Trying to create a 3d sprite

[Jsrduck]

Hi everyone,

I'm using Blender 2.49b and I'm trying to create a 3d sprite, but I'm running into ridiculous obstacles. Basically, after much perusing and research, it seems the crystalspace community suggests two ways of using Blender to create character meshes:

1. Export from Blender to the Cal3d format. The Cal3d exporter does not come with Blender 2.49. In fact, researching the blnder revision history, it seems that Cal3d hasn't been supported since 2.45. I went ahead and downloaded the Cal3d Exporter python script anyway, hoping that it would all work out. Unfortunately, it didn't work out too well. There are random meshes connecting the head to the arms and the torso seems to be mostly gone. I believe my mesh is fine; I've tested animations and transforms on it from within blender. But it looks hopelessly mangled when I view it in ViewMesh or insert it into a game. Not to mention, crystalspace doesn't recognize crf files for some absurd reason, meaning the textures I've created in Blender won't export anyway, which makes this exporter almost useless. Perhaps I have made some critical mistake that is making my cal3d model look so hideous, but I suspect I'm unlikely to receive help since the exporter isn't supported anymore.
2. Use the blender2crystalspace plugin. Great. Unfortunately, it won't load. I have the same problem as the fellows here at http://www.crystalspace3d.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1191;sa=showPosts but nobody has commented on that thread since August of 2009 and no solutions are offered. Also, many of the links related to blender2crystal are broken.

So basically, is there currently ANY supported way of exporting a character mesh from blender to crystal? If so, I can't find any, and it's difficult to even find information on the subject that isn't several years out of date. Thanks for your help.

Jordan

[kickvb]

First of all, are you trying to create a 3D sprite (a mesh with a moving shape) or a skeletal animated mesh? In both case I would suggest to use the blender2crystal exporter.

If you want a skeletal animated mesh, you may want to use Cal3d which works well but is limited in functionalities, or you may give a try to the new iAnimatedMesh which has been less used but has many advanced features such as ragdoll.

As an example of blender file with an animated mesh, there is the Krystal model accessible at http://trac.crystalspace3d.org/trac/CS/browser/CSAssets/trunk/krystal.

For your problem with the installation of blender2crystal, one trick is to download from the SVN repository, not the official release package, which can not manage iAnimatedMesh's.

It seems to me that the problem you are referring is coming from a missing dependencie. You need to download and install really all the dependencies listed at http://leapingcat.org/blender2crystal/index.php/RegularInstall

But here it is a little more complex: some dependencies are not available for Python 2.6 which is used in the last Blender 2.4x, while Blender 2.5 uses Python 3.0. To solve that, you may find on the website of Blender the version 2.49 with Python 2.5 (not 2.6 as usual).

The fact is that the blender2crystal project is not well supported right now, it will need some work in the near future.

[Inktcartridges]

I would definitely recommend iAnimatedMesh. Very good program with nice features.