Blender exporter

[kkeeley]

Yes, I have the latest exporter and the latest TrainzMeshImporter.

I have found that the problem is not Blender but the TrainzMeshImporter. If I try to run the importer on my newly built pc it tells me it needs to be reinstalled. If I do the same on a different pc it works fine by displaying the help screen. I have installed the Visual C++ SP1 Redistribution pack but this has made no difference. The only difference between the pc's I can find is the working pc is XP SP2 and the non-working is XP SP3 with all the windows updates. So maybe it is the Service pack or updates thats causing the problem.

Any help will be welcomed.
Kenneth

 

[johnwhelan]

Yes, I have the latest exporter and the latest TrainzMeshImporter.

I have found that the problem is not Blender but the TrainzMeshImporter. If I try to run the importer on my newly built pc it tells me it needs to be reinstalled. If I do the same on a different pc it works fine by displaying the help screen. I have installed the Visual C++ SP1 Redistribution pack but this has made no difference. The only difference between the pc's I can find is the working pc is XP SP2 and the non-working is XP SP3 with all the windows updates. So maybe it is the Service pack or updates thats causing the problem.

Any help will be welcomed.
Kenneth

I'm running XP SP3 so I don't think its that. Unfortunately I'm still committing things in TRS2009. The XML importer support comes from Auran in Trainzdev, perhaps a question on the Trainzdev forum?

Cheerio John

 

[transitguard]

Sorry to bother you guys, but how do I export the .kin animation file? I just can't seem to get it to work, no matter how I try.

 

[johnwhelan]

Sorry to bother you guys, but how do I export the .kin animation file? I just can't seem to get it to work, no matter how I try.

In export options there is a mesh data and an animation data. Just click the animation data so it is the same shade of blue.

Cheerio John

 

[transitguard]

I tried that. Would it matter if I have an older version of Blender?

--edit-- Wait a second... the console says I have no bones, though I have some. Clearly I am missing something major with bones. Thanks for the help, though.

 

[johnwhelan]

I tried that. Would it matter if I have an older version of Blender?

--edit-- Wait a second... the console says I have no bones, though I have some. Clearly I am missing something major with bones. Thanks for the help, though.

If you can't find it want to zip it up and I'll have a look? Sometimes I move the animation to a different scene or whatever it's called in Blender and then Blender moans about no bones.

jwhelan0112 gmail.com

Cheerio John

 

[transitguard]

Okay, thanks . l'll try a few more things. One question... does anyone know a good bones tutorial for blender?

 

[Capt_Haddock]

Slowly getting my head round Blender, thanks to John Whelan, Paul Hobbs and others tutorials but have now run into a problem.

I am still struggling with making and rendering a hollow 3D box (a broad gauge goods shed). I can make the basic shape by adding and editing cubes or by creating and editing a profile but, sometimes the texture is placed on the inward facing surface. Is there a procedure to make the faces of an object face outward?

Thanks
Chris

 

[paulhobbs]

Select the faces and the press W and then 0 (zero) to flip the normals.

Paul

 

[Capt_Haddock]

Thanks Paul, it did the trick

Chris

 

[paulhobbs]

The Trainz Wikibook talks about using bones for animations, but it tells you to use a Lattice object which appears to be more like a dummy in GMax. For a simple steam loco dummies would be ok, but outside valve gear would require the use of proper bones (what Blender calls Armatures).

Is the Wikibook wrong in stating that a Lattice is equivalent to a bone? Or can Lattices and Armatures be used like dummies and bones in GMax?

Paul

 

[Barry]

The only time I used a lattice in Blender was experimenting shaping a boats hull. You pull the nodes on the lattice to shape a multi subdivided square or approximate shaped mesh into any shape required, using just a few nodes on the lattice. Blender keep changing in format and that was a few few years back. Barry

 

[johnwhelan]

The Trainz Wikibook talks about using bones for animations, but it tells you to use a Lattice object which appears to be more like a dummy in GMax. For a simple steam loco dummies would be ok, but outside valve gear would require the use of proper bones (what Blender calls Armatures).

Is the Wikibook wrong in stating that a Lattice is equivalent to a bone? Or can Lattices and Armatures be used like dummies and bones in GMax?

Paul

Torsten (uschi0815) wrote the Blender exporter and that part of the Wikibook. He would be the person to contact, I'm out of my depth at this level.

Cheerio John

 

[uschi0815]

So far the exporter only recognize Blender-Lattices as possible Trainz-Bones. It doesn't matter what moves the Lattices(you can use an Armature or anything else to behave a Lattice like you want); the movement itself is tracked and exported. You can use them like you used dummies in GMax. It seems to be a good idea to work over the Bones section to clarify some terms. I'll put it on my todo list

In the next version you should be able to use Armatures directly, but with Blender 2.5 to appear(they want to make heavy changes at the scripting interface :'( ) I'll wait until the new interface is fixed and adapt the exporter.

Best regards,
Torsten

PS: @transitguard: could you solve the bone problem? If not, don't hesitate to ask again

 

[deimand]

I hope this is the right thread for my question:

I'm using Blender 2.48a, Blender XML Exporter for Trainz v0.67 and TRS 2007 (Trainz version 2.6 build 3489), working on a bogey which works fine only as long as it's not animated AND normalmapped.

• When I try to commit the bogey in CMP, the program crashes.
• When I launch Trainz, it crashes as soon as I open a map which has the loco on it.
• The normalmapped bogey works if there are no bones present.
• The animated bogey works if I remove the normalmap.

Is this a bug in TRS 2007, or is the exporter doing something wrong, or is it just me? Any help is much appreciated.

Andi

 

[ZapperJet]

So far the exporter only recognize Blender-Lattices as possible Trainz-Bones. It doesn't matter what moves the Lattices(you can use an Armature or anything else to behave a Lattice like you want); the movement itself is tracked and exported. You can use them like you used dummies in GMax. It seems to be a good idea to work over the Bones section to clarify some terms. I'll put it on my todo list

I'm having an issue with this. I created a bogey in Blender for a locomotive and set it up as I usually would, and I had read that the rotation does not effect the animation when you place the dummy/lattice (this was a problem with Gmax where the dummy had to be 0,0,0 rotation when placed). However, when exported the wheels were rotated on their sides, and remained that way until I reset the dummies to 0,0,0 rotation (where they were previously -90,0,0).

Can you confirm that the initial rotation of the lattice does not affect the animation?

Cheerio,
John

 

[whitepass]

deimand - I to have run into this only I was thinking it was the number of textures, witch must be wrong. My animated bogey was working OK in 09 until I added the normal map, it then would crash Trainz in Driver, CM2 and CCP give no errors but the mesh dose not show in CCPs mesh viewer. The PEV viewer shows the mesh with normals.

 

[uschi0815]

I want to inform you that a new version of Blender Exporter for Trainz is available at sourceforge.

Version 0.69 contain a bugfix, the possibility to enter the scaling factor during export, a slightly performance improvement and is able to handle extrusion faults.

Best regards,
Torsten

 

[AHSAN]

Hello

Blender 2.49 is the latest release from the Blender Foundation:

http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

Regards

Ahsan

 

[skol587]

I want to inform you that a new version of Blender Exporter for Trainz is available at sourceforge.

Version 0.69 contain a bugfix, the possibility to enter the scaling factor during export, a slightly performance improvement and is able to handle extrusion faults.

Best regards,
Torsten

the link is not working