite of a mass exporter script for exporting collision shapes from blender.
It was made specifically for this project, to get around the limitations presented by Blockland's collision system.
Because of that, it should not be considered a general purpose tool.
I highly recommend modifying it, or taking pieces from it, to serve your own purposes.

Here is a commented picture outlining the various sections of the code and what they do.


You can download export.py here: https://leopard.hosting/download.php?f=cxinn

Using export.py

Requires Blender 2.78 and port's dts exporter.
Create a blender project with some visual shapes, and some collision shapes.
start blender

delete beginning cube

save as

create a new folder in blockland addons

name it

name and save file

copy export.py

into our new folder

there it is

Don't forget to create the shapes folder!
create a folder

name it shapes

let make a cube

there it is

rescale to 4. (S, move mouse, 4, return)

duplicate the shape (shift+D, hold middle mouse+movemouse, 0, return)

there it is

rescaling using the object properties (on the right, click, 2, tab, tab, 2, return)

let's make this easier to see

some more rescaling (click, 5, return)

now to use a modifier, we want to take cube.001 out of cube to leave cube with a hollowed out middle

selecting boolean

selected Difference, and Cube.001

apply the changes

delete the cutting object

there she be.  now we have to do collision

hit tab to enter edit mode.  it looks like some of the faces use more than four points, which blockland can't handle
the easiest way to deal with that is to triangulate the faces

done.  now we want to separate pieces of it off to use for collision.  the pieces we select will be turned into convex shapes.
selected a chunk of it

duplicate the selected piece (shift+d, hold middle mouse+move mouse, 0, return)

see how our selection isn't connected to the rest of the shape?
now we separate by selection (P, click)

i did the same for the other four sides, note the object list on the right
now we need to make these into convex collision shapes

delete edges and faces (A, A, delete, click)

they're all gone

now we fill in some new faces with the convex hull tool (Ctrl+V, click)

der we go

now we center the object on it's geometry so that the object bounds isn't all funky when we export (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C, click)

I select bounds center for consistency, but median center will work too

i did the same process for the other three shapes


Now we have our shapes.


Name the collision shapes beginning with "col" so that Blockland doesn't freak out every time it tries to load them.
Name the visual shapes however you want.
Do not use dashes or other special characters in your object names.  Blockland uses these names to create datablocks.
You can use periods if you want.  export.py will automatically turn those "." into "DOT" when writing the script files.


Put the collision objects in a group.  You can use Ctrl+G to create a new group.  You can also use this button here:


Name the group "Collision-1".
I believe the name must be exact.



You can add objects to an already existing group by clicking here:

i did this for the other three collision shapes


Put the visual objects into another group.
Name this group "detail32"


Change your view to "Scripting" mode.



Load export.py




Modify the last line to reflect the location of your project.



Save the modified export.py


Save your project in case something get's messed up.


Click "Run Script"


View the changes in your project folder.
our script files

our shape files


Start Blockland, and test out your automatically generated map.
ho boy, my favorite game

.....

ahoi!

new game

custom

select your map
if it's one of my maps, you can only run one at a time

addons submit!

lan mode so we don't disrupt

loading

loading

loading

there it is!

it's in the ground because it was centered on 0,0,0
we could move it up in blender and reexport

but let's at least look at the bottom part

advanced

for

translucence

there it be

ow

it's a little stuck between the invisible ground and the object, but at least it didn't go through



If you run into problems, Blender has a console you can view by going to Window > Toggle System Console, and the source code for export.py is right up there ^.  While writing this tutorial, I forgot to make a shapes folder.  So blender screamed at me there was an error, and left a DETTEMPSHAPE in the object list.  That's just how things go sometimes.

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[Tendon]

ahaha, i left this locked while putting it together and forgot to unlock it till now.

woops.

[FelipeO_O_]

you use windows 7

jk nice script

[--LegoPepper--]

Thank you so much!
THE SLOPES:

Need to:
- increase the size
- add more faces for smoothness
- decrease DB size from 8100 somehow
- texture

Slopes Heightmap:

[Metario]

^ yes yes yes yes

[Wesley Williams]

Great job Tendon :) I would love to see more servers pop up hosting static maps again. Although, the amount of datablocks this requires seems a bit catastrophic... would be neat to see modular maps being made from re-using static shapes.

[Tendon]

Although, the amount of datablocks this requires seems a bit catastrophic... would be neat to see modular maps being made from re-using static shapes.

Ahahaha, yeah.  I experimented w/using blockland's crc system to detect unneeded shapes.  It's a bit finicky but I think it would be possible to use such a system to retarget scripts and delete unneeded shapes and datablocks.

[Farad]

I'm looking forward to importing some cool race tracks from the internet using this tutorial. Thanks.

[Smallguy]

interiors look good on this!

[Wesley Williams]

Nice Smallguy, that gives off some Zelda vibes :P

[Smallguy]

Another fun experiment