Dark Exporter by Elendir

R Soul on 19/3/2012 at 23:13

Find your copy of dark_exporter.py (either in the Blender folder or Application Data, look for the scripts\addons folder). Make a backup of the file, then open the original in a text editor. Delete lines 982 to 1063, inclusive. Searching the file for use_twoside will take you to line 982.

Elendir on 20/3/2012 at 08:57

Quote Posted by R Soul

The bin file now gets generated, so it's clear where the problem lies.

This is not where the problem is.

Two-side option was one of the most important options Dark Exporter was based on. It was so, because Two-side option (apart from others) was applied "per poligon". This simply means Dark Exporter had to go through all the polygons of each and every object and build a temporary table that stored an info about which side of the object is "two-side" and which one is not "two-side".

Blender dev teams has changed this behavior dramatically in 2.6x branch. From now on, "two-side" option is applied "per object" or "per material". And this is where the problem is. This is a big change which actually undermines backward compatibility. To tell the truth I don't think backward compatibility is possibly any more.

You can also read about it in the link you've included in your post:

Note however, this setting is applied per-material and not per-face. In other words, Backface Culling is applicable in instances where an Object or surface (or collection there-of) references the same parent material, it's no longer an independent 'surface' only property.

Since I'm working full-time on another Python project and I can't take care of this problem now you may consider your commenting the lines as a sort of temporary workaround.

I'll try to release the new DE as soon as I get any free time. I presume however that the future version will not be backward compatible...

R Soul on 22/10/2012 at 20:33

I know it's been a while, but I have a suggestion that may help this plugin withstand the changes Blender keeps going through:

Custom properties. The user can add them to each material. They can only have numerical values, but the Shader property could use 0 for flat and 1 for phong, and double sided could use 0 for false and 1 for true. If this could be done I think it would make things easier because the user could see all the necessary properties in one place.

LarryG on 23/10/2012 at 00:07

So which do I install as the add-in, dark_exporter.py, dark_gfx_converter.py, both? Does it matter where I put the contents of the dark_exporter_018.zip file for blender to install? There is no readme in the package explaining anything about this, or how to use it, and the website referenced in this thread is down. Where can I download the instruction manual for this? It really should be included in the zip!!

Edit: I tried installing dark_exporter.py but it started mucking about with my C: drive without my permission so I removed it. This is not good! I don't want anything placed on my C: drive without my permission.

R Soul on 23/10/2012 at 23:44

When I installed it, I selected the zip file rather than specific py files.

Blender extracts the files to %appdata%\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.61*\scripts\addons

*or some other version number

dark_exporter is the equivalent of 3ds->bin. In other words it exports your object as .3ds, then called n3ds2e, and then bsp. The .3ds, .e and .bin files get created in the same dir as the .blend file, and then the .bin is copied to your Thief obj folder. You'll need to configure this plugin to tell it where your Thief folder is, and the locations of n3ds2e and bsp. There are two ways to configure it:
1. Before installing, open the zip and edit dark_exporter.py. Set the three paths at the end of the default_config section.
2. After it's been installed, go to %appdata%\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.61\config\scripts\dark_exporter_conf.txt
[INDENT]For the benefit of those unfamiliar with programming, make sure you use \\ as the original paths do.[/INDENT]

dark_gfx_converter uses 'convert.exe' to convert the object's textures into compatible formats. As embarrassing as it is to admit, Blender doesn't support .gif because of licensing issues. I'm not sure about pcx because I've never tried it, but maybe it's just obsolete.

LarryG on 24/10/2012 at 00:48

Thanks. There really should be instructions included in the zip.

If this just is a replacement for 3ds->bin, why not stick with 3ds->bin? Doesn't blender export .3ds files?

I wonder how Anim8or can use .gif textures with no issues?

R Soul on 24/10/2012 at 11:42

It's something to do with Blender being open source, which is not compatible with the license for the .gif format, and a 64 bit problem. Read (http://www.blender.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20561&sid=c47083788d4b4f4de37940f5116d05a1) this (you might see some familiar usernames). I don't think Anim8or is open source so the author doesn't have those issues.

The main advantage over 3ds->bin is that you can export in one step, and I think some people have had problems with NV's program. The rest is entirely down to your own preference.

LarryG on 24/10/2012 at 18:28

It sounds like to use Blender I have to convert any gifs used by the models to another format (pcx?) and then when building the bin edit the e file to point back to the gif. I may stick with Anim8or for modifying older models and only attempt to use Blender for new ones where I'll just start off with png textures. It also sounds like there is no need for the Elendir's problematic plug-in.

Elendir on 4/11/2012 at 12:13

Hi,

It's been a while....

I had some strange problem on this forum. I could log in, but couldn't post replies or search. Today it started to work again, so I'm back. I've contacted some people to get help with my account and as I can see they've managed to repair, reactivate (or whatever the problem was) my account. So thanks to whoever helped!

Quote Posted by LarryG

Larry, there's no need to use Dark Exporter with Blender. You can use Blender without it. Just export to 3DS and do the rest manually. The whole process is the same for any 3D editor. Dark Exporter is only a helper that automates that process.

Now, some news on Dark Exporter.

I've just finished coding of Dark Exporter 2. It's a brand new version which was rewritten from scratch. The changes in the latest Blender API were so significant this was the only choice. From now on I consider all currently available versions obsolete.

The new webpage dedicated to Dark Exporter is (www.bytehold.com/dark-exporter-2). Here you can read the current documentation of Dark Exporter 2. Note however that this version is still in testing phase, so it's not yet published on Sourceforge.org.

On the same webpage you can find the documentation of the previous Dark Exporter (it's historical now). I've marked it as obsolete.

Daraan on 4/11/2012 at 13:18

yummy. I'm really looking forward to it
Great job:thumb:

Can you say if it will also be compatible with 2.63?
If have huge problems with 2.64a, can't start it via blender.exe -> crash, 75% for a crash when I import an texture, same when I assign an already loaded texture. So I decided to go back to 2.63