DeleD Community Edition

[Starnick]

Hey folks, I know I'm one of the few java users here, but I'd like to point you guys (or at least those who use java ) to a java game engine. Unlike other engines, it's not just another 3D engine, but also has API and ease of use built for games in mind.

http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/

I'm using the engine in a side project (other than the Multiverse), but I found its art pipeline a bit lacking from DeleD. Although the obj modeloader works with some of the output from DeleD's obj exporter, I took it upon myself to take a leap into that sort of programming and build my own converter. The loading routine is similar to the one for Irrlicht, as its to be used within your project code, rather than a plugin for DeleD.

The first version is complete, which includes converting mesh data + the first texture layer. Multi-texturing (more than one layer), material/vertex colors, lights (close to being done) isn't supported at the moment.

Two caveats must be maintained while converting a dxs file:
1) All geometry has to be done in triangles, if you're modeling with quads, the easiest thing to do is to use DeleD's triangulation method.
2) Each primitive can only have one texture map.

I am also developing a GUI stand-alone model converter too, which at the moment is in a very early unstable-but-working version, which I'll release at a later date. My goal is to have a nice little tool that allows the users to specify what they exactly want to convert, where to export the data, and also to do mass conversions. Since I'm using the engine for this, I can use its renderer to display the model that was just converted to give the user instant feedback too.

Hopefully this will net some users for JMonkeyEngine, and also net some users for DeleD3D too . Enjoy!

See the last post for download details, the source is now bundled with the jMonkey Model Importer (jmmi).

[Starnick]

**Updated**

Yesterday I released a first look at a small tool that I built for my own needs, today I've mostly completed it. Consider it in Beta now. You can grab it here:

www.pyrogames.net/downloads/ModelImporter.zip

It's run completely on JMEDesktop, although I notice pop-ups in the JFileChooser are a bit wonky because of it, here's what the GUI looks like:



It should be pretty self explanatory of how to use, you select a folder where your models are, it generates a list of files and then you can select one, or all (it'll do a batch conversion!), or however many you like. On the right hand side, for the options you then can select a path to your texture folder.

Since I added in extra functionality to my DxsToJme converter, for that if you click copy textures, all your textures used will be saved into a new folder in the folder you saved the model in.

Enjoy!

[Starnick]

Updated to V1.0, so it's basically complete now.

-Added much needed robustness, fixed some errors on the UI
-Refactored and cleaned up much of the code
-All formats should be able to be used (all can be scaled, 3ds automatically corrects for the z-up axis), save for collada/md5
-Reads/writes an ini file, so the directories you were working in will be saved after you're done with your current conversion session

I don't really have any test cases for milkshape,x3d,md2,md3 so they were bit of a shot in the dark. Not all the format converters specify if you have to set a texture directory, so textures not being applied may be still be iffy. But I'll deal with that when the need arrives.

I also wanted to try out a distribution method, using Launch4j, somewhat haphazardly however.

Please try and break it and report bugs as you see 'em.

[Paul-Jan]

Just want you to know this is really high on my list of things I want to play with, but that I just need to find the time for... now I know that doesn't help much, but really... cool stuff!

[Starnick]

Thanks! It works great with dxs files at the moment, however the loading routine still has a bug that I've yet to solve concerning objects that have colors as their material type (textures work fine - currently only one layer is supported, but alphablend is good to go). Additive blending works, but its a bit iffy, and I wasn't too sure how to implement Modulate in JME, so "at the moment" it works as alpha blending does.

And of course lights!

Anything that is triangulated, has one map per primitive, and doesn't go too fancy on the layers, so far haven't had any mishaps. So that at least takes care of a lot of folks there.

[Starnick]

Cross post!

jMonkey Model Importer v1.5 has been released after some time away from it. The largest change is an embedded model viewer. More information is at the jMonkey forum post:

http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/jmeforum/index.php?topic=8984.0

Some screenshots:






There are two ways of getting this, I've got a webstart version:

http://www.pyrogames.net/webstart/jmmi.jnlp

...and a stand-alone version:

http://www.pyrogames.net/webstart/jmmi.zip

The stand alone version contains the source for the DxsToJme.java file (one bug fix since last time - scale changed from int to float). Rest of the to-do list and bug list remains for that, this was mainly an update to the model importer application.

Use the java webstart version if you want to run it with a single (or two) clicks