World of Warcraft to Maya / News: Recent posts

Released a new "latest" build with a fix for a bug I introduced with the addition of file localization. Some assets in localized MPQs weren't sourcing properly. This should fix the problem.

The "latest" build files have been updated - new binary files released for :
- Maya 2010 / linux x86_64
- Maya 2009 / linux x86_64

See the release notes for changes.

ps : don't forget to unzip the files before trying to load them in maya...

UI Changes :
- new "Settings" window
- new "Armory" browser
- new glossy icons

New features :
- the ability to instance player characters based on www.wowarmory.com data (still under development - there are no textures yet !)
- error message filter : ability to filter the script editor spewage based on severity

Windows port is being worked on...

There will now be a "stable" and a "latest" release : the latest release will go through its paces before being promoted as the "stable" release. This current release will be the basis for the stable version as it fixes a major breakage i caused last week.

Bug fixes :
- yet another major bug fix in the MPQ file directories discovery system - hopefully one of the last ones. now the plugin should find all the MPQs regardless of directory name capitalization and with the correct localization of the files.... read more

minor release :
- fixed hard coded paths to MPQ files - the plugin should now navigate the WoW subdirectories and properly identify the MPQ files it needs, including localized archives.
- minor code reorganizations

Fiinally got around to putting a web page together. And to celebrate, there's also a new youtube video tutorial ! Hope you like it : http://wowtomaya.sourceforge.net/

I just discovered that my symbolic links masked a rather big problem : the MPQ files are in a folder named Data, with a capital D. This should help a lot first installations !

Fix submitted to SVN, new binaries released.

The big news : we now have a release for Maya 2009 and Maya 2010 (built on F10 64 bits - should work on other 64 bits "modern" distros). I am also working on Windows XP 32 bits releases.

Fixes : a crash-bug when extracting non-compressed BLP textures with alpha channels.

- stability enhancements : preventing crash bugs with geometry and skinning
- fix some UI issues (setting up the path to the WoW folder now populates the browser)
- starting on material code cleanup

Putting in place some UI infrastructure, with the addition of a "Warcraft" shelf and pull-down menu with buttons to start the import GUI (and future UI parts as they are written). The first setup of the WoW directories is still somewhat fragile, so i'll have to experiment with that a little more... we don't want users stranded with error messages.

Lots of ground-work done :
- everything is now packaged in the maya plugin. no more handling of scripts or external files
- we don't need blp2png.exe anymore !
- we have a linux binary release again !

At last - figured out how to operate CVN and pushed the code out. Lots of changes in the source code and build system. Of note : now all the MEL scripts are automatically embedded inside the plugin : no more mucking about with script files. Other resources like images and icons are next...

Working on multiple fronts :
- reworking the build system : cleaner, all configuration in one place
- MEL scripts : trying to package this within the DSO for easier installation
- CVN : have to push the source files in the repository (i use p4 on my end)
So much to do, so little time !

My pet project of importing World of Warcraft assets into Maya is now advanced enough for an Open Source release. The code files will be coming online shortly. I still need to do some cleanup and to figure out how the CVN repository works - but hopefully this can be taken care of within the next couple of weeks. Until then, I posted some screenshots of early results.