Re: [TuxKart-devel] Getting Started.

[Ryan F. <rf...@gm...>]

On Sun, 27 Jun 2004 19:07:33 -0500, Steve Baker <sjb...@ai...> wrote:

> > A .blend loader is unrealistic I think, unless things changed
> > recently.blend file format is still more or less a memory dump of
> > internal Blender structures and not meant to be read by other apps.
> 
> Ack.  I didn't know that.  So it probably changes over time too.
> 
> OK - so no blender loader  :-(
> 
> > There his however a .xml based fileformat planed, but that isn't
> > present in the current version.
> 
> Could we contribute to that - or try to push the blender community
> to get their act together?
> 
>  > A custom exporter is needed and
> > shouldn't be too difficult to create in the long run, for the time
> > being the standard .ac exporter seems to be enough.
> 
> That's certainly my hope - but it's not my expectation.  :-(
> 
> There are an awful lot of things AC3D can't represent.  No vertex
> colours (which are useful for track design), no animation whatever
> (useful for...well...everything really), no LOD control.
> 
> I've kinda kludged around those things where I can - but it's not
> a pretty sight!
> 
> * I use the texture filename as a key to a 'material properties table'
>    that allows me to add per-texture data like friction and 'zipperness'.
> 
> * I recognise comment fields in the AC3D file for some kinds of effects
>    such as objects that spin or slide in a repetitive manner, moving
>    texture (nice for water, lava, electrical sparks and arcs, etc).
> 
>    Dunno if comments can be entered in Blender - and I don't know whether
>    they survive being written to AC3D format intact.
> 
> * Some effects (such as the spinning herring) are hard-coded into the game.

Maybe some of these effects (that are in the comments) should be
stored into separate config files, instead of loading a model straight
up, load the config file which will include these comments, plus the
path to the model.

Also, since AC3D seems to be missing some useful features, is there
any other format blender can export to that might suit our needs a lot
better?

-- 
Ryan